Book purists are going to be increasingly unhappy with the show from here on.
A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Spoiler-Filled Discussion
- Thread starter Out Of My Vulcan Mind
- Start date
I don't see how this episode was particularly more impure than the show has been for the majority of its run. The last scene was overkill, and Bran and Jon's story this season seems to be pretty much made of wholecloth, but you could say much the same for Dany's story in the 2nd season and a few other substantial chunks of the series.
Despite being what some people would call a "book purist" (that is, I think Benioff and Weiss' invented material has been consistently cliche-ridden and poorly thought out; if they made a substantive rather than logistical change that was actually any good I'd be fine with it), I find it difficult to care about any of this week's changes, because I know they're not going to come to anything. The show is just marking time so it can hold the ending of A Storm of Swords to the final episodes of the season. As with the changes to Dany in season 2, everyone will end up exactly where they do in the books. In narrative terms, anyway; I'm sure the whitewashing of certain fan favorites will continue. But that's nothing new either.
Here are some outtakes from Martin's interview with Rolling Stone.
Here are some outtakes from Martin's interview with Rolling Stone.
I can understand the changes they made to Dany's storyline in S2. In ACOK she really doesn't HAVE a story. She and the others get to Qarth, just basically walk around and lick their wounds, she has her visions at the House of the Undying and they leave.
That wouldn't work on TV, so she needed a real storyline.
That wouldn't work on TV, so she needed a real storyline.
Even granting that they needed to change Daenerys' storyline for season two (I don't, but I've said my piece on that subject somewhere back in the long history of this thread), the way they went about it underlines the problem: they aren't willing to change end results, so all they can do is contrive dramatic-seeming twists that don't actually matter. The Qarth of the show doesn't end up serving any real narrative or thematic purpose; but for the fact that it would throw the larger timeline out of whack, Daenerys might as well have gone straight to Slaver's Bay.
Considering that Qarth plays a role in the later counter-revolutions to Dany's abolitionist efforts, I think it makes sense that we saw Qarth. Although since Dany left Qarth without any government to speak of (all dead or trapped in a vault), I'm not sure where they could go with it. I guess maybe Xaro Xhoan Daxos got out of his vault and continued to run the city.
Indeed, that would form a reasonable basis for an alliance with other enemies of hers.
Personally I'm just beginning to wonder if they're actually going to have Lady Stoneheart in the TV show at all. Halfway through the season and I'm still waiting for her.
They might be saving her for an end-of-season reveal.
I'm hoping so. Be better than Dany crowd-surfing, anyway.
Reading the Unsullied's comments and speculation after this week's episode, it's hilarious how they all seem to expect a Jamie vs. Bronn duel.
Oberyn vs. Gregor isn't even on their radar, it seems.
Oberyn vs. Gregor isn't even on their radar, it seems.
You mean, like you did in the book?
I'm sure she appeared earlier than this in the books but it's been a while...
Also, of course, in the book I wasn't waiting for a character I already knew about from another medium to turn up, was I?
She doesn't appear until the epilogue of A Storm of Swords, and this season's storylines are mostly from the last 40% of that book. So they would be roughly on track with the books if they (re)introduced her in the finale, though at this point I also wouldn't be surprised if they held it off until she captures Brienne.
I'm willing to bet she is the last shot of the season just like she was the last person to appear in the book... the question is just, does she get to capture Brienne in this season finale?
It doesn't make sense to say she should appear in the show before the part of the story where she first appears in the books (ASOS epilogue) just because you have read the books and are waiting for her, does it? You may as well say that she should have appeared right after the Red Wedding, just because you were waiting for her, even though it would have made no narrative sense.
Cos they've stuck *so* precisely to the timings and details in the books, never changing anything...
But shouldn't we be hearing reports about the deaths?
That's debatable based on how much time has actually passed since the Red Wedding in the show. In the books Petyr and Merrett in the epilogue are probably Stoneheart's first significant victims. And the show doesn't really do background detail or foreshadowing on that level anyway.
Here's a PDF preview of several pages from The World of Ice and Fire. It's draft pages, so there are typos and such, but it gives a sense of what the book will look like, and includes a Stark family tree that reveals the much-discussed identity of Ned's mother.
Here's a PDF preview of several pages from The World of Ice and Fire. It's draft pages, so there are typos and such, but it gives a sense of what the book will look like, and includes a Stark family tree that reveals the much-discussed identity of Ned's mother.
Similar threads
