What Will My Poor Savage Father Say?
May. 15th, 2012 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
netgirl_y2kSo I spent the evening drinking strawberry and lime cider (not on purpose, I wasn't paying enough attention in the supermarket; also, strawberry and lime cider is a thing now?) and watching Game of Thrones. You know, I find it much easier to talk about the things I don't like than the things I do. What happened to those extraneous brothel scenes I could bitch about, show? Because this episode was comprised almost entirely of things I loved.
There has been some discussion recently of how much the show is diverging from the books, especially with regard to Jon and Dany's stories, I have thought about it and decided that, actually, I approve. So, you know, showrunners, you can relax.
With Jon, there's a limit to how much I care about Lord Emo Face at the best of times, but I would watch episodes upon episodes of him wandering lost over a glacier being epically trolled by Ygritte. Who, by the way, is perfectly cast, even if the actress's voice is so distinctive that every time she speaks I go, Why is Gwen from Downton Abbey on a glacier?
With Dany, I've said before that I think her story flounders after her dragons are born. In book one she has a clearly defined arc. Okay, it's the old female character gains strength through trauma chestnut, but it's done well and there are some wee baby dragons at the end of it. But then after that, she's in a sort of holding pattern? I think, until whatever point she's due to re-enter the action in Westeros. So I appreciate that there's a bit more drama to her story in the show.
Also, I was thinking when I was rewatching S1 on DVD, the first series is incredibly faithful to the books, incredibly faithful, it was word for word in a lot of places. And that was great, watching the world come alive. But there's a point with an adaptation where you want it to do more than that, you want it to adapt. And when Xaro tried to crown himself king of Qarth, and when Ygritte escapes the second time, I didn't see it coming and it was great.
Also, I forget who suggested it last week, but I now agree that whoever took the dragons also took Doreah to try and keep them calm. My ship lives! At least, for a week.
Other things I loved, Sansa & Shae. God, can we have some more of that relationship please? Shae protecting Sansa even though every cell in her body must be screaming at her not to. Speaking of massive improvements the show makes on the books, Shae, just Shae.
I think there was some controversy over the Tyrion and Cersei scene at the end, but I adored it, partly because Lena and Peter play magnificently off each other, and partly because it fits perfectly into my Cersei headcanon. She knows what Joffrey is, she's not an idiot. She's his mother and she loves him, which was the point she was trying to make to Sansa earlier, but she knows.
And part of the reason I've been waxing lyrical about changes the show's made is that the truly important things it keeps the same; see Jaime's speech about the difficulty of keeping oaths.
And, one more thing, while I am enjoying the Tywin & Arya scenes, if they go on much longer he's got to figure out she's Arya Stark. I mean, how many little highborn northern girls who don't want anybody to know who they are and whose fathers dies of an overdose of loyalty can there be running around the Riverlands?
There has been some discussion recently of how much the show is diverging from the books, especially with regard to Jon and Dany's stories, I have thought about it and decided that, actually, I approve. So, you know, showrunners, you can relax.
With Jon, there's a limit to how much I care about Lord Emo Face at the best of times, but I would watch episodes upon episodes of him wandering lost over a glacier being epically trolled by Ygritte. Who, by the way, is perfectly cast, even if the actress's voice is so distinctive that every time she speaks I go, Why is Gwen from Downton Abbey on a glacier?
With Dany, I've said before that I think her story flounders after her dragons are born. In book one she has a clearly defined arc. Okay, it's the old female character gains strength through trauma chestnut, but it's done well and there are some wee baby dragons at the end of it. But then after that, she's in a sort of holding pattern? I think, until whatever point she's due to re-enter the action in Westeros. So I appreciate that there's a bit more drama to her story in the show.
Also, I was thinking when I was rewatching S1 on DVD, the first series is incredibly faithful to the books, incredibly faithful, it was word for word in a lot of places. And that was great, watching the world come alive. But there's a point with an adaptation where you want it to do more than that, you want it to adapt. And when Xaro tried to crown himself king of Qarth, and when Ygritte escapes the second time, I didn't see it coming and it was great.
Also, I forget who suggested it last week, but I now agree that whoever took the dragons also took Doreah to try and keep them calm. My ship lives! At least, for a week.
Other things I loved, Sansa & Shae. God, can we have some more of that relationship please? Shae protecting Sansa even though every cell in her body must be screaming at her not to. Speaking of massive improvements the show makes on the books, Shae, just Shae.
I think there was some controversy over the Tyrion and Cersei scene at the end, but I adored it, partly because Lena and Peter play magnificently off each other, and partly because it fits perfectly into my Cersei headcanon. She knows what Joffrey is, she's not an idiot. She's his mother and she loves him, which was the point she was trying to make to Sansa earlier, but she knows.
And part of the reason I've been waxing lyrical about changes the show's made is that the truly important things it keeps the same; see Jaime's speech about the difficulty of keeping oaths.
And, one more thing, while I am enjoying the Tywin & Arya scenes, if they go on much longer he's got to figure out she's Arya Stark. I mean, how many little highborn northern girls who don't want anybody to know who they are and whose fathers dies of an overdose of loyalty can there be running around the Riverlands?
no subject
Date: 2012-05-16 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-16 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-16 03:35 pm (UTC)They very well could have them get along until the THING that breaks Cersei happens (which I think might not break her if they don't establish the relationship between her and Joffery or at least her willful ignorance of his actions, IDK).
Either way I hate them and the show for acting like the stuff he did to the whores Tyrion gave him was just "OH LOL BOYS"
UGH.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-16 08:12 pm (UTC)And all of these strike me as still being workable on the show -- Joffrey seems to have more power than I recall him having in the books, and Cersei knows better what he's like but can't control him at all. (Also TV!Cersei seems better grounded in political realities than book!Cersei, which I kind of like but does kind of require that she be more powerless so that the bad decisions that cost the Lannisters are still being made, just not by her.) We've established that she loves her children, very much, so even having a clearer view of what Joffrey really is, I still think she'll be broken when what happens, happens.
The show didn't act like what Joffrey did to Ros and that other whore (whose name I can't recall) was a bit of harmless mischief -- it was a horrifying scene, and I think Dinklage did a good understated job of indicating his regret at having so misjudged Joffrey as to put those women into his hands, even if he wasn't going to make a big deal of it to Cersei.