Game of Thrones - S3 - Episode 3
Apr. 14th, 2013 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatImpossible to discuss without spoilers, and yes there will be references to the books, but only up to this episode. See other post for Dance of Dragons.
* Theon - damn, they are doing his arc this season? But I'm confused, because none of this happened in the books. So is it different? Or have I just not gotten to this section yet? And I'm being spoiled on flashbacks? (GRRM doesn't exactly tell his story in a traditional linear style or even chronological...it skips around. Which means, not only are you trying to figure out what will happen, you are trying to figure out what did happen and what is currently happening. Enough to give a less patient reader - a headache. Can see why it drove some of the more anal-retentive readers on lj nuts.) Also, is it wrong to hope that the writers changed Theon's storyline? (IF they haven't changed it, do we seriously need Theon's arc in this season too? Don't we have enough arcs as it is? Feel a little sorry for the actor playing Theon.)
The Bastard of Bolton for reasons that escape me, saved Theon from torture, and from rape by his father's men, and killed the men, then took Theon on horseback - with the promise of returning him to his sister. Very different than what I have been reading. But admittedly better.
The whole time Theon was running from the men, I was rooting for them to kill him. Please.
Trust me it's much better than the alternative. At any rate this is one bit that I really hope they change from the books. In a way they have by bringing it forward - this section I haven't read yet.
* Tyrion - oh I adore his sections. His interaction with Littlefinger, but in particular with Podrick and Bronn.
Tyrion and Bronn award Podrick with the whores, give him a sizable purse for payment, then leave.
Pod comes back and returns the purse to Tyrion. Stating the whores refused to accept it.
Tyrion is astonished.
Tyrion: They refused to accept your money? They never refuse mine. Whatever did you do?
Pod: Stuff (shrugs)
Tyrion: And they enjoyed it?
Pod: Appeared to.
Bronn: Well they are whores - they are paid to say they enjoyed it.
Tyrion: Except apparently in this case they weren't paid. (He picks up the bottle of wine and sits Pod between himself and Bronn and insists that Pod tell them details.)
LOL! (And I do not remember this bit being in the book at all. GRRM is obsessed with eating. The TV writers being skinny dudes, are apparently more obsessed with sex?)
Tywin meanwhile just wants to know what is up with Jamie and where he is. Ah, sigh, Tywin, you really should hurry.
* Catelynn - Now I know they changed this bit. In the books, Catelynn is nursing her father and he dies, with the Blackfish getting there in the nick of time. We spent the entire first half of Storm - with Catelynn nursing her father. I remember, because I kept wanting to skim through bits of it, but realized I couldn't due to the hidden clues regarding who killed Jon Arryn (that mystery is solved in Storm of Swords by the way and no it wasn't the Lannisters), why Littlefinger does what he does, amongst other things.
But boy were those chapters dull. Pages and pages of Catelynn moping in Riverrun, worrying over Robb, the Frays, and her father - while her brother Edmund is a bit of a bastard to her.
Here they shorten it into five sentences. And give the Blackfish a bigger role. I adored the Blackfish in the books. And the casting is pitch-perfect. Also, the funeral bier bit is the same - Edmund can't hit his father's bier to save his life, so the Blackfish does. You sort of feel sorry for Edmund as a result.
* Robb and his medic wife are growing on me (unfortunately). I really like both of them. The casting is apparently 95% of it. And yes, they really have changed who the wife is - while in some respects I like this a whole lot better - it does sort of screw up the plot a bit.
*Jon Snow - were there a weird pattern of chopped up horses in the books? Because I don't remember that. Also this storyline is being sped up a bit as well.
Samwell's tale is exactly like the books however. And rather gripping.
*Dany - oh I loved this section in the books. How Dany gets the Unsullied slaves and Missindre is classic. Also adore Jorah and Barristan's attempts to advise her while she wisely ignores them.
*Ayra - not much here - except that the boy Half-Pie got to stay at the inn and bake, and we see the Hound placed under guard. As Ayra and Gendry ride off together in the group, after him.
* Jamie and Brienne - I'd forgotten why Jamie lost his hand. Ironically, I think he might have kept it if he kept his mouth shut. Or didn't push his luck and ask to be unchained. Jamie's mouth, much like Tyrion's always gets him into trouble. Actually that's something the two brother's have in common. Their snarky wit and cleverness with words.
He adeptly saves Brienne - I wonder if she realized it? I think she did. But dooms himself.
It's the absolute worst thing they could do to him.
The casting of Vargo - is the only casting that doesn't quite fit with my image in the books. I envisioned, Vargo - the Goat, as bigger somehow and uglier. Although scrawny and smaller - goat like, fits, I suppose.
Here's the thing about watching the tv series after reading the books or most of the books at any rate? In some places it's rather funny, hind-sight being 20-20 and all that. And incredibly ironic. It's sort of like watching someone set up a trap and then, forget about the trap, only to walk right into the very trap they set up. If you've read the books you probably know what I'm talking about.
Oh and...if you haven't read the books? Eh. If you think Jamie getting his sword hand sliced off is bad...just wait. It gets so much worse. After this point, GRRM's tale becomes more and more twisted and gory. Horrifically so in places. If you can't handle that? You might want to stop now. Don't say I didn't warn you.
* Theon - damn, they are doing his arc this season? But I'm confused, because none of this happened in the books. So is it different? Or have I just not gotten to this section yet? And I'm being spoiled on flashbacks? (GRRM doesn't exactly tell his story in a traditional linear style or even chronological...it skips around. Which means, not only are you trying to figure out what will happen, you are trying to figure out what did happen and what is currently happening. Enough to give a less patient reader - a headache. Can see why it drove some of the more anal-retentive readers on lj nuts.) Also, is it wrong to hope that the writers changed Theon's storyline? (IF they haven't changed it, do we seriously need Theon's arc in this season too? Don't we have enough arcs as it is? Feel a little sorry for the actor playing Theon.)
The Bastard of Bolton for reasons that escape me, saved Theon from torture, and from rape by his father's men, and killed the men, then took Theon on horseback - with the promise of returning him to his sister. Very different than what I have been reading. But admittedly better.
The whole time Theon was running from the men, I was rooting for them to kill him. Please.
Trust me it's much better than the alternative. At any rate this is one bit that I really hope they change from the books. In a way they have by bringing it forward - this section I haven't read yet.
* Tyrion - oh I adore his sections. His interaction with Littlefinger, but in particular with Podrick and Bronn.
Tyrion and Bronn award Podrick with the whores, give him a sizable purse for payment, then leave.
Pod comes back and returns the purse to Tyrion. Stating the whores refused to accept it.
Tyrion is astonished.
Tyrion: They refused to accept your money? They never refuse mine. Whatever did you do?
Pod: Stuff (shrugs)
Tyrion: And they enjoyed it?
Pod: Appeared to.
Bronn: Well they are whores - they are paid to say they enjoyed it.
Tyrion: Except apparently in this case they weren't paid. (He picks up the bottle of wine and sits Pod between himself and Bronn and insists that Pod tell them details.)
LOL! (And I do not remember this bit being in the book at all. GRRM is obsessed with eating. The TV writers being skinny dudes, are apparently more obsessed with sex?)
Tywin meanwhile just wants to know what is up with Jamie and where he is. Ah, sigh, Tywin, you really should hurry.
* Catelynn - Now I know they changed this bit. In the books, Catelynn is nursing her father and he dies, with the Blackfish getting there in the nick of time. We spent the entire first half of Storm - with Catelynn nursing her father. I remember, because I kept wanting to skim through bits of it, but realized I couldn't due to the hidden clues regarding who killed Jon Arryn (that mystery is solved in Storm of Swords by the way and no it wasn't the Lannisters), why Littlefinger does what he does, amongst other things.
But boy were those chapters dull. Pages and pages of Catelynn moping in Riverrun, worrying over Robb, the Frays, and her father - while her brother Edmund is a bit of a bastard to her.
Here they shorten it into five sentences. And give the Blackfish a bigger role. I adored the Blackfish in the books. And the casting is pitch-perfect. Also, the funeral bier bit is the same - Edmund can't hit his father's bier to save his life, so the Blackfish does. You sort of feel sorry for Edmund as a result.
* Robb and his medic wife are growing on me (unfortunately). I really like both of them. The casting is apparently 95% of it. And yes, they really have changed who the wife is - while in some respects I like this a whole lot better - it does sort of screw up the plot a bit.
*Jon Snow - were there a weird pattern of chopped up horses in the books? Because I don't remember that. Also this storyline is being sped up a bit as well.
Samwell's tale is exactly like the books however. And rather gripping.
*Dany - oh I loved this section in the books. How Dany gets the Unsullied slaves and Missindre is classic. Also adore Jorah and Barristan's attempts to advise her while she wisely ignores them.
*Ayra - not much here - except that the boy Half-Pie got to stay at the inn and bake, and we see the Hound placed under guard. As Ayra and Gendry ride off together in the group, after him.
* Jamie and Brienne - I'd forgotten why Jamie lost his hand. Ironically, I think he might have kept it if he kept his mouth shut. Or didn't push his luck and ask to be unchained. Jamie's mouth, much like Tyrion's always gets him into trouble. Actually that's something the two brother's have in common. Their snarky wit and cleverness with words.
He adeptly saves Brienne - I wonder if she realized it? I think she did. But dooms himself.
It's the absolute worst thing they could do to him.
The casting of Vargo - is the only casting that doesn't quite fit with my image in the books. I envisioned, Vargo - the Goat, as bigger somehow and uglier. Although scrawny and smaller - goat like, fits, I suppose.
Here's the thing about watching the tv series after reading the books or most of the books at any rate? In some places it's rather funny, hind-sight being 20-20 and all that. And incredibly ironic. It's sort of like watching someone set up a trap and then, forget about the trap, only to walk right into the very trap they set up. If you've read the books you probably know what I'm talking about.
Oh and...if you haven't read the books? Eh. If you think Jamie getting his sword hand sliced off is bad...just wait. It gets so much worse. After this point, GRRM's tale becomes more and more twisted and gory. Horrifically so in places. If you can't handle that? You might want to stop now. Don't say I didn't warn you.
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 02:48 am (UTC)I agree about Robb's wife--but missed that they already got married. I think the plot can handle that, though it does make for less of a sense of waste. It was hard to see how much damage was done for the sake of that kind of dopey woman that was his wife in the book (at least that's what I remember--who knows what was really there?)
I turned the TV off for the hand-chopping scene. Bad enough to read.
You've probably said this earlier, but the woman who plays Brienne is a great job of casting.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 10:47 pm (UTC)Oddly it wasn't that bad - very quick, with a blackout right after.
Not sure how much you remember? But this is nothing in comparison to what lies ahead. Actually it's relatively tame.
Oh yes, Brienne - excellent casting. And agree - it makes more sense that he fell in love with the medic, the other woman I never understood.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 10:44 pm (UTC)I may need to separate the two in my head.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 05:44 am (UTC)It's not a clear path here - just never noticed it being used in the book except with Arya. As for Theon - I can only assume the rest of his arc isn't important. It's only just come up in the last book, and this is not what happens, as I recall.
They're playing fast and loose with a few characters - making up scenes and meetings, as you said. Jeyne never impressed me but her family was a good part of at least one twist. OTH - the Doc has far more personlity.
I adore Blackfish. It was the fact that he was gay that separated the brothers - Martin confirmed that.
Oh, yeah - the shit is only just moving toward the fan. I bet he ends with RW.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 01:24 pm (UTC)As for Jaime's hand: first of all, they axed Vargo Hoat and the Bloody Mummers completely from the show. This guy's name is Locke, and he's a bannerman of Roose Bolton's, and I kind of like the change, because it shows that the Northmen are no less savage than anyone else in this war. (Although the Bloody Mummers/Hoat were working for Bolton at this point in the book, they were originally brought to Westeros by Tywin Lannister, who knew exactly what they were and what they did so in a weird way he was culpable in part for Jaime's hand loss.)
Secondly, in the books, Vargo's motive for the dehanding in the books is that Karstark has promised the hand of his daughter in marriage to the man who brings him Jaime Lannister's head. (Which leads to Jaime's dark quip about how Hoat got it backwards when Karstark loses HIS head, and Hoat has Jaime's hand :P)
They actually combined two scenes in that one in the show; in the book, Jaime tells one of Hoat's henchmen Urswyck about the sapphires and offers the bribe and Urswyck rejects the offer because he doesn't trust the Kingslayer to keep his word and THEN Vargo cuts off Jaime's hand in a separate place. But I liked how they did it on the show, especially the parallels between Jaime trying to talk his way out of trouble just like Tyrion talked HIS way out of trouble. Because Tyrion is always offering up his father/Lannister gold too, but for Tyrion, it worked in the Eyrie, and for Jaime of course, it doesn't.
(I just reread this part of the book; I don't have it memorized. Though I'm getting there :P)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 10:42 pm (UTC)In a way it makes sense why they did that - because trying to explain the Bloody Mummers to the tv audience would require a lot of work and back-story. Far simpler to just have it be Bolton's men. Although I'm not sure you need to show the northmen as being capable of horrific deeds - after all we have Bolton, Stannis, and the Ironmen...
Curious to see how the rest of it works out. Dare I hope that Lock doesn't make Jamie carry his rotting hand around his neck until they reach Harrenhal? (That was gruesome.) Although they had to chop off Jamie's hand - or the character's entire arc is ruined. There's five to six events that have to happen in S3, or the story just doesn't work.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 04:01 pm (UTC)As you've said, the books are over-written, so the TV show is keeping the excitement level higher (we'll see if it ends up a little less gory).
I liked the way it showed that Tyrion offering $ worked (Tyrion really understood what the person wanted when he offered the money, he is better at reading people, because he has always had to be), while Jamie's offering $ back fired (he has had an easier life, he doesn't pay attention to other people, so he couldn't see how he was insulting he was being).
GoT is really the high point of my Sunday nights!
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 11:49 pm (UTC)It's sort of the difference between Daria insulting you and well Cordelia. Or Anya vs. Cordy. They both say the same thing, but you want to smack Cordy.
Otherwise agree. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-16 02:20 am (UTC)"GRRM is obsessed with eating. The TV writers being skinny dudes, are apparently more obsessed with sex?"
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks [about sex] too much: such men are dangerous.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 01:06 am (UTC)