GAME OF THRONES S1&2
I actually enjoyed this show a lot more than I thought I would! I mean, of course I still love the books more, but the actors are all fantastic (with one glaring exception), and on the whole it’s just a really solid, great-looking production. And I think having read the books first even made it a better experience at times because I could think back to how a certain scene was described or what a character was feeling in the book and sort of carry that over into the show.
I think I did that a lot with Theon in S2. Because I should probably hate him, but I can't because I've been in his head! So I know how insecure and unloved and pathetic he feels! (Which, granted, Alfie Allen did a great job of showing on his own too.) And that whole storyline was just so awful in the best way.
But then there was also original material written just for the show that I completely adored, especially regarding Cersei and Jaime. They're definitely the ones who benefited the most from the expansion of the material. In the books we don’t get their POVs until later in the series, and I didn’t start feeling very sympathetic toward them until near the end of the second book, but in the show I actually kind of loved them right away. I mean, of course they're totally fucked up and horrible! But it's easy to see the vulnerability in them too, and that's what I really love. There was a lot of really great stuff for both of them, like Cersei and Robert talking really honestly about their marriage, and Tywin berating Jaime about upholding the family honor, and Jaime ruminating on life with his cousin before he killed him, and Cersei almost poisoning Tommen (!!!!) when she thought the palace had been breached. But my favorite Lannister family scene ever was definitely the one in S2 where Cersei and Tyrion were talking about how horrible Joffrey is, and Cersei said that maybe she and Jaime were being punished for their sins, and then she started crying, and Tyrion went over to her, obviously feeling like he should comfort her, but with all the tension between them he ended up just kind of standing there really awkwardly. UGH, LANNISTERS. With the first two books I was all about the Starks, but with the show I am kind of obsessed with the Lannisters.
And it's funny - my two absolute favorite characters in the books (besides Jaime now in ASoS) are Jon Snow and Sansa, but they're the two characters that I think actually translated most poorly to the show (which I always knew would be the case). Without Sansa’s interior monologue, I feel like she just comes off as a huge brat through almost the entire first season. I do love all of her scenes with Cersei in S2, but it still sucks that Sophie Turner is, in my opinion, really not a very good actress (the glaring exception I mentioned before).
As for Jon, he’s just not the same warm, idealistic boy that I love so much in the books. He's so stiff and brooding. And I know I’ve mentioned this many times already, but aging him up really doesn't serve him well sometimes. Like when he got all pissy about being named to the stewards - for me, that’s fine coming from the barely-15-year-old boy who looks like Asa Butterfield in my head, but for the obvious 25-year-old on television it kind of just makes him look like an asshole.
BUT THEN THIS BITCH SHOWED UP AND IMMEDIATELY MADE HIM LIKE 20x MORE LIKEABLE JUST BY ASSOCIATION. YGRITTE!!! I fucking loooooooooooove her. The episode where she was just teasing Jon about being a virgin the whole time was fucking hilarious. "DON'T YOUR STONES START TO HURT IF YOUR BONE NEVER GETS ANY -" LOL. She's gonna knock that stick right out of his butt.
AND THEN THERE'S THESE FUCKING KIDS. LOOK AT HER CHECKING HIM OUT. YEEEAH. And the scene where she revealed her identity to him, and he was like, "ALL THAT STUFF ABOUT COCKS, I NEVER SHOULD HAVE SAID THAT" LOL. And then he started calling her "m'lady" and she pushed him to the ground!! SUUUUUUUPER ADORABLE. God I love them.
And I also loved Arya's weird relationship with Tywin Lannister. That was more Lannister-related original material for the show. Really a stroke of genius there. In the book Arya becomes Roose Bolton's cupbearer after Tywin and his men leave Harrenhall, but I think Benioff & Weiss did a good job of streamlining her whole story in S2.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Dany's S2 storyline. I understand that she didn't really have a lot of story in the second book, and obviously it's more difficult to stretch things out than it is to just cut and condense stuff, but it all just seemed kind of silly and ultimately pointless. And the House of the Undying sequence was a disappointment. Again, I understand that they surely didn't want to include anything that they may not be able to make work in the story later. But then, that's kind of the problem with adapting a series before it's finished in its original form: You have no idea what's really going to be crucial later. And, you know, I could go on about her seeing SNOW in the throne room (wink) or her ending up at the Wall, but they were probably just pulling those images out of their asses (even if both those things are actually how I do want the story to end, and how I think it very well might).
(i.e. WITH THIS)
And now I just need to rage about Robb's S2 storyline for the rest of this because it is awful. I love Robb in the books (poor tragic sweetheart). But this shit with Talisa in the show has completely ruined his character. In the book he hears that Bran and Rickon are dead, and he is "comforted" in his grief by sweet, boring Jeyne Westerling, and then, because he is his father’s son, a too-noble-for-their-own-fucking-good Stark, he immediately marries her the next morning in what is basically the high fantasy equivalent of a shotgun wedding; whereas in the show he makes a calculated decision to piss all over a vow he made to an ally during wartime in a society where people just did not marry for love. Is he an idiot either way? Yes. But at least in the book he is more a victim of circumstance, with the jumble of grief, teenage hormones, and honor leading him into this mess, while in the show he’s just a selfish, dishonorable dick.
Now, I have two theories on why Benioff & Weiss may have changed this for the show, but neither, in my opinion, justifies the character assassination involved.
01. They may have thought that modern audiences wouldn’t either accept or be sympathetic to the old-fashioned “I must marry the girl to preserve her honor” angle. They probably thought people would be more understanding or forgiving if Robb were doing it for (gag) True Love.
02. They may have done it to set up Robb and Jon Snow as obvious foils in Season Three. Because as it has been/is being written, they both at some point will have had to make a choice between Love and Duty - Robb, between Talisa and the Freys; and Jon, between Ygritte and the Night’s Watch. And, well, let’s just say it works out really horribly for one of them.
The second reasoning I could maybe respect a bit because at least it makes a point (though, like I said, it still sacrifices Robb’s honorable character); but I suspect that the first was the actual motivation, and that’s just stupid. And infuriating.
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