Game of Thrones: Season Two: Episode Two (Spoilers for Books & Show)
Yeah, I'm late in getting this post out, but as long as I write before episode three I don't care if the rest of the Internet has beaten me to the punch. Anyway, as usual, be warned that when I do these write-ups spoilers will abound, as I'll assume anyone reading this is up to date on both the books and the HBO series.
Now, if there was one word I would use to describe this second episode, it's deviations. Yes, there have been deviations from from George's books in other episodes, but I think there have been more deviations from the original story than in any other story to date. Here are the ones I noticed in no particular order:
1) Bronn: Has replaced Janos Slynt at the commander of the City Watch in King's Landing. In the books, Slynt's replacement was Jacelyn Bywater, whose iron hand gave Jaime Lannister his idea for a golden hand. Not really a big deal here as far as I'm concerned--Bywater was not a crucial character, and some streamlining is necessary to contain George's story on the screen.
2) Stannis is childless: We're told he has a sickly wife who has given him stillborns. In the books, Stannis has an ugly wife from House Florent who has given him one daughter who is afflicted with grayscale: Shireen. Shireen also has a fool for a companion named Patchface. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Patchface is that this is the one character Melisandre fears. It lends the suggestion that Patchface could be her undoing down the road. I suppose Patchface could still be introduced later on, but in the books he is Shireen's constant companion.
3) Dany's scene: I'm pretty sure her one scene never happened. It's possible it might be a memory of Dany's in the book about something that did happen, but I feel like if the scene itself took place in the books then I'd remember it
4) Jon: Never witnessed Craster giving a babe to the Others and never got knocked out by Craster.
5) Petyr's scene: never happened, but that goes without saying. The scene is from his perspective and Baelish does not have a POV in the books (so far anyway ...you never know with George!)
6) Salladhor Saan: I'm reasonably sure he is a white man in the books. I actually went back to ACOK and looked up his description the first time we meet him, but George devotes almost the entirety of his description to the garish way Salladhor dresses. However, Sallador is a Lyseni pirate, and the Lyseni are fair-haired and light-eyed in the books. In the books, George's black characters come from the Summer Islands (that's the only place I can recall anyway), so if he never outright tells us that Saan is white (his physical characteristics might be described later on but I'm not sifting through thousands of pages to hunt that down), I would have to assume I pieced together the available information to formulate this conclusion. The color of Salladhor's skin shouldn't impact the plot as far as I can tell, but if I'm going to note deviations, I might as well include this is as well, since it's the first time I can recall them changing the race of a character.
7) In the book, I'm pretty sure it was Cersei who ordered Robert's bastards killed as opposed to Joffrey.
8) Robb and Theon's proposal to Balon Greyjoy actually involved him sailing his fleet against Lannisport as opposed to King's Landing.
I don't expect the fallout from Jon's storyline to be too huge in the grand scheme of things, so out of all these tidbits, the thing I'm the most curious about is Shireen, and especially Patchface.
One thing I didn't do last time was note the introductions of new characters. Part of the reason was we met two characters whose names were never given. I was reasonably sure who they were, but decided to wait another to make sure. So in the first episode, we met Ser Dontos, Craster, and the two we met that I wanted to make sure about were Gilly and Dolorous Edd in the Night's Watch. Dolorous Edd's name still hasn't been given, but I'm positive it's him based on his distinct sense of humor. We were also introduced to major characters like Melisandre, Stannis, Ser Davos, and Maester Cressen (the old man who drinks the poison), and Maester Pylos (the guy who writes down Stannis' note about the incest that goes out to all corner so the kingdom).
This week, we got a brief look at Podrick Payne, we met the aforementioned Salladhor Saan, we met the oldest son of Ser Davos (Mathos, I believe), Jaqen Hagar, along with some better looks at Rorge and Biter, Yara Greyjoy (Asha in the books), and Balon Greyjoy. I think that's everyone for new characters. The Greyjoys might have stood out the most for me, but for very different reasons. With Balon, wow, I thought he played his role to perfection. I find myself hoping that that they expand his role in the HBO series, because I want to see more of this guy. He's pretty bad-ass, but his role in the books, while significant on a geopolitical level, is relatively small in terms of page count.
Yara stood out for other reasons. I can understand the name change--in the books we have an Asha and Osha, and I can see that becoming confusing for viewers since you can key on the "A" vs. "O" when you're reading. But I'm not thrilled with her look. Maybe it's just me, but I always pictured Yara/Asha as a little tougher looking, lankier with more sinewy muscle and such. I guess her performance was fine, but in the books I also pictured her as being a little sharper with her tongue. I don't want to be overly judgmental here since she spent a lot of time keeping her identity a secret. And even if never warm up to her fully, I doubt this actress will end up holding the show back.
What else? Well, in the opening credits I was a little disappointed with Dragonstone (I wanted a couple of extra details to make it more distinct--throw in some gargoyles!), but I thought what they did with Pyke in week two was amazing. I love it when you can look forward to not just the show itself, but also the opening credits. With GOT, you always want to see those new locations rising from the ground. I can't wait to see Storm's End and Qarth this season, and maybe Harrenhal and Riverrun depending on how closely the show sticks to the books. The Simpsons is another show you can look forward to the credits, since the chalkboard and couch gags offer new material, but not too many other shows come to mind off the top of my head.
Speaking of the opening credits, has anyone else noticed that Peter Dinklage is now the first actor that's listed instead of the last one, as was the case in season one? That can't be a coincidence. Sean Bean's character is dead, and with Dinklage playing what is by far the most popular character in the books (though my personal favorite is Arya) and having just won the Emmy and the Golden Globe for his portrayal of Tyrion in the year's first show, I think it's safe to say that he is now the show's biggest star.
The other thing I noticed is that this season the plot and the cast have now expanded to the point that we're going whole episodes without seeing any multiple important characters at all. In this episode, we never saw Sansa, Joffrey, Catelyn, Robb, Jaime, Tywin Lannister, Renly Baratheon, or Bran, not to mention the hosts of minor characters we didn't see, plus middling important characters like the Hound and the Knight of Roses. We didn't see some characters in the season premiere either, but the list wasn't nearly this long. Given the way that George handles POV in his books, it's pretty easy for readers to just take this in stride. But I wonder how viewers who haven't read the books are going to cope as they wonder what in the hell is going on with so and so? Best get used to it. I suspect this is going to be the norm going forward. The story is just too big to give us all the characters--even all the major characters--in every episode.
Still no sign of Riverrun or the Tullys, but the more I think about this, the more they can put off their introductions for a while longer. They can even finesse things until season three if they absolutely had to. It's hard to be objective here, because I've read all the books and I've read them multiple times, but I think they're doing a really good job at introducing all these new characters in a manner that will allow most viewers to follow along without too much difficulty.
My prediction of Arya escaping the flames and tossing the ax didn't come true as the ending for episode two, but it's getting harder and harder to get these predictions right. As I already pointed out, the ending for this week's episode is something that never happened in the book. There's no way to predict that. But I'll keep making these predictions anyway for the fun of it. So I'm going to stick to last week's prediction as the end for this week's episode, i.e. Yoren's group is attacked, Yoren dies, Arya escapes with a few companions during the fire, but not before she tosses an ax to Jaqen Hagar, allowing him to escape. Let's see if I can go one for three.
As usual, anywhere I seem to be complaining comes down to I pick because I love. HBO is still doing a fantastic job. And I think I've hit all my big talking points for this week. I feel like I was more detailed with my write-ups last year, but the story is now a hell of a lot bigger ...so yeah. Until next week!
Now, if there was one word I would use to describe this second episode, it's deviations. Yes, there have been deviations from from George's books in other episodes, but I think there have been more deviations from the original story than in any other story to date. Here are the ones I noticed in no particular order:
1) Bronn: Has replaced Janos Slynt at the commander of the City Watch in King's Landing. In the books, Slynt's replacement was Jacelyn Bywater, whose iron hand gave Jaime Lannister his idea for a golden hand. Not really a big deal here as far as I'm concerned--Bywater was not a crucial character, and some streamlining is necessary to contain George's story on the screen.
2) Stannis is childless: We're told he has a sickly wife who has given him stillborns. In the books, Stannis has an ugly wife from House Florent who has given him one daughter who is afflicted with grayscale: Shireen. Shireen also has a fool for a companion named Patchface. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Patchface is that this is the one character Melisandre fears. It lends the suggestion that Patchface could be her undoing down the road. I suppose Patchface could still be introduced later on, but in the books he is Shireen's constant companion.
3) Dany's scene: I'm pretty sure her one scene never happened. It's possible it might be a memory of Dany's in the book about something that did happen, but I feel like if the scene itself took place in the books then I'd remember it
4) Jon: Never witnessed Craster giving a babe to the Others and never got knocked out by Craster.
5) Petyr's scene: never happened, but that goes without saying. The scene is from his perspective and Baelish does not have a POV in the books (so far anyway ...you never know with George!)
6) Salladhor Saan: I'm reasonably sure he is a white man in the books. I actually went back to ACOK and looked up his description the first time we meet him, but George devotes almost the entirety of his description to the garish way Salladhor dresses. However, Sallador is a Lyseni pirate, and the Lyseni are fair-haired and light-eyed in the books. In the books, George's black characters come from the Summer Islands (that's the only place I can recall anyway), so if he never outright tells us that Saan is white (his physical characteristics might be described later on but I'm not sifting through thousands of pages to hunt that down), I would have to assume I pieced together the available information to formulate this conclusion. The color of Salladhor's skin shouldn't impact the plot as far as I can tell, but if I'm going to note deviations, I might as well include this is as well, since it's the first time I can recall them changing the race of a character.
7) In the book, I'm pretty sure it was Cersei who ordered Robert's bastards killed as opposed to Joffrey.
8) Robb and Theon's proposal to Balon Greyjoy actually involved him sailing his fleet against Lannisport as opposed to King's Landing.
I don't expect the fallout from Jon's storyline to be too huge in the grand scheme of things, so out of all these tidbits, the thing I'm the most curious about is Shireen, and especially Patchface.
One thing I didn't do last time was note the introductions of new characters. Part of the reason was we met two characters whose names were never given. I was reasonably sure who they were, but decided to wait another to make sure. So in the first episode, we met Ser Dontos, Craster, and the two we met that I wanted to make sure about were Gilly and Dolorous Edd in the Night's Watch. Dolorous Edd's name still hasn't been given, but I'm positive it's him based on his distinct sense of humor. We were also introduced to major characters like Melisandre, Stannis, Ser Davos, and Maester Cressen (the old man who drinks the poison), and Maester Pylos (the guy who writes down Stannis' note about the incest that goes out to all corner so the kingdom).
This week, we got a brief look at Podrick Payne, we met the aforementioned Salladhor Saan, we met the oldest son of Ser Davos (Mathos, I believe), Jaqen Hagar, along with some better looks at Rorge and Biter, Yara Greyjoy (Asha in the books), and Balon Greyjoy. I think that's everyone for new characters. The Greyjoys might have stood out the most for me, but for very different reasons. With Balon, wow, I thought he played his role to perfection. I find myself hoping that that they expand his role in the HBO series, because I want to see more of this guy. He's pretty bad-ass, but his role in the books, while significant on a geopolitical level, is relatively small in terms of page count.
Yara stood out for other reasons. I can understand the name change--in the books we have an Asha and Osha, and I can see that becoming confusing for viewers since you can key on the "A" vs. "O" when you're reading. But I'm not thrilled with her look. Maybe it's just me, but I always pictured Yara/Asha as a little tougher looking, lankier with more sinewy muscle and such. I guess her performance was fine, but in the books I also pictured her as being a little sharper with her tongue. I don't want to be overly judgmental here since she spent a lot of time keeping her identity a secret. And even if never warm up to her fully, I doubt this actress will end up holding the show back.
What else? Well, in the opening credits I was a little disappointed with Dragonstone (I wanted a couple of extra details to make it more distinct--throw in some gargoyles!), but I thought what they did with Pyke in week two was amazing. I love it when you can look forward to not just the show itself, but also the opening credits. With GOT, you always want to see those new locations rising from the ground. I can't wait to see Storm's End and Qarth this season, and maybe Harrenhal and Riverrun depending on how closely the show sticks to the books. The Simpsons is another show you can look forward to the credits, since the chalkboard and couch gags offer new material, but not too many other shows come to mind off the top of my head.
Speaking of the opening credits, has anyone else noticed that Peter Dinklage is now the first actor that's listed instead of the last one, as was the case in season one? That can't be a coincidence. Sean Bean's character is dead, and with Dinklage playing what is by far the most popular character in the books (though my personal favorite is Arya) and having just won the Emmy and the Golden Globe for his portrayal of Tyrion in the year's first show, I think it's safe to say that he is now the show's biggest star.
The other thing I noticed is that this season the plot and the cast have now expanded to the point that we're going whole episodes without seeing any multiple important characters at all. In this episode, we never saw Sansa, Joffrey, Catelyn, Robb, Jaime, Tywin Lannister, Renly Baratheon, or Bran, not to mention the hosts of minor characters we didn't see, plus middling important characters like the Hound and the Knight of Roses. We didn't see some characters in the season premiere either, but the list wasn't nearly this long. Given the way that George handles POV in his books, it's pretty easy for readers to just take this in stride. But I wonder how viewers who haven't read the books are going to cope as they wonder what in the hell is going on with so and so? Best get used to it. I suspect this is going to be the norm going forward. The story is just too big to give us all the characters--even all the major characters--in every episode.
Still no sign of Riverrun or the Tullys, but the more I think about this, the more they can put off their introductions for a while longer. They can even finesse things until season three if they absolutely had to. It's hard to be objective here, because I've read all the books and I've read them multiple times, but I think they're doing a really good job at introducing all these new characters in a manner that will allow most viewers to follow along without too much difficulty.
My prediction of Arya escaping the flames and tossing the ax didn't come true as the ending for episode two, but it's getting harder and harder to get these predictions right. As I already pointed out, the ending for this week's episode is something that never happened in the book. There's no way to predict that. But I'll keep making these predictions anyway for the fun of it. So I'm going to stick to last week's prediction as the end for this week's episode, i.e. Yoren's group is attacked, Yoren dies, Arya escapes with a few companions during the fire, but not before she tosses an ax to Jaqen Hagar, allowing him to escape. Let's see if I can go one for three.
As usual, anywhere I seem to be complaining comes down to I pick because I love. HBO is still doing a fantastic job. And I think I've hit all my big talking points for this week. I feel like I was more detailed with my write-ups last year, but the story is now a hell of a lot bigger ...so yeah. Until next week!