Game of Thrones, some thoughts and specualtions on the books/show differences
This is obviously full of heavy spoilers for the books up to Dance and for the show up to 5.07.This will likely be full of my impression from the books and also might be coloured by faulty memory, because I don't remember the details from the books so very well. Please correct me if I misremember some facts.
I guess the most straightforward plot that still follows the books mostly is King's landing. This will lead up straight to Cersei's walk of shame, although I think they might leave out Kevan's part in it and just go with Littlefinger and Granny Tyrell instead. This of course robs the show of the final scene of Dance, where Varys shows up to off Kevan and to make sure the realm tumbles deeper into chaos to make it an easy pick for the Targaryens. But they are right, Olenna end Littlefinger are ay more interesting to have in King's landing.
I'm a bit worried about Loras though. I mean for Margaery it doesn't look so bad. In the books the accussations against her were simply lies. Here they are not, but defending her brother will probably not be treated so harshly and she will end up free just as in the books.
Loras...not so sure. In the books he's where? Somewhere in the Riverlands? I hope they don't kill him off here. Also not sure what they will du with Cersei afterwards. In the books, she is still reeling from the humiliation, but book Cersei is way less interesting than show Cersei and I doubt they will go down the same path in on the show (I don't even think it will last long in the books).
The wall will likely be pretty similar to the books, but it seems that Sam is not leaving for Oldtown? I thought, his plotof becoming a Maester was quite neat. Maybe they will go for it later, so they have a memorable non evil character at the wall for now. Gilly's plot of rescuing Mance's baby son by Val is gone of course.
But I guess they will leave the wall eventually, at the latest when they decide to kill off Jon. i think they might savor that for next season though.
I'm not sure I like all the changes they made in Mereen. I think, simply moving along Martin's plot a bit faster would have done the trick, but this? They clearly killed Ser Barristan to make room for Tyrion and maybe Jorah, but I am not sure that was a good idea. Dance and Feast did not have as much to offer as the previous books did and Ser Barristan's POV was one of the few things I really enjoyed. I guess, once Dany leaves in search of Drogon, they will leave the city to Tyrion instead of Barristan.
But I am not sure if that is a good idea. Tyrion already had his Hand of the King plot and it's Ser Barristan's very oldschool view of knighthood is what made his handling of the Yunkai crisis interesting.
They also seem to leave out Quentyn Martell as it looks like, but I tend to think that really is a storyline that can be cut without having any real losses.
Not so sure about Aegon Targaryen and Jon Connington. They somehow seem to merge it with other plots? At least Ser Jorah now has Connington's greyscale. But that was not the central issue of that plot. There is another Targaryen. I had figured that in the books they will eventually distribute the three dragons among the remaining Targs. Drogon for Dany, one for Aegon, one for Jon?
I think Jorah might somehow save Dany from being poisoned by Hizdar, since strong Bewas doesn't exist on the show.
We will see. The show did fine when they did small changes, but I don't trust them with rewriting the big storylines.
I also have some smaller tone issues with Mereen. Dany is way more sure of herself, which kind of begs the question, why we need to sit in Mereen so long, but of course she has to come to terms with the Dragons yet. Then there is Daario. I didn't like the first version and I don't like the second much better. In the books he always reminded me of Jack Sparrow and he was the one and only aspect of a real teenage girl that Dany had. She likes do it with a fully made up Johnny Depp.
They certainly made him less silly on the show, but him being such a silly but ultimately inconsequential choice of man, was a really nice aspect of Dany in the books, which is lost on the show.
Arya's story follows the books, except for the Jaquen reappearance, which is a nice touch though (that's the sort of small changes the show excells at).
But larger rewrites like the one they did in Dorne, my eyes are not flexible enough to execute the eyeroll this storyline derserves. Arianne Martell's plan of making Myrcella queen didn't strike me as remarkably great in the books, but compared to Ellaria Sand and the sandsnakes it's a stroke of genious.
The books sandsnakes are not these flat Xena extras. That they have so widely different characters and abilities is actually the fascinating thing about them. They are united by the love for their father, but they all have different mothers and very different ways to go at things. They are not all warrios, and they certainly don't do pointless striptease in prison cells.
And of course Jaime is not there. He's messing around in the Riverlands. I find it curious that they completely cut this storyline after casting Edmure Tully with a comparatively prominent actor. But aside from the Blackfish I really don't miss Riverrun much.
And the of course there is the merge of the Theon's, Brienne's and Sansa's story at Winterfell. Ugh. It seems they merged all the psychopaths in Westeros into Ramsay Bolton, just to repeat Sansa's plot with Joff. I don't care at all for her being victimized again just so Theon Greyjoy can redeem himself.
I think, since the show has emphasized the relationship between Brienne and Pod so much, I think that the undead Catelyn Stark will show up eventually. I don't think they cut her, but are waiting for her to become really active. In the books she is introduced and then takes forever to show up again. I also think that the drama of Brienne setting a trap for Jaime to save Pod will be too much to show's taste to skip it. I just hope they don't plan to merge Lady Stoneheart with Ramsay too.
I hope Sansa drives that scredriver into his eyes, although I think it is more likely that he will use it to toture her down the road, unfortunately. Really, end that already.
I guess the most straightforward plot that still follows the books mostly is King's landing. This will lead up straight to Cersei's walk of shame, although I think they might leave out Kevan's part in it and just go with Littlefinger and Granny Tyrell instead. This of course robs the show of the final scene of Dance, where Varys shows up to off Kevan and to make sure the realm tumbles deeper into chaos to make it an easy pick for the Targaryens. But they are right, Olenna end Littlefinger are ay more interesting to have in King's landing.
I'm a bit worried about Loras though. I mean for Margaery it doesn't look so bad. In the books the accussations against her were simply lies. Here they are not, but defending her brother will probably not be treated so harshly and she will end up free just as in the books.
Loras...not so sure. In the books he's where? Somewhere in the Riverlands? I hope they don't kill him off here. Also not sure what they will du with Cersei afterwards. In the books, she is still reeling from the humiliation, but book Cersei is way less interesting than show Cersei and I doubt they will go down the same path in on the show (I don't even think it will last long in the books).
The wall will likely be pretty similar to the books, but it seems that Sam is not leaving for Oldtown? I thought, his plotof becoming a Maester was quite neat. Maybe they will go for it later, so they have a memorable non evil character at the wall for now. Gilly's plot of rescuing Mance's baby son by Val is gone of course.
But I guess they will leave the wall eventually, at the latest when they decide to kill off Jon. i think they might savor that for next season though.
I'm not sure I like all the changes they made in Mereen. I think, simply moving along Martin's plot a bit faster would have done the trick, but this? They clearly killed Ser Barristan to make room for Tyrion and maybe Jorah, but I am not sure that was a good idea. Dance and Feast did not have as much to offer as the previous books did and Ser Barristan's POV was one of the few things I really enjoyed. I guess, once Dany leaves in search of Drogon, they will leave the city to Tyrion instead of Barristan.
But I am not sure if that is a good idea. Tyrion already had his Hand of the King plot and it's Ser Barristan's very oldschool view of knighthood is what made his handling of the Yunkai crisis interesting.
They also seem to leave out Quentyn Martell as it looks like, but I tend to think that really is a storyline that can be cut without having any real losses.
Not so sure about Aegon Targaryen and Jon Connington. They somehow seem to merge it with other plots? At least Ser Jorah now has Connington's greyscale. But that was not the central issue of that plot. There is another Targaryen. I had figured that in the books they will eventually distribute the three dragons among the remaining Targs. Drogon for Dany, one for Aegon, one for Jon?
I think Jorah might somehow save Dany from being poisoned by Hizdar, since strong Bewas doesn't exist on the show.
We will see. The show did fine when they did small changes, but I don't trust them with rewriting the big storylines.
I also have some smaller tone issues with Mereen. Dany is way more sure of herself, which kind of begs the question, why we need to sit in Mereen so long, but of course she has to come to terms with the Dragons yet. Then there is Daario. I didn't like the first version and I don't like the second much better. In the books he always reminded me of Jack Sparrow and he was the one and only aspect of a real teenage girl that Dany had. She likes do it with a fully made up Johnny Depp.
They certainly made him less silly on the show, but him being such a silly but ultimately inconsequential choice of man, was a really nice aspect of Dany in the books, which is lost on the show.
Arya's story follows the books, except for the Jaquen reappearance, which is a nice touch though (that's the sort of small changes the show excells at).
But larger rewrites like the one they did in Dorne, my eyes are not flexible enough to execute the eyeroll this storyline derserves. Arianne Martell's plan of making Myrcella queen didn't strike me as remarkably great in the books, but compared to Ellaria Sand and the sandsnakes it's a stroke of genious.
The books sandsnakes are not these flat Xena extras. That they have so widely different characters and abilities is actually the fascinating thing about them. They are united by the love for their father, but they all have different mothers and very different ways to go at things. They are not all warrios, and they certainly don't do pointless striptease in prison cells.
And of course Jaime is not there. He's messing around in the Riverlands. I find it curious that they completely cut this storyline after casting Edmure Tully with a comparatively prominent actor. But aside from the Blackfish I really don't miss Riverrun much.
And the of course there is the merge of the Theon's, Brienne's and Sansa's story at Winterfell. Ugh. It seems they merged all the psychopaths in Westeros into Ramsay Bolton, just to repeat Sansa's plot with Joff. I don't care at all for her being victimized again just so Theon Greyjoy can redeem himself.
I think, since the show has emphasized the relationship between Brienne and Pod so much, I think that the undead Catelyn Stark will show up eventually. I don't think they cut her, but are waiting for her to become really active. In the books she is introduced and then takes forever to show up again. I also think that the drama of Brienne setting a trap for Jaime to save Pod will be too much to show's taste to skip it. I just hope they don't plan to merge Lady Stoneheart with Ramsay too.
I hope Sansa drives that scredriver into his eyes, although I think it is more likely that he will use it to toture her down the road, unfortunately. Really, end that already.