Game of Thrones: Adaptation Decay
- Thread starter The Wooster
- Start date
EDIT:Amaror said:
I gotta be honest, I found Arya more stupid in the book. In the show, the first name she gives is half a test to see if a person she really hates (the Tickler in this case) will actually die just by giving something as simple as a name. It's pretty similar to the book, though it was a different man (Chiswyck). In both cases, this is pretty logical, she doesn't know if Jaqen is telling the truth or even what to expect if he is. It reminds of Light Yagami's first kill with the Death Note.
The second name she gives is where it gets stupid in the book. At this point, she's been doing her death list prayer every night before she goes to sleep. There are a lot of people she wants dead, and she still has two names she can give Jaqen to guarantee their deaths. Of course, despite the fact that killing these people is all she thinks about, she completely forgets that she can, and instead does what she did with the first: name some nobody who's just kind of an asshole. Only after she gives the second name does she realize just how stupid she's been, realizing she could have given Jaqen Joffery's name or the Mountain's or Cersei's. But she didn't. She kill pretty much nobody.
Over with the show, however, Arya has been put into position as Tywin's cup-bearer, a position which allows her to hear sensitive war information that she wouldn't hear otherwise. Only when one of Tywin's soldiers finds her trying to steal a letter containing this important information does she seek out Jaqen to give the second name and ensure she is not found out. There's not much you can ask from her at this point, she would have had her head mounted on Harrenhal's outer wall if she hadn't killed him. It's understandable that she would waste a name out of shear necessity of survival.
How it goes with last name concludes with generally the same results in both the show and the book. You could say either way that the whole "give three names and they will die" bit was ultimately pointless other than to set up Arya eventually going to Braavos, but I just think it was much better handled in the show. Overall, I find Arya in the show much less unlikably bratty compared to how she is in the books. It wasn't until she got to Braavos that I found myself interested in her again.
The second name she gives is where it gets stupid in the book. At this point, she's been doing her death list prayer every night before she goes to sleep. There are a lot of people she wants dead, and she still has two names she can give Jaqen to guarantee their deaths. Of course, despite the fact that killing these people is all she thinks about, she completely forgets that she can, and instead does what she did with the first: name some nobody who's just kind of an asshole. Only after she gives the second name does she realize just how stupid she's been, realizing she could have given Jaqen Joffery's name or the Mountain's or Cersei's. But she didn't. She kill pretty much nobody.
Over with the show, however, Arya has been put into position as Tywin's cup-bearer, a position which allows her to hear sensitive war information that she wouldn't hear otherwise. Only when one of Tywin's soldiers finds her trying to steal a letter containing this important information does she seek out Jaqen to give the second name and ensure she is not found out. There's not much you can ask from her at this point, she would have had her head mounted on Harrenhal's outer wall if she hadn't killed him. It's understandable that she would waste a name out of shear necessity of survival.
How it goes with last name concludes with generally the same results in both the show and the book. You could say either way that the whole "give three names and they will die" bit was ultimately pointless other than to set up Arya eventually going to Braavos, but I just think it was much better handled in the show. Overall, I find Arya in the show much less unlikably bratty compared to how she is in the books. It wasn't until she got to Braavos that I found myself interested in her again.
I thought it was hilarious. Using up all your gripes early, only for....*ahem*.lacktheknack said:
What I think makes "that scene" even more offensive is that...
In the books I feel like you are supposed to actually start to like and emphasize with Jamie, arguably to the point where you end up liking him more than Tyrion. Now, people will only ever see him as a sister-raping child-killing scumbag no matter what he does.
Actually, "in the books" (i know, i know), Jaime is on a very clear redemption "what defines honor? what defines MY honor?" character arc. i mean, he:SacremPyrobolum said:
eventually repudiates Cersei, tells Tyrion the truth, lets Tyrion go after 'Tywin does NOT shit gold', works literally for the betterment of the realm, gives Brienne the sword meant for him, tries to straighten out the Kingsguard after Cersei's mucking it up with toadies....
All points to him trying to find his center and become as good a person as he can be, despite the claims of family and duty on him. The Event, however? Derails the entire arc, because it is a very bad act that comes after the start of this arc.
Yeah...I've not been watching the show but it was on at the time I need be in the room that has the tv so I switched to it. It was that episode. WTF, pushing a kids out a window is pretty hard to forgive but that...that is just messed up and kinda kills any sympathy he might have been getting up to that point. Unless they completely changed it that was right in the middle of when he was played up as sympathetic and trying to turn things around. This is not so much of a "different from the books" complaint (who cares who cut the cake, seriously?) so much as it seems like its unnecessary and ruins the arc.
To be fair, Ilyn Payne (Wilko Johnson) is currently dealing with terminal pancreatic cancer, and it gave Joffery an extra chance in his last outing to really drive home everyone wants him dead.
![[REDACTED]](https://eg-forums-escapist-data.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/avatars/l/129/129871.jpg?1621054700){kind=avatar}
So much good in this strip.
I can totally understand complaining about something that isn't good or that doesn't make sense. That's cool. When your complaint basically boils down to "But.. but.. that's not how it was in the books!" then you're just being silly. Coincidentally, this is definitely what a lot of the GoT negativity is.
And yes, I've read the books. I don't feel that any deviation from them is instantly and by default wrong or bad.
I can totally understand complaining about something that isn't good or that doesn't make sense. That's cool. When your complaint basically boils down to "But.. but.. that's not how it was in the books!" then you're just being silly. Coincidentally, this is definitely what a lot of the GoT negativity is.
And yes, I've read the books. I don't feel that any deviation from them is instantly and by default wrong or bad.
I wonder what the other ground rules are. Knowing Erin I'm guessing at least one of them is "Don't steal my popcorn or I'LL KILL YOU WITH A SPOON!!!"
Something like this:
Something like this:
The hardest part about having read the books is not to spoil the show for those who did not.
For example my brother was watching the wedding scene in episode 2 and he told me: "I wish this wedding would end the same way as the wedding of that guy from Winterfell."
And i was like MUST NOT SPOIL arrggh. It was difficult.
Regarding the topic of this comic yes i did that few times but other times people ask me about the differences. And most changes they make from the source material are to save time. Like in LotR movies. In Hobbit on the other hand they removed lots of good parts and replaced them with long fight scenes because of reasons i guess.
For example my brother was watching the wedding scene in episode 2 and he told me: "I wish this wedding would end the same way as the wedding of that guy from Winterfell."
And i was like MUST NOT SPOIL arrggh. It was difficult.
Regarding the topic of this comic yes i did that few times but other times people ask me about the differences. And most changes they make from the source material are to save time. Like in LotR movies. In Hobbit on the other hand they removed lots of good parts and replaced them with long fight scenes because of reasons i guess.
I still don't understand where the shitstorm for the rape scene came from, leaving aside legitimate complains that it makes Jaime look quite different than in the books, of course. A lot of people I've seen complaining are doing it because of the fact that there is rape, and not because it changes the way we see a certain character.
Not like it made me see him as any worse. Cersei is not precisely someone I've a lot of sympathy for.
Not like it made me see him as any worse. Cersei is not precisely someone I've a lot of sympathy for.
I think the phrase ''in the books'' is not very good criticism. It is called an adaptation for a good reason. Changes have to be made. That being said, I don't watch GoT. Not because I think it is a bad adaptation of the book (which I am in the proces of reading) but because the changes they made made me lose my interest in the characters, which is, in my opinion, the driving force behind what makes the books classic.
Y'know, I feel somewhat monumentally stupid that I didn't recognize Payne was Wilko Johnson. I mean it quite clearly is him now that you mention it, but I'm going to excuse myself by just failing to put two and two together, as GoT wasn't somethig I'd expect Johnson to turn up in.Thunderous Cacophony said:
It seems pretty retarded to me, I mean I haven't read the books and I don't watch the show, so I don't really care... But it seems to me that if you read the books, you liked the books for what they were and continued reading because you enjoyed the books, seems totally separate from any other adaptation of said books.
I guess what I'm trying to say is the books cater to one audience while the TV show caters to another, more broad one who may never even have known there were books, let alone develop any impetus to read the books looking for canonical errors and such. I think there's at least one word for that...
... I still don't care, but, nerd will do.
I guess what I'm trying to say is the books cater to one audience while the TV show caters to another, more broad one who may never even have known there were books, let alone develop any impetus to read the books looking for canonical errors and such. I think there's at least one word for that...
... I still don't care, but, nerd will do.
