It might, but I like to pretend there's a difference between writing what you know or using a character as a mouthpiece and author insertion. Plus, young RR..Setec Astronomy said:The bookish lad who wanted to be a wizard as a kid, and who sort of achieves that in the eyes of his beloved through his book-learning? The young man who just doesn't have a taste for violence, and frankly LOOKS like a young RR? It might be the case.
Also, book Gilly doesn't worship or idolize over Sam in anything like the same way.. their relationship (or at least the sexual part of it) has a more credible basis in mutual grief, rather than cutesy hero worship (which becomes arguably rather creepy in context).
I know.Setec Astronomy said:It's a TV show, it's necessarily going to lack the subtlety and depth of books which include extensive 1st person narration.
As mentioned, I spent most of last season arguing from the position you are in now. I don't expect adherence to the books. In fact, there are times when I genuinely feel the TV show has handled something better than the books (Ramsey's upbringing, for example, makes hugely more sense in the TV show). I don't mind the show being a big dumb exploitationfest, because I like exploitation. Moreover, I have no problem overlooking physical plot holes like Littlefinger's jetpack because sometimes you need to have a character in a particular place to convey information or advance the plot.
But here's the thing. This particular case isn't down to the lack of first person narrative. The primary (or POV) characters and secondary (or non-POV) characters are the same as would happen in a book. It's simply a basic failure to consider the unfortunate implications of having characters act a certain way. In a show which still ostensibly sells itself on dark subject matter and moral complexity, downplaying those very features in order to facilitate simplistic pandering to one assumed audience demographic does not strike me as very good screenwriting, regardless of medium. Part of the appeal of game of thrones has always been the absence of plot armour, the fact that even the "heroes" and protagonists can be held responsible for their actions. Yes, that's always been quite shallow but it's been responsible for many of the most shocking (and best) moments.
Part of that, I feel, is that a character should not be entitled to the somewhat incredible adoration and worship of a smoking hot girlfriend because noone else understands how secretly awesome they (and by extension all bookish, socially awkward guys) really are. The violation of this normally soft rule becomes much more jarring, in this case, because said girlfriend actually has an incredibly dark backstory which seems to have been completely forgotten about..