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Moar spoilerz
Massive Spoilers and Weak Ass Meta for
THIS IS SPOILERIFFIC. Proceed with caution or whatever.
I want to stress that I am enjoying the show. Immensely. Tons. Super A lot. So, this post which focuses mostly on its few faults isn't a statement of total of displeasure.
I expected the biggest fault beforehand-- the strongest aspect of the Song of Ice and Fire series is the tightness of the POV. The story is told from a variety of characters' POVs, and a big part of the fun of reading the series is figuring out the truth behind what is being reported. It isn't that the characters lie to the reader; everything is so enmeshed with the character's hopes, dreams, goals, prejudices, confusion, etc, that as a reader you get a wonderfully biased report of the scene. TV cannot do this. The story is shown as a rather bald-faced, loose 3rd pov. So certain events look pale, certain clues STAND OUT MORE, character failings become a bit dunderheaded.
Stuff has been cut, which I expected also. However, two very, very important scenes were cut, and maybe it's just me and Personal Taste, but I felt they were hugely pivotal. Jon's early troubles at The Wall were solved in an entirely different manner. In the book, Tyrion calls Jon a bully, lectures him about feeling superior to the peasants. Jon gets its, and corrects himself. In the books, the scene did a ton as far as getting Jon on the path towards being a decent man, and it also showed Tyrion for who he is.
On the show, when the peasants are about to gang up on Jon, Tyrion threatens to have them beheaded by his sister, the queen. So instead of forcing Jon to become decent in order to be liked, he and Tyrion end up looking like privileged jerkwads.
The other lost scene was during Dani's arranged marriaged. During the reception, Drogo gives Dani a horse, and she says "You've given me the wind." Drogo is pleased by that, respects her some, and even though the situation is still tons yucky, it is not as yucky as it could have been. More on that later.
On the show, it was marriage, horse, rape. Rather than showing Dani as someone who was already teaching herself to take the metaphorical reins in any situation, no matter how dire, all she got was a creepy rape scene.
She deserves more. In the book, there's rape too. Dani did not have a choice about her wedding night. In the book, Drogo because of Dani being awesome earlier, returns some respect and at least, tries to make it less nasty for her. Sort of a gross way of putting it, I know, that Drogo is somehow decent for making a rape less traumatic, when he had the power to stop the rape altogether.
Which really made me think about male power and privilege in sexuality. That Drogo could be praised for less violent rape when he had the power to NOT rape and that many readers were happy Dani got a decent husband-- as if "luck" is the best a woman can hope for in being treated respectfully in a marriage. All the praise went to Drogo-- readers expected him to be shitty, and he mostly wasn't. Rather than praising Dani for choosing to demand respect, for being strong, for finding inner strength from bad situations, for consistently showing a brutish man that there are many, many reasons to respect her and treat her respectfully.
So, it was super disappointing to see on the show that it was a rape scene, then her asking for sex tips from a slave. Stockholm, at best. Rape-her-enough-and-she'll-start-to-love-it at worse. Same with her non-Drogo interactions. In the book, she takes to being a queen very well. She makes mistakes, she learns from them. She makes hard decisions and has to deal with the consequences. She learns how to deal with people and how to deal with herself. In the show, she stands around wide-eyed and trembling.
THIS IS SPOILERIFFIC. Proceed with caution or whatever.
I want to stress that I am enjoying the show. Immensely. Tons. Super A lot. So, this post which focuses mostly on its few faults isn't a statement of total of displeasure.
I expected the biggest fault beforehand-- the strongest aspect of the Song of Ice and Fire series is the tightness of the POV. The story is told from a variety of characters' POVs, and a big part of the fun of reading the series is figuring out the truth behind what is being reported. It isn't that the characters lie to the reader; everything is so enmeshed with the character's hopes, dreams, goals, prejudices, confusion, etc, that as a reader you get a wonderfully biased report of the scene. TV cannot do this. The story is shown as a rather bald-faced, loose 3rd pov. So certain events look pale, certain clues STAND OUT MORE, character failings become a bit dunderheaded.
Stuff has been cut, which I expected also. However, two very, very important scenes were cut, and maybe it's just me and Personal Taste, but I felt they were hugely pivotal. Jon's early troubles at The Wall were solved in an entirely different manner. In the book, Tyrion calls Jon a bully, lectures him about feeling superior to the peasants. Jon gets its, and corrects himself. In the books, the scene did a ton as far as getting Jon on the path towards being a decent man, and it also showed Tyrion for who he is.
On the show, when the peasants are about to gang up on Jon, Tyrion threatens to have them beheaded by his sister, the queen. So instead of forcing Jon to become decent in order to be liked, he and Tyrion end up looking like privileged jerkwads.
The other lost scene was during Dani's arranged marriaged. During the reception, Drogo gives Dani a horse, and she says "You've given me the wind." Drogo is pleased by that, respects her some, and even though the situation is still tons yucky, it is not as yucky as it could have been. More on that later.
On the show, it was marriage, horse, rape. Rather than showing Dani as someone who was already teaching herself to take the metaphorical reins in any situation, no matter how dire, all she got was a creepy rape scene.
She deserves more. In the book, there's rape too. Dani did not have a choice about her wedding night. In the book, Drogo because of Dani being awesome earlier, returns some respect and at least, tries to make it less nasty for her. Sort of a gross way of putting it, I know, that Drogo is somehow decent for making a rape less traumatic, when he had the power to stop the rape altogether.
Which really made me think about male power and privilege in sexuality. That Drogo could be praised for less violent rape when he had the power to NOT rape and that many readers were happy Dani got a decent husband-- as if "luck" is the best a woman can hope for in being treated respectfully in a marriage. All the praise went to Drogo-- readers expected him to be shitty, and he mostly wasn't. Rather than praising Dani for choosing to demand respect, for being strong, for finding inner strength from bad situations, for consistently showing a brutish man that there are many, many reasons to respect her and treat her respectfully.
So, it was super disappointing to see on the show that it was a rape scene, then her asking for sex tips from a slave. Stockholm, at best. Rape-her-enough-and-she'll-start-to-love-it at worse. Same with her non-Drogo interactions. In the book, she takes to being a queen very well. She makes mistakes, she learns from them. She makes hard decisions and has to deal with the consequences. She learns how to deal with people and how to deal with herself. In the show, she stands around wide-eyed and trembling.
no subject
With that said, it remains to be seen how the relationship will be portrayed for the rest of the season, because they do seem to be getting kinda lovey dovey, in which case, my head will meet my desk swiftly.
no subject
That's what I was trying to get to. The book had chapters to work on that determination. The show-look helped, but the book made it feel organic, like it was less her dealing with one tragic event, and more her choosing to become awesome despite her ugly circumstances.
There are a million trouble-y things with Drogo's characterization and readers' perception of him. I won't go into it because it's spoileriffic. All I will say is that the book made something super unpalatable work believably enough, and I don't see it working nearly as well with TV!Drogo. And, it's a very pivotal scene as well. If I hadn't read the books, I think the way its seemingly headed in the show would be a deal breaker for me.
no subject
I'm pretty spoiled for the books in terms of events, but not the exact how and the emotional impact and all the stuff that would come from actually reading how the events unfold. IDK if you wanna talk about it here in case of spoilers for other people, but I'm fine with it.
no subject
Yes. I'm usually pretty good about adapting to changes from book to film, but that's one thing that just rubs me the wrong way. I understand that everyone's character has to be stripped-down in some ways, with some depth getting left behind, in favour of the plot and also because of the limitations of TV, but her scenes... IDK. It's not like her circumstances aren't gross anyway, but turning the 'yes' scene into what they turned it into just made it so much worse. Bleh.