Three Weeks Until Season Three of Game of Thrones

Nerd alert: This post will reveal substantial knowledge on my part of a fictional fantasy world.

So, we're three weeks away from the third season of HBO's fantasy drama, "Game of Thrones" based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire Series" by George R.R. Martin.

Even as we speak Martin is busy killing off your favorite character.

And I am filled with a sense of dread, not because I think the show stinks (I don't.  I think they've done some things incredibly well) but because the material in the third book is so strong that it's almost inconceivable to me that it will translate as well as, say, season one did.  Rather than get into details, I've decided to reflect on what have been the best and worst aspects of the translation from book to show to date IMHO.

Just to get them out of the way first, I'll start with the five biggest misfires.

5.  Where are my draaaaaaaaaagonssssss!

No one is at their most flattering with their mouth wide open.

In all fairness to the producers, Dany's story as written in "A Clash of Kings" doesn't translate to television.  At all.  They HAD to invent something for her to do.  There really wasn't any other choice.  And the decision to have someone attempt to steal her dragons seems on the surface to be a pretty good idea.  However, the execution of this story left something to be desired.

And by "something" I mean anything of interest.  Multiple episodes of anyone shouting at people ineffectually is unappealing, but put in the hands of an actor just a year out of drama school and you get instant internet meme.

The Internet, where snark happens.

4. Pardon me while I twirl my mustache in a villainous way. (The sad state of one Petyr Baelish)

In the books no one plays the game better than Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish.  He acts unpredictably, sometimes even making moves that appear to be against his own best interest to keep his political enemies off guard.  An argument can be made that he is the smartest player in the Game of Thrones in the book.  He comes from nothing and while the end game isn't here yet, to date no one has improved their position more.

And in the television show he is a cartoonish clod who seems to get off on revealing things he really shouldn't to people that he could never trust.

"Hello, prospective employees at my bordello.  Please allow me to reveal to you my life story and motivations whilst you fondle each other.  Something about you just says 'trustworthy.'"

"So, you're the Queen, and you're completely unscrupulous, not to mention accompanied by many armed guards, but I'm going to go ahead and insinuate that I know a secret about you, the knowledge of which has, to date, displayed a 100% mortality rate.  Yeah, I like living on the edge."

"A knife's edge isn't what I had in mind when I behaved in such an absurdly stupid manner.  Seriously, why haven't I been killed off already"

3. Asha becomes Yara

In retrospect this could easily be number five on the list.  It really isn't significant.  I know it.  I KNOW it.  Yet it really bites at my craw.

Okay, you have two characters.  One is a minor character introduced in season/book one named, Osha.

Played by Tonks after months of not bathing.

The other is a major character introduced in season/book Two.  In the books she is named, Asha.  A very similar name, for sure.

So, the producers changed her name in the show to Yara to avoid confusion.  You know what?  That doesn't really seem like a bad idea.  But questions keep on bursting in thought bubbles against my cranium.

? - If it's a problem that Asha sounds too much like Osha, how is it not a problem that Yara sounds too much like Arya?

? - Shouldn't the minor character's name be changed if such a thing needed to be done?  It's not like they didn't have a list of character names from the series prior to season one.

? - Did they even mention Osha's name in season one?

? - Do you think we won't be able to tell them apart?  I know many different people named Mike.  How do I tell them apart?  Well, they aren't TWINS.  And, you know, context.  It's not like they are ever in a scene together.

She looks like she's washed her hair in the past ten years.  She must be Asha.

2.  That would make me really, really sad.  Thankfully I know nothing about it. 

This is not going to be a "bash the Robb storyline in season two" complaint.  Yeah it wasn't great.  Maybe I prefer the Westerling story.  But the hot nurse thing doesn't bother me in and of itself.

What does bother me is that both Robb and Catelyn's decisions in season two are arguably the MOST significant decision that take place in terms of long-term impact and the major impetus for both of those decisions is completely removed.

You see, in book two both Robb and Catelyn are rocked to the core by the revelation that Bran and Rickon (their brothers and sons, respectively) have been murdered.

And their bodies displayed publicly in a gross and degrading manner.

This causes Robb to seek comfort in a woman's arms (which honor forces him to then marry, causing a serious breech with his Frey allies; this could just as easily still work even with hot nurse and not a Western noblewoman) and Catelyn to make a desperate gambit to save her daughters from the same fate.

In plot terms, this change means nothing.  Robb broke his alliance.  Catelyn set Jaime Lannister free.  But if you care at all about character and motivations, this is incredibly galling.

I can't think about this anymore.  It upsets me too much.  So I guess I have to change the subject to something that upsets me more...

1.  Everything that happens north of the Wall in season two.

No story was altered to lesser effect than Jon's story north of the Wall.  From the Lord Commander's needless, "Who am I? WHO AM I?" ramble...

The answer to which, I can only assume, is Hamish's Dad from Braveheart.

...to the mystery of the disappearing horses...

Everyone got their horse?  Good.  Now keep your eye on them.  These damned things will disappear faster than Tyrion in a Dornish bordello if you aren't careful.

I warned you!  I WARNED you!!!

... to the incomprehensible series of events that separated Jon from Qhorin and the other rangers...

Although I'm the smartest ranger we have (as demonstrated by the fact that I'm the only one of us smart enough to wear a hat in this miserably cold landscape) and an expert tracker, there's no way I'm going to be able to find you if you wander off in the snow, so don't do it.  Of course, I'll understand if you don't want to hang with me since all the wisdom I impart to you in the books has been replaced by contradictory gibberish that was apparently written for me by some idiot who thinks "Opposite Day" is the height of intellectualism.  God, I hate how they castrated my character."

...to the hackneyed "will they or won't they" story line they replaced the source material with...

"What?" Ygritte asked incredulously but erotically.  "They don't let you have sexual innuendo at the wall?  Then you've come to the right person."

...to almost everything else....

Yeah, I see you.  And, yeah, you see me.  And, sure, me and my zombie army buddies have come to kill every last one of you fellas.  But I'm not going to kill you.  Why?  Well, I've always had a secret soft spot for fatties.

... what was one of favorite story lines in the book was done almost no justice at all.  Almost.

Justice.

Great, now that's out of the way.  So, let's take a positive turn and look at five moments from the show that succeeded in a big, BIG way.

5.  Tyrion is awesome.

All right, so Tyrion was awesome in the books, too.  I grant you. 

Although book Tyrion is about 5000 times less good looking than television Tyrion.

But Peter Dinklage's Emmy winning performance has made him come alive.  In the translation from page to screen, some characters come out lacking (*cough* Qhorin Halfhand *cough*) and others come out with their awesome intact.  Tyrion happily is in the latter camp, which couldn't please me more.

One of many good scenes with Tyrion is his sounding out of the Lords of the Small Council (Baelish, Varys and Pycelle) which is edited to great effect in the show.

(*Honorable mention for this honor goes to Iain Glen's portrayal of Jorah Mormont.  Book Mormont is bruque, capable and not very good looking.  Glen's Mormont is suave, capable and incredibly good looking.   He really classes up every scene he's in.)

4.  "When dead men and worse come hunting for us in the night, do you think it matters who sits on the Iron Throne?"

I'm an unabashed fan of the Night's Watch part of the story.  And I was thrilled at the delivery of Mormont's speech at the end of season one.  Great musical accompaniment, great reading, great montage.  The image of the Night's Watch going through the gate was iconic.  Yeah, I liked it.

As much as I disliked Cosmo's "WHO AM I?" in season two, that's how much I liked his "So I'll only ask you once, Lord Snow.  Are you a brother of the Night's Watch or a bastard boy who wants to play at war?"

3.  Smoke on Blackwater

The biggest set piece to date and greatest deviation in format for the series paid off in a big way in season two's Blackwater.  A big television battle with tons of violence, drama and explosions.

Pretty green explosions.

This was the tightest episode of the series to date as it focused on just one location.  It was really, really good television.  Great performances, and although there are a few small quibbles (Stannis charging the wall by himself?  Who's the genius who came up with that one?) it was a genuine highlight and the one full episode in season two that reached (or even surpassed) the summits of Season One.

And it also contributed a terrific exit song in "The Rains of Castamere" (as performed by The Nationals).

2.  Ned's Big Moment

Okay, the moment that everyone who read the books was looking forward to (in an unhappy way) was Ned's big moment at Baelor.  This scene in the book was a little understated, being as it was told from Arya's perspective in the crowd and by the nature of what happened to her there, the emotional impact was (sort of) blunted.

I can totally see my house from here.

Not in the show.  In the show the moment got all the dramatic emotional impact one could ever hope for.  Dramatic pause.  Birds flying into the sky.  It was amazing.  It made for one heck of a contribution to the "Hitler finds out" meme.

  

It was an important moment and one that needed to be handled correctly for the series to work.  It was a tremendous success.

1.  Theon's arc in season two

The highlight of Season Two for me was largely a complete creation of the show.  Theon's arc.  It was tragic and compelling in a way that it wasn't in the book.  Two scenes in particular were created/altered that I thought were pure gold.

First there was the scene of Theon burning the warning letter to Robb.  A more terrific image of how conflicted Theon was about going all Judas I cannot imagine.

Will I regret this?  Probably.

Second there was the scene where Theon asserts his authority in Winterfell.  A much more noble death for Rodrick Cassel than he endured in the books and the number of hacks it took for Theon to carry out the death sentence was a brilliant counterpoint to the same task performed by Ned Stark in the series premiere.

Now, he is truly lost.

Just a bang up job and a real highlight to what was an up-and-down second season.