Warning: Spoilers follow regarding HBO's Game of Thrones Seasons 1 and 2, as well as how certain events differ from George R. R. Martin's first two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
When it comes to adapting a beloved book, or book series, to the screen, there's simply no pleasing everyone. Once called "unfilmable" by author George R. R. Martin himself, the book series that HBO's Game of Thrones is based on was written with a specific disregard for adaptation/production budget; allowing for certain luxury of content and scope. Of course, HBO, and EP's David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have found a way to successfully adapt (with Martin's blessing and producer credit) the dense, layered material depicting the addictively brutal power struggles found in the fantasy realms of Westeros and Essos.
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With one end of the fan spectrum containing viewers who've never read the books and are just enjoying the HBO series as it comes, and the other containing die-hard book purists who don't agree with any single change made to the source material, the middle ground is filled with those who love the book series and the TV show, understanding the meaning of the word "adaptation" and recognizing the very specific differences between the two storytelling mediums.
Changes have been made for budgetary reasons, naturally (see the first paragraph), but they've also come about based on the nature of certain actors' performances, the plotting and pacing of TV episodes and seasons, and the challenging management of the vast amount of characters contained in Martin's pages. Book one of the series, Game of Thrones, was the most adaptable, and "TV ready," of the novels. It had the least amount of characters and locations and even contained what seemed to be a main, central character - Ned Stark. After that book though, things got ferociously complicated and every subsequent season is now going to be a juggling act.
Do all the changes make us happy? No, but we can understand them. So here are some of the best changes, big and small, that the producers and writers have made in adapting A Song of Ice and Fire to TV:
Considering some of the mature material that the child characters in Game of Thrones have to endure, it probably wouldn't have worked if, say, Robb was 14 at the start of the series. Or if Bran was seven. And can you imagine watching Daenerys experience her Dothraki adventure if she were 13? Yes, in the cruel "middle ages"-style world of the books, you were pretty much a man at five and a woman at minus three, but that wouldn't fly on TV. So everyone got aged up, and the kids were cast older. Which helps out considering that, like all franchise productions containing kids, the actors are going to age quickly. And there'll be that one year when they look like a completely different person.
And from the look of things, it seems like it's Bran's year to morph.
Bran aims for Hodor's hodor.
Catelyn Stark isn't the easiest person to like, in the books or the show. No, she's not terrible, she's just not a fan-favorite. And her stubborn resentment of Jon Snow doesn't help matters. But one of the things Benioff and Weiss did to make her a teensy more relatable and pleasent was that they had her, at the outset of the series, ask Ned to stay in Winterfell and to not go off to King's Landing to be Robert's "Hand of the King."
Nagging is Coming.
Of course, this also crosses over into the dreaded "pesky wife" territory that seems to turn so many TV viewers off, but considering what happens to Ned, it would have been worse for Catelyn if they'd had her push Ned to leave and find Jon Arryn's killer like she did in the books.
While there are plenty of moments within the books to let us know what a monster King Joffrey is, the show added even more. The books' format is that of specific Point of View characters, whose minds you get to enter and understand, and the side players who only show up when they encounter a POV person. Joffrey, never a POV character, remained in the background for much of the second book, A Clash of Kings, but since the show simply can't have actors vanish for long stretches or entire seasons (as much as people call Game of Thrones a fantasy version of The Wire), we needed more Joffrey. Which meant MORE OF JOFFREY BEING AWFUL!
"Who's your...I mean, my daddy?"
Tyrion, in a moment of unexpected kindness toward his horrible nephew, gave him two whores for his birthday. But the kid couldn't even un-psycho himself enough to get laid properly, choosing to viscously torture his "gifts." Man, even death by fire ants is too good for this guy. He needs to get nuked on a molecular level.
Keeping with the theme of "added Joffrey," there's simply more of everyone, period. Most of the characters you're watching, from scene to scene, on the HBO series aren't POV characters. They're characters who have been amplified and given more screen time for the sake of TV, and having a TV cast. Some complain that, often, these scenes come at the expense of those characters who, in the books, are the main characters, but imagine a show with only a few scenes featuring Littlefinger or Varys. Imagine Robb Stark and Jaime Lannister getting dropped from the second season entirely. Everyone's given more to do because a TV series needs to have a stable, oft-appearing cast. So last year we got to see Robb Stark get married and Jaime's attempted escape from the Northerners; two things that, in the books, are only spoken or thought about by other characters. Or revealed in a way that a TV show couldn't do.
2 out of 5 stars. Would not stay here again.
The best example of how this all works to benefit the experience of the show came back in Season 1 during a remarkable conversation between Robert and Cersei; a scene written completely for the show as the two of them weren't POV characters in the first book.
Since we don't have the benefit of reading other people's thoughts about certain characters or their histories, things need to be spoken aloud. And these scenes work to give some of the characters (especially the villains) a humanity that isn't present in the book saga.
Staring contest - Go!
The chumminess between Tyrion and Bronn exists in the books, but it's not as prevalent. Or, at least, Bronn's not as remarkable a character. The on-screen chemistry between Peter Dinklage and Jerome Flynn was evident right out of the gate, and back in Season 1 they were already having additional scenes together, including a fantastic "I Never" drinking game in Tyrion's tent.
Game of Thrones: Jerome Flynn ("Bronn") Interview
At this point, it's hard to imagine The Imp without The Sellsword and I'm thankful that Bronn's role was inflated to that of Tyrion's bromantical bickering buddy.
Seconds after Bronn secretly pissed in Tyrion's cup.
More great changes, including the return of Daenery's "sun and stars," on page 2...
Source : ign[dot]com
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