In this week's installment of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen finds refuge in the far-flung city of Qarth, Tyrion Lannister hires a pair of prostitutes, and Davos Seaworth watches in horror during an unusual birth.
The hit HBO show, based on the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, tends to be at its best when it sticks close to its very strong source material (which I'm extremely familiar with).
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)
For example, the scene in which Tyrion castigates Prince Joffrey for abusing Sansa Stark was very effective in this week's episode, titled "Garden of Bones." I also really enjoyed the scene in which Melisandre of Asshai gives birth to a shadow baby, which was suitably dark and unsettling, and the shot in which the gates of Qarth are thrown open, which evoked a genuine sense of wonder.
But, as always, the show gets a little wobbly when it strays too far from its source material, and "Garden of Bones" diverged more from the books than other recent episodes.
Here are a few of the most significant deviations in this week's episode:
1) Why does Robb have a foot fetish?
In A Clash of Kings (the second book in Martin's series), once Catelyn Stark journeys to the camp of Renly Baratheon, she's no longer around to witness the military campaign of her son Robb, The King in the North. Much of what we learn about Robb's exploits comes to us secondhand, so it's inevitable that the show will have to invent a lot of dialog in order to dramatize Robb's adventures.
But still, who the heck is Talisa?
"Garden of Bones" opens with a battle in which Lannister forces are slaughtered, and in the aftermath Robb spots a pretty young medic sawing off a man's foot. He's instantly smitten. Unfortunately, this young lady turns out to be a bit of a hippie, and lectures Robb on his warmongering ways. I wasn't thrilled with this scene for several reasons. One, Talisa isn't mentioned in the books, or even hinted at. Two, she sort of struck me as another Shae – a character whose combative attitude I'm expected to find appealing and spunky, but who actually proves kind of annoying.
More importantly, commoners just should not be talking this way to a king. One of Martin's chief criticisms of epic fantasy is that so much of it is set in a Disney-fied version of feudal society, where there are knights and kings and peasants, but all the characters pretty much think and act like modern-day Americans.
>In actual feudal societies, it was the unquestioned prerogative of nobles to rape and murder commoners.
In actual feudal societies, it was the unquestioned prerogative of nobles to rape and murder commoners. That's something people tend not to think of when we picture "knights in shining armor," but it's something that A Song of Ice and Fire never lets you forget. The books are full of encounters between nobles and commoners in which the commoners are justly terrified of what might happen if they step out of line, and so they're silent and submissive in the extreme. Martin specifically lists peasants being sassy to princes as the sort of thing that irks him about most fantasies. Of course, there will be some exceptions, but this scene with Talisa just struck me as way too curt and casual given the power imbalance involved.
I'm also not really sure what point the scene served. Maybe this is just a bit of foreshadowing that the Young Wolf is on the prowl for some female companionship, but I have a sinking feeling that we'll be seeing Talisa again, which makes me worry that she'll turn into another Ros the prostitute. Which brings us to ...
2) Didn't we hate Joffrey enough already?
As a reader of A Song of Ice and Fire, I hate Joffrey Baratheon. I mean I really, really hate him. I probably hate him more than any other fictional character I can think of. You really can't get much more loathsome than a whiny, spoiled, psychopathic prince.
"Garden of Bones" features two scenes with Joffrey. The first is straight out of A Clash of Kings – Joffrey threatens his unwilling fiancee Sansa Stark with a crossbow, then orders his bodyguard Meryn Trant to beat her and tear at her clothes. The vile proceedings are interrupted by Tyrion Lannister, who chastises Joffrey, threatens Ser Meryn, and escorts Sansa to safety. It's a tense, effective scene, and if our hatred-of-Joffrey levels weren't already maxed out (unlikely), they certainly are now.
Unfortunately this scene is followed by another pornified TV interpolation featuring – who else? – Ros. In this scene, Tyrion hires Ros and a friend to double-team Joffrey, in the hopes that getting Joffrey laid will make him chill out a bit. But things don't go according to plan, as Joffrey holds a crossbow on Ros and orders her to lash her companion with some sort of stag-headed scepter.
Joffrey is a bit older on the show than he is in the books, so it's not unreasonable to show his psychopathic tendencies taking a slightly more adult turn. But especially coming where it does, this scene feels completely redundant. In the preceding scene we watched Joffrey order that a helpless girl be beaten, so watching that sort of thing again, only with less clothing and less dramatic import, feels superfluous.
3) Why is Littlefinger acting like such a putz?
In A Clash of Kings, Petyr Baelish, called Littlefinger, never journeys to Renly's camp, and based on his presence there in this episode, that was definitely for the best. Littlefinger is presented in the novels as a master manipulator, a man of modest means who maneuvered his way into a high position at court through ruthless cunning. In the show, however, he often appears pretty hapless, and seems to divide his time between aimless conversations with naked women and putting his foot in his mouth while talking to powerful political figures.
In "Garden of Bones," he seems to be continuing his systematic effort to alienate every powerful woman in Westeros. First he ticks off Margaery Tyrell by tactlessly engaging her on the subject of her husband's sexuality; then he enrages Catelyn Stark so much that she actually draws a knife on him. Granted, that conversation was probably not destined to go smoothly, given that whole thing about her husband being betrayed and murdered, but a master of human psychology like Littlefinger probably could have handled the situation better than by professing his love while trying to grab her. ("I've always loved you. I'm sorry, is this a bad time? It's just, you know, I heard you were single again, so ...")
Imagine how much more creepy and effective it would have been if we'd watched Littlefinger really manipulate Catelyn and get under her skin, and make her second-guess his role in Ned's death. That sort of scheming seems totally beyond the reach of the TV character, though. In fact, between his pissing off Margaery, pissing off Catelyn, and pissing off Cersei Lannister a few episodes back, I'm half expecting him to show up in Qarth next episode to tell Daenerys Targaryen a bunch of jokes about dumb blondes.
4) Why won't Dany show off her dragons?
In A Clash of Kings, when Daenerys Targaryen's scout reaches Qarth, the city sends messengers to greet the legendary Mother of Dragons, and Dany is welcomed into the city. But in the show, there's an odd standoff outside the gates, in which the ruling delegation of Qarth refuses to admit Dany's khalasar (tribe) until they see her dragons – and she refuses show off the creatures.
>Is "show us your dragons" some crude innuendo or something?
This made no sense to me. Why is she so bent out of shape about it? Is "show us your dragons" some crude innuendo or something? I don't get it.
If I had some dragons, you can bet I'd be showing them off to everyone. Especially if the alternative was dying of thirst.
Maybe there were budgetary factors. Dany's khalasar here suffers from a conspicuous lack of extras, and looks less like the remnants of a nomadic tribe and more like a medium-size pop star entourage. When the Qartheen demand to see Dany's dragons, I half expected her to say, "Geez, look at my khalasar, will you? You think we have the CGI budget for dragons?"
5) Why is Lancel so weird-looking?
In A Song of Ice and Fire, Lancel Lannister is described as looking like a younger version of Jaime – tall, blond and handsome. He possesses the customary Lannister arrogance, and has been squire to Robert Baratheon; there's nothing to suggest he's less than competent with a sword. There's also nothing to suggest that he looks like a mime who borrows outfits from Jacqueline Onassis, which is how he comes across on the show.
Lancel's odd appearance was distracting enough in Season 1, when he was mostly in the background, but it was a million times worse in "Garden of Bones," in which he has a drawn-out confrontation with Tyrion. When Lancel confesses that he's been sleeping with his cousin Cersei, it's absolutely shocking – not because she's his cousin, just because he's so weird-looking. In fact, even though I've read the books and know full well about this relationship, while watching this scene play out on TV I found it impossible to believe that Cersei could have possibly gone to bed with this guy, and therefore I was convinced that Tyrion must be getting conned somehow. Come on, there's just no reason why a character's appearance should be this much of a distraction.
Lancel is the most obvious example of a character from the books who's been made less imposing on the show, but there are definitely others. Littlefinger, as I mentioned above, is much less formidable on TV, as is Renly. Most of all, Sandor Clegane, aka the Hound, has gone from a seething cauldron of rage to acting like a bored mall cop. Lancel's obviously a lost cause, but I'm still holding out hope that Game of Thrones can make a course correction on Littlefinger and the Hound and make them significantly more badass than they've been so far. And speaking of Renly ...
6) No peach?!?
"The Garden of Bones" features a confrontation between Renly and Stannis Baratheon, brothers of the dead king Robert. Since Robert left no true heirs, the crown by rights should pass to Stannis, a grouchy old killjoy with few allies. His popular younger brother Renly seeks to claim the throne for himself, backed by his powerful allies in House Tyrell.
In A Clash of Kings, when Stannis and Renly meet to discuss their differences, Renly refuses to deal seriously with Stannis, instead launching into a mocking disquisition on the virtues of a peach that he happens to be eating. This greatly unsettles Stannis, a stern, literal-minded man with no great grasp of wit and irony. This is probably Renly's defining moment as a character. (For example, this fan portrait depicts him holding a peach.)
In the TV adaptation, there's no peach. It's probably the sort of thing that's hard to translate to film, as you would have to get the tone just right or it could easily come across as absurd or nonsensical. And it would make a lot more sense coming from book-Renly – a tall, confident man who jokes constantly – than it would from TV-Renly, a small, insecure man who rarely jokes.
Deciding to film A Clash of Kings without Renly's peach is understandable, but lamentable. I mean, what's next? Go ahead and film Hamlet without Yorick's skull, why don't you?
What's Your Take on Season 2 of Game of Thrones?
Give us your spin on Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones, and/or your take on the HBO series so far, in the comments below.
