This week's installment of Game of Thrones, the hit HBO show based on the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, was the strongest yet this season. In this episode, Tyrion Lannister continues to show that he's a savvier Hand of the King than Ned Stark could ever be, Theon Greyjoy is forced to choose between the father who gave him away and the young lord who was like a brother to him, and Catelyn meets Brienne of Tarth, a homely, towering woman who fights as well as any man.
As I predicted, Jon's encounter with Craster's cudgel proved a bit of phony suspense that would have been better dispensed with, but otherwise "What Is Dead May Never Die" remained relatively faithful to its source material (the second book in Martin's series, A Clash of Kings, which I've read five times).
I had to get even more trivial than usual this week to find deviations from the book to gripe about, but have no fear – there are plenty of decisions here for die-hard fans of the books to second-guess. Starting with ...
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)
1) Why is Renly's tourney so drab?
In A Clash of Kings, Renly Baratheon has many powerful allies in his bid for the throne, and not because his claim is all that great – it isn't – but because he throws the best parties. If you love booze and bling, you definitely want to roll with the Renly posse. His marriage of convenience to Margaery Tyrell, daughter of the wealthy lord of Highgarden, means that Renly and his crew can eat, drink and be merry, biding their time while their enemies tear each other to pieces.
Joining Team Renly means pretty girls, designer threads, fast horses and lots of laughs. And instead of drab white cloaks like you'd get serving on the Kingsguard, each member of Renly's Rainbow Guard gets a different, brightly colored cloak.
The show seems to have done away with the Rainbow Guard, which is probably for the best. A Rainbow Guard makes a certain amount of sense within the context of Westerosi society, whose dominant religion uses the rainbow to symbolize the seven aspects of God, but a Rainbow Guard strikes many readers as a distracting, fourth-wall-breaking gag about Renly's sexuality. Still, it would be nice if more of the fun-loving pomp and pageantry of Renly's cohort came through in the show.
In both the book and the show, Catelyn Stark observes that Renly's knights are the "knights of summer" – foolish, rambunctious boys with dreams of glory, who will soon learn to their sorrow that war is not a game. But in the show, this observation seems a bit out of place, as Renly and his followers don't seem particularly young, carefree or extravagant. Partly this is due to the aging up of the characters, and partly it's due to the budget – once again, a grand spectacle involving dozens of mounted knights has been replaced by two people slugging it out on foot – but mostly it's due to the fact that no one in Renly's camp really seems to be enjoying themselves. Renly himself seems more wimpy than charismatic, a problem that's plagued the show ever since the character was introduced in Season 1. And speaking of Renly ...
2) What's going on in Renly's tent?
In the show they've made Renly and Loras Tyrell lovers, whereas there's absolutely no evidence of that in the books.
No, just kidding. There are plenty of indications in the novels that Renly and Loras are lovers, though it's subtle enough that many readers miss it (and many of the biggest hints don't come until later in the series). What does feel like a departure, though, is the way the show portrays Margaery Tyrell. In the books, our point-of-view character at Renly's camp is Catelyn, who doesn't witness anything involving Renly's sex life, so maybe Margaery was totally into having a threesome with Renly and her brother, but it seems like a bit of a stretch.
Margaery's ruthless pragmatism here is consistent with the general ethos of the ambitious Tyrell family, though, so the scene is somewhat justifiable on those grounds. Still, there have already been so many Game of Thrones sex scenes that seem to come out of left field that I think the TV producers would be better served by not multiplying the sex beyond what the (already fairly lusty) novels imply.
Speaking of, a few comments on last week's post complained that the sex scene between Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre was a departure from the books. It's easy to miss, but it's very clear if you read the books carefully that Stannis is having sex with Melisandre, though to elaborate here would be a bit too spoiler-ish. There's nothing in the books to suggest that they're having sex on the Painted Table, though, which does seem a bit out of character for the reserved, passionless Stannis.
3) Why doesn't Grand Maester Pycelle piss himself?
My favorite part of this episode was how the show preserves the idea that Tyrion tests the loyalty of his three closest advisers (Grand Maester Pycelle, bald spymaster Varys and Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish) by describing different versions of his plans to each of them, then waiting to see which version of the plot makes it back to his sister Cersei Lannister. I was afraid these events would be deemed too confusing or elaborate to film, but the show does a nice job of condensing everything by cutting between the three conversations.
There's a key detail missing, though. In A Clash of Kings, when Tyrion's men drag Pycelle (played by Julian Glover) naked from his bed, the old man is so terrified that he pisses all over the place. It's these sorts of gritty details that make A Song of Ice and Fire so intense and real. The scene is also kind of hilarious, and between this and Ser Dontos, so far Season 2 is 0 for 2 when it comes to exploiting the comic potential of dangling phalluses. Also, Pycelle's odd calisthenics scene in Season 1 proves that the man is surprisingly fit and spry for his age, so there are probably some viewers who wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of that bod. Seriously, HBO, how about a little something for the ladies?
4) Why does Theon undergo the wimpy initiation?
In "What Is Dead May Never Die," Theon Greyjoy learns that his treacherous father, Balon Greyjoy, intends to betray the Starks and attack the undefended North while Robb is off fighting in the South. Theon's decision to betray Robb is shown toward the end of the episode, when Theon, with his father and sister looking on, undergoes a ritual initiation, pledging himself to the cruel Drowned God of the ironborn.
There were a few moments in this episode that felt uncharacteristically soft and wimpy for the merciless ironborn, such as Theon's vulnerable, heartfelt plea for his father's love, which inspires a moment of sorrow and regret in the hangdog eyes of Balon Greyjoy. Huh?
And speaking of wimpy, Theon actually undergoes the wimpy version of the Drowned God initiation. What's up with that?
We know from the books that wimpy "cafeteria" ironborn will get a little water dribbled on their face and call it a day, but that truly devoted followers of the Drowned God undergo a ritual where they are literally drowned in the sea and then brought back to life by magic and/or CPR. This scene with Theon isn't in the book, so we can't say for sure which version Balon Greyjoy would have required of his son, but given that Balon seems like a bit of a hard-ass, it's a little difficult to believe he'd settle for anything less than the full monty. Even leaving that aside, the drama of a ceremony that involves actual drowning would be riveting on screen. Watching Theon drown and then be revived would also work well thematically with the idea that Stark-loving Theon is dead and now he's ironborn through and through.
What would have been even better is if they had actually drowned and resuscitated the actor on camera. Now that's Emmy material. And if the CPR didn't work, they could always just use a defibrillator to bring him back. I mean, defibrillators almost always work, and they also cure various unrelated ailments. At least, that's the impression I get from Casino Royale.
5) Why does Yoren lead his recruits out into the open?
Like many fans of fantasy fiction, as a teenager I developed something of an obsession with all things medieval, and my bookshelf boasts two dozen books on castles and siege engines. So it's based on many, many hours of study into tactics and strategy that I'm able to offer the following insight into medieval warfare: If you're inside a castle and someone outside the castle is trying to kill you, stay inside the castle.
>If you're inside a castle and someone outside the castle is trying to kill you, stay inside the castle.
Now, stay with me here. I know it sounds complicated and counterintuitive, but trust me, the reasoning is sound. You see, if you're inside a castle, then there's a structure called a "wall" between you and the people trying to kill you, whereas if you're outside the castle, then there's not. If you're still confused, I have a few books I could recommend that explain these principles in greater detail.
As a student of medieval history, George R.R. Martin is also familiar with the "wall" concept, so when he wrote the scene in A Clash of Kings in which Lannister bannermen catch up with Yoren and his recruits for the Night's Watch, who've taken shelter inside an abandoned fort, he has Yoren and the recruits stay inside the walls for as long as possible. In the show, Yoren leads his recruits out of the fort and into an open field, where they're promptly slaughtered.
(This follows immediately after another display of incredibly bad judgment from Yoren – talking with Arya about her father, Ned Stark, when her identity is supposed to be kept secret from the dozens of boys in the room with them. You know, maybe Arya's not the only one who's having trouble sleeping. I guess maybe Yoren was hitting that bottle harder than we realized.)
I can only imagine that the Game of Thrones producers didn't have the time or budget for a protracted confrontation and siege, but having a grizzled veteran like Yoren act so foolishly was not the way to go. If the show wasn't going to have Yoren and his recruits make use of the fort, then the scene should have just been rewritten to have them fighting from a less defensible position.
6) What is Ros even doing in this show?
Seriously, she's so annoying. She's not in the books. I watch this show because I want to see my favorite scenes from the books brought to life, not for soft-core porn. The pointless nudity was even just mocked on Saturday Night Live. Enough already. No more Ros. I ...
Oh wait, I guess there was no Ros in this episode. Nice!
