The third season of Game of Thrones is finally here, and we’re back to chronicle the TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s world of Westeros -- and how it differs from the books -- in a series of letters between Wired writers (and Game of Thrones fanatics) Erik Henriksen and Laura Hudson. Spoilers for this episode follow, obviously.
A brief review of "Dark Wings, Dark Words" and how it differed from the novels:
Bran: On the road north to the Wall, Bran meets Jojen Reed – a young boy who also shares his prophetic dreams – and Jojen's combat-savvy sister Meera. In the books: Bran met the Reeds much earlier; they arrived at Winterfell after the death of Ned Stark and pledged the loyalty of their family to Robb. Before Theon's invasion, Jojen even warned Bran of the attack by way of a dream: that the ocean (metaphorically, the soldiers from the Iron Islands) came to Winterfell and drowned the castle. Also, rather than traveling together to the Wall, the party split after Ramsay Snow sacked Winterfell, with the wildling woman taking young Rickon south and Jojen and Meera heading north beside Bran.
Robb: Talisa and Robb smooch a bit before Lord Bolton comes in and asks Robb what he wants first: the bad news, or the really bad news? They learn that not only is Catelyn's father dead, but that Winterfell paid the Iron Price before Bolton's bastard son could and get there, and Bran and Rickon are nowhere to be found. In the books: The scene where Talisa talks about marrying a grim foreigner never happened, since Robb's wife wasn't originally from Volantis -- she was Jeyne Westerling, the daughter of a Lannister bannerman, whose castle Robb stormed (literally and figuratively). Jeyne comforted him after the “news” that Bran and Rickon had been killed, though on the show their deaths are far less “certain” and Robb and Catelyn still hope that they escaped. Finally, that whole story about baby Jon Snow having the pox and Catelyn swearing to love him if he survived -- and then blaming herself for every problem in the world that happened after she couldn't -- is 100% TV.
Theon: After his abject failure at absolutely everything last season, Theon (and Winterfell) have been taken by the men of Ramsay Snow, the bastard son of Lord Bolton (a.k.a. the grim-faced bannerman who brings the two messages to Robb) for some good old-fashioned torturing. In the books: Unlike the Season 2 source novel, Clash of Kings, Theon isn't actually a point-of-view character in Season 3 source novel Storm of Swords. So all of this? Totally new. And totally interesting for anyone who wondered what actually happened after Theon was taken by Ramsay.
Arya: The young Arry, who is still dressing as a boy, gets taken captive by the Brotherhood without Banners and taken back to an inn to explain how she, Gendry and Hot Pie escaped Harrenhal; they're just about to let her go free when the Hound -- also a prisoner -- gets dragged in and reveals her identity. In the books: Arya isn't recognized by the Hound but rather Harwin, a former guard of House Stark whom she encounters among the Brothers. And he doesn't out her -- rather, she begs him to remember her true name.
Joffrey: Cersei, who is already deeply jealous of Margaery's influence over Joffrey, tries to poison her terrible son against his fiancee by bad-mouthing her for associating with Renly (and street urchins, because screw poor people). Joffrey shuts his mom down like whoa, but ultimately confronts Margaery in a way that gets terribly frightening for a instant. That is, until Margaery wraps him back around her finger with a combination of sexual innuendo and the one thing Joffrey loves most in the world: sadism. In the books: Yes, Cersei hates Margaery, and yes, Margaery charms Joffrey, but here's the thing about these totally plausible (and awesome) scenes: They would have been impossible to depict in the book, because again, none of the people involved are point-of-view characters in Storm of Swords. Even though I've read the books many, many times, but this episode was the best example yet of the show's adaptation model, which increasingly feels both faithful to the books and totally new. *applause*
Jon: After fake-betraying the Night's Watch (but real-killing ranger Qhorin Halfhand to make it believable) Jon gets taken to the Wildling leader Mance Rayder, also formerly of the Night's Watch. Mance demands to know why Jon Snow betrayed his men, so Jon tells a story about how he saw Craster (aka Wildling Incest Grandpa) sacrificing his infant sons to the White Walkers; but Lord Mormont didn't even care, and he (Jon Snow!) wants to fight on the side of the living, exclamation point. Poor Jon Snow is still a Stark at heart: even his lies are stupidly noble. In the books: Rather than thinking of the children, Novel Jon cited his second-class status as a bastard (and getting stuck in the nosebleed seats during the big Stark/Baratheon feast at Winterfell in the first novel) as his reason for turning cloak. Also, there was no Wildling warg looking ahead to the battle at the Fist of the First Men -- they simply came upon the aftermath.
Sansa: After Sansa's meeting with Littlefinger (and the warning from Ros), Shae tells Sansa to be on guard against the older man's attentions and tries (vainly) to get Tyrion to protect her as well. Ser Loras escorts Sansa to meet with his sister, Margaery, and the truly awesome Tyrell grandmother, Lady Olenna Redwyne (aka 1960s Avengers star Diana Rigg) for a conversation about what Joffrey is really like. (Answer: the woooorst.) In the books: Pretty much the same -- down to word-for-word dialogue from the ass-kicking Lady Olenna -- though Shae's ominous mother-lion protectiveness is TV-exclusive.
Jaime: The Kingslayer sets out for Riverrun in the custody of Brienne, who is sworn to deliver him to King's Landing in return for Sansa and Arya. When they encounter a traveler whom Jaime thinks has recognized him, Brienne refuses to harm an innocent. Jaime is hugely unhappy about all of this -- even though she's taking him home! -- so he steals a sword from Brienne, tries to fight her ... and loses. And who finds them then, but Lord Bolton's men... lead by that traveler they didn't murder. In the books: Jaime and Brienne originally set out from Riverun with another Lannister captive, Jaime's cousin Cleos, although he dies rather quickly; the swordfight between Jaime and Brienne occurs when Jaime tries to take a weapon from his corpse. There is no tattletale traveler, so presumably they get caught just for being stupid and loud.
-Laura
Dear Rainman,
First, can we talk about how creepily deep your GoT knowledge is? Because I know you just did all that off the top of your head and JESUS.
Second, one of my favorite things about Go**T is how people's feelings about certain characters change over time; who would've thought when Jaime was introduced back in the pilot that he'd one day be the show's sassy comic relief? (I feel like it should be a bad thing that the Brienne/Jaime scenes in this episode felt like an episode of Perfect Strangers... with Swords, but it was so entertaining that I can't be upset.)
Third, I'm glad to see Jojen and Meera pop up; for the past two seasons, Bran's more mystical elements have been hinted at, but thanks to the Reeds, it looks like they're finally going to get delved into in earnest. It's like the showrunners realized that now that they've gotten away with dragons, they can start putting all their other fantasy stuff into the show.Like Martin's books, the show has gradually introduced its more fantastical elements, putting them in so slowly and carefully that they won't scare off people who think they don't like fantasy. Still, I wonder if it'll put off genre snobs when people realize how much sword and sorcery stuff actually happens in GoT. I had a Twitter interaction with an otherwise very smart lady last week who declared, "Now that I know dragons are in it, I'll never watch Game of Thrones," which just seemed so sad and closed-minded to me. But then again, I won't watch The New Girl because of Zooey Deschanel. So I guess I'm a hypocrite.Fourth, am I wrong in thinking that the Boltons and their gross obsession with flaying everything that moves haven't been all that well established in the show? I wonder if viewers who aren't familiar with the books will realize what's happening to Theon, not to mention who's doing it. Speaking of Boltons, here's a little-known fun fact: Adult contemporary star Michael Bolton also enjoys flaying people.
Finally, what did you think about Arya? Can we talk about how great Arya is?
—Erik
Dear Erik,
Arya is undeniably one of the coolest characters on the show, and while watching her get kidnapped and shuttled around to random places for the million billionth time isn't that interesting to me, she's still as fierce and fearless as ever. That said, thank you Gendry, for vocalizing the one and only problem I've ever had with Arya: how staggeringly dumb her choices were when her personal murder-genie Jaqen H'ghar agreed to kill literally any three people in the world for her last season. She could have named Joffrey, Tywin, and Cersei. "You could have ended the war," says Gendry. Right? But instead she threw it away on three randos. YOU HAD ONE JOB, ARYA. ONE!
Also, the gender dynamics surrounding Cersei and Margaery are super fascinating, and quickly becoming my favorite part of the show. Take the scene between Margaery and Joffrey, and how deftly it demonstrates Margaery's ability to both discern and manipulate the desires of the people around her. Remember how charming she was last season, when she proposed a threesome between herself, her brother, and her closeted husband King Renly in hopes of finally getting him to knock her up? This lady wants to be Queen, and she will absolutely go there to make it happen.
Joffrey isn't into dudes, but thanks to Sansa's tearful disclosures about his terrible humanbeingship, Margaery knows exactly what fetish he'd be googling if he lived in the 21st century: S&M, minus the M. She starts stroking his crossbow (literally), saying "it must be so exciting to squeeze your finger here and watch something die over there" and asking if she could go along on a hunt. When Joffrey asks whether she could kill something, she wisely blank slates it: "I don't know your Grace. Do you think I could?" He does. And he would very much like to watch her do it. [cue bass music]
Consider the contrast: Joffrey shuts Cersei down earlier in the episode when she comes at him too directly, and takes away her power with the comment that "intelligent women do what they're told." Margaery is smart -- very smart -- which is why she counterintuitively gains power through carefully orchestrated submission: telling Joffrey he has the right to do anything he wants; how wives are there just to make babies for husbands; and how her pretty lady brain doesn't understand all the complex complexities of politics (perhaps the biggest lie I've ever heard on show). The Game is an unbelievably sexist one, but holy hell does Margaery know how to play it.
-Laura
Laura, this episode really was about the ladies -- and Diana Rigg stole the whole shebang as the badass Lady Olenna, who showed us exactly where Margaery gets her razor-sharp wits. I'm always bummed out that Diana Rigg doesn't get proper respect for her role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (then again, OHMSS rarely gets any of the respect it deserves), but I doubt that'll be the case on Game of Thrones.
I know I was hard on the show last week for not having as many expensive battles and giants and dragons as I want it to, but to be fair: so many of the series' strongest scenes are also the cheapest, with nothing more than great characters just sitting around and talking. The scene with Olenna, Margaery, and Sansa all hatin' on Joffrey is one of those. I can't wait to see Rigg kill it in more of them.
And yes, Arya could have picked anyone to die! It's like if I had a personal murder genie and instead of having them kill, I don't know, a Hitler or a Kardashian, I just used them to get rid of that one kid who gave me a wedgie back in second grade. I mean, granted, that guy has it coming, and one day vengeance will be mine, but still. Props to Gendry for pointing that out—I wish he was doing more of this kind of thing. If nothing else, dude's street smart, and—as Bronn has proved—being street smart can get you pretty far in Westeros, especially while everyone else is thinking way too hard about what to do next.
-Erik
