Lots of other things are horrid too. Have a general snarking on Westeros thread.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Not so much in the post,
but I fully expect them in the comments.
The Starks are scattered all over the Seven Kingdoms and the future’s looking grim. Since it’s GOT, things are only going to get grimmer, especially for the women, because (a) despite trumpeting his saga’s historically realistic depiction of how life was in an analogue of our European Middle Ages, G.R.R. Martin doesn’t appear to know his actual mediaeval anthropology/sociology from his elbow (he alludes to some actual mediaeval events as per the aristocratic history-of-the-victors quite well, but doesn’t seem to realise that ruling kings and lords were very self-interestedly protective of the peasants and crafts-folk and merchants who formed their tax base, because dead/maimed workforces generate no revenue, thus overkill massacres or maiming tortures were very rare); and (b) the writers/producers don’t know any actual mediaeval anthropology/sociology either, and appear to have convinced themselves that “historical realism” is best conveyed by showing nearly every adult female actor as naked as possible as often as possible while threats are uttered and brutalities are inflicted.
Speaking of women not wearing much, Daenerys Targaryen is also having a horrid time across the ocean in the lands of the horse tribes, the slavers, and Other stereotypes. Again, the brutality on display is vastly exaggerated compared to the normal run of events in any of the historical cultures whose traditions of costume, social hierarchies and architectures have been appropriated for the purpose of providing exotic background colour to Daenerys’ journeys and challenges as a Stranger in a series of Strange Lands.
N.B. If you have not read the books, and are watching the show as as as a newly unfolding narrative, be aware that upcoming plot developments for various characters may well be discussed in comments and you might want to skip them.
Where we’re up to timeline:
- Here in Australia tonight (on pay-channels) will be the first airing of Season 2 Episode 5: The Ghost Of Harrenhal – we’re one week and a few days behind the US.
- For anyone wanting an outline of what happened in this week’s US episode (S2:06 – The Old Gods and the New) compared to the books right now, here’s a fairly irreverent summary/indication (n. b. casually disableist language alert for the whole website).
SotBO: pointing out problematic aspects of a popular entertainment does not mean that I think you are an asshole if you like the show. I still like much of it, and I plan to continue watching it, because I have after all read all the books so far and am intrigued by many aspects of the HBO adaptation. By commenting on the problematic aspects I hope to add my teaspoon’s worth of critique aimed at building awareness in the entertainment industry so that they can do better than disbelief-suspending jolts of gratuitous grunch in future. Besides, if I waited for only “perfect” entertainments to come along then I’d never be watching anything.
To jump straight in on the title, I have to say I think the show has made TV!Theon a lot more sympathetic than Book!Theon. It’s not just the not-seeing-his-POV thing, I think they’ve made him a lot more desperate to please his father and uncertain about what to do – whereas in the books he deliberately sets out, once he leaves Robb, to betray everyone and claim his “rightful” place as Balon’s heir.
Other than that the high point of the season for me so far has been the Melisandre/Shadow Baby scene, which totally did NOT disappoint. I love Melisandre (and again, more than I loved Book!Melisandre, probably because you really only see her from Davos’ POV and Davos thinks she’s creepy as fnck.)
It’s also getting increasingly fascinating how they’re conflating/combining/remixing certain events to make the TV series flow better and cut out a lot of the extraneous plot/characters (e.g. aforementioned Shadow Baby.)
that’s a basic requirement of an HBO show isn’t it?
This aspect is one that I’m also enjoying. It’s often through technically deft plotting/character solutions that I wish GRRM had actually thought of in order to cut some of the filler in the books!
@Chris: Not necessarily, as this handy Venn diagram shows.
@tigtog: I don’t know, on my first reading I might have agreed with you but on the third I’ve just found I love the little details and massive scale so entertaining (it certainly means the books stay interesting).
@QoT – I stand corrected – that’s a great diagram!
I do love it. Even if it stands as a reminder that amongst all the shows I love from HBO, they still also produced Entourage.
Speaking of HBO shows, today I found out that Christopher Meloni is going to be the new Big Bad on the upcoming season of True Blood. Yessssss!