Game of Thrones [Potential Book Spoilers]

Oh, I misremembered.

I agree that not including Tysha as a major motivation of Tyrion's makes a lot of his actions at this point difficult to justify.

I don't think she's been "cut", per se, he talked about her at other points in the series. Makes it all the more odd that she's not brought up here.

Last time he talked about her was in S2 IIRC. They seem to have dropped a lot of things that was in S2. Who wrote most of the episodes in S2? Did he/she quit after?

Apparently Bronn mentions her in S3 and Tyrion says "I should never have told you about that". I wonder if there's a bit of authorial subtext in that line...

It feels like a very "TV-writing" mentality behind it though. "Do X to get Y to Z" kind of thing, like those stupid Simpsons episodes where the first ten minutes does nothing except put the Simpsons in Matabeleland and then gets forgotten about. In the books, the Tysha episode informs Tyrion and Tywin's actions regarding Shae, but it continues to overshadow their relationships right through to the end. In the series, it's almost treated as just a setup for Tyrion/Shae which can be discarded once it's served that purpose.

It's also worrying in that it suggests Tyrion's Lost Lenore in the next series will be Shae, not Tysha. I hope that's not the case (they could always have the pain of what happened with Shae inspire him to remember his one true love), but it seems quite likely that character economy will push them in that direction.

Has there been any news on Roger Allam being recast? I ask partly because Roger Allam is awesome, and partly because I'm interested to know if they're going to replace Illyrio's role as welcome-to-Essos-guy with Varys, since he's on the same ship as Tyrion.

It's potentially a nice bit of Pragmatic Adaptation if so: Varys doesn't have much to do for a while anyway, and he and Tyrion as a double act could be quite entertaining.

Plus it would be fun to find out that Varys has a nice little Pentoshi safehouse and secret identity stashed away for when he needs it.

I've been wondering that too- I agree with the speculation that season 4 ended in a way that would allow Illyrio to be reintroduced net season if possible, or else would just allow Varys to absorb his role if they weren't able to get Allam back.

I do hope he does return though. I'm a big fan of Endeavour, and he's great in it, and it would be nice to see his Illyrio get more depth. I can really see him showing Illyrio's combination of affability and creepiness, as Inspector Thursday on Endeavour is this guy who is a kind and war family man who under the surface is The Anti-Nihilist, and tries to repress a dark side to his personality caused by his war experiences.

edited 5th Jul '14 12:05:58 PM by Hodor

I hope they get Allam back too, both because he's great and if there's one thing that I find really jarring about GoT it's the recasted parts (particularly Gregor and Daario), so if they can't get him back I'd rather they just cut Illyrio's character.

They were so shameless with Daario. The new guy didn't even shave his beard off!

They could have made a joke of it. Introduce new!Daario with the book appearance — blue hair, dyed yellow beard or whatever ludicrous thing it was — have Dany take one look at him and say "You look different. I don't like it." Next time we see him, he looks like he does now.

It's not like the introductory scene they did use wasn't pointless and silly anyway...

But new Daario is more likable and tolerable than old Daario.

I spent most of today making Game of Thrones Miis. This was a good day.

I don't think so. New Daario is really boring.

I think that Skrain!Daario captured the spirit of Book!Daario better, but Huisman!Daario is a more believable character. Given that I'm not a particularly big fan of Book!Daaaariooo, I prefer Huisman's portrayal for being somewhat removed from the book version.

One thing I thought could have happened is for Daario to gradually look more like his book counterpart. I thought it could start by having the Meerenese champion come out in a flashy yellow cloak, and so after Daario killed the guy and before pissing on his corpse, Daario would take the cloak and start wearing it after that.

I agree with this. I also like Huisman's take on the character as someone who expects to die young and is a reckless showoff. It's like while Daario 2 could be argued as similar to Bronn in terms of charming amoral hedonism, the two really differ in how Bronn just gets stuff done, whereas Daario wants to look cool doing it.

And yes, Daario I is closer to book!Daario in terms of smug obnoxiousness, but he isn't all that believable as a character/as a skilled mercenary.

edited 8th Jul '14 8:15:55 PM by Hodor

I think that Daaeio I is just the superior Daario not because he's closer to the book Daario, but because he's just infinitely entertaining that uplifts a rather bother storyline.

It wouldn't be so bad if they had brought in Strong Belwas, but well...yeah.

I personally would have found it intensely annoying to have to watch Daario I for any extended period of time,

I'm sure you are going to respond that that's the way it should be, because that's the role Daario plays in the books, but there's a difference between a character who is grating in an entertaining way, such as Joffrey, and a character that is grating because the actor can't act- which is what I get from Daario I.

Incidentally, I get the impression that Daario I did something behind the scenes that got him fired.

Strong Belwas is Jar Jar in human form, although I can see/agree with the point that Dany's story can use some comic relief.

edited 8th Jul '14 8:36:22 PM by Hodor

Honestly, I don't even find Book Daario grating. More Daario I/ Book Daario is always good. He's just hilariously terrible.

Check this gem out:

She believed him. “ … I wanted you from the first time that I saw you, but you were a sellsword, fickle, treacherous. You boasted that you’d had a hundred women.”

“A hundred?” Daario chuckled through his purple beard. “I lied, sweet queen. It was a thousand. But never once a dragon.”

fucking A+

Daario the First wanted more money. Then he left to star in something called Transporter.

Anyway, put me in the Daario the Second camp. He's not the most exciting thing in the world, but he's a better actor and still pretty cheeky.

Also, he doesn't look like Dark-haird Viserys.

I spent most of today making Game of Thrones Miis. This was a good day.

Tomodachi Life I presume?

No, just for my own amusement. Probably in Wii Sports Resort, to be honest.

Bit of a tangent, but does it really make sense to describe a sane, adult human being as "amoral"? I understand when people say it that they generally mean "doesn't do bad stuff for his own sake, but doesn't especially object to doing it", but is that really a valid distinction in a world that doesn't have Card Carrying Villains in it? What's the moral difference between killing a child because He Knows Too Much and killing a child because your boss told you to?

The way I understand it, morality is caring about the consequences of your actions and avoiding those that hurt other people. The absence of that care is immorality. Amorality is the absence of the concept of morality itself, which is generally reserved for animals, small children and psychopaths (or should that be "animals and psychopaths"?).

Ha, someone's worked out that over half of the named characters introduced in the first episode are dead by the end of ADWD◊ (one major ADWD spoiler).

I'm posting it here because most of them are already dead by this point of the show, only one major exception that I can see. In fact, it's worse in the show: Ros and Sandor can be added to the "dead" pile.

Good point. I was misuing the term in the casual sense of "amoral as falling somewhere between moral and immoral".

I don't think Sandor is dead dead on the show, I think it is like the books where his fate is uncertain, but they may hint in the future that he's alive and turned over a new leaf- Brienne has to do something next season, so why not go to the Quiet Isle?

I loved first Daario because the idea of a stereotypical surfer dude in Westeros (shush, you know what I mean) cracks me up.

Because Brienne would immediately recognize the Hound just by build.

YES! That guy knew how to sell arrogance.

edited 9th Jul '14 10:54:36 AM by MadSkillz

I don't think they'll do the gravedigger thing. In the book, it was done subtly enough that you can read it as just a wrap-up for his story that doesn't involve him getting killed off (although he might be brought back, he doesn't have to be).

There's not really any way to do it that subtly in the show, so any hint they give that he's still alive will look like a giant neon sign that he's going to come back in an important way.