Are you ready?
This, the third season of the wildly popular Game of Thrones, is the season book fans have most looked forward to, it being the midpoint crescendo of the series, when several plot points resolve and the story changes course for the home strait. Metacritic has its first 4 episodes rated 90% positive, though a 50% rating outlier is distorting that result. Fans of dedicated blog Winteriscoming.net have followed hundreds of posts of casting news, rumours and analysis and watched the blogs counter tick away hundreds of days to the 1 remaining day until A Storm of Swords reaches the screen. Are you ready?
I’ve paid far too much attention to that countdown clock on Winter Is Coming and seen seemingly endless discussions about what moving from page to screen will cost the story. Few have asked what the story could gain – how the TV show could do a better job of some aspects. This is what I intend to explore: how Game of Thrones can make the most out of being on TV and propose 2 scenarios that would do this. Naturally, I spoil the shit out of this series, but will forewarn specifically before the scenarios.
Beforehand, let’s acknowledge that the show is not the books. Even the most faithful adaptation, George R R Martin himself sitting in a chair just reading it out would change things: his tone would give away intentionally ambiguous phrasing and voices (if he chose to do them) would reveal disguised characters’ identities. Would we want this faithful adaptation? I doubt it – we want to see it on TV because we want that extra detail – otherwise, if we want the books, we can simply re-read them: the TV adaptation won’t retroactively alter them. Martin and Whedon have both quoted Raymond Chandler on the question of whether an adaptation will ruin the books they derive from, responding “They’re not ruined. They’re right there on the shelf.” The worst an adaptation can be is a missed opportunity.
WARNING: GENERAL SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW AND THE BOOKS FOLLOW
Simply being endlessly faithful is also unrealistic, as there are things in the book ruled out by reason of budget, style, reality, time and whilst the technological constraints no longer make showing an effect believably (I write here in broad terms) impossible, the financial implications of sustained intricate effects make them untenable. The show could give Tyrion the same injuries as the books described, but digitally removing his nose would consume too much of the budget, given his screen time.
Time wise, the show is given 10 hours to tell a book’s story – long detours and purely descriptive details would eat up much of that, flavourful as they are. Stylistically, the book makes heavy use of internal monologue to convey character, plot points and history, but this would be terrible on the screen. Narration automatically injects artificiality, anathema to this series’ aims to make us believe the fantasy world of Westeros. Also, what would actors do whilst having these long internal monologues? Would you want to hear them talk on and on about, e.g. Renly and Loras, or other characters who you’ll never see? As such, I really appreciated the added scenes of otherwise distant characters – seeing them made us invest in them, made their storylines easier to follow.
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Additionally, the books use a few tropes that translate terribly to film: characters in disguise! Fans of the book had to work to figure out that the shadowy conspirators seen by Arya in A Game of Thrones were Lord Varys and Illyrio Mopatis. Even restricting them to simply being overheard, we could identify them in the show. Likewise, presumably Barristan Selmy will still turn up to assist Danaerys, but any attempts to disguise him in the show will be quickly seen through. The technique works on the page, but fails on the screen. The show will be wise to adjust it. Is this fatal to the story? I’d argue it’s not: The deception of Dany is needed so that Barristan will undertake a dangerous mission to redeem himself of her feeling of betrayal. He can still do that – Dany can be rightly suspicious of his staying to serve her family’s usurper, Robert Baratheon. The character and plot points stand and easily adapt to the show’s logic. We might also wonder if the same issue will arise with Coldhands and ‘The Alchemist’ when we see them in the flesh.
“In the flesh, you say…?”
Oh, there he is. Anyway, thankfully, the show has also aged up all its characters. 13 year old Dany’s sex scene? No thank you – though I’m a tad miffed that the sexual objectification of Sansa was excised: I feel it’s a good example of rape culture and illustrates how precarious her position is. Importantly, could also be done in a legal fashion. It’s not enough that she sees how she’s a pawn in ignoble court politics, her sexual objectification should be part of her disillusionment and the critique of Westerosi politics.
I’ll also posit another really positive change made to the story before making my own proposals: Ros. That’s right, Ros is a positive change. It’s cool, I hear your anger, your blood boiling, I’m fine with it. Ros improves the depiction of sex workers by giving one a clear identity, direction and autonomy, showing a sex worker make her own life decisions – choosing to go to King’s Landing, choosing to use her intelligence to spy for Lord Varys. We see sex workers who suffer under the system, so augmenting that with another strong, distinct female character is brilliant. That’s right, Ros is great. Come at me, Bro.
So, if you’re reading this I’ll assume you’ve seen seasons 1 & 2 and are fairly spoiler-curious. What else could the show do to take advantage of its format, rather than compensating for it? I’ll suggest two TV tropes that are established and would make great use of the key events. First up, spoilers for season 4 and A Storm of Swords.
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So much of A Song of Ice and Fire rests on the events of Robert’s Rebellion 14/17 years prior, and Aegon V Targaryan 90 years prior. Almost all POV characters think back, often in snippets a couple of sentences long, to their history. Featuring so many narrated thoughts or expository comments in the show would be awkward and most, bar the regicide of Aerys II are dropped, quite sensibly. Have we heard the name Rhaegar more than a few times? Do show-only viewers know of Elia of Dorne and her children Rhaenys and Aegon?
Well, as it stands they need to. Oberyn Martell is due to come to King’s Landing, and needs to riskily, controversially champion Tyrion against the Mountain, Gregor Clegane, during Tyrion’s trial. The murder and rape of Elia and her children at the hands of Clegane are his motivation and the unserved justice directs Dorne’s strategy and critiques Tywin Lannister’s Machiavellian tactics. Would distrust of the Tyrell’s be enough motivation? Or simply affront at Clegane’s brutality? Or simply to ruffle feathers? To all of these, no. Oberyn has a justifiable stake and motivation for his surprising, politically unsettling move. We need to know the history of Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon.
So, Game of Thrones, season 4, should do a flashback episode. TV struggles with lots of backstory in small chunks, but manages well with it in a dedicated feast – think of fan favourite Buffy Episode ‘Fool for Love’. It would also be memorable and give us reason to invest in Oberyn and the Dornish, who might otherwise be just another noble family. When could it happen? With Tywin in a tower, discussing with another powerful player the danger of Dorne’s arrival, a powerful phrase about the past never being fully behind you and then a full hour of the final days of Robert’s Rebellion, paying off everything we’ve heard about the Trident, the murder of Aerys II, the sacking of King’s Landing, Tywin’s choice to murder Rhaegar’s family and the flight of Visaerys and Danaerys to Pentos. All that would provide depth to Dorne/Highgarden conflict, make Oberyn dangerous and sympathetic and build up the tension his arrival causes. Dedicating an entire episode to it make it more budget friendly too. It could be Game of Throne’s own ‘Out of Gas’.
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Another TV trope classic is the bottle episode, confining characters to one location, often to save money. Often, these feel forced and the in story reason for staying on one set may not entirely conceal the production reason for staying on one set, i.e. bottle episodes are cheap to make. They also don’t have to be obviously bottle episodes: Community had great fun announcing their ridiculous bottle episode, even invoking the trope, but did you notice that the fan favourite Dungeons & Dragons episode was also a bottle episode?
No, you were too busy trying to lipread. Huzzah!
Here’s a good reason to stay in one location: you’re being besieged, such as during Theon’s return to Winterfell in a Dance with Dragons. So much of those chapters hinge on paranoia, being cut off from the outside world, 3 factions plotting against each other, a secret mission, a mysterious ghost of Winterfell and people dying one by one. In season 2’s standout episode, Blackwater, the show demonstrated the power of limiting its focus to one location until the resolution of a conflict. Stranding viewers with Theon inside the castle would cut us off from the outside world too. Being unable to leave we’d not break from the growing desperation. We could also follow his major turn of character smoothly over one bottle episode as tension rackets up unrelentingly. The episode would end when he reclaims his (questionable) character and, leaping over the walls of Winterfell into the blizzard, he frees both himself and us from Winterfell. You know it would be glorious.
Also affordable, if they only use that set and keep the extras for the three armies in that one episode!
[Image of Winterfell: Also, affordable, if they only use that set and keep the extras for three armies in one episode]
I like to think of an adaptation as something that, in these times, with authorial input, provides a fuller, paratextual experience. Both the show and books can be complimentary expressions of the story of A Song of Ice and Fire, and we shouldn’t assume the books’ primacy confers either superiority or orthodoxy. After all, in revisiting the story, George R R Martin has said he prefers the show’s version of Osha, and may well be adapting with a view to revised preference. The show can do what’s best for the story as a TV show and has already, in my view, made wise decisions in its changes.
I, of course, reserve the right to change my mind if an anniversary Blu Ray edition has Bran push first.
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