It’s been a long time. I’m currently reading through A World of Ice and Fire (I find it comforting and familiar despite its occasional dopiness, or maybe exactly because of that; it feels like proper history, that much is sure), which kind of halted my re-reading. But, I felt like talking GoT tonight, so here goes another scene.
Rewatching these, it’s incredible how far we’ve come in terms of quality. Just the other day I was seeing season 5 again with my mom - and then to compare it to the scenes I’m rewatching is - to pick the mildest word - disheartening.
Now before we go on to scene two, a word on the opening credits which follow the prologue. They are incredibly well done, and a feat for book readers! The rings of the sun depict scenes from Robert’s rebellion against the Mad King! The opening theme is so on point, I’m sure a large portion of people who watch the show make a sport of humming, singing or mewling a long with it (there is a video of a cat performing said song I saw a long time ago on the internet. I posted it on my facebook page and received 0 likes). There are inconsistencies as well. The book snob in me wants to argue about the Baratheon sigil on King’s Landing or Winterfell architecture - but whatevs. Winterfell looks cooler that way.
Now what happens next? We see a group of riders closing in on our friend Will from the prologue. There’s no explanation for how he survived the Others. As a book reader you will note that the men circling him are Stark men - they have the banner.
NO: But the banner is wrong: Direwolf head in the show vs. ‘a grey direwolf racing across an ice-white field’
NO: We said that before: in the books, Will is deader than dead (or probably not, still walking around and stuff.)
In the book, we have this second scene as a Bran scene. The first paragraph introduces us to:
1) Winter is coming (’The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer’)
2) Seasons are several years long in this world (’It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran’s life.’)
Will being caught is not something that Bran witnesses in the book, but it makes sense for the scenes to be there, as it connects prologue to one of the show’s main narrative. Weirdly, we also get a note once Winterfell comes into view, informing us that this is, indeed, Winterfell. I’m not sold that there was not a more elegant way to establish this fact. (Winterfell still looks cool.)
In A Game of Thrones, the next paragraph we get is on wildlings (Robb thinks the man they’re off to see beheaded is one). We have our first mentions of Mance Rayder (!) and Old Nan. It does much to confirm us in a fantasy setting - which also has its own fantasies.
In the show, what we now get is Bran practising shooting arrows. This is a completely made-up scene, but here, the purpose is easy to see, too: it establishes the Starks. Unfortunately, TV has not got as much time as books. We have to be quick about it. We learn:
1) Bran’s bad at this
2) Robb and Jon are good caring brothers
3) Jon says “...father’s watching. And your mother.” Hey, might be he’s the famed bastard of Winterfell!
4) Sansa’s good at stitching and Arya’s not - as in the books, this is how we get to meet them
5) It’s fun how Bran is bad at it (the Starks love each other very much); also, there’s a little boy there who seems to belong with them. And Eddard Stark is wise and good.
6) Bran is ten! (Nicely snuck in there)
7) For some reason, Arya’s really good at shooting arrows - she likes boyish stuff, you see
8) Rodrik Cassel (and where did Theon come from?) He tells them that they have a deserter.
9) Catelyn, with her soft woman heart, doesn’t want her husband to murder him. And if he has to, Bran shouldn’t see it.
10) Winter is coming
All of this rather shallow introduction (I’ll turn to the separate characters in separate posts, a little further down the line) takes us to where the scene in the books actually begins (but not before Cat gives Jon Snow a real mean stare and the random little boy is picking up arrows):
We immediately recognize Will from the prologue - as a said, the actor has a good face. In the book, I love how it’s done: Bran doesn’t know the man’s name, of course. We might guess it’s the same, but we can be sure because of Bran mentioning the body parts the deserter lost to frostbite.
Bran is disappointed the man looks shaggy and old. We also get a description of Ned, which actually suits Sean Bean well. The age is the only thing that differs, with everyone on the show older than in the books. That makes good sense - the author himself said that he regrets not having made his characters - the Stark children he mentions in particular - older. But this premise is not followed through very thoroughly. By Season 5, we have Myrcella aged by at least three years where Gilly’s baby is still a few months young (just goes on to show how they can’t be bothere to give a fuck now - zero fucks given would be the house motto of D & D, if they ever joined their noble names).
In the books, Bran doesn’t properly recall what was said when his father and the deserter spoke. In the show, you have Will justify breaking his oath. He mentions White Walkers (ominous stares from the Winterfell party - hi, Jory!).
In the books we get so much exposition from these few characters: there is Ice and an explanation what Valyrian steel is. There is mention of Jory and Theon Greyjoy, Eddard’s ward. And finally, we hear of ‘Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar (NO: They left the Rhoynar out in the show - why?) and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm’.
YES: Jon tells Bran not to look away - these lines are taken almost exactly from the book. Also, Ned says the almost the same lines. In the book it has snow - a minor detail. In the book, Theon also kicks the severed head away, grinning - a beautiful way to establish him: the boy who could not be bothered to take anything seriously.
We don’t get any visualization of the next paragraphs, possibly because they serve to introduce Robb and Jon - one is Tully, one is Stark by the looks; they’re different, but great friends. Understood. I always found it strange that they would address each other with their last names. Jon hates the sting of his bastard name, and the familiarity between him and Robb doesn’t quite explain why his brother would like to constantly remind him of his birth.
The two are racing against each other, which brings us to an exchange in the show and in the book, with one of Ned Stark’s most iconic lines. There is some talk of the White Walkers to inform us that people don’t believe in them anymore - though we just saw them, existing and all!
The book has more to say - on oathbreakers, wildlings, fear, why Ned had to swing the sword and how the Stark way is the old way. The show picks up only parts of it - it serves to enrichen the dialogue and please book readers, but what a show watcher is supposed to do with a line like ‘Our way is the old way’, I don’t know.
This brings us to the direwolf puppy scene, both on TV and in the book. But this is a very long post, and Winter is coming.
First, let me say that I started reading the books when I was halfway through season one of HBO’s show.
I have quite a vivid memory of watching this scene for the first time, because it was so scary and it had zombies (of sorts).
When I rewatched season 1, far advanced in the books by then, I still thought it was haunting, and to date, it remains one of the best scenes from the show.
Step by step, an analysis where book and show agree or diverge:
YES: We have the characters we have in the books; you can see at once who is who - excellent casting. Ser Waymar Royce in the middle - young, arrogant dipshit; Gared, the seasoned ranger to his left; right is Will, the sneaky brother who took the black over losing a hand after poaching on Mallister land
NO: They’re staring out at the wall; the book has them on the road for nine days already. Now I get that when you film guys riding or walking around too much, you only get The Hobbit. Still, I think the show does a poor job in conveying the size and geography of Westeros.
Still, that wide shot of the riders emerging from the Wall is a) great, and b) establishes this particular sight of Westeros in a beautiful and subtle way - thumbs up
YES: Will is the first to find the wildling camp; he even crawls towards the ridge...
NO: To find all hacked up Wildlings, heads on sticks, laid out in a mystical formation. In the book, the corpses lie on the ground or lean against tree trunks, fully whole (Did you see any blood? asks Waymar, No, being Will’s answer), which leads Waymar to think Will just didn’t look right; Purpose of that change? I guess it looks cooler? Less misleading? After 5 season, we still don’t know why the Others took care to rearrange the bits and pieces of their victims. Do they worship the King in Yellow? Imagine them, before the raiders got there, carefully arranging the scene. Does not make sense. Changed for cool, bloody stumps
NO: the dialogue; now, I’m a book purist (of any book really). But even I don’t expect any screenwriter to copy every exact line of dialogue from book to screen; the exposition in terms of deserting being a death sentence is done nicely; a fantastic bit from the book, Gared’s speech on the cold, would not have worked here at all - though it costs us the first mention of the weeping Wall, an image I always liked; also, Gared makes a mention that fire is supposed to keep ‘other enemies’ away; we get to that later, I guess; ‘Your dead men seem to have moved camp’ is lifted right from the page - as it should be.
NO: So now the lumps are gone? Makes more sense with bodies, now, doesn’t it?
NO: the undoing of the rangers: in the book, Gared stays back with the horses, Waymar stares down at the former camp, Will climbs a tree. Now, the show changes that with Gared and Waymar searching through the camp and Will just straight up turning the other way. Gared finds human intestines in the snow, and just then a White Walker appears as a shadow behind Waymar. We hear a slashing noise and screams - cut to Will. And we’re safe to assume Waymar is no more. The horses come running towards Will as he finds a solitary figure in the woods: the girl he saw pinned to a tree before, eyes bright blue. He does the sensible thing and runs, happening upon Gared, who is also fleeing the scene. Just when they meet, the shadow Other is back again, beheads Gared and throws the head to will; scene over.
Now in the books, the Others appear when Will is up the tree; Waymar fights one until they seem to lose taste for the exercise and kill him with Will watching until he closes his eyes for the final stroke; when he opens them again, the Others are gone and he finds the corpse of Waymar, one arm torn off, by the tree; he searches the snow around for Waymar’s blade, but when he finds it and wants to get up again, the dead man looms over him with blue eyes (one has a shard of his sword stuck in it); the wight ultimately strangles Will;
Main difference 1: Will dies in the book, but survives in the show; the reason for that, I guess, is pretty straight-forward. The actor who plays will has a good memorable face. He looks good afraid and is easy to recognize when the Starks meet him. In the book, we identify Gared, not because he is named, but because of that speech on cold weather: his ears had to be cut off by Maester Aemon after some frostbite; Bran notices the same about him later.
The biggest thing, however, is how book and series introduce their main supernatural villain:
With Martin, we actually get a quite detailed description of the Others: armor, swords, flesh and language - we even get a name, vague as it is. But Will knows at once what he’s dealing with watching from his tree.
The show gives us full body shots, but still, only shadows. We see the blue eyes and that they are only in rags in the snow; together with the arrangement of the limbs, this lends some feral, tribal vibe to the Others. It’s cool enough, but the show goes on to partly correct this later, when it has some of the Others in full armor, riding on dead horses in formation, etc.
Looking into the future, the show has definitely foraged deeper into Others territory than the books, see season 4, when it showed a human baby being turned into a blue-eyed creature; also, we got - allegedly by accident - the name of the Others’ commander at Hardhome: it’s the Night’s King, a former brother of the Night’s Watch... if any of this is based on Martin input, then it’s clear why the showrunners went back on their wild vibe for the Others in the Prologue scene.
Why not here? Well, for one thing, most good monster movies don’t reveal their main baddies early on (see the latest Godzilla, or my eternal favourite, Jaws). Also, by the time the prologue was filmed, as one of the first scenes, the show had yet to be fully greenlighted and Martin was not on board yet.
Apart from the Others, the wights are also introduced in a different fashion: on the show, via the little girl; in the book, it’s Ser Waymar. Little girls are creepier.
All in all:
Clearly, we’re starting off with some differences already. Still, I really like this scene. Most of the changes work excellent for the different medium.
Some of them, though, point at the showrunners’ silliness early on: once you imagined the White Walkers carefully arranging wildling pieces in what appears to be a kite (or an eye? Or an illuminati pyramid? Do they know Jay Z & Beyoncé?), you carry that image with you.
Of course, you can always argue they wiggled away, like that hand in a later episode. Whatever works for you.
On the Sailing Through Valyria Outrageousness Scale:
1 out of 10 Grayscale-infected Royal Spies - for the moving body parts nobody ever cares to explain
After the big pile of shit that was season 5 of GoT (not that we did not get warning signs), this morning on the subway I decided to read the books again.
First, to get the child burnings and poison vials out of my system. Second, to track the changes the showrunners made to GRRM’s story and relive how they went from excellent adaptation to big fuck up.
You feel like hatin’ on the show and praising the books even when GRRM is going on about Arianne Martell’s nipples for yet another paragraph, hop on the boat.
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