spoilers: some TMK character thoughts
wanted to do a round up of my exact feelings on the characters as I can remember them bc I've mostly just shared info rather than opinions so far!
Jaime: MY BOY!!!! obv i'm starting w Jaime. I would've lovedddd if we'd had more of him but I'm taking quality over quantity. his main story is in act 2 just desperately trying to get other people to react the way he is to the things happening around him, and he's literally threatened w violence by other members of the KG. so for anyone still insisting he is just there pretending to give a fuck: nope Jaime's whole thing in this story is giving a fuck! which chimes into his broader story exactly as I understand it thank u VERY much!!!!
Ned: I loved him and his characterisation was exactly as I would've expected it to be. i think any ned fan would be happy w how he's played here, it's just all v true to the books and it's good to see his relationship w Robert and Lyanna explored more and how they kind of conflict w each other.
Robert: by and large i liked this portrayal. I'm not a hugeeee fan of overplaying Steffon and Cassana for woobification points I guess it felt a little forced. sure this is no doubt something that devastated robert but does he necessarily need a traumatic reason to be a drunk and a flirt? so I felt like it was to try and give more justification to his enmity w Rhaegar than was needed - Lyanna feels like enough. otherwise, I think his actor did a great job showing both the charisma and the vulnerability of the character and he had great chemistry w Ned. and he's pretty funny also
Aerys: again, liked Aerys. I think showing both his vulnerability as well as his tyranny makes him more compelling to follow. guy has a surprising number of comic lines also and the physicality of the role is pretty strong. again, I don't really like grief being used as the reason characters go mad, and it was again in this case for Aerys and Summerhall. I think it makes sense as part of the reason he's unready, but I don't buy it as a foundational reason he is the way he is. but it's interesting nonetheless to see the event loom large in his life.
Rhaella: I kind of need someone else to remember the exact sequence of the scene with Elia, Ashara, Jaime and the KG, but I think this characterisation was definitely.... interesting?? I like that they tried to think outside just 'tormented' and give her sharp edges. it was interesting to see her kind of bloodthirsty in her way. but I think she might have benefitted from a bit more show don't tell, and there was just too much happening in this play to afford her enough scenes for that.
Rhaegar: idk. this is messy. like I think the problem is actually fundamentally GRRM's. in rhaegar we have three things: 1) a guy who genuinely seems to love Lyanna, 2) a guy obsessed w prophecy, and 3) a guy who would carelessly abandon his wife and children for either. given that Rhaegar actually gives less of a shit about prophecy in act 2, this becomes.... worse??? and he does genuinely get vexed at the idea that Elia can't conceive again. so while we see that he's capable of generosity of spirit (trying to offer Robert friendship, trying to save the realm from his father)...... he's just not likeable!!! what can I say! i don't like this man! he's a bit useless and pretty selfish and his love for Lyanna doesn't move me enough that I don't care about those things! sorry!
Elia: oh my lord. look I really can't 100% blame this on the playwright because I want to be fair - this was gonna be a hard ask. in 2026, a lot of people are gonna struggle w how to write Rhaegar's discarded wife, who does nothing in canon but give birth, sit imprisoned and die. this is a very passive role, and I can understand why MacMillan's instinct was to beef it up with politics. I can understand also why he wanted to alleviate the pain of what Rhaegar's done to her - what if she didn't actually give much of a shit lol she's got other fish to fry. what if she's fine w being imprisoned because she's got PLANS. ugh. idk. it's left me cold. if you try and spare Elia all the vulnerability of her plight, she just becomes kind of. dry? and unconvincing? I think people would've found it more compelling to hear the story of a woman working through the pain of what has been done to her and her children, and BEING angry, rather than just conducting a political plot that goes nowhere. like I think that's the point - because Elia's plot has been replaced with this, she has no meaningful plot. her correspondence with Lyanna feels pointless and hollow, because her only motive is political, and knowing how this ends for her, I'm not waiting to find out what happens. I think MacMillan should've really sat there with Elia for a long while and thought about what happens in her story and how that would make a person feel, and how can you make those feelings sing on stage... rather than coming up w some weird b-plot.
Ashara: I think Ashara suffers from a case of being beefed up beyond how she can serve the story, and truly works best as a more ambiguous character. in TMK, everything about her is laid on the table and so she ends up just serving as a supporting act to Elia and Brandon in a way that adds little to the story. again, this was always gonna be a difficult one because she very much HAS a place in this story, but I think if we'd focused more on the POVs of fewer principles (stick with Ned, we don't need scenes of Brandon and Ashara alone together), then having her dance in and out might have worked better. she and Elia having once had an affair is a nice touch but I don't know that it adds much??
Lyanna: I like Lyanna a lot in act 1 - she's very endearing but very headstrong, and you can really see a lot of Arya in her. she's fun to follow. but MacMillan again was always going to wrestle with what to do in act 2 when Rhaegar and Lyanna have this prophecy hanging over their heads. do they lean into it?? I think it was important for Rhaegar to let the prophecy go a bit for his love for Lyanna to be at all convincing, but when Lyanna picks up the slack for him she loses some of herself. I don't really know what the compromise ought to have been, because clearly this is a massive factor in their story together, but sometimes it's hard to see the love for the prophecy what can I say. they start talking a great deal in riddles it feels like, and kind of like a couple you wouldn't want to be stuck with at a party. Lyanna really shines brightest when she's w her brothers. but again, the Rhaegar/Lyanna/Elia triangle is a reallyyyy hard one to square, and I've literally tried myself w an as yet unfinished Robert's Rebellion project that is still around on my blog lol
Arthur: I'm really wedded to my mental version of arthur dayne so when I didn't get him I was unfairly like what!!!!! but I enjoyed the performance, and just wish he'd had more characters to bounce off of - he's mostly limited to Rhaegar and Oswell
Cersei: she's not really big enough to add to this list but cersei's little 'i want it all' line pleases me. I like that they managed to cram a good character moment for her in so little time.
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