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Game of Thrones finale: Did it meet expectations? – Beyond the Wall

With the second season finale of 'Game of Thrones' now in the books, Bob and Ivey take a look back and see how well 'Valar Morghulis' wrapped things up. Spoilerphobes beware, the scope of discussion includes all of the books!

Ivey:

I think the new fans of the series learned their lesson – as we once did – that it is best not to get attached to characters, but did it seem to you that the show went out of its way to help in that? Two of the most popular characters last year came off this season as much more unlikeable. Dany spent the bulk of the season running around Qarth with Xaro Xhoan Ducksauce – the Internets come up with such wonderful nicknames — screaming “I WILL TAKE WHAT IS MINE WITH FIRE AND SOMETHING ELSE.” I grew to dislike Dany in the books, but it definitely happened later in the series than Qarth.

Jon Snow was another character who seemed worse off this season, and in this case it looks even more like a conscious choice. There were specific changes made to his story, and at this point I’m not sure why. We’ve taken the tact in this column of appreciating the changes, and having fun gaming out what they mean down the road, but I’m still scatching my head on this one. The changes I’m referring to specifically was Ygritte escaping instead of Jon letting her go, and not getting a chance to bond with the Halfhand and talking about his plan once they were caught. Both of these changes make Jon look a green, selfish bastard – if you excuse the pun.

Bob:

Nope, you’re totally wrong, well half wrong. I still love Dany, and thought every change in her plot was for the better. I also don’t mind her walking around screaming, because she’s got three fire breathing dragons and the birthright to back it all up. I totally agree with you on the Jon story, though. It got so bad that at I times I was confused with what the heck was going on, and I knew what the heck was going on. Also, I’m not one to complain about the lack of direwolves, because frankly I thought they were kind of a hokey gimmick in the novels (aside from the warg factor), but where the heck did Ghost go? Seriously, the last time we see him, he’s trouncing off by himself in the snow? That’s going to be kind of important moving forward.

There was a lot to like this season, though. Tyrion got even better, and I thought his relationship with Shae played out on screen better than in the novels. In the books I never actually believed there were real feelings between them. We talked about how much better TV Sansa is, and I feel like there’s a column in there for Cersei too. She’s gotten a lot more dimension on screen, and much for the better.

By far the best story of the season, though, has to go to Theon, doesn’t it? It was the best arc of the year in my opinion, and all of the acting was superb, especially Alfie Allen. The opening of the finale with him and Luwin was great and really summed up the impossibility of his situation. Don’t worry, Theon, it’s only going to get worse.

Ivey:

I’m curious how many people who haven’t read the books – and thus don’t know exactly how bad things are going to get for young Greyjoy – would agree with you. He’s certainly had the most defined arc and you’re right: his scene with Luwin was phenominal (credit to Donald Sumpter’s outstanding work as well).

We’re far from being done yapping about the second season of A Game of Thrones (Trust in that … I haven’t brought up Maergary in weeks). We’ve got at least a column or two before it is time to turn to the third season dream casting and rumors and so on and so forth, but I wanted to end this week with an observation that I saw on the Twitter. The first season ended in fire, and this second season has now ended in ice. Will the trend continue, and the third season end in song? I think it is a definite possibility.

   

Photo Credit: HBO

6 Responses to “Game of Thrones finale: Did it meet expectations? – Beyond the Wall”

June 6, 2012 at 10:44 AM

You don’t like Strong Belwas?

Okay, so the finale on TV was good entertainment. The season as a whole was good, considering the third book’s story was the best one and the season was necessarily going to be a lot of set-up for that. BUT, there were some changes I really didn’t enjoy. To wit:
-Shae sure looks like she’s really in love with Tyrion, even when he’s not around. That doesn’t match the book at all, where she was basically a prisoner and made the most of it until the time came when it was more profitable to betray him. This Shae won’t do that unless strongly coerced, which changes the story considerably.
-Jamie killing his kinsman to get out of jail (ineffectively) makes him *way* less sympathetic, and seems untrue to the character. Instead, they are making Cersei more sympathetic, which is really the wrong Lannister to humanize IMO.
-I can’t even keep track of who the characters around Dany are, because they don’t spend enough time developing any of them (except for Jorah). Heck, I looked at her bloodrider (who was with her at the House of the Undying) and said, “Did they change actors?” Don’t even know who that guy is.
-I still hate the invented character of Ros and how she’s involved in everything and awkwardly shoehorns nudity into every scene she’s in. I’m guessing she’ll wind up in the Eyrie somehow by Season 4.
-They made Brienne more bloodthirsty, Jon Snow more ignorant/immature, Margery more slutty and power-hungry, and Littlefinger less careful. Eesh.

There were good changes too, though:
-I was weirded out at first by Arya being cupbearer for Tywin instead of Roose Bolton, but it really, really worked. A lot of her Book 2 storyline was padding and I’m glad they condensed it to a more engaging plot while simultaneously giving us a chance to see what was going on behind the lines.
-Similarly, they did everything they could to make Dany’s storyline more interesting, up to getting her dragons kidnapped as motivation for her moving forward. Good move, because she really has nothing going on at this point.
-I liked seeing more of what’s going on with Robb. I thought it was well-handled and will pay off emotionally at the Red Wedding.
-I like the character of Sansa more in the show.
-I love getting more scenes with Varys. That portrayal is spot on.

I had more to say, but I forgot it. That’s probably enough for now. Season 3 is going to be awesome.

June 6, 2012 at 4:29 PM

I’m not sure I agree with your picture of Tyrion and Shae’s relationship in the books. While I won’t go as far as to try to qualify (or quantify) Shae’s potential love for the Imp, I think Tyrion’s perspective was straight forward. I think he loved her as much as he could given his history and the situation.

I really don’t agree with the perception that she was a prisoner in the books. And I think her eventual betrayal has more to do with doing what she had to do to stay alive, because even in the face of whatever feelings she might (or might not) have had for Tyrion, saving herself was the first priority.

June 7, 2012 at 11:47 AM

I suspect that the Tyrion/Shae changes are designed to take us to a different place than in the books — one where: (a) Tywin sends Shae away “wherever whores go” and even repeats the Tysha lesson to Tyrion with Shae; (b) Tyrion does not commit a certain act involving a chain of hands before confronting Tywin (making him more sympathetic); and (c) we have Tyrion searching for a character afterward who we have come to know, instead of an unknown person from his past who the audience has met only through his tale in Season 1.

June 6, 2012 at 2:23 PM

Storm of Swords was a great book and the lead-p for next season makes it look like it will be outstanding. Feast for Crows was the weakest of the books, dealing mostly with the more uninteresting characters and not really moving the story line along very well. Frankly, I read it some years ago and do not remember any of it except the very end. Dance of Dragons was much better. If they make it to a fourth season i expect that they will mostly follow Dance of Dragons and cut out most of Feast for Crows. There is no doubt that Danerys, Jon, Tyrion and Arys are the most interesting of the major characters and their story lines move the plot along the best.

June 7, 2012 at 11:55 AM

You need to try a re-read of AFfC — it has grown on me, especially after I read aDwD. AFfC also has several important storylines for Cersei, Sansa, Arya, Sam, and (of course) Brienne that the show can play with (after some very aggressive condensation, especially in Brienne’s case). Cersei’s ill-considered decisions regarding the new High Septon’s requests and the Iron Bank’s demands also throw very important and aggressive new players into the mix, and make the story less predictable.

June 11, 2012 at 3:03 PM

All in all, I’m generally happy with the final episode and the season overall. I’m still concerned that they’ve mishandled some key relationships and motivations for actions, but to their credit, the writers have deftly dodged some landmines I thought they’d set for themselves already. However, I was hugely disappointed with the handling of the House of the Undying. It was such a powerful and meaningful part of the novels, but the TV version was at best underwhelming and at worst, misleading. To my mind, they took the worst possible road here: either portray the scene faithfully to provide the allegorical context from the novels or just skip the whole thing. Instead they provide an attempt at creepy foreshadowing that foreshadows little or nothing! Over the 10 hours of TV time this season, there’s 10 minutes I’d gladly trade to pick up some of the other lost details that, if casting rumors are true, are going to get slipped in after the fact in Season 3. Trying to cover the first half of SoS while patching holes in ACoK will definitely keep them busy over 10 more hours!

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