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[Book & Show Spoilers] Too much King's Landing?


Black_Goat

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Okay, I'm not a big fan of the show for many complex and probably petty reasons, but I am willing to admit that massive changes need to be made in order to boil ASOIAF down for television (whether it should ever have been adapted in the first place is a different question). It seems to me, however, that David and Dan's biggest problem is that they're afraid to stray too much from King's Landing. This wasn't an issue in the first season, but it started to become one in the second, and really reared its head last year. Judging by the first two episodes of season four, the trend is going to continue.



Now, King's Landing features many of the show's best actors. It's at the center of much intrigue. And it would be perfectly fine if it were receiving simply a plurality of screentime, more than any of the other storylines individually. But it's now receiving a majority of screentime - more than all the others put together - and that's going to hurt the show in the long run. ASOIAF is about - primarily - the War for the Dawn, and the Song of Ice and Fire. The buildup to those elements takes place primarily in the non-KL stories, many of which (Jon, Bran, Stannis) have never really been given their due or handled well in the show, while others (Arya, Dany, Theon) have been inconsistent at best. Thoughts?


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Okay, I'm not a big fan of the show for many complex and probably petty reasons, but I am willing to admit that massive changes need to be made in order to boil ASOIAF down for television (whether it should ever have been adapted in the first place is a different question). It seems to me, however, that David and Dan's biggest problem is that they're afraid to stray too much from King's Landing. This wasn't an issue in the first season, but it started to become one in the second, and really reared its head last year. Judging by the first two episodes of season four, the trend is going to continue.

Now, King's Landing features many of the show's best actors. It's at the center of much intrigue. And it would be perfectly fine if it were receiving simply a plurality of screentime, more than any of the other storylines individually. But it's now receiving a majority of screentime - more than all the others put together - and that's going to hurt the show in the long run. ASOIAF is about - primarily - the War for the Dawn, and the Song of Ice and Fire. The buildup to those elements takes place primarily in the non-KL stories, many of which (Jon, Bran, Stannis) have never really been given their due or handled well in the show, while others (Arya, Dany, Theon) have been inconsistent at best. Thoughts?

I completely agree. But it's not just KL centered. I noticed that they really like to concentrate on the Lannisters moreso than the Starks. And maybe I can understand since they might find them more interesting but it hurts the story. Because learning about how Tywin treated Jaime's dyslexia isn't nearly as important as learning about the Tower of Joy, the Knight of the Laughing Tree, the Great Other and the AA prophecy.

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Yep, absolutely agreed. I felt this way about season 3 as well. Most of the stuff that happens there is just snarky one-on-one conversations, and it's gotten so boring and repetitive. It wasn't a problem in seasons 1 and 2, since there was a lot of plot to cover in KL and they couldn't afford to waste much time on trivial pointless conversations, but ever since they split ASoS into two seasons, they've really dragged stuff out, and are thinly spread for actual events to fill the time in KL, so his means they have to invent a lot of non-canon short conversations, and they just suck now. I think that D&D favour the characters in KL most, so that's why they get the most time. This is gonna have to change for season 5, when

Joffrey, Tywin, Tyrion, Shae and Varys

are all gone from the city.

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but but..... all the cool brothels are in KL!



And there are those magnificently squeaky chairs that are such fun when you drag them around the small council chamber!



/s



Yep one area has received far too much emphasis to the point of invented scenes for minor characters at the expense of what are clearly more important stories.


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I completely agree. Now this was fine in Seasons 1 and 2. In season 1 KL was pretty much the location of the show and even in S2 they had more material to be adapted than any other location. To put things in perspective something like Jon's ACOK arc was adapting 8 chapters, whereas KL in S2 was adapting 24 (15 Tyrion, 8 Sansa and 1 Davos). But in S3, Kingslanding is adapting something like 7 chapters (hard to tell because the book isn't exactly split in one place) and yet I'd say it gets almost the exact amount of screen time. I think D+D are scared that the audiences will lose investment in the show if the focus is taken away from KL (which has the most interaction with major characters.), but it's hurting the show and reducing things to tired filler scenes carried only by snappy dialogue. They need to be a bit braver and learn to wean audiences off KL as the show's main locale, they need to demonstrate that The Wall and Meereen can be interesting stories in their own right if they're developed properly.



Now that said, this is completely justified for the first two episodes of season 4. A lot of stuff is happening so I can accept that extra screen time for the Purple Wedding (and presumably in the aftermath in E3). But after that they need to ease up on the Kings Landing stuff. Tyrion's trial is quite a compact and simple narrative compared to what was going on with him in S2.


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Well, what can I say? Peter Dinklage is popular and he got an Emmy.



The thing with KL is that it reunites mostly of the main characters right now, the rest are mainly paired two and two and there is no much that you can have with that except couple of scenes.



KL: Tyrion, Cersei, Jaime, Tywin, Joffrey, Sansa, Varys and now, the Tyrells and the Martells.


Wall: Jon, Sam.


North: Bran, Joren, Meera.


More North: Ygritte, Tormund


Dragonstone: Stannis, Mel, Davos


Riverrun: Arya, Hound


Essos: Dany, Jorah, Barristan.

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The focus on King's Landing in season 3 is definitely something to complain about, but it's essential for season 4, given how Tyrion-centric the second half of ASOS is. It also sets up Cersei's spiral into madness, Jaime's road to redemption and the conflict with Dorne.



There really is not a lot of source material relating to the Riverlands, Daenerys or any other place apart from King's Landing and The Wall, so I'm all on board on focusing on those aspects of the show, as long as the other settings are done due justice when they're more relevant to the plot.


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I'm very curious as to how KL will be done in season 5, seeing as how a lot of the key players and fan favourites will be gone from there, and it will pretty much leave Cersei as the main character. I wonder if they'll continue to invent heaps of new material, or if they'll shift the focus to other storylines for once.

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I'm very curious as to how KL will be done in season 5, seeing as how a lot of the key players and fan favourites will be gone from there, and it will pretty much leave Cersei as the main character. I wonder if they'll continue to invent heaps of new material, or if they'll shift the focus to other storylines for once.

I think at that point they'll move to a more even spread of KL/The North/Meereen. Or at least they should. On the one hand Cersei is the main POV of AFFC in many ways, so there's a lot for D+D to cover. But on the other hand there are a lot less major characters all interacting with one another and that takes away much of the appeal of KL. I think and hope they'll diversify things.

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Yes the focus on KL in Season 3 was ridiculous but has been necessary so far in Season 4. The only true problem for me is that I feel the 4 core Lannisters have been very flat his season (the actors not the characters).


There seems to be something lacking there and it made the last episode in particular a bit lame. Episode 1 was better because the KL storylines were broken up. But episode 2 was just 1 long drudge after they fully hit the wedding.



Of course we shouldn't have half an episode devoted to a KL storyline again so maybe it won't be as noticeable to me for the rest of the season.



Also I think they divvyed (sp?) up the other storylines in eps 1 and 2 badly. All the non KL scenes in ep 2 were secondary characters. They should have one of Dany, Jon or Arya's storylines in the 2nd ep instead of the first.


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Yeah, it can be a bit much (especially in season 3), but on the other hand, Bran's and Dany's storylines are, IMO, downright tedious in the books as well so I can't blame the producers for wanting to focus on other storylines more (they have no excuse for what has become of Stannis' arc, though)


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All Tyrion did in season 3 was get married yet he still somehow had the most screentime.

Yeah, that really annoyed me. By all rights Arya should have been the main character of season 3, since she has the most chapters at that part of the book by far, and does probably the most stuff and travels the furthest and meets the most new people. But no, she was limited to one scene an episode most of the time. Instead of her going to Stony Sept, or meeting the Ghost of High Heart, or talking to Edric Dayne, or ambushing the Brave Companions with the Brotherhood, she went to an inn then a cave, and that covered six episodes. Meanwhile in King's Landing no one did fuck all until a minor event (minor in the big picture) happened in episode eight. My goodness, this show can drag very little material out for a long time when it wants.

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^At least until Meereen becomes the new KL. They already did a good job in Two Swords of adding some intrigue into the Wall storyline. If they apply politicking to the storyline and there are enough main cast members there, I'm sure they'll be more comfortable with these until-now fringe locations becoming focal points.


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I actually want more focus on Meereen. The show has this cool opportunity to flesh out the Ghiscari and that whole business into something we can get interested in. Tyrion will wind up in that neck of the woods so maybe~



Once more characters get toward the Wall, there will likely be more focus on it. I hope so anyway. I need my Jon being LC badassery.


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one of the many reasons i think the show is going to start to fall apart in the coming seasons, when things seriously slow down in kings landing and we get the major plot developments occuring all over the world.



i cant imagine how they plan to hold things together when we get introduced to the dornish court and everything leading up to, and following the king's moot.



i sincerely believe theres going to be a major drop off in quality soon


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one of the many reasons i think the show is going to start to fall apart in the coming seasons, when things seriously slow down in kings landing and we get the major plot developments occuring all over the world.

i cant imagine how they plan to hold things together when we get introduced to the dornish court and everything leading up to, and following the king's moot.

i sincerely believe theres going to be a major drop off in quality soon

Oh, I agree about the drop of quality, but I don't think it's gonna be King's Landing's fault. If anything that place gets even more interesting with Cersei calling the shots and failing at everything, with her council of morons and traitors. Not to mention her rivalry with Margaery, the Faith, etc. It's gonna be glorious

But yeah, if the show is going to suffer I think it's gonna be because of the Dany, Tyrion and Dorne future arcs

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