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Adaptational Attractiveness in GoT (Tv Spoilers)


Ocelot

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In the TV show GoT, 3 key characters exhibit Adaptational Attractiveness which, in my opinion, subtly changes their characters from the books:



!) Tyrion: Book!Tyrion in addition to being a dwarf also has a hideously deformed face. In the Battle of the Blackwater he loses his entire nose rather than just getting a scar. Why is this important? B/c Tyrion's physical ugliness is a key reason why ppl treat him so badly and tend to assume the worst of him. Book!Tyrion notes that of all the women he's slept w/, Tysha was the only one who loved him and not his gold. Sansa realizes that he is kind to her and appreciates his kindness but is physically repulsed by him. Peter Dinklage is a dwarf but his face is actually rather handsome; I wouldn't mind sleeping w/ him, nor would many other women, possibly including Sansa.



2) Brienne: Book!Brienne is also very ugly and this, not merely the fact that she is a woman knight, is why she is often treated so badly. Gwendoline Christie is average-looking, not ugly, so TV!Brienne is not such a pariah.



3) Jorah: The first thing Dany observes about Jorah when she first meets him is that he is "not handsome." She knows that he is in love w/ her, but she does not reciprocate mainly b/c she finds him physically unattractive. A man's looks are important to Dany. It's harder to believe that she would reject Iain Glen.


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In the TV show GoT, 3 key characters exhibit Adaptational Attractiveness which, in my opinion, subtly changes their characters from the books:

!) Tyrion: Book!Tyrion in addition to being a dwarf also has a hideously deformed face. In the Battle of the Blackwater he loses his entire nose rather than just getting a scar. Why is this important? B/c Tyrion's physical ugliness is a key reason why ppl treat him so badly and tend to assume the worst of him. Book!Tyrion notes that of all the women he's slept w/, Tysha was the only one who loved him and not his gold. Sansa realizes that he is kind to her and appreciates his kindness but is physically repulsed by him. Peter Dinklage is a dwarf but his face is actually rather handsome; I wouldn't mind sleeping w/ him, nor would many other women, possibly including Sansa.

2) Brienne: Book!Brienne is also very ugly and this, not merely the fact that she is a woman knight, is why she is often treated so badly. Gwendoline Christie is average-looking, not ugly, so TV!Brienne is not such a pariah.

3) Jorah: The first thing Dany observes about Jorah when she first meets him is that he is "not handsome." She knows that he is in love w/ her, but she does not reciprocate mainly b/c she finds him physically unattractive. A man's looks are important to Dany. It's harder to believe that she would reject Iain Glen.

Yeah, they are supposed to be ugly in the books and aren't in the show, and this does matter. However, it does matter as much as you think in some cases.

Namely: it's perfectly possible to not be attracted to and not want to sleep with someone despite their good/decent looks and good/decent personality, because you're just not into them. One doesn't have to defend lack of attraction to someone; nor is it something one can change if they want to. (Contrary to what Margaery tells Sansa in that BS scene... no, you can't make yourself be attracted to someone because Margaery tells you you should be.)

And in Sansa's case, she had so many other reasons not to want to sleep with him, which I hope I don't have to repeat, they have been stated lots of times and should be pretty obvious.

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Ygritte is also another example. In the books, she's described as not conventionally beautiful, with messy hair, crooked teeth and a pug nose. Whereas in the show, she's played by the beautiful Rose Leslie. Regardless, I think Rose Leslie was a great choice for Ygritte. Littlefinger is as well. He's never described as being handsome in the books, but many girls seem to find Aidan Gillen attractive. I personally think he's alright, but whatever floats your boat.



There's a lot of examples of this trope actually, as well the inverse (characters who are more attractive in the books). Loras and Renly spring to mind.



But Tyrion's adaptational attractiveness really changes his character, although it's more so the writing that changes him. Sansa's marriage to Tyrion in general is far more tragic in the books, partly due to Tyrion's appearance.



I hate how they don't even try to make Peter Dinklage uglier for his role. I wish they kept his hair light like in Season 1 and the unaired pilot, let him have a beard, and given him mismatched eyes (It's only one contact).They could've at least not have Margaery fangirling over him and his scar. -_-



And I never saw Brienne being as ugly as she's described in the books as well. I always thought it had more to do with her androgynous appearance and her not following traditional gender roles. I'm not saying she'd be pretty by modern standards, but I don't see her as being so tragically ugly as everyone in the books likes to point out. So I don't mind Gwendoline Christie at all. They do manage to make her look plainer in the show than in real life, and I personally think she's a great Brienne. I wish they gave her freckles, though.


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I think its reasonably important in the case of Tyrion (although now this is partly mitigated by the scar) but in the case of the other two its not quite as important, I mean people will still think that Brienne is unattractive, even if her face is average looking in the show and not outright ugly,because she is still like 7 feet tall, and dresses more like a man, and looks massively awkward in anything that looks vaguely feminine.


As has already been said, it could just be that Dany isnt into TV Jorah, I didnt get that Dany's primary motivation for not sleeping with him was his looks anyway. If you look at the character portraits, Brienne and to a lesser extent Jorah look reasonably similar to there TV counterparts. As for Tyrion, its not like they are going to find a dwarf who fits the description of Tyrion perfectly and can act as well. Of course, there are a few things they could still keep, like his mismatched eyes, and interestingly if you look on some the S1 special features, Peter Dinklage does have mismatched eye colour, presumably using some kind of contact lenses, but they must have gotten rid of that.


At the end of the day, I much prefer an actor to be able to act rather than fit the the character description 100%


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With dwarfs and lady giants you are stuck with a great range of acting ability, so there is little point in quibbling whom they chose. Possibly Miranda Hart might be physically more apt, but she is slightly shorter and not seen her dramatic roles.

Jorah is the only one mentioned who really contrasts with the book description, after saying that. I like Iain Glen as Jorah.

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That is why it's called an "adaptation from the books", Some people are dead in the tv show not yet in the books and it still works as it's a tremendous hard work to do an adaptation of such a universe.



The key in a casting process is to answer to the question "Who IS the character?" not "who is suitable?, who can fit?, or who can look like to...? " none of it.



Of course they have a physical idea and try to fit some of it, especially the obvious onces like no one will believe a 5 feet tall skinny actor playing The Mountain.



It's a very very tough process, believe me, as an actor you see directors looking for a small dark haired man and they picked up a tall blond hair guy, they certainly have ideas of what they want but it's just ideas, they want to find "the right actor for the part" which i think they did as i believe in them.



That's why you can be confused by the casting, especially as readers we all have our own perception of the characters, what they look like...etc



There is as much Brienne as readers, and same for every characters ;)


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I don't see the huge deal really. Jorah's "ugliness" does not really inform his character, it's just that Dany notes that he's not particularly handsome which may be a personal preference on her part. Sure Book!Jorah is not the dashing man that Iain Glen is but Jorah's unattractiveness doesn't inform his character very much. It's an interesting detail, sure, but that's about it. Dany was even a little turned on by the kiss she had with Jorah but banished him primarily because of his own pride.

Tyrion and Brienne's ugliness does inform their characters quite a bit in the books but the perceptions of themselves still works in the TV show. Yes, it's a little sad that no-one is ever "too ugly" in film and television but the character arcs don't change that much and here's why for the three characters.

Tyrion: "B/c Tyrion's physical ugliness is a key reason why ppl treat him so badly and tend to assume the worst of him." True, being ugly doesn't help Tyrion's cause but I think the key reason why Tyrion is so mistrusted is because he's a dwarf. Thankfully, we're now living in a world where we're more enlightened as a whole and able to look past what is considered "normal" or "common". More people are embracing the differences between all of us as human beings and are able to notice attractiveness and value in people who were stigmatised for far too long. But in many corners of the world and still with many people, there are people who are judged and mistrusted because of their skin colour, sexual orientation, religion, nationality or any disabilities they happen to have. Many people with disabilities, even something like dwarfism, are stigmatised today. It might not be entirely obvious in our politically correct times but dwarves are still the butt of many jokes. Peter Dinklage even acknowledged this in his Golden Globes speech in 2012 when an English dwarf by the name of Martin Henderson was tossed by a drunk at a pub and left partially paralysed. Stigma towards dwarves was even more widespread and open decades ago and you can bet that it was heavily stigmatised in medieval times which Martin's universe parallels.

It doesn't matter that Peter Dinklage's Tyrion is handsome. In medieval times, they didn't have the understanding of science and genetics that we have today. So much was based off superstition. Here's the Lannister family...they produce this beautiful, able bodied, tall golden haired family and then this dwarf "kills" his mother coming out of the womb. Tyrion is still "lesser" when compared to a dashing knight like Jaime or a beautiful maiden like Cersei. Dwarves are and were a rare occurrence and would have been seen as highly unusual. Some would have found it weird or unsettling that you've got an adult that grows no taller than a child. Then there's all the folk tales about diminutive fairies and elves who trick and manipulate heroes who do awful and unsettling things to the hero and the ones the hero loves.

As for Sansa, she is a girl in her early to mid teens. I think most teenage girls would go for handsome, privileged, tall dudes like Loras or Joffrey (post execution) who are only a couple of years older over a much older man whose family have carried out horrible crimes against her family. It doesn't matter how handsome Show!Tyrion is, Sansa is still going to be interested in someone who is closer to her in age and fits into a more conventional version of handsome.

It's great that we live in reasonably enlightened times where we're able to look past things others refused to look past years ago and people recognise the awesomeness of Peter Dinklage but stigma towards dwarves hasn't gone away and was certainly much worse back then. Book!Tyrion's ugliness and subsequent maiming certainly adds an extra layer of cruelty from the gods but Tyrion born as a dwarf into a family of dysfunctional perfectionists is the true reason why he receives so much grief from family and outsiders. He says as much during his trial in A Storm of Swords.

Brienne: Missing teeth aside, I never read Brienne as being incredibly ugly in the books, it's just that she doesn't fit the conventional standard of attractiveness and has a "mannish" look when all attractive women have flowing locks, smooth skin, elaborate gowns and soft bodies. That fits a very narrow standard for physical attractiveness. The plain Brienne we see in the show would still be shunned in society to some extent. Many men are intimidated by women who are taller and stronger than them and women with androgynous, more male oriented looks are still seen as ugly or off-putting. In terms of crushes on the TV show, I think most people would vote conventionally attractive characters like Daenerys, Cersei, Melisandre, Margaery, Missandei, Doreah, Irri, Sansa, Ros and Shae above a character like Brienne. People might find Gwendoline Christie attractive but I think for the most part that applies to the real life Gwendoline who wears make-up and styles herself in a more feminine way than when she's "uglied" up on the show. Even if Brienne is not as ugly as she is on the show, Jaime would still find her "ugly" because with her muscular tall frame, armour and short hair, she's the antithesis of the thin, gown wearing and long haired Cersei.

Jorah: Iain Glen might be an attractive older gentleman but in Dany's eyes, he's still considerably older than her. Just because someone fits the conventional traits of attractiveness, that doesn't mean everyone will find them attractive. In both the books and the show, I see Jorah almost like the first father figure Dany has ever had. He's offered her wisdom, counsel and advise. He feels like a patriarchal figure to Dany which is why his attraction to her feels a little unnerving as she's still so naive in many ways.

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