The biggest mistake

[Queenconfused]

In my opinion the biggest mistake made in both the books and the TV series is age. I read that GRRM had intended a five year gap in the books bit found writing it cumbersome.

My point is that I wish that the books started with the characters the age they are in the TV series. And, more importantly, it would have made sense to have the characters in the TV series start put younger (and perhaps include the full five year gap?) do that we didn't overtake the books.

[imaginepageant]

There were legal reasons for aging everyone up. They couldn't depict people under the age of sixteen in the countries they were filming (I believe? or possibly the countries in which it would be shown), so they had no choice but to make Daenerys sixteenish, and that set off a domino effect. As she's a little younger than Robb and Jon, they also had to be aged up to keep consistency; then, because they were older, their parents' generation had to be older as well.

In the case of younger major characters like Sansa and Arya and Bran, the hard truth is that kids grow, and there's no way to stop that for a television show, so more time seems to be passing on the show than in the books. However, Sansa claimed to be fourteen in season three, meaning less than two years had passed from the start of the series to that point, which is in line with the books. I think some amount of hand-waving has to be done to excuse the younger actors looking older than they should be.

[yxalitis]

I think OP needs to lookup the definition of the term "biggest mistake", take a big glass of Chill juice, and don't worry about it.

[A Mulligan Of Ice And Fire]

To me it actually made sense to age them up. As imaginepageant stated, kids tend to grow which cause notable differences in their physical appearances. Luckily it seems that Masie Williams and Sophie Turner haven't changed much, but Bran hit puberty hella hard. But in the grand scheme of things, Bran was also depicted as that age when all that stuff starts happening, and therefore 2 years is definitely enough time for his body to grow and change. I also have to go back to what imaginepageant said again in regards to aging up under law. Idk about filming laws, but I'm def certain you can't have 13 year old Daenerys having sex on TV. It's not much better if shes supposed to be 16, but I'm guessing theres a loophole there somewhere. Also keep in mind that Jon Snow and Rob would be around the same age. Either way, that would be another reason for the aging up of characters.

Just an extra thought, They might not have been too worried about Isaac Hempstead-Wright aging up from this point forward, considering that they are pretty much caught up with his story line in the book. I'm not gonna give anything away, but growing taller/older may not make a difference for the character from this point forward.

[Lion_Eyes]

I think the aging up of the characters has had a mostly beneficial affect of the stories if anything.

Bran: To find a 7 year old actor strong enough to carry off Bran's storyline would have been a remarkable feat plus I think could have come across as children's film like and a little cheesy.

Arya: Domino effect really plus somehow a slightly older Arya killing people and having a hit list is less disturbing

Sansa: One of few characters who is slightly hindered by the age difference. It makes her seem pretty naive in some of her early views about the royal family and in particular Joffrey. And the whole first period business is a bit awkward when Sophie Turner is already so tall and looks at least 15 by then but it was important for the story. And it gives the writers more to play with in the whole Littlefinger being creepy angle they are routing for without making the actor look like a paedo.

Dany; Completely understandable given her sex scenes and nude scenes in Season 1. Ok in medieval times 13 was considered a woman but for obvious reasons they have aged her up. Plus a 16 year old invading cities would have been on the shadow baby side of unbelievable.

Jon/Robb/Joff: Don't get me wrong Jack Gleeson was perfect as Joffrey but in the book him, Robb and Jon are all roughly the same age. And Jack looks considerably younger than the other two who look a lot more muscular and in their 20s as opposed to teenagers.

Tyrion: Peter Dinklage is perfect for Tyrion (albeit he was about 15 years older than Tyrion when first cast!) and so Jaime and Cersei (who I believe are in their early 30s at the start of aGOT) had to be as well. I know Dinklage was cast first so whether then a conscious decision was made to age up the twins (Nicolaj Coster Waldau and Lena Headey are both younger than him though) or not I don't know but if Joffrey (17/18?) had a 30 year old mother it would have been ridiculous!

Margaery - Hmm this one works and doesn't. Its super creepy that Tommen is married to a woman who is closer to his mum's age than his own! (Ok I am guessing she isn't meant to be quite the same age as Natalie Dormer!) And Marg is meant to be younger than Loras :dunno:

[shadow282]

It doesn't make a significant difference. I doubt anyone is watching going "Hmm, Maisie is a great Arya, but if only she was 2 years younger this show would just be so much better!". Being older actually makes sense for many of the characters, and either way the slight age difference doesn't really affect the story.

[TeamLemonCakeBraavos]

I think the "biggest mistake" regarding the ages on the show was to verbally state that Sansa was only 14 (I don't recall if Arya or Bran have stated their ages on the show). I think this was a mistake because the men in her life aren't as old in the book as they are in the show. The Hound, Tyrion, and Petyr are all older than their book counterparts, so when you age them up, but then leave Sansa relatively close to her book age, it just creates a lot of derisive comments and "pedo" accusations.

[Beric175]

when people discover how to stop the ageing process we'll let you know, at which point you get to gloat but not sooner.

[Mingolla]

There were legal reasons for aging everyone up. They couldn't depict people under the age of sixteen in the countries they were filming (I believe? or possibly the countries in which it would be shown), so they had no choice but to make Daenerys sixteenish, and that set off a domino effect. As she's a little younger than Robb and Jon, they also had to be aged up to keep consistency; then, because they were older, their parents' generation had to be older as well.

I am not sure about legal reasons. Recently i wantched Borgia, and there are plenty of sexscenes of characters who are only 14 years old - Lucrezia and the bride of her younger brother who was fucked and impregnated from her older brother. Netfilx stream this series, so it can not be such legal problem. Or maybe it is censured for US and GB viewers? If anybody watched it on Netflix let me know.

I think the "biggest mistake" regarding the ages on the show was to verbally state that Sansa was only 14 (I don't recall if Arya or Bran have stated their ages on the show). I think this was a mistake because the men in her life aren't as old in the book as they are in the show. The Hound, Tyrion, and Petyr are all older than their book counterparts, so when you age them up, but then leave Sansa relatively close to her book age, it just creates a lot of derisive comments and "pedo" accusations.

I guess Sansa had to be aged as it was, because her first menstruation was part of her storyline. It would be hard to believe if she was 16 on the show, 14 is already bit late. Those pedo accustations are silly, it is how it historically was, and it is wrong term anyway for attraction to teen girls, which is pretty normal and natural. Btw. age of consent in European countries is between 14-16, so either is Europe is full of pedofiles or maybe, maybe it is just normal.

[boojam]

I am not sure about legal reasons. Recently i wantched Borgia, and there are plenty of sexscenes of characters who are only 14 years old - Lucrezia and the bride of her younger brother who was fucked and impregnated from her older brother. Netfilx stream this series, so it can not be such legal problem. Or maybe it is censured for US and GB viewers? If anybody watched it on Netflix let me know.

I guess you didn't notice that none of the actors in the Atlantique Productions of Borgia were actually 14?

This version of the Borgia was sure inferior to the Showtime's The Borgia.

[boojam]

There were legal reasons for aging everyone up. They couldn't depict people under the age of sixteen in the countries they were filming (I believe? or possibly the countries in which it would be shown), so they had no choice but to make Daenerys sixteenish, and that set off a domino effect. As she's a little younger than Robb and Jon, they also had to be aged up to keep consistency; then, because they were older, their parents' generation had to be older as well.

As noted , four years ago, there are not only hard industry restrictions on actors age when the subject matter is adult, but UK labor laws are even stricter.

There were first season, scenes that even had teener actors where there was adult material and the actor was not even there, but edited in later.

[boojam]

In my opinion the biggest mistake made in both the books and the TV series is age. I read that GRRM had intended a five year gap in the books bit found writing it cumbersome.

My point is that I wish that the books started with the characters the age they are in the TV series. And, more importantly, it would have made sense to have the characters in the TV series start put younger (and perhaps include the full five year gap?) do that we didn't overtake the books.

I guess every one knows George was using European middle ages as a template (it could have been up to the 20th century) when children became adults when they were 12 or had reached puberty.

It is really Geroge's responsibility , and kind of mistake in the sense that he has people travel long distances , but foot, horse, ship in unrealistic time scales so that just by the nature of the story by the time he finished SoS everyone should have aged by at least 3 years.

I wish GRRM had of just worked harder at getting the 'passage of time' more realistic.

As I have said , things have happened defacto in the show and I disagree strongly with those think it changes the character of the story to use the older actors in parts.

One can go with the flow of the story on the page with the older actors and everything just fits fine, just ignore the screwed up timeline in the books.

One notices that the 'Mercy' excerpt from WoW has an older Arya anyway. It is very noticeable in season 4 , regardless of the costume, Maisie looks 17 years , so that's that.

[Mingolla]

I guess you didn't notice that none of the actors in the Atlantique Productions of Borgia were actually 14?

This version of the Borgia was sure inferior to the Showtime's The Borgia.

Ofcourse i noticed. But age of actors never was an issue when this topic was discussed, it was about age of characters. If Dany had to be 18 in the first season and if Sansa can have a sex scene now when actress is 18. General consensus was that character have to be 18 for legal reasons, but that does not seems to matter for Borgia.

I disagree about which Borgia(s) were better. Showtime version was a soulless ahistorical soap opera put into fourteen century. Unlike other American productions like Rome or Vikings it completely failed to feel authentic. That European coproduction managed to do that, and even though they had very moderate budget compared to Showtime version, i would say it is a superior version by far.

[scotcat]

I always considered the aging up of the characters to be one of the smartest things the show did.

Apart from the legal requirements regarding kids - could you imagine a 13 year old actress filming Dany's scenes with Drogo? - finding actors the correct age, with the acting chops would be impossible. If they made a mistake at all it was to outright state in some cases how old the characters were - Sansa & Rickon both had their ages stated on screen. On the whole, the aged up actors/actresses have been beneficial to the series. It's not perfect, but on the whole, the choices have been made very well. Among the standouts for me are-

Peter Dinklage is awesome as Tyrion

Jack Gleeson was phenomenal for Joffrey.

I'm on the fence about Natalie Dormer - I'm a fan of the actress, but I think she's too old for the part

NCW is a great Jaime

Maisie Williams is fantastic

Charles Dance - not much more needs to be said really.

These are just my opinions, I'm sure there are many here will disagree with me, but on the whole the cast is phenomenal. Correct ages for the characters or not.