Did GoT ruin the image of the characters in your minds?

[thisistherevolt]

I pictured Oberyn shorter and wearing a lot more red.

[Alayne's Shadow.]

Sophie understands Sansa, so I can more likely picture Sansa as her, especially her season 1 and season 2 self. The costumes don't help, though.

[donald*rain]

I imagine all of the book female characters being quite a bit more busty then their show counter parts.

[Civility Reigns]

What do you mean they speak with an American accent? It's a medieval fantasy world based on British nobility. They'd sound REALLY out-of-place if they had an American accent.

I'm of the opinion that the fantasy genre suffers from a severe lack of non-English language and culture, which tragically leaves the hundreds of other cultures that have existed during the Medieval Period alone underrepresented or misrepresented, not to mention those that have existed before and after. An American-esque Medieval kingdom would be wonderful, but to my knowledge no one has ever seriously bothered to conceive one. Worse, English/Scottish/etc. accents are used far too often to create the illusion of fantastical settings or "foreignness" without actually creating anything fantastical, or realistically depicting a foreign culture. That's why Star Wars stuffs random British men in between all the blue elephants and butt-faced creatures, and the ancient Greeks are collectively played by Gerard Butler. It might sound normal to someone who is actually from the British isles, but over here it's an attempt to capitalize on the general ignorance of the masses.

GRRM being an American writer of fantasy seems like the perfect opportunity to inject a little bit of my culture into the setting without compromising the overall vision. It helps me relate to the story better in a way, but it also makes the world of Westeros more interesting than the garden variety fantasy worlds of drunken Scottish dwarves, Irish hobbits, and Hugh Grant elves.

Actually, as I recall, linguistics experts believe "American" accent is more like old english than current British/Welsh/Scott, especially the Southern American variety.

So in that respect sounding American is more authentic to the setting.

This is interesting and, dare I say it, cool. I'm retroactively adding this to my list of reasons why Varys should speak like Tennessee Williams.

[The Mother of The Others]

When show-Hound and show-Roose appeared they felt all wrong but they've since made me forget what my original versions of the characters looked like! My personal Oberyn was a lot more robust like a steroid viper and less romance novel-ish with the hair; he wore something closer to armor while in the city of his enemies, like a fashionably bulbous Dune formal wear armor, dull red and exotic looking. Melisandre is about right, or has earned the job over time with her piercing eyes, just as show-Arya has nudged aside any competition for how I'll picture that character while reading the next book. Robert was, well, true to the bloated Elvis Robert of latter days, but was disappointing because I was always looking to see something more of good ol' Rob the usurper shining through his fat. Show wasn't able to depict him in the different light Ned saw the man in. Uh, the first Daario they had was making me like Daario too much, which is probably the real reason they traded him for Daario 2: The Sequel. (Because Daario 1 was so manly he was starting to take over the show, and pretty soon people wouldn't have cared about Daenerys anymore---viewers would have demanded a full hour of Daario each week. So the showrunners put a stop to that before it got out of hand.) I pictured Stannis with "Am I evil?" facial hair. Finger is good, like a mature Dennis the Menace you can believe is up to no good. Margeary looks too much like Cersei's daughter, it's probably confusing to viewers. I like fish.

[Stibs]

Actually, as I recall, linguistics experts believe "American" accent is more like old english than current British/Welsh/Scott, especially the Southern American variety.

So in that respect sounding American is more authentic to the setting.

The American accent is something like a West country accent, but America has nothing like a Welsh, Scottish or Northern Accent.

The accents in GoT are all to cock anyway. Davos has my North Eastern accent, but his fellow KL inhabitants are all cockneys. Ramsey is a Northerner with a Southern accent. It's quite off-putting actually.

[James Arryn]

Actually, as I recall, linguistics experts believe "American" accent is more like old english than current British/Welsh/Scott, especially the Southern American variety.

So in that respect sounding American is more authentic to the setting.

Well, no. Not exactly. Some linguists have ventured a theory, mostly premised on rhotic v. Non-rhotic consonantal sounds, which supposes that America ( and Canada) are more consistent in some ways and about some sounds, and it's not stressed towards the south, but in fact the farther north the more it applies, in that Canadian accents are a lot more rhotic than Southern accents.

In another strain, Bragg has argued that the Blue Backed Speller in some ways served to affix linguistic propriety in a reflexive way which meant lesser evolution in America, whereas in Britain regional dialects became stronger and stronger. A similar theory is ventured about French Canadian accents vs. accents from France.

But most importantly, saying 'linguistic experts believe' is a misconception, in that they are no more monolithic than in any other field of study.

[DigitalCount]

The biggest deviations for me were Ned, Theon and Oberyn. Now I see the show characters for pretty much everyone, but I can't imagine anything replacing the image of Rhaegar, even if they do flashbacks on the show.

[Wild _Rover]

I dont think they ruined the image of the characters because the descriptions in the books are what the characters look like and the show casts whoever they want, same as they do with the storyline.

That being said the shows Baratheons are and were way to different, especially Robert who was about the same height as Ned when he should have been a mountain of a man.

Davos I pictured diff but Liam Cunningham makes up for it because he's the man and I think one of the best actors on the show.

Oberyn in my mind was that guy from the mummy dont know his name but Pablo Pascal was impessive especially with a spear (in more ways than one)

Asha Greyjoy in my mind was a lot better looking than on the show.

There's more but I cant nit pick all that much.

[Dofs]

I've read the books only after watching 3 seasons and tried quite hard to change the faces of the actors in my mind with faces that match book descriptions. The hardest ones for me were Bran, Jon, Bronn, Tywin. The easiest was Cersei.

[Inigo Sand]

I had read up to the end of ASOS before watching any of the series, and the only characters I can think of that really jarred were Mance, Shae and Yara/Asha - just completely different to how I imagined them. So was Cersei, though I can go with Lena Headey's version, and Ramsey, who I saw as ugly and menacing, though Iwan Rheon works equally well in a different way. Otherwise I can go either with my original conceptions or with the show versions. I had imagined Arya as stick-slender and athletic, but now I can only see her as Maisie Williams plays her, and series Tyrion and Tywin have replaced my imagined/GRRM's described versions - in the case of Tyrion I'm not sure that works entirely well for the book, though I like Peter Dinklage's portrayal of the character as written for the screen.

[naseridrl]

The lack of black hair on the Baratheons put me off. Especially on Shireen for some reason. For me its less about overall looks of characters but keeping those distinctive traits that they have in terms of specific air colour or eye colour that single them out as members of a specific gene pool.

[Lady of Butterflies]

Bran in season 3 and 4. I imagine he as a little boy, but he looks almost a grown up man.

[FreeParking]

I don't put much effort into visualizing the characters in my head. At least not with a series that has so many characters. Daario, for instance, just looks like a swirl of colors. I am more than happy to now see and hear the show characters in my head.

[Gallivant]

I read the books after the show started and expected to visualise the book characters as the TV actors - but it didn't happen, in most cases anyway. I have very strong images now of the book characters and find the TV actors a bit jarring! The exceptions are : Littlefinger, Tywin, Jeor Mormont, Stannis (to a degree), King Robert, Sansa, Sam, Lancel, Khal Drogo and Varys. So I guess that's quite a few TV-infections actually!

Apart from Sansa I see the Stark kids on TV as most at odds with my own imagination, mainly because they are so much older than in the book. Tyrion looks very different (better-looking on TV) and I see Dany as younger too. Iain Glen is VASTLY different to my book-Jorah! And Margery is older and sexier-looking. Melissandre is spot-on. Davos too.

My husband is now listening to the audio books and when I asked him this he said he couldn't push out images of the TV characters, although Tyrion's pronounced Welsh accent has made the one notable difference for him. Overall though I think reading forces you to build the image in your own imagination. The audio book is a completely different experience again - almost midway between the books and the TV show.

[Jasta11]

The Baratheon brothers don't look like what I imagined. I pictured Robert taller/more massive, Renly much stronger, and Stannis with longer hair, albeit the latter works well with his show appearance.

Tyrion and Brienne also look far less ugly than I imagined them, but Dinklage is a good actor and Brienne's actress also does her part well enough that I can overlook it. Tywin I could never take seriously with the sideburns and bald head, so Charles Dance has completely replaced him in my mind.

Also, the younger characters (Sansa, Arya, Bran, Dany especially) being older makes for a more believable story than Arya's 10 years old superninja antics, Bran being very wise at 11 and every single male finding Sansa utterly gorgeous at 12-13.

Overall, I feel that the cast just looks more, well, human than the book characters. Martin has filled his world with several characters who are hideously deformed or almost inhumanly beautiful or have some extremely uncommon characteristics. Since the show can't just make up people like that, they have to cast people who are closer to the average.

[Adam with one D]

Asha/Yara I imagine like Bar Rafael with armour and an axe when I read her.

[Faint]

Asha/Yara I imagine like Bar Rafael with armour and an axe when I read her.

Wow, talk about wish fulfillment. With all respect, Asha is not supposed to look anything like Bar.

[John Carroll]

They made Joffrey and Cersei much more evil and less gray on the tv show. Just saying :read:

I'm sorry, but since when was Joffrey EVER grey? I can see the argument for Cersei-- she doesn't really become comically evil until AFFC, but Joffrey?!?!

[James Arryn]

I'm sorry, but since when was Joffrey EVER grey? I can see the argument for Cersei-- she doesn't really become comically evil until AFFC, but Joffrey?!?!

I think they made Joff more evil and Cersei less so. They clearly reassigned most of Cersei's more evil early deeds...for example the bastard massacres...to Joff.