DornishSnake

To be clear: it does count as a (very) significant change to make these "big reveals" 3 books earlier. Also totally unnecessary and for the worse. In addition to reveals being made so early, the HBO Stannis/Mel scene is not remotely consistent with his character in the books. Stannis and Mel may have had sex, but I doubt very much it's because Stannis can be seduced in under 30 seconds like a teenage virgin, or that he did it because he "wants an hier" and/or because his "wife is sick." HBO needs to recognize the difference between Stannis and a teenage John Edwards.

HBO defenders of the Stannis and Mel scene: we're at book 2, not book 5. You cannot seriously argue that HBO is just as mysterious and subtle as GRRM because in book 5 something is revealed. We're at book 2! GRRM milked that mystery and subtely for years. HBO milked it all of 0 seconds with its ham-handed approach. It's the equivalent to watching a Sherlocks Holmes movie where the killer is revealed in the first minute. Then defending it by arguing it makes no difference because Conan-Doyle reveals him anyway...on the last page. Maybe it'd also be OK if HBO told us who ends-up on the Iron Throne?? Because, after all, GRRM no doubts reveals that too...in book 7. Sometimes people make me wonder.

What's wrong with the Stannis scene? Well, let's see. His entire character is based on him being this slave to duty and virtue, and in one of our first scenes with him he's an oathbreaker to his wife, cheating on her because she's "sick." Remember when John Edwards did that? Really screams a persons of honour and duty. Second - how he did it. A spur of the moment decision. Again, simply screams Stannis. And worse, a spur of the moment decision clearly driven by temptation, selfishness, and -- if I'm being GENEROUS -- a bloodlust for power (giving him "an heir."). Who is this character??? So, regardless -- even if Stannis had sex is the book with her, it wouldn't have been anything like this. Couldn't have been. But third and most important, the book is NOT clear that they had sex at all. You wonder. You consider. You debate with your friends. There's some mysetery there. **There is NO mystery in the HBO series, ever.** Everything is constantly being smashed over your head, like the viewers are idiots. This excuse about "medium" differences is also getting old. There have been great, multi-deminsional, suspenseful, complicated plots AND characters in TV. Battlestar Gallactica: Bill Adama and basically every character on the show. Most characters from LOST. Deadwood, The Wire. Game of Thrones the TV show and its characters don't stand up to any of those shows. In a story that was based on mystery and complicated characters, every bit of mystery and every complicated part of a character is being systematically removed. There was NO reason for that Stannis scene. Had NOTHING to do with "medium changes." The only reason it's in there is because HBO thinks it would get higher ratings if Stannis has hot, passionate sex scenes with a hot wizard, rather than if he didn't. The fact that Stannis the character would never have a hot sex scene -- and certainly not on the "spur of the moment" -- doesn't matter. This character is NOT Stannis, and HBO doesn't care. Last... the dialogue. Why is there so much of it? Non-stop chatter. Where is a bit of silence, where it's just the camera and a character? Where their face shows what they're thinking, or better yet.. you wonder what they're thinking? In the Cersei and Tyrion scenes, those great actors have the good sense to at least pause in between sentences. In the others, it's just rapid fire, back and forth, endlessly, for the hour. I don't blame them. The writers have given the task of conveying everything by words, nothing by facial expressions or emotion. Is there ever going to be a scene that can compare with Bill Adama crying alone in his quarters? A scene that can compare with any of the LOST characters having a moment to themselves, where you don't know what they're thinking but want more than ever to find out? Will HBO ever give us a scene like that? Like heck they will. Even though George gave them a raod-map to many scenes like that, and better, in the books. And don't tell me there's too much story to get through. There is also no rule that HBO had to do an entire book in one season. They could've developed the plot far more than they have. Look how slowly LOST was developed. Look how slowly GEORGE developed THIS story in the books! The books aren't thousands of pages for George's good health. They are thousands of pages because ALL good stories, especially this one, must be told at a certain pace. Here? Here Theon is tasked to go to his father's to get reinforcements and is there 5 minutes later, with his answer in hand. 0 suspense was able to build in that time. An outrage. The HBO show feels like point form notes, where getting through the plot is more a mechanical chore for the writers than a joy. And the audience can feel it. The first book alone could have, and perhaps should have, taken several TV seasons. Instead, HBO handcuffs themselves by trying to tell a 1,000 page book in 10 episodes, then complains they have to tell the story poorly because they were handcuffed. It's their own fault they're handcuffed, how can it be an excuse! Why do people buy that excuse? Frankly, I was embarassed by this episode. I haven't liked the HBO series at all so far. But this episode I didn't know what I story was watching, and didn't like it. An emabarassing disaster. If I'd never read the books, this is the type of story I would've laughed at. So simple, NO subtely whatsover. Even, dare I say, PREDICTABLE each and every time they stray from George's plot. Oh, let me guess: the hot female wizard gets a sex scene with the King. The execution of the story is brutal; and apart from the Imp and the Queen, all other characters have been dumbed-down so much, that they are no longer interesting. Stannis practically got a labotomy. What a tragedy. And this is just the beginning.