Never thought I'd miss Ed Skrein, but...

[AugustusCaesar]

Reading the books, I thought Daario was supposed to be a "badboy", hence why Dany fell in love with him. I don't get that feeling at all with the new Daario. It was a horrible choice from HBO to pick this actor, but I will wait and see to make a final remark.

Does anyone know why they dropped the old Daario? Contract issues?

[Ser Desmond Wine's Bane]

Reading the books, I thought Daario was supposed to be a "badboy", hence why Dany fell in love with him. I don't get that feeling at all with the new Daario. It was a horrible choice from HBO to pick this actor, but I will wait and see to make a final remark.

Does anyone know why they dropped the old Daario? Contract issues?

Yes, he was Dany's 'badboy' phase in the books - and it was problematic because it turned people off her. Viewers are already frustrated that she isn't in Westeros yes. Having her go through the same 'bad boy fling' would just pile more frustration on. They need the romance to appear to be a justifiable cause for her delay.

Lots of rumours including his wanting more money but nothing officially stated and unlikely to ever be anything released on the matter.

[ground_control]

Looking up at the comment, I see the error of phrasing it this way. I don't mean fearing change, I mean disliking change just because its changed. This new guy is extremely better considering the last guy had minimal lines and a wooden delivery of them. New guy seems to exume a subtle confidence and attraction to Dany that the old guy did not have. And his looks are much more natural-looking than last year's wighead.

Also, I definitely think judgment should be reserved for more scenes with him other than these two we got that were closer to book Daario than last season.

No need to reserve judgment when the evidence is already before us. I just think the new guy makes a lousy Daario. S3 Daario had an exotic enough look without being the clown described by Martin, and pulled off the bad boy attitude well enough. S4 Daario looks like a random Westerosi extra, and I get no "bad boy" vibe from him.

It doesn't help that his scenes are pulling down Grey Worm, either.

[Koi No Yokan]

Does anyone know why they dropped the old Daario? Contract issues?

He inquired after Conan Stevens.

[Koi No Yokan]

It doesn't help that his scenes are pulling down Grey Worm, either.

What, one harmless scene with a bit of light-hearted banter?

[Esa1996]

Both were great. The problem is that they never should have changed the actor.

[Black Wolf Smith]

To the OP, I thought much the same. He did few things right, but the new guy, is even more wrong then he was.

[Nictarion]

and by the way, I remember the book as establishing Grey Worm as brother to Missande. It is easy to get things wrong, but this is what I remember. I think Daario was picking up on his interest in his sister.

Grey Worm isn't her brother.

[Iron Victory's Captain]

Could it be that they changed the actor in somewhat of a more 'likeable' guy because the HBO series will have a different ending than the books?

I can't help but think that the HBO version will push Danaerys as the ultimate hero-queen of Westeros (vs the White Walkers) and to keep her image clean she needs a prince who is liked by the general public.

[Xcorpyo001]

I think the different opinions we have here stem mainly from the different views we have on the book version of Daario and what our expectations for this character was.

If I where to express all my aspirations in one phrase, it would have been something along the lines of: I want someone that can be in par with Khal Drogo, since after all, this guy is the first one Danny has the hots for since her late husband.

From my interpretation of the book, Danny saw Daario Naharis as a acceptable choice for a sex partner/lover for many reasons: his flamboyance, his bad boy attitude, the fact that he treated her as a woman, and not a god/queen/child like everyone else, prowess in battle, bla bla bla.

So let's have a look at the three Daario we have so far:

1. Book Daario.

Three pronged beard painted in different colors, gold tooth, golden mustache, the hair, the even more flamboyant clothes, gaah.

First impression: "So this is how a mix between a pirate and a clown would look like(25%pirate, 75% clown), and the same mix in attitude to go down with it."

Book Daario is a great way to present the rich culture of the Essos continent, but not much lover material, at least not in the looks department.

I always thought Danny, which is a young girl ruled by her hormones at this point, will chose some good looking guy to have some shallow torrid love affair and dump his ass shortly after, and will stop short of having sex with the pirate clown, but GRRM proved me wrong.

Mega huge downgrade from Drogo.

2. TV Daario 1.0

First impression: "Gods be praised, he's not a clown"

Second impression: "Crap, his face is stuck in one expression, must have studied at the Stalone Arts School, but hey, at least he's not a pirate clown"

Good fighter, attitude close to the one in the book, the only single guy in Westeros and Essos that doesn't have to pay for sex, some chemistry with Danny(would have been more with some better acting)...the perfect guy for a fling/one night stand.

I could see a teenage hormone ruled Danny falling for this guy, and the fact that 99,(9)% of the male population surrounding her is made out of eunuchs is a big plus for him

Still a downgrade from Khal Drogo.

3. TV Daario 2.0

First impression: "Ohh, I did not knew Jorah had a younger brother!"

Second impression: "Wow, dude looks old"

Third impression: "This is not my Daario!!!!"

The guy does not stand out: too northman, too bland, too average looking guy. Clown or no clown, the guy needs to stand out, and this one fails in that department

In the looks department, he has a beard, which is a plus. The beard is not painted like a damn rainbow, which is another plus, at least from my point of view.

As for his scenes, lol. The only "chemistry" Danny and him had was in his lecture(a freaking lecture..so hot) about plants and their medicinal properties. If not for that beautiful blue rose he had in his hand, I would have skipped that part. He almost ruined that awesome moment for me as well.

Honestly, the only way this guy could be hot is if someone put him on fire.

Maybe it's because I'm a straight guy and don't have the same scale for grading dude hotness the girls seem to have.

I won't even try to compare him with Khal Drogo..it would be like kicking a puppy.

Many people here joke about Jorah being stuck in the friend zone with Danny. Well, in that scene with the lecture about flowers and their medicinal properties, Daario 2.0 managed to surpass even that standing and landed in the wise councilor/father figure zone(the age difference helped him here), which is far far worse.

If I were to put odds on Danny spreading her legs and doing a meereenese knot for any of the people in her party, it would be:

(Khal Drogo(RIP)>)MIssandrei(yup, I went there)>Daario 1.0>Jorah>Grey Worm(+sex toys)>Daario 2.0>Selmy>random unsullied(+sex toys)>random slaver>random slave>Pycelle>book Daario(yup, I really don't like clowns).

What do we say to the chance of Daario 2.0 getting out of that huge hole he dug himself in and become every women's expectations about how the perfect lover should look/act: not today!

So far, from the three Daarios we have so far, TV Daario 1.0 came closer to my expectations of how TV Daario should look like, not because he's better, but because the other two are a worse pick for what I want to see. But then again, there are a lot of different opinions, and maybe someone actually hit the jackpot and got their dream Daario with this one.

Anyways, the guy is a good actor, and I guess it could have been worse.

[Darryk]

New guy is way better IMO. The old guy was all smug arrogance, the new guy is roguish but likeable.

Obviously Daario from the books isn't a popular character so a lot of fans don't actually want him to be likeable, but it works better for the TV show since he is going to be Dany's love interest.

[El Guapo]

I think we also have to remember that tv Dany is about 4-5 years older than book Dany and it is quite possible that the showrunners felt that having tv Dany being attracted to a clownish "bad Boy' book Daario wouldn't translate well to the show. If that is the case I agree with them.

[Theda Baratheon]

Where's his flamboyancy?? They're making him ''nice'' and Daario isn't nice, he's a confident, showy, asshole who Dany wants because he oozes his own sort of charm. This guy is just nice....

WHY IS THERE NO BLUE STREAK AT ALL FFS??

[Cas Stark]

I think we also have to remember that tv Dany is about 4-5 years older than book Dany and it is quite possible that the showrunners felt that having tv Dany being attracted to a clownish "bad Boy' book Daario wouldn't translate well to the show. If that is the case I agree with them.

I don't know about "clownish" but women of all ages continue to be attracted to good looking bad boy assholes. LOL. Ed wasn't even clownish. This guy is drab, he's the Westerosi version of a red shirt.

[toffeejay]

Reading the books, I thought Daario was supposed to be a "badboy", hence why Dany fell in love with him. I don't get that feeling at all with the new Daario. It was a horrible choice from HBO to pick this actor, but I will wait and see to make a final remark.

Does anyone know why they dropped the old Daario? Contract issues?

Aparently they had to go back over all of his scenes and edit and redub his voice because his accent changed in every scene. Supposed to have been a complete nightmare for the sound team. (could have fixed Littlefinger while at it!)

Season 3 looked like a Ken doll who'd just had electric shock therapy. Awful actor.

Season 4, looks the part of sell sword, better actor but... he's just not got anything that the character needs. Just to dull.

Not impressed with either but at least its a character nobody likes anyway.

[Darryk]

Could it be that they changed the actor in somewhat of a more 'likeable' guy because the HBO series will have a different ending than the books?

I can't help but think that the HBO version will push Danaerys as the ultimate hero-queen of Westeros (vs the White Walkers) and to keep her image clean she needs a prince who is liked by the general public.

Or maybe they recast him because they know where GRRM intends to take the story. Since we have no idea where Daario's arc goes, we can't know whether they've changed him because they intend to take things in a different direction, or because they're simply sticking to the plan laid out for them by GRRM.

I don't think the show will have a different ending from the books, and people are exaggerating their "whitewashing" of Dany anyway. The show simply hasn't gotten to the stage where her character becomes darker, and she's nowhere near as dark in the books as many make her out to be anyway.

[Phonzadellika]

Old Daario was better. New Daario is terrible so far.

They could have made the transition a little easier by putting a blonde wig on new Daario and making him shave so he at least sort of, from a great distance through a muddy window, resembles old Daario to make his initial appearance in the show less jarring.

That said, Old Daario had the attitude right. It's a shame he's gone.

[Theda Baratheon]

Yeah, the way he was just there and they were just calling him Daario like nothing had happened was so jarring, they could have had a small scene with him doing something to his hair at least, ugh.

[Cas Stark]

Ed wasn't that good of an actor, but he did get the roguish charm and over the top personna part of the character right.

Daario 2.0 is so bland, if you are going to go for a super bland guy with no personality, just have at it with Mormont, he's actually got more charisma.

[Jehanne]

I'd have to say Dario 1.0 was better, too.

Dany is a larger-than-life character- mother of dragons, has a destiny, etc

Dany would only fall for someone else who is "different" and stands out, and Ed Skrein did. He was gorgeous, and had a great voice with a very sexy accent. He seemed arrogant and somehow untouchable, like Dany.

This new Daario, I'd have to agree with someone else's post, looks a pair of glasses away from some company's IT department.