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Who is Alton Lannister?


Fragile Bird

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I think it's obvious that Alton = Cleos. I don't see why there's even a discussion on the topic. If you've seen the first two episodes, this should also be obvious.

As I stated previously, he's definitly playing the Cleos Frey role, but if it was just a matter of changing him to a Lannister to keep from confusing viewers with having a Frey cropping-up in the enemy camp, then why isn't he Cleos Lannister? Changing him to an entirely different character named Alton is only necessary if he's meant to play some other role beyond the point where Cleos bites it in the books, which -- since we know they're moving part of Jaime's arc from ASoS into the latter half of season 2 -- is likely later this season. If he's not meant, from the start, to be a composite then I don't see why it was necessary to tweak the character so much.

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  • 1 month later...

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Oh, my Evil King, it saddened me greatly that your dream for Ser Alton was was ground under the heal of HBO. We must search for a new hero to praise! Your visions are so pure! Keep faith! We shall meet again! :D

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am I imagining things or did they change Genna's name too?

I don't think he's supposed to be Genna's kid as Cleos was, assuming Genna even exists in the universe of the adaptation. Genna was Tywin's only sister, and close with Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion -- or as close as anyone can be. Maybe present in their lives is a better way to put it. There certainly seemed to be a very strong auntie-nephew vibe in her conversation with Jaime in AFfC. I can't remember exactly, but since Genna and her Frey husband lived in the westerlands and she had such a familiar rapport with Tywin's children, Jaime had to have known Cleos. He did not know Alton, however, having only met him once and very briefly when Alton stepped-up to fill-in and replace his hungover squire at a tourney joust.

Despite the fact that they've stolen Genna's fatness and assigned it to his mother, it seems obvious to me Alton is meant to be a far more distant cousin from a satellite/cadet branch of the family. Also, his name is Lannister, so regardless of Jaime's "only fat Lannister" line, he had to have gotten his Lannister blood through his father, likely a Lannister of Lannisport, rather than Casterly Rock.

Assuming the more prominent of your parent's family names, regardless of whether or not it was your father's, was not entirely unheard of, but usually only occurred when there was something to inherit and no better heir (one closer in birth) living.

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UPDATE TO THE POST ABOVE: I just watched ep. 7 again, in anticipation of the ep. 8 premier in <16 hours. Alton identifies his mother as Cinda, and she isn't the only fat Lannister. The exact dialogue has Jaime asking if she's fat as he's trying to place who she is; Alton starts to answer and Jaime stops him and says "... there's only one fat Lannister and if she was your mother, you'd know it."

So, his mother isn't Genna; and either Genna doesn't exist at all in the TV adaptation or she isn't fat (as Jaime clearly wasn't thinking Alton's mother was an aunt he knows well, but rather a more distant relation).

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  • 1 year later...

Random thought, but instead of Alton talking about being a squire at the tourney for Willem Frey's wedding, it could have been neater if he was Jaime's squire at the Tourney at Lannisport to celebrate the end of the Greyjoy Rebellion. I think non-book-reader fans would have thought it was neat that Jamie fought Jorah Mormont and book-reader fans would have like hearing about it from Jaime's point of view since the Tourney at Lannister has only been brought up in Daenerys POV chapters.

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