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[Book Spoilers] The Whitewashing of Tyrion


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It's becoming more and more apparent with each episode that the show is whitewashing Tyrion's character and presenting him in a much better light morally than the books up to this point. The TV writers have removed almost all signs of his dark side, his cruel, mean and ruthless streak, which is a big part of him in the books. They've removed:

1) Tyrion letting Tymett go unpunished after Varys told him he murdered a man in KL

2) Tyrion slapping Shae (and he's treating her much better in general in the shwo than in the books)

3) Tyrion breaking Maryllion's fingers by stepping on his hand

4) his dreams of turning the Vale into a wasteland because Lysa pissed him off

5) his participation in Tysha's gang rape

It seems that the handing over of the Antler men to Joffrey to execute in his typical sadistic way would not be in the show either.

Apart from working on the side of his family (which means supporting Joffrey) which he didn't have much choice about, since I doubt any of the other claimants would've accepted him if he tried to switch sides, I don't recall anything in the series which show Tyrion in negative light morally.

I don't like this since it makes Tyrion much less interesting character than in the books. Besides, unless the producers have planned huge changes for the plot in the next seasons, Tyrion will commit some really serious crimes in the future, and it would be hard to make those convincing for the viewers after two seasons of presenting him as a morally pure hero whose only fault is being born in the family of the bad guys.

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Oh first off I'm a big Tyrion fan, but see your point. I also think they're underplaying his strategic prowess as others have mentioned. I do think some things will have to change though in the show to show him capable of things he'll do next season.

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For 4, we saw in season 1 that he armed the hill tribes and promised them control of the Vale.

As to 5 there was an episode in season 1 where Tyrion tells Bronn and Shae the story of Tysha and specifically mentions that he went last. Do you want them to show it onscreen? That didn't even happen in the books.

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there's that. there's also the fact that season two hasn't shown him do much intelligent at all. we hear him say that he's good at the game this week. maybe show tyrion has been reading the books, because he hasn't done jack this season to show how good he is. the pycelle thing, yep. since then? nothing. will he later on tell the audience how he saved this city. cause as ofnow , he hasn't actually done much saving

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Also, Symon Silver Tongue's fate is going to be a bit hard to believe, although they may chalk it up to post-battle personality changes, especially if they emphasize him not getting much credit for the victory.

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I always thought Symon comes in SoS? No i'm convinced.

Symon first comes up in COK, where Tyrion just threatens him at the brothel. In any case, my point is this Tyrion doesn't strike me as one that would have Symon murdered the way book Tyrion did. The most callous we've seen him be in KL is what, Allar Deem?

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While I agree they are doing this I also think non readers would leave the show in droves if they actually made him like the book. ITs pretty clear to me that a majority of these people for all their enjoyment of the grey nature of the show want there to be a good guy.

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Tyrion is just way less interestig period. There's so little about his problems with his father, the chain will only show up if it does as something completely out of the blue, and he's not sneaking about the city.

He's cliched out with Shae as well.

At least he slapped joff.

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Also, Symon Silver Tongue's fate is going to be a bit hard to believe, although they may chalk it up to post-battle personality changes, especially if they emphasize him not getting much credit for the victory.

They may also cut Symon's subplot out entirely.

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In the book Tyrion poisons Cersei to keep her from coming to a council meeting but they left that out as well.

The scene between Tyrion and Cersei in this week's episode where he says "I will hurt you for this..." was done pretty well but one thing with the directing disappointed me about it. When Tyrion's back was to her i wanted the camera to show his face with a sneaky smile on it since Cersei captured the wrong girl. In aCoK there was a huge emphasis on the shift of power between the two, especially in this scene in the book that wasnt so obvious to a non-book reader

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As to 5 there was an episode in season 1 where Tyrion tells Bronn and Shae the story of Tysha and specifically mentions that he went last.

No, Tyrion didn't mention this. What he said about Tysha was basically the same as in the books, except the "My father made me go last" part, which was omitted. In the show Tyrion only watched.

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No, Tyrion didn't mention this. What he said about Tysha was basically the same as in the books, except the "My father made me go last" part, which was omitted. In the show Tyrion only watched.

Yeah you're right, I stand corrected. I do agree with your point though.

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FWIW I think they are going to replace the chain with some trick with pig shit as evident by tyrions expression when mentining pig shit to Bronn and Varys

I think the pig shit is just a reference to the wildfire...
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I think the pig shit is just a reference to the wildfire...

i think it will something different but we will see. if pig shit=wildfire there wouldnt have been that ahha moment for tyrion

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No, Tyrion didn't mention this. What he said about Tysha was basically the same as in the books, except the "My father made me go last" part, which was omitted. In the show Tyrion only watched.

I'm still not sure why that was omitted. I thought maybe Tyrion would tell Shae the whole truth this season, but that seems unlikely now. The most ruthless thing he's done this season was throw Pycelle into the dungeon.

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Despised BookTyrion for the reasons you list. I actually like ShowTyrion and want to buy him a tankard of ale. Dinklage is definitely playing a different character. That kind of sucks for him as an actor, because Tyrion is really more of a Don Draper/Tony Soprano/Al Swearengen kind of character. We can root for him, but we should also be disturbed sometimes that we're rooting for a prick.

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