[Book Spoilers] season 2 grade

[CC-Kingmaker]

I feel like as long as Quaithe returns to plague Dany, and maybe a flashback of Jon and Halfhand talking about the plan would greatly improve the meaning of the story.

The Robb/Talisa story was fractured and wrong and I dont have any idea how it can be forayed later

I am very glad that the Reeds' will arrive, otherwise Bran's story would be getting the same complaints.

But overall Season 1 is A, Season 2 is B

[ebevan91]

I'd give it an A- since I watched the TV show before reading the books.

But after reading the books I'll still give season 2 a B. I wanted the chain and a better HotU, as well as a better Jon + Halfhand arc. But I can understand why they cut those out. Chain because of budget and the HotU (I'm assuming) could've given too much away. (Or did the TV HotU give away some other big things?). Oh, and the whole Robb/Talisa thing. Didn't quite like the whole "oh look an enemy medic that somehow got all the way to here from Volantis, lets go bang her!" thing.

But compared to most TV out there, season 2 was an A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Season 1 was A+ before and after reading the books.

[Joyful Union]

Honestly, it think most of the issues people have with this season derive from changes made translating the book to tv. If Breaking Bad was a massively popular book series, the reception would also be severely impacted. Of course if you compare the scope of mammoth books to a 10 hour season the books will come out best. Particularly when the books are so in depth, have such massive scope, and are so brilliantly plotted and organised. This series is not created to fit an avid ASOIAF fan's imagination.

Compared to the books, this season was a C.

But judged as a Television, considering budgetary constraints, and comparing it to other shows, this season was brilliant television, and deserves an A.

[_Oberyn_]

C.(its very generous but Blackwater and Dinklage put alot of weight on the scales )

It was just painfull to watch almost everything get twisted and hacked to fit some imaginary box labeled "this is what we think the audience wants" and in smaller print "with exttra cheese and a layer of softporn for maximum profit".

And enough with the budget/time excuses. Its obviously a problem but does not effect the storyline. Theons story arc its obviously on a budget and constrained by time but still works out great and to the point. By contrast Aryas story gets enough screen time and its mostly wasted.

Half of Jons story gets turned into a monty python sketch, "say no more". And again neither time or budget is an issue.

I cant even begin to understand wtf they were thinking with Robbs story but this is where the producers lost all credibility as book fans. Its simply unforgivable.

The house of the undying was the only part with legitimate budget issues yet it could have been done much better with some creative thinking, but it was poorly handled too.

[One of Three]

Although it wasn't as good as the first season, I did enjoy season 2 more than other people on here. (I did though see season 2 before I finished reading ACoK) Yes they're are something's wrong with it I will admit, some I can see why they changed it whether's it's to do with: having too big a cast (Not including the Reeds despite them being in half of the book, Arya and Tywin scenes etc), wanting to develop a relationship which comes important in the following books (the extra scenes with Jon and Ygritte instead of focusing on the Halfhand) or just plain budget issues (HotU scene).

I do think they could have done more with the Halfhand (even though they included his death, which I got a bit miffed when GRRM just mentions it in passing in ASoS) as he was underused for just appearing in 2 episodes. The main issue I have with it (and as well with the book) is Dany. Now I do like Emilia Clarke and she plays Dany very well, but I don't feel attached to Dany in anyway. The main bulk of the book is about what's going on in Westeros and Dany's story is a kind of 'Meanwhile...' bit and jsut breaks up the story and pace of it. Plus, and more importantly, the character is becoming a bit dislikeable He book/season 1 arc from a timid little girl into a strong woman is fantastic, but in book/season 2 she goes back to being a child albeit a whinny one, "I am the blood of the Dragon and you will give me what I want!" So in the end I couldn't care about her or her story.

One thing I do take issue with is why on earth change Asha to Yara, I know people might confuse it with Osha, but why keep Bronn and Bran? And her character is definitely better in the books, although Gemma Whelon did the job ok and I liked that story she told Theon about when he was a baby, although Asha is a better character in the books.

It's funny I've looking forward to season 3 for ages, but then I saw the overview of season 2 by Elio & Linda, in which 95% of it was them just slagging the whole thing off and it makes me wonder whether I want to see season 3 now :( although I disagree whole heartedly about Lena Heady as Cercei. I think Lena does fantastic in role and I think the scene with her and Robert talking about crap their marriage is in season 1 is one of the best scenes of TV I've ever seen!! The thing with Cercei is that in the books she's just a bitch and it's just slightly touch on why she is one (mostly not until you get to AFfC). In the TV show however, they've just been/chosen to explore why she's a bitch more and therefore portraying he in more sympathetic light, which I think is far better as is ageing all the cast up (Even if it was true in the middle ages, it still doesn't look right having politically savvy 12-15 year olds).

All in all I give it a 7/10 but don't know whether I'm actually ecited about season 3 or not :worried:

[Ran]

I don't see why anyone disliking the show should make you not excited about seeing it, unless you're finding yourself agreeing in retrospect with the reasons for why they dislike it.

[One of Three]

I could see were they were coming from in the majority of stuff what was said and yes a lot of the stuff had truth to it, although they were a tad biased towards the source material which I think was a little unfair on it. It's just disappointing to see the failures of this season, why pretty soon we're going to have far more characters and narratives and seeing that maybe this is going crash and burn at some point.