A Look at Valar Morghulis

[Fez]

It's not been cheers all round though. If you go over on the TWOP forums you'll notice that enthusiasm for the show has dwindled quite a bit this season. It's just that the more casual viewers aren't picking up on all the plot holes and poor writing. Compared to most shows this is great afterall, and credit has to go where it's due: To George R.R. Martin for giving them such strong source material that it's good even after it's been soiled, and most certainly not to D+D for making a botch of it.

Season 3 is a beacon of hope for me. Perhaps with 20 episodes to adapt one book they won't feel the need to invent stuff. Doubtful, but we can hope.

I wouldn't even take a broader site then here, like TWOP, as a sign of anything. The ratings are only going up (Blackwater, not withstanding; it was memorial day weekend after all) and its trending higher than ever on Twitter. The show is popular and getting more so and sure while what's popular is not always good; it has clearly been getting even more critical acclaim than last year.

I think it's fair to say that the show is a completely different experience depending on whether you are a non-book reader* or a book reader. For instance, probably, we'd all agree that Arya's storyline in A Clash of Kings was a much more exciting experience than her plot in season 2. That a book reader will regret the missed oportunities here is only logical. Meanwhile, a new viewer who can watch the show without the burden of having to compare everything to the source material, can enjoy Arya's exploits at this toned down flavourless version of Harrenhal.

It's been a good season compared to the rest of TV shows out there? Yes.

The source material had potential for doing a much better show? Yes, too.

I disagree on Arya. While I certainly miss some of her exploits in Clash, I thought her scenes with Tywin were amazing and would be very loathe to see them go for a "purer" version of her story. And I started reading this series in 1999, so let's not start trying to stereotype people who like the show a lot.

I will say (without trying to seem like I'm buttering up the King) that I've always thought Ran has been the most articulate about the problems purists have with the show, and in some cases I even agree with him. I think it would be incredible if there was a bigger sense of the weight of history in the show, and how everyone is really just dancing on strings held by their dead parents (I think there's even a line to that effect somewhere in one of the books). And there can be a lack of mystery and romanticism to the show.

The key difference is that I still think its amazing show without that stuff and already so highly rated by me that I couldn't really even rate it any higher if those elements were better incorporated. I mean, I've seen Kings Landing! I've seen these characters I love come to life! I've seen dragons, and Others, and 3-eyed birds, and Direwolves! And maybe I'm just easily satisfied but that's so much more than I ever could've hoped for for the vast majority of my time as a fan, and so I am content.

[protar]

I wouldn't even take a broader site then here, like TWOP, as a sign of anything. The ratings are only going up (Blackwater, not withstanding; it was memorial day weekend after all) and its trending higher than ever on Twitter. The show is popular and getting more so and sure while what's popular is not always good; it has clearly been getting even more critical acclaim than last year.

Perhaps you didn't read my post properly? Most of the viewers of this show are quite casual and this show is better than most of what's out there, so yes the ratings are going to rise. But if you go to the people that actually pay attention (us, the Unsullied over at the TWOP forums.) you'll see an awful lot of dissatisfaction with this season compared to the last. And while this isn't going to affect the popularity of the show, I'm worried that the show will be dumbed down in an attempt to appease the casual viewers. Which can only end in disaster with a setting like GOT's.

I disagree on Arya. While I certainly miss some of her exploits in Clash, I thought her scenes with Tywin were amazing and would be very loathe to see them go for a "purer" version of her story. And I started reading this series in 1999, so let's not start trying to stereotype people who like the show a lot.

I enjoyed those scenes as well, but really what purpose did they serve? None is what. Tywin just leaves without a backwards glance. And as entertaining as the Tywin/Arya dynamic was, it started to get a bit tiring after the third identical scene (not to mention being very OOC for Tywin.). Arya's scenes in Harrenhal did not convey that sense of dread, nor did they let her take the next step into becoming a cold killing machine.

I will say (without trying to seem like I'm buttering up the King) that I've always thought Ran has been the most articulate about the problems purists have with the show, and in some cases I even agree with him. I think it would be incredible if there was a bigger sense of the weight of history in the show, and how everyone is really just dancing on strings held by their dead parents (I think there's even a line to that effect somewhere in one of the books). And there can be a lack of mystery and romanticism to the show.

The key difference is that I still think its amazing show without that stuff and already so highly rated by me that I couldn't really even rate it any higher if those elements were better incorporated. I mean, I've seen Kings Landing! I've seen these characters I love come to life! I've seen dragons, and Others, and 3-eyed birds, and Direwolves! And maybe I'm just easily satisfied but that's so much more than I ever could've hoped for for the vast majority of my time as a fan, and so I am content.

Yes we've seen those things. But there are also dozens of things, tonnes of magical scenes and amazing pieces of character development that we won't see thanks to D+D.

The quality of this show is no thanks to D+D, it's thanks to Martin. He managed to create such a good source material that even once D+D was done with it, it still came out pretty good. D+D have admittedly had a few successes (e.g Theon's story (and even that they managed to botch at the end.).) but they've been too hit and miss for me to give them any credit. It just gets me riled up whenever I imagine how great it could've been if it had been given to someone who cared :(.

[boojam]

I think it's fair to say that the show is a completely different experience depending on whether you are a non-book reader* or a book reader. For instance, probably, we'd all agree that Arya's storyline in A Clash of Kings was a much more exciting experience than her plot in season 2. That a book reader will regret the missed oportunities here is only logical. Meanwhile, a new viewer who can watch the show without the burden of having to compare everything to the source material, can enjoy Arya's exploits at this toned down flavourless version of Harrenhal.

It's been a good season compared to the rest of TV shows out there? Yes.

The source material had potential for doing a much better show? Yes, too.

I missed Weasel Soup.... otherwise inner thoughts, scrubbing pots and stairs... and caring beer , Geroge can make interesting... verbal dueling with Twyin ... that's a gem of TV entertainment.

[Fez]

Perhaps you didn't read my post properly? Most of the viewers of this show are quite casual and this show is better than most of what's out there, so yes the ratings are going to rise. But if you go to the people that actually pay attention (us, the Unsullied over at the TWOP forums.) you'll see an awful lot of dissatisfaction with this season compared to the last. And while this isn't going to affect the popularity of the show, I'm worried that the show will be dumbed down in an attempt to appease the casual viewers. Which can only end in disaster with a setting like GOT's.

Oh, okay. Well I disagree. Firstly, the Unsullied still pretty big fans to me; when they do complain it seems to usually be about the brutality (that episode with Joffrey and the whores did not go down well), and the books can be far more brutal than the show ever is. And as for dumbing down, I doubt it. The show is getting more popular as is, why mess with the formula? And D&D are big fans of the books, don't ever deny that, this has been their entire lives for something like 6 years. They'll make changes to things when they think it'll work better that way on TV, what they think is a better way to show the story, but they're not going to "dumb it down" to appeal to ratings gains that are already happening anyway.

I enjoyed those scenes as well, but really what purpose did they serve? None is what. Tywin just leaves without a backwards glance. And as entertaining as the Tywin/Arya dynamic was, it started to get a bit tiring after the third identical scene (not to mention being very OOC for Tywin.). Arya's scenes in Harrenhal did not convey that sense of dread, nor did they let her take the next step into becoming a cold killing machine.

Not anything needs to serve a purpose, and not everything in the books does either. Does Brienne's journey in AFFC really add anything for instance? Sometimes scenes are important just for the character moments they provide, and those ones did in spades. I agree that there was probably one too many, but overall I"m very satisfied with that dynamic. As for Arya hersel, sure she's not as sociopathic yet as in the books (and I suspect she'll never go quite as far as she does) but she's still a very hardened little girl. Just look at the way she walks through the gate at Harrenhall; doesn't seem remotely disturbed by all the people killed on her behalf. And she has her death list and she did kill someone last season. She's not the same as she was in the pilot, not at all.

Yes we've seen those things. But there are also dozens of things, tonnes of magical scenes and amazing pieces of character development that we won't see thanks to D+D.

And I disagree. Of course there's stuff missing, its only 10 hours (less since the average run time I think was 52 minutes), but nothing too important. By far the biggest complaints (at least until HotU) was the lack of Reeds and Tullys, and its been confirmed that both are being cast next season; they were just delayed for perfectly legitimate reasons. It might not be a perfect adaptation, but nothing's perfect, and I don't see why people turn against something just because it doesn't have everything they wanted. You wouldn't see anything at all outside your mind's eye and some collectibles if it weren't for the show.

The quality of this show is no thanks to D+D, it's thanks to Martin. He managed to create such a good source material that even once D+D was done with it, it still came out pretty good. D+D have admittedly had a few successes (e.g Theon's story (and even that they managed to botch at the end.).) but they've been too hit and miss for me to give them any credit. It just gets me riled up whenever I imagine how great it could've been if it had been given to someone who cared :(.

If it wasn't for D&D there wouldn't even be a show. And I like I said, how can you possibly say they don't care?!? This show has literally been the only thing they've worked on for about 6 years now. Read/watch their interviews, they're incredibly passionate about this story and have worked incredibly long hours to try to make the best show they possibly could. Martin gave them great source material, yes, but there's a reason why everyone always said it was unfilmable, incredibly Martin himself. D&D deserve an enormous amount of credit for accomplishing what they have.

[GoodGuyA]

People are far too critical on the House of the Undying scene. The meaning it was trying to convey was entirely different here than the vague theorycrafting of the book. Absolutely nothing would have been understood by the TV audience. I don't say that because I think TV audiences are stupid, I don't, but this stuff would never be explained. They have all ready stated their avoidance of flashbacks and given the all ready complex storytelling they're dealing with, you can't blame them. Given that Dany never talks about her experience in the place (and with good reason, though damned if I can figure it out) the audience would have been left bewildered in all the wrong ways.

In this context, it relates more directly to Dany's story in terms that are much more straightforward. No exposition is needed whatsoever. Instead we see familiar pieces: The Throne, King's Landing, The Wall, and Drogo. These convey messages we all ready understand how they relate to Dany. Maybe it would have been cool to see the wolf head, but it means nothing in the terms of Dany's story. Does she even find out about the event? Sure, consequences are far-reaching, but the isolation of Dany's location is the primary theme (at least in the TV show). Don't even get me started on the whole mess Rhaegar would spiral the series into. Just suffice to say that the mystery would be so convoluted and ultimately meaningless to the events of the TV show that it would frustrate viewers.

I'm not saying that things were perfect. I agree with Ran that we need to get headlong on some of the prophetic stuff. The Prince That Was Promised needs, basically, a whole episode to bring us to terms with the situation. It was very confusing that they seemed to be stating that this season would be all about the Red God (The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors) and yet have only a few references overall. I feel like prophecies should be a point where the two series differ though, for the whole situation basically railroads the story into a specific meaning. I don't think the TV show should have to follow that meaning, so long as they follow the spirit of it all, which I think they have. There have been a few missteps along the way, but some of the changes they've made have been great. I don't agree that bringing it closer to the books will guarantee greater storytelling. The tighter they can make the story, the better it will come out as a TV show.

[The Meeraculous Third Reed]

Oh, okay. Well I disagree. Firstly, the Unsullied still pretty big fans to me; when they do complain it seems to usually be about the brutality (that episode with Joffrey and the whores did not go down well), and the books can be far more brutal than the show ever is. And as for dumbing down, I doubt it. The show is getting more popular as is, why mess with the formula? And D&D are big fans of the books, don't ever deny that, this has been their entire lives for something like 6 years. They'll make changes to things when they think it'll work better that way on TV, what they think is a better way to show the story, but they're not going to "dumb it down" to appeal to ratings gains that are already happening anyway.

Look at the Talisa/Robb story and the Qhorin characterisation and tell me season 2 hasn't been dumbed down.

Not anything needs to serve a purpose, and not everything in the books does either.

Are you really saying that Arya's time in Harrenhall "didn't need to serve a purpose"? It's certainly what's being implied.

As for Arya hersel, sure she's not as sociopathic yet as in the books (and I suspect she'll never go quite as far as she does) but she's still a very hardened little girl.

If this is now the criteria for one to be able to enter the Faceless Men, they'll be queuing up around the temple of Black and White soon.

[protar]

Oh, okay. Well I disagree. Firstly, the Unsullied still pretty big fans to me; when they do complain it seems to usually be about the brutality (that episode with Joffrey and the whores did not go down well), and the books can be far more brutal than the show ever is. And as for dumbing down, I doubt it. The show is getting more popular as is, why mess with the formula? And D&D are big fans of the books, don't ever deny that, this has been their entire lives for something like 6 years. They'll make changes to things when they think it'll work better that way on TV, what they think is a better way to show the story, but they're not going to "dumb it down" to appeal to ratings gains that are already happening anyway.

Not anything needs to serve a purpose, and not everything in the books does either. Does Brienne's journey in AFFC really add anything for instance? Sometimes scenes are important just for the character moments they provide, and those ones did in spades. I agree that there was probably one too many, but overall I"m very satisfied with that dynamic. As for Arya hersel, sure she's not as sociopathic yet as in the books (and I suspect she'll never go quite as far as she does) but she's still a very hardened little girl. Just look at the way she walks through the gate at Harrenhall; doesn't seem remotely disturbed by all the people killed on her behalf. And she has her death list and she did kill someone last season. She's not the same as she was in the pilot, not at all.

And I disagree. Of course there's stuff missing, its only 10 hours (less since the average run time I think was 52 minutes), but nothing too important. By far the biggest complaints (at least until HotU) was the lack of Reeds and Tullys, and its been confirmed that both are being cast next season; they were just delayed for perfectly legitimate reasons. It might not be a perfect adaptation, but nothing's perfect, and I don't see why people turn against something just because it doesn't have everything they wanted. You wouldn't see anything at all outside your mind's eye and some collectibles if it weren't for the show.

If it wasn't for D&D there wouldn't even be a show. And I like I said, how can you possibly say they don't care?!? This show has literally been the only thing they've worked on for about 6 years now. Read/watch their interviews, they're incredibly passionate about this story and have worked incredibly long hours to try to make the best show they possibly could. Martin gave them great source material, yes, but there's a reason why everyone always said it was unfilmable, incredibly Martin himself. D&D deserve an enormous amount of credit for accomplishing what they have.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how they can care giving the changes they have made. And they certainly haven't understood the source material. I've seen some of their interviews and they're saying things like "Jon lacks a father figure" or "Jaime is a monster" or "Robb slept with Talisa because he was fed up of being honourable." These books are open to interpretation but some interpretations just aren't true. I'm sure they've read the books and liked them well enough, but fans? Absolutely not. No one who's payed any attention to the books can misinterpret them on that level.

And if we look at the changes, hardly any of them are actually necessary for time or budgetary reasons. Would having Jeyne Westerling for example been any harder, more expensive or time consuming to film than Talisa? No. Was Ygritte's boner talk better TV than Jon and Qhorin's mentor relationship? No. Was there any reason to have Dagmer "completely different from the books jaw" filling Ramsay's role when they could just as easily cast someone as Ramsay? No, no, no, no no! No reason. You may disagree and you have every right of course, but the days when I thought D+D cared about ASOIAF are long gone. The reason they've been working on this for 6 years and are so passionate about it is because it's getting them dumptrucks of money so far as I'm concerned.

(Sorry for getting so ranty, but I just needed to vent my frustration.)

[TheDarkOne]

Here's what I would ask people to do...take a look at the life cycle of True Blood.

It came to HBO as a very popular series of books, very dedicated fan base, and went right to the moon. The first season saw HBO getting some of the highest ratings ever for any show they ever had on. Yeah, a few things were changed from the books but not really that much.

Then you get season 2. The book fans start to growl loudly because the show started to take more and more liberates with characters, plots, and shoe horning in gratuitous sex scenes (sound familiar?).

As we enter season 5, the hardcore book fans no longer even recognize the show. Unbelievably most if not all of the plot this year is "original material" developed by HBO using characters from the "True Blood" universe. Ratings plummeted last year, general interest is down over all, and the hard core fans of the source material have abandoned ship. It looks like this is the last season. Even Alan Ball has had enough and is resigning.

It would be nice to see GoT not go down this path, but alias it already is. Now, more than ever, is when real fans of this material need to voice there opinion and let their complaints be heard loud and often. Perhaps it will do no good, but I have a feeling web sites like this might be under observation by the creative forces much more than people might think. There's nothing wrong with sound valid criticism, and the season finale is ripe with opportunities for that in almost every story line. They found a way to annoy the Stannis fans, Danny's fans, Ayra's fans, ruin Robb's wedding, make the burning of WInterfell a complete disaster etc. etc.

As annoying as that is however, I find it even worse that so called fans continue to make excuses for HBO and then try to paint people who have been fans of this material for over 15 years appear to be nit pickers and impossible to please.

I never thought that at the end of this season the best performance of the entire finale would be a horn blower that was off screen.

[GoodGuyA]

As annoying as that is however, I find it even worse that so called fans continue to make excuses for HBO and then try to paint people who have been fans of this material for over 15 years appear to be nit pickers and impossible to please.

But we are! :P

In all seriousness, we are truly too nitpicky. The thing is that we argue thematic elements of "This character would never do that" or "This event is so unrealistic" without actually putting it in the show's context. Things like Stannis at the Battle, Joffery's brutality, Littlefinger's travels, Jon's quest, Cersei's acting, etc. are things that have purpose that everyone ignores because of the purist argument. I'm not letting off D&D completely, especially for the travesty that was Robb and Talisa (although necessary to keep Robb in the story at all, could have been done better), but I'm willing to let things go so long as there's purpose. Almost everything seemed to be done with thematic reinforcements to the story at large, and I'm fine with that so long as the books are still there. They are, regardless of what nitpicks you may blow out of proportion.

Besides, are we really worried that Season 5 will be radically altered? That can only be a good thing ;)

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Ran, nice article. I've got one comment, and one question.

I completely agree that Theon is a moral coward. However, I do think that, perhaps, the decision to live your life our at the Wall is more courageous than going out quickly in a moment of glory. The latter is futile -- it serves no purpose other than instant vanity, followed by an end to his humiliation. Going to the Wall, though, means a lifetime of frozen life at the end of the world, essentially ditching your family and heritage, and also facing the man whose family you betrayed. IMHO, Theon's choice takes less moral courage than going to the Wall. Of course, that still means it's a different choice from the one GRRM made, but I actually think it makes him a less sympathetic/courageous character by taking the easier way out of his predicament. To me, going to the Wall and serving takes more balls. Overally, though, I think the Theon arc has been excellent.

And here's the question -- do you think the series expanded from 3 to eventually 7 books because of the expansion of the Westeros storyline, the Essos storyline, or both? My thought is that the expansion was really driven by Westeros, and that the Danaerys storyline suffered some drag in the books because there really was never enough material for it. So, GRRM's had to do filler with plotting that isn't completely thought out, while waiting for events in Westeros to progress sufficiently for Danaerys to arrive. Hence, he ends up with the unplanned Knot.

In any case, if that is true, I strongly suspect that we may see more serious deviations in Danaery's storyline in subsequent seasons, because the showrunners may not be happy with the exact course that story has taken, and view it largely as filler than can be changed without significantly altering the primary plot.

[FrozenFire3]

I absolutely agree with everything that was said in the analysis. What I'm worried about is that all these changes (especially the ones made in HOTU) might mean the writers are not interested in any way in following the book story. This means they could alter important events, change characters, even create a new story of their own. I would not like this.

[PatrickStormborn]

Here's what I would ask people to do...take a look at the life cycle of True Blood.

It came to HBO as a very popular series of books, very dedicated fan base, and went right to the moon. The first season saw HBO getting some of the highest ratings ever for any show they ever had on. Yeah, a few things were changed from the books but not really that much.

Then you get season 2. The book fans start to growl loudly because the show started to take more and more liberates with characters, plots, and shoe horning in gratuitous sex scenes (sound familiar?).

As we enter season 5, the hardcore book fans no longer even recognize the show. Unbelievably most if not all of the plot this year is "original material" developed by HBO using characters from the "True Blood" universe. Ratings plummeted last year, general interest is down over all, and the hard core fans of the source material have abandoned ship. It looks like this is the last season. Even Alan Ball has had enough and is resigning.

It would be nice to see GoT not go down this path, but alias it already is. Now, more than ever, is when real fans of this material need to voice there opinion and let their complaints be heard loud and often. Perhaps it will do no good, but I have a feeling web sites like this might be under observation by the creative forces much more than people might think. There's nothing wrong with sound valid criticism, and the season finale is ripe with opportunities for that in almost every story line. They found a way to annoy the Stannis fans, Danny's fans, Ayra's fans, ruin Robb's wedding, make the burning of WInterfell a complete disaster etc. etc.

As annoying as that is however, I find it even worse that so called fans continue to make excuses for HBO and then try to paint people who have been fans of this material for over 15 years appear to be nit pickers and impossible to please.

I never thought that at the end of this season the best performance of the entire finale would be a horn blower that was off screen.

True Blood's highest rated episode is the eleventh episode of season 3 -- long after they had started making changes from the book. The reason True Blood's ratings started to decline in season 4 is because the plot was weak -- not because it was different from the book.

From what I can tell, none of the changes to parts of the story resulted in a change to the overall plot. Arya still left Harrenhal, Sansa is no longer betrothed to Margaery, Bran is leaving a burned Winterfell, Theon's fate is unknown (just like in the book), Daenerys is heading west, Jon has joined the wildlings on the orders of the Halfhand, Robb has broke his arrangement with Walder Frey, Jaime and Brienne are heading towards King's Landing, and the Others have attacked the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men.

Some character arcs were altered slightly, but I'd argue that these were due to the showrunners splitting ASOS across two seasons (which, you know, was done to please fans of the books). Arya cannot kill in cold blood just yet, for example, because then she will spend two seasons walking across Westeros without much development. Dany has learned to be independent this season, unlike in ACOK, but I expect they'll be changing her story quite a lot from here onwards. Sansa didn't meet with Dontos during the season because otherwise she would be plotting her escape for two or more seasons (depending on which season they decide to include the Purple Wedding).

I can't really see any character arcs that have been altered in a way that will change their story entirely (apart from Daenerys, but most readers seem frustrated with her story anyway).

[Fez]

Are you really saying that Arya's time in Harrenhall "didn't need to serve a purpose"? It's certainly what's being implied.

Not at all. I'm saying it didn't need to serve a plot purpose. It had very valuable character purposes though and made for very entertaining television.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how they can care giving the changes they have made. And they certainly haven't understood the source material. I've seen some of their interviews and they're saying things like "Jon lacks a father figure" or "Jaime is a monster" or "Robb slept with Talisa because he was fed up of being honourable." These books are open to interpretation but some interpretations just aren't true. I'm sure they've read the books and liked them well enough, but fans? Absolutely not. No one who's payed any attention to the books can misinterpret them on that level.

And if we look at the changes, hardly any of them are actually necessary for time or budgetary reasons. Would having Jeyne Westerling for example been any harder, more expensive or time consuming to film than Talisa? No. Was Ygritte's boner talk better TV than Jon and Qhorin's mentor relationship? No. Was there any reason to have Dagmer "completely different from the books jaw" filling Ramsay's role when they could just as easily cast someone as Ramsay? No, no, no, no no! No reason. You may disagree and you have every right of course, but the days when I thought D+D cared about ASOIAF are long gone. The reason they've been working on this for 6 years and are so passionate about it is because it's getting them dumptrucks of money so far as I'm concerned.

(Sorry for getting so ranty, but I just needed to vent my frustration.)

Just because someone has a different interpretation of a character doesn't make them any less of fan than you. Everyone here on the site is a huge fan of the book series, but there are some radically different interpretations of characters; particularly of Sansa, Cat, and Dany.

As for changes; I don't like every single change (Robb's wedding was pretty bad), but they just don't bother me much. The whole Talisa/Jeyne thing does make sense though if you consider that they'll be simplifying the

red wedding so that its just a Bolton and Frey action.

There's too many characters as is, nothing wrong with making a change like that. With Jon, its clear that they felt there's already enough characters dealing with mentors and it would be boring to add yet another such relationship, particularly since Jon's been aged up considerably from the books; better to have him deal with someone his own age. With Dagmar, again its a simple case of not introducing a character before they have to since there's so many already. Ramsay will appear next year, no need to bring him on a year early when he's role is easily filled by another.

And frankly, once you're in the system in entertainment, there's far, far easy ways to make money than being a show runner (ex. writing scripts for movies that never get made but you still get paid for). You don't take on show running unless its for something you feel incredibly passionate about.

[Ravage]

Come on.. Anyone not feeling that this tv-series is about as faithfull an adaption as has been done, is free to mention adaptions that is more faitfull... Legend of the seeker? Lord of the CGI? what?

[FrozenFire3]

True Blood's highest rated episode is the eleventh episode of season 3 -- long after they had started making changes from the book. The reason True Blood's ratings started to decline in season 4 is because the plot was weak -- not because it was different from the book.

From what I can tell, none of the changes to parts of the story resulted in a change to the overall plot. Arya still left Harrenhal, Sansa is no longer betrothed to Margaery, Bran is leaving a burned Winterfell, Theon's fate is unknown (just like in the book), Daenerys is heading west, Jon has joined the wildlings on the orders of the Halfhand, Robb has broke his arrangement with Walder Frey, Jaime and Brienne are heading towards King's Landing, and the Others have attacked the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men.

Some character arcs were altered slightly, but I'd argue that these were due to the showrunners splitting ASOS across two seasons (which, you know, was done to please fans of the books). Arya cannot kill in cold blood just yet, for example, because then she will spend two seasons walking across Westeros without much development. Dany has learned to be independent this season, unlike in ACOK, but I expect they'll be changing her story quite a lot from here onwards. Sansa didn't meet with Dontos during the season because otherwise she would be plotting her escape for two or more seasons (depending on which season they decide to include the Purple Wedding).

I can't really see any character arcs that have been altered in a way that will change their story entirely (apart from Daenerys, but most readers seem frustrated with her story anyway).

Season 4 ratings started to decline because the plot was weak. Undoubtedly. But the books were not very good anyway (at least in my opinion). I can understand why HBO decided to start making changes from thebooks. The "Game of Thrones" books may not be perfect but they have a wonderfully written story, a well-conceived plot etc. It doesn't matter if the writers make small changes to me as long as they don't completely change the story or character arcs.

[Aegnor]

I find the ammount of english language knowledge, type of expressions and the themes in this post really telling about larger simptomatic problem

I find this statement to be incredibly ironic.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Come on.. Anyone not feeling that this tv-series is about as faithfull an adaption as has been done, is free to mention adaptions that is more faitfull... Legend of the seeker? Lord of the CGI? what?

At this point, we're looking for differences from the books rather than looking for similarities. That's at least some indication that they're getting it mostly right.

[Lord Godric]

I agree that Sophie Turner was better in this episode than she had been in the past, but I still don't think she's a particularly good actress. Compared to both Isaac and Maisie her acting just seems superficial, which is sad considering she is older. She is improving, however.

[Reposado]

If it wasn't for D&D there wouldn't even be a show. And I like I said, how can you possibly say they don't care?!? This show has literally been the only thing they've worked on for about 6 years now. Read/watch their interviews, they're incredibly passionate about this story and have worked incredibly long hours to try to make the best show they possibly could. Martin gave them great source material, yes, but there's a reason why everyone always said it was unfilmable, incredibly Martin himself. D&D deserve an enormous amount of credit for accomplishing what they have.

And this is the problem. they worked much more on season one than on season two. i would have rather given them 18 months between seasons and gotten a better product than we got in season 2. HBO has done this with curb and the wire. season one showed a lot of care and attention to detail. season two just felt like they rushed it. i'm sure they tried, but a year was not long enough.

to the actual review, loved this line. perfect encapsulated it.

"they crudely grafted on a little bit of a political story that simply didn’t mean anything."

and that has happened a lot in season 2. they pick scenes from the book that will be good but they don't consider how it all comes together. and this is something that i believe D&D are capable of fixing if they had more time.

Any critic that liked season2 more than season one, i would stop reading. So many episodes of this season were just poorly structured and plot-hole ridden.

I don't read a lot of critics, but Sepinwall and Fienberg over at HItfix have said pretty much the same thing.

ETA: read the AV article, I certainly disagree that anything that makes the show more like a soap opera is a good thing.

The best shows feature episodes that stand as episodes and as part of a whole. Justified is the best at this but certainly Mad Men and Breaking Bad do it well also.

GOT was close to this in season one. Season two has too often followed the "lets show a bit of each person method"

is this easy material to adapt? not at all. but you don't get credit for degree of difficulty. you get credit for finished product. and the finished product for this season was not great. good, yes. great at times. but it could be great always, let's hope they chalk season two up to a lesson learned

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Of course non-book reader loved it, because on an objective standard, it was still an excellent season of television better than just about anything else that's out there.

But for book readers, we are comparing what is to what could have been. ACOK was a great book, and had moments in it that was breathtaking and emotionally shattering. For example, Qhourin and Jon's flight in the Frostfangs, culminating in "Sharp.", Arya's entire experience in the books, culminative in her whispering "Valar Morghulis", are simply some of the best moments in the entire series. The fact that both moments were completely written out of the show just makes me question the judgement of the writers and their ability to identify the climatic and dramatic moments in the narrative.

It just seems to me the show runners emotionally connected with Theon and Tyrion's story in season 2, and tried really hard with those 2 threads, and just went through the motions for all the other plot lines.