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[Book Spoilers] Book deviations in this episode


teemo

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Out of curiosity...here's a few off the top of my head. Some are

  • Tormund is much more serious
  • Ciarin Hinds = awesome actor and pretty good at Mance (although not what I pictured), but I miss the bard thing.
  • Sam being saved from the NW crew like that
  • The way Stannis was sent to the dungeons was odd, although I see what they're doing to save some time and still get their point across.
  • Tyrion almost groveling to this father, wanting approval. Besides that, that scene was almost word to word from the book. Dance and Dinklage are such amazing actors. Damn.
  • Was Cersei ever really that worried about Tyrion talking to daddy? How different was that conversation in the books?
  • It looks like Bronn is here to stay longer instead of being Cersei's new pet. They kind of got themselves into this by having Tyrion make him a knight last season, so Cersei can't really offer him that, I guess. It gives us more time to see Bronn, which is nice. Because everyone loves Bronn. But isn't Bronn pretty much done with Tyrion at this point?
  • I thought it was random how Robb and Cat and co. showed up at Harrenhal. Loved seeing Qyburn.
  • The whole scene with LF/Sansa/Shae/Ros felt really weird to me. Not a big fan of Sansa/Shae being BFF and Ros moving up in the world.
  • Littlefinger would never in a million years blatantly tell Sansa of all people that he's planning on getting her out of there. He's way too sneaky for that. So was Dontos' appearance last season just a teaser, or what? But like GRRM said, TV LF is nothing like book LF. It also makes me wonder how the whole PW thing is going to go down now.
  • *got the unsullied stuff wrong
  • Was Joffrey ever this blatantly nasty to his mother around family and stuff at dinner? I guess he has to be a little different in the show though since he's older.

Slow episode, but really beautiful. Can't wait for episode 4.

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Tried to cover many of these in our book-to-screen section of our episode guide.

In particular, regarding the Unsullied, you're misremembering. In the novel, it's stated that the puppies are given to the boy eunuchs the day they are cut, and then they are to strangle them at year's end. But to win their spiked cap, they have to kill a child. So the show is doing the same thing.

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Thanks! Feel free to close the thread if you think that covers it well enough.

Question though - is the show making them sound like free men who choose to be Unsullied? I can't re-watch it at the moment so I can't check right now.

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***SPOILERS***

- Doesn't Sam send the ravens? Doesn't he keep saying to himself that he can just sit down and die because he at least did his duty and got the ravens out? This relly bothered me. Also where was the wight? I hope we get Sam story as they walk backnto crasters where he falls behind then kills then wight. Sam the slayer must be.

- the Davos/Salador exchange is way more cheerful despite what they disguss, but I guess you need to tone down Saladors extravagance for the show

- Don't remember the Margaery scene at all but it makes sense to build the Tyrell's motives in KL, I guess.

- Rob in Harrenhal? Don't remember that.

- Strong Belwas seems to have gotten cut, this makes me sad.

All in all the episode was pretty good... a nice way to "set the table" but I don't see the reasoning behind changing the fact that Sam sent the ravens. For once the Dany scenes were among the best. That is hopeful, she has a good story to tell in S3 if they move her along and not let her stagnate.

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Ran covered it, but here is a book quote anyway:

ASOS; Dany

To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied must go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find some wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother’s eyes. In this way, we make certain that there is no weakness left in them.”

So the phrasing "to win his shield" that the show used isn't really a deviation since the book's have basically the same line, just "spiked cap" in place of "shield"

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Tormund is much more serious

Still pretty humorous compared to the other wildlings. I'm guessing he'll lighten up more once Jon has proven himself. Also, I don't remember Tormund being THAT much of a jokester in the books. I remember him straight up threatening to kill Jon at one point, and that was already after they were friendly.

Not a big fan of Sansa/Shae being BFF and Ros moving up in the world.

I like it. It'll add to the sting of Shae's eventual betrayal. It also gives her something to do.

Littlefinger would never in a million years blatantly tell Sansa of all people that he's planning on getting her out of there. He's way too sneaky for that. So was Dontos' appearance last season just a teaser, or what? But like GRRM said, TV LF is nothing like book LF. It also makes me wonder how the whole PW thing is going to go down now.

Agreed. Book LF was a shady bastard but you couldn't help but like him because he was so good at the game. TV LF is just a douchebag with plot powers.

Was Joffrey ever this blatantly nasty to his mother around family and stuff at dinner?

Joffrey was always a dick to Cersei.

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***SPOILERS***

- Doesn't Sam send the ravens? Doesn't he keep saying to himself that he can just sit down and die because he at least did his duty and got the ravens out? This relly bothered me. Also where was the wight? I hope we get Sam story as they walk backnto crasters where he falls behind then kills then wight. Sam the slayer must be.

- the Davos/Salador exchange is way more cheerful despite what they disguss, but I guess you need to tone down Saladors extravagance for the show

- Don't remember the Margaery scene at all but it makes sense to build the Tyrell's motives in KL, I guess.

- Rob in Harrenhal? Don't remember that.

- Strong Belwas seems to have gotten cut, this makes me sad.

All in all the episode was pretty good... a nice way to "set the table" but I don't see the reasoning behind changing the fact that Sam sent the ravens. For once the Dany scenes were among the best. That is hopeful, she has a good story to tell in S3 if they move her along and not let her stagnate.

Sam sends the Raavens but he doesn't put the messages when he sends them...so it's like he didn't send them in essense....

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Sam sends the Raavens but he doesn't put the messages when he sends them...so it's like he didn't send them in essense....

they do mention the the terrells bring bread and food from highgarden and that the smallfolk love the queen ....

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The 'nice' Littlefinger is where the show kinda lost me - although I do enjoy the foreshadowing with Shae.

Actually, Littlefinger and Sansa both, she seemed too... gamey. Where is my Lemon Head? Where is Pedo Finger?

The Lannister portions were all done extremely excellently, however, and were more than I could have hoped for.

I am suprised at not the Unsullied, but the land of Astapor. I just saw Astapor as 'Ghetto Egypt'. Really, all 3 of those cities. However, that can easily be my folly, I'm not great with following descriptions in literature.

Stannis sending Davos down? What? Why are they trying to kill Stavos? Bad television, bad!

Harrenhall was... different. Seems to me they're exploring the fact that Robb did indeed punish his mother, but it makes a certain event more troublesome to pursue...

I loved Barristan;

Hey I just met you,

and your dad was crazies~

But I'll be your knight true,

and what's this about 8000 babies?

It'll be interesting to see where it goes. Truth be told, I'm not one for puritism television, I'd much rather delve into different depths.

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There are two things that bugged me.

1. the beginning. They didn't show at all how Sam managed to get away from the attack when he was at the start of it last season. I thought they were going to go somewhere with it. I thought he did send the ravens, so that was confusing

2. It didn't make it clear that Dany (and Jorah?) can speak and understand Valyrian, but maybe it will later.

I was going to mention the manticore/child change and Barristan revealing himself right away, but both translate to the screen better this way. I think. But other than that I loved it

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Why the introduction of Qyburn without a connection to the Mummers/Lannisters? That will be trouble later on…and who will cauterize Jamie’s stump? Well, I guess they could leave him behind with Roose when they bug out for Riverrun, at which point he will become a creature of Roose’s, but he needs that Lannister connection later, so…what gives?? Ugh, the whole thing with Robb still bugs me from last season. The changes better not wreck the impact of the RW.

The understanding of Valyrian thing bugged me too, but hope they’ll explain that later when Dany talks to Kraz again.

Also disappointed that they didn’t let Sam show his developing courage by sending the ravens off. He DID send one wave of them and they DID have messages. He screwed up the second round in the books.

Overall, loved the episode. Pacing and time with character arcs was great. Felt like it was over in 10 minutes! Even my non-book-reader daughter said, “That’s it? That was an hour?”

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