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[Book Spoilers] No Strong Belwas?


Gordon Freeman

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When Arstan Whitebeard, I mean plain ol' Barristan Selmy comes lurking out of the shadows onto the dock I was so stoked. To see him kill the manticore with his staff..err knife I mean? No, because I knew Strong Belwas would be close in tow and I couldn't wait to see who they cast to play him!

Selmy sure enough killed the manticore, revealed himself as Barristan Selmy (or made no attempt to hide it), and asked to be taken in as part of Daenerys Queen's Guard. All of this took place and still no Belwas. I was thinking "ok, he'll motion him to come out of hiding any moment", except for that moment never came...

Is there not going to be a Strong Belwas?

I find his role VERY entertaining and him to be a fairly key character. Just as key as say Tormund Giantsbane, all except for the part where Thormund makes the truce with the Nights Watch. Up until that point their characters have about the same impact. So what do you think is going on, no Belwas, no scared up belly and ridiculously small studded vest?

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Less personlity the better for D&D.

Belwas is a BAMF and should be on the show if for nothing else other than the champion of Mereen battle. D&D would be legends for a Belwas in that scene with Whitebeard as his squire. The reveal could have waited.

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I have a strange notion that they are cutting the comic relief characters. They have completely changed Tormund so that he has the personality of a potatoe. The reason behind is maybe to keep Tyrion and Bronn as the funny ones. Thats the only reason I can think of.

Funny you know how Tormund is just by watching a 3 minute scene with him. Wait till you see the next couple of episodes before complaining.

And about Belwas, yes, he's out. Better give his scenes to Baristan much better. Nobody who is watching the show is going to care for him. He will be most times on the background. If you wanted Belwas in, they had probably too kill another great character.

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Belwas always seemed like a character that would be cut. He's not in any way a key character. He's just a small side character that's a great warrior and likes to eat a lot. His battles can be given to other characters that are also important in other ways, and I suspect Daario will absorb Belwas' role as a warrior.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy him in the books, but he isn't very important. If anything he's consistently been significantly less important than I thought he would be after we got to know him.

Less personlity the better for D&D.

Personality? Strong Belwas is about as flat of a character as you'll find in Martin's books. Enjoyable yes, but the characters with depth are the ones with real personality and not surprisingly those are all in the show.

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I don't like it.

The main purpose of Strong Belwas was that he allows Barristan to be introduced as Belwas' partner, or "squire" as he calls himself.

I don't like Barristan revealing himself immediately. How is he going to coexist with Mormont for a season? They dislike one another right from the start.

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Funny you know how Tormund is just by watching a 3 minute scene with him. Wait till you see the next couple of episodes before complaining.

yep. usually works that way. the tormund character is not going to be funny. you can tell by his tone. if he was going to be bombastic like in the book, they would have introduced him that way.

but not having belwas makes sense. there are more fighters around dany in the book than the show could possibly have roles for.

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I have to admit that this reveal of Selmy was the only thing that D&D could have done, it would have been too obvious to even relatively casual viewers who he was. The problem is the butterfly effect over the revealing of motivatins and I do believe Selmy was present at the Small Council meeting where they discussed offing Dany, though I may be confusing the book and the show there and they might not have discussed specifically who Varys' spy was.

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yep. usually works that way. the tormund character is not going to be funny. you can tell by his tone. if he was going to be bombastic like in the book, they would have introduced him that way.

but not having belwas makes sense. there are more fighters around dany in the book than the show could possibly have roles for.

I just hope they keep tormund's braggadocio about his member!

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Personality? Strong Belwas is about as flat of a character as you'll find in Martin's books. Enjoyable yes, but the characters with depth are the ones with real personality and not surprisingly those are all in the show.

Like Littlefinger? Cersei? Cat? Those personalities?

At least Belwas lightens things up. One major difference from the books to the show is the quality of the humor. I mean, was that Bronn scene ever remotely funny? I think not.

He gives the story itself more personality.

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I don't like it.

The main purpose of Strong Belwas was that he allows Barristan to be introduced as Belwas' partner, or "squire" as he calls himself.

I don't like Barristan revealing himself immediately. How is he going to coexist with Mormont for a season? They dislike one another right from the start.

There's an impending conflict as well. I think the main reason why Selmy didnt reveal himself was to study Dany. In the show, he just searches her out and immediately jumps on board.

Minor to some people, but possibly a later integrity issue.

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yep. usually works that way. the tormund character is not going to be funny. you can tell by his tone. if he was going to be bombastic like in the book, they would have introduced him that way.

but not having belwas makes sense. there are more fighters around dany in the book than the show could possibly have roles for.

Strange because as for Varys I trusted him in episode 3, but not later on. Some things need time, people I knew found him funny about how he provoked Jon in kneeling.

Explain me one thing, people are complaining that nothing really happen in episode 1. That the pacing needed to be faster. But the only thing how they are going to do that, is cutting scenes and making a more season 2 season than season 1. But at the same time they want to put everything in the show like Belwas. That means that they wanted to slow the pace of the show at the same time. Strange.

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Like Littlefinger? Cersei? Cat? Those personalities?

At least Belwas lightens things up. One major difference from the books to the show is the quality of the humor. I mean, was that Bronn scene ever remotely funny? I think not.

He gives the story itself more personality.

Yes, those people have much more personality than he does and it's not like every character has a personality like them, so you trying to mention a few that you seemingly don't like is a poor way of arguing. Personality isn't even remotely close to only being lively and colorful.

Quality of humor is subjective. There will be plenty of people thinking that it's lowbrow and stereotypical to have a fat warrior always go on about wanting to eat onions and liver, taking a shit and so on.

The show has plenty of character that add humor in various ways. Tyrion, Bronn, Dolorous Edd, Salladhor Saan, Pod, Sam etc. Strong Belwas isn't more important and colorful than the Greatjon. Obviously it's not just about what could make the story more fun (most things in the book enhance the story in some way), it's also about having to hire another actor, introducing a character and having a need for him that can't be done by someone else.

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So much whining.

Yes, let's have the show introduce one of very few foreign looking and sounding characters, and them have him act and speak like a gigantic moron. I'm sure that would go down well.

Selmy was never at the SC meetings in S1, so it's possible that he will not know that Jorah was a spy.

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It would be too many characters to introduce in one season. Especially when the one notable thing he does pre-DwD is a single scene in his fight with the Meereen champion, which can be given to any of a number of characters - Barristan, Grey Worm, Daario, etc (granted probably without the taking a shit afterwards, but they can still figure out something dramatic for that scene).

Strong Belwas can still be introduced in Season 4 as one of the fighting pit slaves in Meereen who are freed by ser Barristan and Jorah.

I think there's many reasons why have ser Barristan revealed earlier. The obvious option is that you can't really have the same effect as in the books, where you can't know that Arstan is ser Barristan before his reveal. The other is that Jorah will be more obviously jealous of one of the greatest warriors of the Seven kingdoms than of an old man. This subsequently can make him more obviously try to distance Dany from him, and Dany to take offence to this. There's an important scene before the battle for Yunkai where Dany finally cracks and tells Jorah she is tired of him telling her to trust nobody but himself and that though she respects and values him, she does not love him. In the books Dany's reaction makes more sense, because in the books Dany wasn't betrayed to the same extend in Qarth - there was no betrayal by Xaro nor Doreah, so Jorah's overprotectiveness seems overbearing. In the TV show however, the viewers will understand Jorah telling Dany not to trust anybody after she gets Daario's allegiance given what she's been through in Qarth, and Jorah would seem justified in his advice rather than jealous and afraid he's losing his importance to her. The show needs to introduce somebody for Jorah to be unjustifiably suspicious and distrusting of, and ser Barristan fits that role.

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I like Strong Belwas, but he's hardly a key character. Good comic relief and one good, short scene in fighting the Mereen champion is pretty much all he brings to the table. This show already has an enormous cast, some minor but fan favorite characters are going to have to be cut. The way I look at it, better Belwas than the Queen of Thorns, whom several people speculated would be cut and merged with Margaery.

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Barristan the Bold shitting in public and constantly asking for Onions and Liver. Sounds about right.

You know that even if Belwas was in the show that the shitting scene wouldn't be in it? that would have been disgusting to watch. I'm talking about defeating the hero of Mereen for instance.

So much whining.

Yes, let's have the show introduce one of very few foreign looking and sounding characters, and them have him act and speak like a gigantic moron. I'm sure that would go down well.

Selmy was never at the SC meetings in S1, so it's possible that he will not know that Jorah was a spy.

Maybe he know and that this will have a conclusion in season 4. I think that Barristan wanting first too look at Jorah if he can trust him now.

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