GoT thoughts

[jedi_of_urth]

Okay, so I slept on it and...I’m not sure things lived up to my expectations.



In some ways I know, nothing can ever live up to the first time you read the Red Wedding chapters, the feel of menace leading up to it, the shock as you watch it happening, the desperation clear in Arya’s and Cat’s views on what’s going on around them. But on reread, it still works; the writing is still crisp and horrific even when you know the end.

And the show...didn’t have that. Knowing it was coming was about the only way I felt the dread that was so clear on the page. And it just doesn’t feel like as much of a massacre as it does in the book. A lot of people die sure (and I will give props for changing out the half-wit Frey son for the wife, that was a good change), but they’re all nameless faceless background players; except for the leads of course

Part of the problem is I really feel like this season of the show hasn’t quite gotten what’s important set up in the books. And some of that is a consequence of decisions in seasons past, but some of it is just from recent ones. I know there are reasons why we don’t get all the minor characters we do in the books, but I feel like it’s really important to have them as representations of the larger picture especially for something like this.

I also have mixed feelings about the use of Rains of Castamere. They would have never have been able to leave it out, it’s so iconic in the books that they spent a year building it up so that it could be used here, but...it’s use was weird, especially when I was expecting something loud and driving like in the book rather than slow and mournful we got here.

It may benefit from a rewatch in a few months, knowing what I’m actually going to get rather than how I picture it in my head. But knowing Ned’s death was coming back in season 1 didn’t matter much when it came to seeing it, it still got to me. This...it was well acted and shot for what it was, but it just wasn’t enough for me apparently. I think this whole season has had the drawback of me going into it thinking that by splitting the book in two they would be able to include more of the things I loved about the story and they really haven’t, so again maybe watching it as a whole and taking it for what it is will help later, but right now I’m feeling a touch let down.

P.S. Rickon is not nearly screwed up enough for my taste.

Comments

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

I think something that really bothered me about the Red Wedding was that it felt off. A bit rushed and a bit weird. Almost - weirdly - cartoonish in the way some of the characters died. I think it was just such a powerful scene in the novel, and it just didn't translate well to the screen.

Mostly because they honestly haven't done a hell of a lot with Cat and Robb this season; so that feeling that something is 'off' has been missing for some time. Maybe it was just me, but in the novel, as I read Cat's chapters leading up to the Red Wedding and at the Red Wedding. . .I kept feeling that something really bad would happen before the end of the novel. I knew the Frey family wanted revenge and I knew lots of Robb's men were having doubts because of his marriage, etc. That only somewhat came through during the last three episodes before episode nine.

[jedi_of_urth]

I can appreciate that it had to be difficult to realize on screen, especially knowing how iconic it is in the books and how much it had to live up to but I think that might have worked against it in an unexpected way. In the end, it felt like an obligation, something they *had* to do rather than something they were excite to bring to life. And laboring under those kind of expectations (put on themselves and by the fans) probably contributed to how little excitement went into it.

I also agree that part of the problem has been with Robb and Cat's story this year. Knowing the end point it just felt like a slow march to a doom the characters couldn't see, but still were all that interesting to watch getting there. In the book it's about buildup until it burst open at the wedding, but the show made it more like killing time until they could kill them off.

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

Knowing the end point it just felt like a slow march to a doom the characters couldn't see, but still were all that interesting to watch getting there. In the book it's about buildup until it burst open at the wedding, but the show made it more like killing time until they could kill them off.

Yes! That is also my problem with the Cat and Robb story line. It's also my issue with the Sansa story this season; though season 4 may be better for her.

[miss-bushido.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is I really feel like this season of the show hasn’t quite gotten what’s important set up in the books.

Totally agree. I haven't been watching it a lot, but from what clips and gifs I have seen and what I've been hearing, they are deviating in minor but important ways.

I was excited for the internet fallout from the Red Wedding, though. It was glorious.

[jedi_of_urth]

Oh yeah, the reaction has not disappointed at all. It's been amazing watching a whole bunch of new people reach that moment simultaneously, I just wish they could have experienced it in its full glory.