KatG
April 18th, 2012, 09:32 PM
Well I was happier partly because of some of the material on the episode -- I think the Theon stuff was much better in #3, and Yoren got a great send-off -- I think Francis Magee has been absolutely fabulous playing him. The guy playing Lorch was pretty good too. (The list, the list!) Much better use of Shae, Tyrion's game sweetly done, and I really love the interaction between Jon and Mormont, and Sam with Gilly. Brienne was perfect; I will not agree with a word against her. (Her blue armor comes when she's part of the Rainbow Guard in the books.) She was so big next to Cat, who did well too, I thought. And it was not a placeholder set-up episode after all.
But I was also happier with the episode partly because I have resigned myself. I have resigned myself to the fact that with this ambitious and broad an offering, they are sometimes going to be cautious and veer off into safer, less subtle and complicated choices with the characters; that they don't trust the audience fully and so build up story bits to keep main characters busy on the grounds that a t.v. audience can't deal with their temporary absence for long; and that as brilliant as they've often been at it, not all of the sex and nudity bits they throw in for HBO's sake are going to make sense. There can be some benefits to this -- Rob is going to have a little storyline this season and I think that's a good idea, (although this would have logically to me meant a good way to introduce the Tullys and the Reed children for Bran's story, but I understand the budget constraints.)
And where I don't see the benefits, I'm willing to lump it. I get a little garrgh when I see the changes but the next day I've usually accepted that's where the story is being taken. So Renly is not going to be the braggart tourney knight with some strategy skills and probably gay, and is instead going to be the weak, inexperienced gay guy with no strategy skills who is easily manipulated by the Tyrells. Stannis has been moved in relation to his gay liberal idealism as the hypocritical, self-righteous conservative, and Melissandre has gone from mysterious sorceress to standard temptress. Loras is decidedly petulant. And Margaery has gone from demure seeming smart girl trying to secure her family's interests to a scheming courtesan who runs around in brothel costumes. The last is halfway interesting in the scheming part, but again, the safer, more standard choice for t.v. shows.
One thing I like about Martin is that he does not just simply do female archetypes into groups of noble scrapper and femme fatale. But in a t.v. show, there is that tendency to go for that division and while the show has done pretty well with layering, it has been leaning into the standard archetypes a bit. And seems kind of unsure how to do their gay characters. But they are sticking to Martin's direction for the main stories, and they have, I think, done Sansa very well there. I love Arya, but she's the most traditional character in the whole saga. Sansa has a very different developmental arc and has to have a very different sort of courage, as Mike pointed out. It will be interesting to see what happens when her warg powers develop. The actress I think has been very good at the subtleties to play her.
In any case, it felt as if the season had gotten well and truly started now.
But I was also happier with the episode partly because I have resigned myself. I have resigned myself to the fact that with this ambitious and broad an offering, they are sometimes going to be cautious and veer off into safer, less subtle and complicated choices with the characters; that they don't trust the audience fully and so build up story bits to keep main characters busy on the grounds that a t.v. audience can't deal with their temporary absence for long; and that as brilliant as they've often been at it, not all of the sex and nudity bits they throw in for HBO's sake are going to make sense. There can be some benefits to this -- Rob is going to have a little storyline this season and I think that's a good idea, (although this would have logically to me meant a good way to introduce the Tullys and the Reed children for Bran's story, but I understand the budget constraints.)
And where I don't see the benefits, I'm willing to lump it. I get a little garrgh when I see the changes but the next day I've usually accepted that's where the story is being taken. So Renly is not going to be the braggart tourney knight with some strategy skills and probably gay, and is instead going to be the weak, inexperienced gay guy with no strategy skills who is easily manipulated by the Tyrells. Stannis has been moved in relation to his gay liberal idealism as the hypocritical, self-righteous conservative, and Melissandre has gone from mysterious sorceress to standard temptress. Loras is decidedly petulant. And Margaery has gone from demure seeming smart girl trying to secure her family's interests to a scheming courtesan who runs around in brothel costumes. The last is halfway interesting in the scheming part, but again, the safer, more standard choice for t.v. shows.
One thing I like about Martin is that he does not just simply do female archetypes into groups of noble scrapper and femme fatale. But in a t.v. show, there is that tendency to go for that division and while the show has done pretty well with layering, it has been leaning into the standard archetypes a bit. And seems kind of unsure how to do their gay characters. But they are sticking to Martin's direction for the main stories, and they have, I think, done Sansa very well there. I love Arya, but she's the most traditional character in the whole saga. Sansa has a very different developmental arc and has to have a very different sort of courage, as Mike pointed out. It will be interesting to see what happens when her warg powers develop. The actress I think has been very good at the subtleties to play her.
In any case, it felt as if the season had gotten well and truly started now.