Spoilers ahead. Don’t read unless you’ve watched the show.
Game of Thrones season 2 was a departure from the original in many respects, but it was still triumphant.
Most of the changes were for the better, even though others fell short. We’d have viewing parties at the home of two friends and the running theme was that they were departing at times from the source material. A prime example is the Robb Stark story line. Granted, the changes appeared to be the result of changes to what happened in Winterfell, but the love affair felt rushed. Originally, he was supposed to have been grievously wounded storming a small castle called The Crag. While there, he secures the support of the folks he was attacking to begin with (the Westerling family, who were originally sworn to the Baratheons and Lannisters), whose daughter Jeyne nurses him back to health. When he finds out about the “deaths” of his little brothers, Jeyne gives him comfort through the modest application of her noble lady bits. To defend her honor and for love, Robb marries her. Naturally, this presents a problem as he’s supposed to marry a Frey girl.
In the show, they made it seem that Robb Stark’s betrayal of Walder Frey was a conscious choice, purely for the love of… Talisa? That subterfuge felt a little unnecessary. Every time she came onscreen, we waited for her to drop the bomb that she was really Lady Jeyne Westerling but became a little sad when she didn’t. I’m hoping it turns out she lied in an effort to hide her family’s allegiance to Robb’s enemies but it feels like perhaps she should have come clean before getting hitched. Regardless of the weird direction of the character, Oona Chaplin was brilliant. I expect she’ll get more screen time than even the books allow because of her acting chops and because, well, she is very nice to look at. I sort of hope they fix her character first.
Peter Dinklage was again amazing but I expect there will be three acting Emmy nominations this year, for him and also Maisie Williams and Lena Headey. Maisie was great to watch as a little fireball in the first season and I knew her character was going to have a hard time of things in the second and that it would take some acting chops. She delivered. Her interactions with Tywin Lannister were not in the books but fun to watch as you gained more insight about both characters. You get the sense that Tywin is too much of a hard-ass in the books and he definitely is in the show, but he lets his guard down for this clever girl. When he asks her what killed her father and she replies ‘loyalty,’ you could see all the sadness and solemn pride in her eyes and it just cut hard. Plus the shrug she gave Jaqen H’ghar when he asks her to change her choice was identical to the one her father gave King Robert a few times.
Lena Headey got Cersei this season. In the first season, Cersei seemed like a harried wife of a drunk but the source material describes her as more of a blonde Lady Macbeth. She really let her claws out this time and her scenes in the Red Keep during the battle in the OMFG YES ninth episode were perfection. As you can tell, I do like the little details in scenes; the impish way she asked Sansa if she was praying for her safety as she got steadily more and more shitfaced made me laugh out loud.
What else was great… oh, The National doing The Rains of Castemere was a fine touch. The subtext of the song’s use will become more apparent later but it’s a great tune. The song is about a noble family (the Reynes) who defied a Lannister lord and were wiped out completely. Moral of the story: if you fuck with the Lannisters, you end up forgotten.
Other great things:
- Zombie army. Yeah. Poor Sam.
- Dany’s story line is more interesting in the show. Another change but still good.
- Harrenhal was even scarier than I had hoped.
- Shadow assassin. Great stuff.
- Wildfire. You probably have heard people complain about how in the books there was a chain in the harbor and even greater destruction but come on, that still made your nipples hard.
I am looking forward to the next season because it’s the longest book and so much happens. We get two seasons as a result! The added episodes mean that some characters who were left out will make it into the show, like the Reed siblings and Lady Catelyn’s family, the Tullys of Riverrun. But it’s 9 months away. We’ll have the first Hobbit movie and some other cool things between now and then (like the birth of my first child, maybe?) but it’s going to be a long wait.