(SPOILERS MAY ABOUND WITHIN)
To say I am excited about “Game of Thrones” season 2 would not do justice to the concept of excitement. Even words like “stoked” don’t truly convey the feeling. Of course, the stokedness is mixed with any fans apprehension that adapting such a huge novel to a TV screen will invariably screw it up somehow, but consider this: I had misgivings about season 1 when it started, and now I don’t remember what they were. That is either because (a) I did not blog about them at the time and so therefore they were not retained in my mind, or (b) any misgivings were overshadowed by how great the show turned out to be. I prefer option (b).
Season 2 will be largely based on the second book of the series, A Clash of Kings, although I fully expect that the show’s story arc will delve into other volumes now and then, as it did in season 1. HBO has put out a couple of shorts that introduce some of the new characters and showcase the new settings.
Fans of the books might notice that they seem to be giving much more prominent roles to Margaery Tyrell and Qhorin Halfhand. I’m all for that. Qhorin is a great character, and I have always been curious about Margaery (no spoilers, but she goes through a lot of crap.) My only complaint regarding her is that they put the accent on the first syllable of the Tyrell name, which means I have been mispronouncing it for years (the same was true for both “Daenerys” and “Targaryen,” though. I’m just glad I know now.)
Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
Now then, here’s the burning question: Brienne of Tarth, where the hell is she??? She may come closest to being the moral center of this part of the story, and they don’t even see fit to introduce her? Think about it: through the first four books, she is instrumental in turning one bad character (Jaime Lannister) sort of good, and in showcasing how one good character (Catelyn Stark) has turned bad, sort of. She’s also one of the most interesting characters overall–in a universe full of people who have lost all control over their own destinies, she is one of the few who dares to try to be who she really is. It almost never works out for her, of course, but the scorn and ridicule that nearly all of Westeros puts on her just makes her that much more heroic. She deserves to be prominently featured.
What do you know, Craster’s Keep isn’t really a “keep” at all! That makes perfect sense, but for some reason I always pictured it as a fortified structure. It really would be a glorified log cabin, though.
Harrenhal: Like this, except more evil
Harrenhal: Like this, but maybe a little prettier
Dragonstone looks about as creepy as I expected. You pretty much take a giant castle and add dragons to it, right? The “map table” looks way better than I imagined it. I had pictured a table with a map painted on it, not something carved into a map (I don’t remember how the books describe it.)
They also did a great job, it seems, making Pyke look bleak as hell. I truly looks like a place where no one should ever, ever want to go.
From the video, I can’t see enough of Qarth to really say how I feel. Much like with Harrenhal, it will be difficult to truly convey how huge it seems to be. The book describes three huge walls encircling the city, with complex murals and/or mosaics covering them, depicting scenes ranging from the martial to the bawdy. From what I can tell, the show seems to capture Qarth’s splendor and self-importance, and that’s what matters most.
They filmed the scenes at the Fist of the First Men in Iceland. Iceland. Need I say more?
I will mention that Dolorous Edd does not look at all like how I pictured him.
That’s all I have for now. Until Sunday!
Photo credits: Brienne of Tarth from the Letters to Westeros blog [Fair use claimed]; ‘Sagrada Familia 01’ by Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons; ‘Reichsluftfahrtministerium’ Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27413 / CC-BY-SA [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons
