One of the two big events of SoS is going to happen in this season. The producers said in advance they were going to break apart from the timing of the book so that the one would be in S3 and the other in S4.
Even the stuff with Dany is getting old, here I'll write a scene for her:
1. Dany sees downtrodden people and decides to try helping them by doing something that makes no sense
2. Her advisers caution against it.
3. Some people underestimate her.
4. She seems to go through with it...but then DRAGONS! The day is saved and it was all a clever ruse by her.
5. She talks about being the mother of dragons.
6. The plot does not move forward at all.
This season has been brutal. There's only 3 episodes left so it needs to pick up DRASTICALLY, I know people say it picks up, but it pretty much has to happen next episode or there's not enough time left to fit in anything resembling cogent scenes. The only vaguely interesting story lines I feel like are Jaime's and Arya's. The rest is just whining, or people spinning their wheels. The crap with Theon getting tortured...that was played out about 3 episodes ago, and it's STILL happening. Even the stuff with Dany is getting old, here I'll write a scene for her:
1. Dany sees downtrodden people and decides to try helping them by doing something that makes no sense
2. Her advisers caution against it.
3. Some people underestimate her.
4. She seems to go through with it...but then DRAGONS! The day is saved and it was all a clever ruse by her.
5. She talks about being the mother of dragons.
6. The plot does not move forward at all.
None of the books are non-stop action. There just happen to be several major developments in this book that move the plot forward. Unfortunately most of them happen in the latter half of the book. I really think it was a mistake to split the book to 2 seasons. They could have easily fit it all in one season if they added 1 or 2 episodes. Off course they would have run out of story pretty quckly.
None of the books are non-stop action. There just happen to be several major developments in this book that move the plot forward. Unfortunately most of them happen in the latter half of the book. I really think it was a mistake to split the book to 2 seasons. They could have easily fit it all in one season if they added 1 or 2 episodes. Off course they would have run out of story pretty quckly.
Like someone else mentioned, I feel it's mostly due to how many different arcs there are to follow. In S1 there was only a handful - Winterfell Starks, KL Starks, Lannisters, Night's Watch, Targaeryns. Even last season there wasn't quite as many.
Now you have:
Robb/Catelyn
Arya
Sansa
Jon
Bran/Rickon
Night's Watch
Jamie/Brienne
Cersie/Tyrion/Joffrey
Dany
Theon (should have been cut)
Stannis/Melisandre
That's 11 different stories going which means an average of 5 minutes per episode. Not exactly a lot of time to get things going.
Like someone else mentioned, I feel it's mostly due to how many different arcs there are to follow. In S1 there was only a handful - Winterfell Starks, KL Starks, Lannisters, Night's Watch, Targaeryns. Even last season there wasn't quite as many.
Now you have:
Robb/Catelyn
Arya
Sansa
Jon
Bran/Rickon
Night's Watch
Jamie/Brienne
Cersie/Tyrion/Joffrey
Dany
Theon (should have been cut)
Stannis/Melisandre
That's 11 different stories going which means an average of 5 minutes per episode. Not exactly a lot of time to get things going.
The Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are what makes everything come to a crashing halt. There are enough things happening with the other characters that even if they get 5 minutes it feels like their arc is progressing. But the Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are just filler. At this point neither of them is doing anything important and they could disappear entirely without getting missed. Giving up 15% or so of an episode to cover those characters is an odd choice when there is so much more happening everywhere else.
And Tywin is stealing every scene he's in. It's disappointing how much Tyrion has faded into the background, but at least Tywin is making up for it.
The Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are what makes everything come to a crashing halt. There are enough things happening with the other characters that even if they get 5 minutes it feels like their arc is progressing. But the Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are just filler. At this point neither of them is doing anything important and they could disappear entirely without getting missed. Giving up 15% or so of an episode to cover those characters is an odd choice when there is so much more happening everywhere else.
And Tywin is stealing every scene he's in. It's disappointing how much Tyrion has faded into the background, but at least Tywin is making up for it.
The Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are what makes everything come to a crashing halt. There are enough things happening with the other characters that even if they get 5 minutes it feels like their arc is progressing. But the Theon and Bran/Rickon scenes are just filler. At this point neither of them is doing anything important and they could disappear entirely without getting missed. Giving up 15% or so of an episode to cover those characters is an odd choice when there is so much more happening everywhere else.
They kind of screwed up the Bran storyline IMO. In the book the person that captures Theon is the one that suggest faking there deaths (Theon meets him much earlier). So they are sort of on the run/hiding from him, although I never really felt they were in much danger as it doesn't seem like they are ever actively being pursued (I could be forgetting it, been a while).
In the show the only one that knows about the fake deaths is Theon and his Ironborn. So there is really no danger to them. They should have had Theon's captor send out some raiding parties to pursue Bran when Theon confessed to faking their deaths to spice up that story a bit. It also would have given more purpose to Theon's torture. Alternatively they could have shown Theon's men reaching Deepwood Motte and telling his sister about the fake deaths who could go out chasing them.
In addition the to difficulty of implementing all the character arcs on screen, we're roughly half-way through ASOS.
Most everything in the books at this point was simply building to certain events as well.
At this point in the books, that's mostly the same in the show:
* Fist of the First Men attacked. Sam escaped Crastor's keep with Gilly.
* Jon scaled the wall with Ygritte and the wildlings.
* Bran still moving North with company
* Dany got her unsullied and laid waste to Astapor
* Tyrion grumbling about the lack of respect
* Sansa being used as a pawn
* Davos locked up
* Arya and company intercepted by the BwB in their way to Riverrun. She escaped.
* Jaime and Brienne were captured and then continued on their way to King's Landing.
What's been left out (some spoilers, nothing huge though):
* Sam the Slayer, though I expect that will happen soon
* Bran and Rickon parted ways immediately, though I expect that will happen soon
* Bran is becoming exceeding good at warging into Summer....Bran's storyline is the most mangled, IMO.
* Tyrion managing the Tyrells and Dornish.
* Jon fights and flees the wildlings with the help of Summer at Queenscrown, this could happen, I dunno.
* Dany had a lesbian experience on her boat
* Strong Belwas exists, beheads a Meereenese champion and shits in front of the city.
* Barristan Selmy's identity wasn't revealed until Meereen.
* The dynamic between Jorah Mormont and Selmy is different, since Selmy was on the council and did know of Jorah's betrayal.
* Arya and the BwB visited Maggy the Frog at High Heart.
* Arya attempted escape a couple/few times
* Davos had some more interaction.
And then's there's too much stuff changed in some way to put into a list. Nonetheless...there is some action, but it's relatively few and far between.
Mostly what's left out is: history, context, inner monologue, etc... There is a LOT of backstory explained by characters in the BwB, Jojen and Meera Reed, etc...much of it interesting.
Anyway, I don't really think there's a huge pacing mismatch of present events between the show and books. But a lot of material has to be left out or can't be adapted well to screen.
As mentioned, some storylines, like Bran's and Theon's could've been done better. Rather than devoting a token 3 minutes to the characters. Save all their story (since we're mostly time/place unaware anyway) to be done in larger chunks. Bran's story is actually pretty interesting in the books. Theon could've been tortured and fucked with for 15 mins one episode. Then attempt escape, tortured more and finally locked in a dungeon cell in another and let that be it. Instead we get little bits of story almost every episode that interrupts the flow.
At least the events in books 4 and 5 are concurrent, so they'll be mixed. Dunno if that's a great thing though, since it doesn't resolve the "too many character arcs" problem.
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