Spoiler alert…if you have NOT read G.R.R. Martin’s series which is actually titled A Song of Ice and Fire, you might not have a clue what I am writing about tonight. Furthermore, if you did not actually watch the season 2 finale last night, again, don’t read this yet. Please come back and visit when you have watched “Valar Morghulis”. There are so many, many, MANY things I didn’t really like about this season. Don’t get me wrong, they have some great scenes in there, and it looks really spectacular on the screen, but you lose so much. For example, immediately they jumped right into this season without any mention of how important the “hill tribe” was to Tyrion’s position at King’s Landing and why he really wanted them there. Plus, the characters were pretty interesting in the book. Are you missing much? No, probably not. So moving on.
When Daenerys gets to Qarth, we see a woman in a red mask. She is very interesting in the book, but here they don’t seem to give her much “voice”. I’m not sure how they will play this in the future as what she says came back to Daenerys many times in the future. All we see is the skinny, blue-lipped warlock who ”stole” the dragons. Ahem. Can we talk about this?? Why did they change this entire part? Who knows. Why did they have all the council elders of the city killed as well? I rather liked the way it played out in the book. You get the feeling that no one has ever escaped the House of the Undying and that it will come back to haunt her. Not so much in this episode as everyone is kinda dead now. Then, the whole thing with Xaro Xhoan Daxos…um never happened, but who cares. It was fun to think he gets locked in the vault of nothing with her handmaiden. Sure.
Okay, then, we see the character of Margaery Tyrell, who looks basically like a “ho”. We are supposed to believe she is a virgin. Ha ha ha. Anyway, in the book, she is depicted as such, and actually doesn’t wear dresses with a slit down to her who-ha. Yes, that’s a real word. Lastly, Tyrion still has his nose. I guess it would be hard to have him play that character without the tip of his nose. They did what they could there.
I didn’t even mention the scene at Winterfell was all wrong and that we are missing some really cool characters. Maybe they will meet them on the trip??? Trying not to spoil that for you, but they were important in the books. I guess it can work without them, and perhaps they will not split up because how fascinating will it be to watch Hodor say “Hodor” the whole trip…ummm, not so much. Since there are so many differences and I didn’t touch on half of them, I would suggest reading the books if you haven’t. You really will get a better feeling of what’s going on in the story. If you have read the books, just know that you aren’t alone when you are talking to the TV about how that “didn’t really happen”. I’m right there with you.
“A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.” ~William Styron