A fan's perspective on HBO's adaptation of a fantasy classic...

[Spoilers]

Winter has finally come. As a fan of George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series since 2003, upon which Game of Thrones is based, it is admittedly a mixed bag indeed to finally see the Seven Kingdoms come to life on the silver screen. Years back, when the idea of ASOIAF becoming a TV show wasn’t even the hint of a whisper, I recalled distinctly that if this ever got adapted, the only place it could ever work would be on HBO. The series is simply too epic in scope for anything else, not to mention that it contains some of the most unashamedly graphic violence and sex not just in fantasy fiction, but fiction of any genre.

When the lines finally began to be drawn on an adaptation actually happening, and more specifically, happening on HBO, I became as giddy as Sansa Stark. I knew there was a vast potential to create something special, and that if anyone could do justice to the Seven Kingdoms and the characters that inhabit them, it would be HBO.

Then the fear crept in. It might be Westeros, but would it be my Westeros? Would the locations feel right? Would the characters look like the characters? Would the world be rich enough? The answers to these questions currently stands at an even split. Much of this production is spot on, the attention to detail is deft and sharp, and yet for all the skilful craft, there’s the sense that we are simply passing through the world of Seven Kingdoms; that we are not yet living there with its inhabitants.

Perhaps the most crucial part of any adaptation is the casting, and so far it feels fairly safe to say that generally speaking, HBO have done a good job. As a fan of the books, there are a number of roles that feel like a general good fit (Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lanister, Lena Headey as Queen Cersei, Sean Bean as Ned Stark) but a few are particularly spot on. There really never was anyone other than Peter Dinklage to play Tyrion – it’s simply a role he was born to play. Maisie Williams, though, is perhaps the best cast of any of the characters in the entire show. She embodies all of Arya’s tomboy mischievous behaviour and one suspects in the episodes to come, will easily show off her ruthless, violent streak that borders on sociopathic. Isaac Hempstead-Wright was also spot on as Bran Stark. Alfie Allen is a pleasant surprise, perfect as the smug-as-a pig-in-shit Theon Greyjoy, he of the wry smile. Harry Lloyd plays Viserys with a softness that could kill and the moment he gently tells his sister he’d let the entire Dothraki army and their horses fuck her cements his selection for the role as the right man for the job.

Unfortunately, it isn’t all perfect. Whichever way you slice it, Kit Harrington is simply too old to accurately portray Jon Snow. So much of Jon’s journey has to do with his emotional vulnerability due to his age, and while most of the children have been aged up for the TV show, none of them feel as blatantly wrong as Jon. I live in hope that the writers can find a way to make Jon’s journey feel deep and believable, but at the moment I’m just not buying it. Similarly, Sophie Williams looks far older than the thirteen years her character Sansa claims to be, and those who have read the books will know the boundless depths of Sansa’s naivety, her head full of songs. This being the case, it’s difficult to imagine a girl this old having the same level of innocence about her, and the element of wide-eyed gullibility isn’t yet visible, instead we get a glimpse into the snidely condescension that teenage girls of the real world are all too capable. They’re both just a little too old. This is not so much a criticism of the actors, though, as of the producers for not having the guts to keep these characters at the ages they were intended. I also have a feeling that this may well come back to haunt them when they ask the audience to credibly accept each characters respective story-lines and emotional arcs, something I worry may be lost in the translation.

As a die-hard fan who's read the books once a year since 2003, it’s impossible for me to come at this objectively, but even as someone who knows the world of Westeros intimately (ASOIAF is my absolute favourite piece of fiction across any medium), I found myself sympathizing and somewhat concerned for the uninitiated to the Seven Kingdoms. The pilot episode does a great job of introducing the key characters and establishing the central locations, but if I didn’t already know the background, story and characters of Game of Thrones, I might find myself somewhat at sea. The episode moves at a shockingly fast pace. What was easily a hundred pages in the novel has been turned into a succinct hour, but unfortunately rather than feeling that the narrative is being kept moving, I’m left with the sense that things are being rushed.

"There are certain things that are currently preventing this from being the grand epic masterpiece it has the potential to be, and chief of those is the pace"

Prime examples include Jon Snow’s scene with uncle Benjen and Tyrion Lannister. In the novel, Jon has an entire chapter in which he pines over being born on the wrong side of the sheets, boasts that he can be a noble man worthy of the Night’s Watch, then gets drunk and flees the Great Hall in a tear-strewn mess. The resolution to this is his encounter with Tyrion, who directly prods Jon about his birth and tackles the issue head on where everyone else dances around it. It’s worth noting that in the novels, Jon is fourteen, and therefore far more impressionable, but the reader is left with a powerful sense that in Tyrion, Jon may have just found a kindred spirit and true friend. Instead, this was all reduced to a scene where the two exchanges between Jon and Benjen and Jon and Tyrion were slapped together, failing to carry the weight of the moment from the book.

Another, and arguably the biggest, deviation from the novels involves Daenerys and Khal Drogo riding off into the desert to consummate their marriage. Up until this point, the depiction of the Dothraki and the Targaryens had been spot on, but when it came down to the actual deed, the mood was entirely wrong. Yes, in the books Dany is in tears, a terrified and vulnerable slip of a girl, but when she is alone with Drogo, everything changes – she realises that underneath the savagery of the tribes, there is a gentleness to Drogo that she never suspected, and in the end she goes to him willingly. What we got instead was bordering on rape. The dialogue was largely the same with Drogo’s use of only “No,” but the meaning behind it was totally different. In the novel, his protests are quite obviously and specifically against Dany being afraid as he wipes away her tears, wanting her to come to him willingly, but in the show no such clarification is made obvious and the scene ends with Dany being forced on to her knees and presumably raped, a shockingly stark contrast to the interpretation of this scene in the novel.

Some of the best dialogue from the book is present, albeit in truncated form. Much of Jon and Tyrion’s exchange was word for word, and though while it’s there, there’s still a sense that something is lacking. As I’ve said before, it feels rushed. The words are there, but gravitas that those words should hold is achingly absent. Tragically, one of the most memorable exchanges in the book is cut, as fans of the books will remember with clarity Bran timidly asking Ned “Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?” as his father replies “That is the only time a man can be brave”. Jaime’s infamous “the things I do for love” line should be poignant, grudging and with a twinge a regret, instead, the delivery is flippant, to the point of bordering on jocularity.

The beauty of the novels is that the events build across a slow burn, building and building then coalescing into a series of bloody, twisting events. This may appear an odd comparison, but in many ways A Song of Ice And Fire has a great deal of resemblance to The Wire ­– also a slow burn that climaxed in a nail-biting barrage across two or three episodes, the scope of cast is easily as large, and like The Wire, minor characters become central as the focus changes.

Unfortunately for the time being, Game of Thrones seems to be heading down a path more akin to The Tudors and The Borgias, with the focus on moving the plot forward rather than simply luxuriating in the world of the Seven Kingdoms and allowing the events to unfold in a timely, but unhurried fashion. Thankfully, it is infinitely better than Camelot.

From the outside looking in, this may seem a damning and largely negative review. It isn’t. HBO should be credited for doing a great job of adapting the novels to the medium of television, and in all likelihood not even AMC could have come close to rivalling a production of this calibre. That said, there are certain things that are currently preventing this from being the grand epic masterpiece it has the potential to be, and chief of those is the pace: if the writers can take a moment to simply breathe in, give the audience a chance to better acquaint themselves with the world and allow the story to tell itself in its own time rather than consistently hurrying along to the next plot point, there lies the possibility for truly great television that will be long remembered.

See also:

Game of Thrones: Winter is coming

Game of Thrones s1e1 recap

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW: