So they changed quite a bit of it from the books. Bothered me but not sure if it ruined it for non-book readers.
Loved Yoren's brief bit. That guy is great. The conversation between Tyrion and Cersei was fantastic as well. I'm really, really not liking the direction they have taken with Littlefinger in the show versus how I read him in the books. I suppose I will just have to get used to it. And I'm glad they are having much less Shae in the show (at least so far) than they have in the books as I absolutely can't stand the actress they got to play her.
Spoiler Bronn was not made the new captain of the city guard. Theon's sister's name is different (Asha, not Yara). Jon Snow never followed Craster into the woods. The convo between Cersei and Tyrion was different (I think). The scene with Shae and Varys never happened. Shae wasn't in the Tower of the Hand at this point. Davos's son wasn't at the meeting with Salador Saan, and much of the dialogue was different. They never showed Stannis screwing Melesandre (although it's hinted at). In the book, Theon's ship wench is calling to him from the ship after he disembarks. That's what I can think of off the top of my head. I had no problems with any of it, really. In fact, I liked some of the additions like the Craster/Jon in the woods scene.
Theon can't catch a break. Just hilarious how he's getting humiliated left and right. He shows up dressed like a jester and finger blast his sister. Funny stuff. I hope there's a payoff with all those Stannis scenes. It's probably the least interesting of all. Right down there with the wandering horse people.
I was wondering about that. . . . because it seems something so insignificant. . . why change it Rocket River
I notice they did a lot of combining scenes from the book to make one scene in the series. When not considering the books it was an awesome episode. Having said that I'm starting to wonder how much they will change. Spoiler - The scene at the end of episode 2 was accurate as far as what Craster does with his boys but Jon was never around when this happened. And we don't learn this little secret until SoS. - Jon never really has a run in with Craster in the books. Craster recognizes Jon as a Stark from his looks and does not like him because of it but there is never a confrontation between him and Craster. - I'm starting to wonder if the Black will actually travail to the fist of the first men or if Halfhand will just meat them at Crasters? - Yara (Asha) is not at all like I imagined in the books. She was not outgoing or flirtatious enough IMO when she first met Theon. She completely dominated Theon in the book. Her and Theons 1st Meeting is one of my favorite scenes in all the books, and an especially oh **** moment when Theon figures out who she is. - I thought Belon Greyjoy was spot on and pretty much exactly how I imagined him. By combining scenes however they completely left out Belon's brother who is actually the one who picks up Theon when the ship docks not the sister. Those were just some differences I noticed but nothing that kept the episode from being really good. And HBO is staying a lot truer to GoF than they did to the series of books True Blood.
I was aware of the Yara/Asha name change rationale. I think it was dumb to change Asha's name and not Osha's. I didn't like the Yara casting at first, but when I thought about it....it works. She's a tough tomboy type, filling her absentee brothers shoes. Oh, I forgot: Spoiler The entire Littlefinger brothel scene wasn't in the books. In fact, the Ros (redhead w****) character isn't in the books either. I know it's to give Littlefinger screen time and develop his character, but it makes him look too much like a pimp. In the books he doesn't spend much time in his brothels.
She was thinner I believe, but that's not too big a deal. But she never really let Theon do anything to her. She always deftly maneuvered his hand away from touching her.
Yes that was something I noticed as well. She ran her finger along the zipper of his pants (if it had a zipper) to tease him but when they were on the horse she moved his hand every time he tried to grab her boobs. There was no finger banging at all with his sister. She was portrayed as a lot more charismatic in the book for sure.
Also, Spoiler Sex brings in more of a TV audience. To state the audience, that redhead is not bad at all. As an aside, I just watched all of Season 1 on Blu Ray. Gives my wife a chance to see the episodes with Portuguese subtitles (to not miss anything), then she can watch without (to work on her English). She's more geeked out about the series than I am, and I love it. Good stuff.
There's a big stretch where Littlefinger goes off and you don't know exactly what he's doing because there's no POV character to tell his story. I'm sure they're going to write scenes to fill in the blanks in this period. I think that's largely what happened the Jon/Craster scene. What Craster was doing with his sons wasn't explicitly talked about in the books because Jon never saw him do it. But this is likely what was happening in the universe and the show writers wanted to explicitly show the viewers instead of just hinting at it.
My only issue is with the Jon / Craster confrontation at the end of the episode. It never happens so I'm curious where they are going with it. The little finger scene in the brothel is easily explained but not so much with Jon and Craster. It seems like they are messing with the story line with that one.
Yeah, the problem is that Jon never saw it and was never knocked out by Craster. They could've simply shown Craster taking the baby boy out into the woods for the Others to take and that could've just happened "off screen" in the book. But by putting Jon there and creating a conflict, it necessitates changes. What are the repercussions going to be? I assume they'll just use this as a device so Craster can kick the Night's Watch off of his property and they'll just continue on their journey.
