Dan Weiss and David Benioff gave us four wonderful seasons of the show, which is an adaptation of the book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire”. There were major plot differences but there is no adaptation in the world which is as good as the books; except perhaps The Godfather or To Kill a Mockingbird. In the first four seasons the show remained very much within the limits of an adaptation and was by far one of the most successful adaptations (by popularity). The differences and plot holes were pardonable. But something went thoroughly wrong during season 5. The changes that occurred in the show were not minor alterations to fit it into the limited budget or limited time or limited technology. They started changing entire plot lines and we have no clue why. They changed characters and their arcs and how they behaved so much so that they are beyond recognition now. In the 5th and 6th seasons it seemed plausible that this new plot line will make sense but after the 7th season it is filled with plot holes, unanswered questions and untied ends.
Before I get into what went wrong, let me clarify my stand as a book reader. These days the phrase “book reader” is held against us as if we are inconsiderate idiots who want the adaptations to be carbon copied from the book. That’s a myth. We have seen adaptations and in fact, many in the fantasy genre like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia etc. We enjoyed watching these and still do. We realise that the adaptations can’t be as detailed as the books but defending Game of Thrones at this point is very difficult for anybody following the plot closely, irrespective of whether they have read the books or not. I defended the show till season 6 because there was still hope of redemption. Hope, that it will start falling into place in the last two seasons but I have left all that behind.
Getting back to why the show missed its mark we have to understand how the show out stepped the limits of an adaptation. Until season 4, no one of the cast or crew had to tell the audience that the show and the books are different. Yes, we know it’s different but if it were to be this different then they should have renamed the show and written, “Inspired by GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire” instead of writing “based on” in the opening credits. It should be recognisable after all. So for our dear viewers, here is the plot that was promised: the Lannisters.
Jaime Lannister
The first major change was in Jaime Lannister’s plot line. Jaime is a pretty major character in the book, getting his pov way back in book 3. He isn’t as dumb and stupid and insignificant as he is made to look in the show. He has been reduced to Cersei’s paramour and nothing else, when in reality he is more practical of the twins and definitely more intelligent. In A Feast for Crows, he has proper clarity of the situation and knows it through and through that Cersei’s decisions are blundering and will be the end of her. He even figured out (aside from Tyrion) that the catspaw sent to kill Bran, armed with a Valyrian blade dagger was indeed sent by Joffrey who was hungry for his father’s (Robert) attention. Robert had told them in the presence of his children that Bran should be granted the mercy of death just like horses are killed if they get crippled or blind. So Joffrey who was deemed incapable by Robert, attempted one last shot towards his father’s favour.
Jaime willingly goes to the Riverlands and handles the whole situation with tact and mercy. He saves prostitutes and punishes men (irrespective of their allegiance) who had raped women and plundered whichever area they passed. He was serving justice and hoped that his actions would lead to people replacing “kingslayer” with “goldenhand the just” as his name. In the show all his acts of kindness and mercy that we see are done because Brienne told him to and inspired him to. I love Brienne so I would never complain about her importance in the story. But I also love Jaime and seeing him with no personality of his own, bugs me. His decision not to kill Tullys and to protect the Stark girls arose from an oath to Catelyn Tully that led to his freedom from the Starks. He was not constantly steered by Brienne to do the right thing.
Brienne has a very crucial role in the story and to Jaime’s arc. She is what Jaime always wanted to be. She is the ideal knight that Jaime aimed to become as a child. But all the atrocities of the Mad King and the monarchy in general had left him disillusioned. This turned him into a sarcastic cynic, speaking always with a hint of irony and sarcasm. That changes as his boyhood aspirations are rekindled by Brienne. The previously broken and apathetic man, now decided to take matters into his own hands; to do right by others as much as is possible by him. All we get to see in the show is Cersei’s pet who does nothing of his free will and is as important as the Mountain is. People who are not acquainted with the book don’t even cast a single thought in his way because the show has made him into a whole different character.
The most crucial feature about Jaime is that he had learnt from Tyrion that Cersei had bedded other men like Lancel, the Kettleback brothers and Moonboy and that has left him estranged from Cersei. He is so disgusted by her actions and his worth to her, that he burns the letter she had sent via Quyburn, to save her from the High Sparrow. He even sees through her ruse when she comes to please him sexually only, when she needs to get something done by Jaime; like the time she dressed up as a commoner and entered a tavern to Jaime, to convince him to join the Kingsguard. And he definitely doesn’t rape Cersei and he never wanted to kill Tyrion for a single second, because he blamed himself for Tywin’s death. These changes were a bit unnecessary and disparaging to the character. It also somewhat dilutes the importance of the character by painting a laughably disgusting image of him. Also, sending him to slaughter the Dornish plot displayed how he is viewed as a character. He was the only dispensable character that could be sent to ruin a plot while killing his own plot at the same time.
I want to know what purpose it served to portray a consensual intercourse as rape. What necessity did it fulfil to have Jaime hate Tyrion? How did it help the plot to keep Jaime stuck to Cersei without as much as a doubt in his heart? He didn’t even question about Lancel, which is show canon (and common knowledge due to the Sparrows). He sees his sister repeat the actions of the Mad King without getting affected by it. It took him seven seasons and a threat to his life to leave her? That maybe someone but that’s definitely not Jaime.
In the show Jaime is a nobody who makes a lot of mistakes. The aforementioned is Jaime’s redemption arc and this is him in reality and what the show has made him makes no sense at all. It makes no sense that the man who killed a King he was sworn to protect because that king happened to be cruel and insane, doesn’t get disillusioned even after seeing his sister perform numerous acts of cruelty and tyranny.
Cersei Lannister
Cersei in the books is such a paranoid character that it would make you want to be best friends with the show Cersei. We don’t see much of that paranoia in the show. Now that Tommen is dead in the show she should be more concerned about herself. But it seems that after being crowned the queen she has lost that. Cersei has always been the cautious one, hiding her incestuous relationship with Jaime while the latter always wanted to proclaim his love for her to the world and kill anyone who stopped them. Suddenly since season 4, Cersei has decided to be careless about keeping her relationship a secret. A relationship which she fears would be her undoing, if made public. We see that Cersei in season1, but it’s hard to believe her now anymore.
In the show, she is portrayed as a loving mother while in reality her protectiveness towards her kids is because of Maggy the Frog’s prophecy. The death of her children is like a time bomb, ticking towards her death by the valonqar. Her behaviour towards Tommen (during Tywin’s funeral) and her constant complain about his weakness is testimony enough as to why her love is a tad bit conditional. It is evident especially after she gets Margaery arrested for infidelity. After doing the deed she rationalised her actions by telling herself that she did it for Tommen while in reality she thought Margaery was the young queen who will replace her, as according to the prophecy.
Her madness and paranoia isn’t apparent in the show, not even a least bit. Her schemes are generally short sighted ending with her getting into a shit load of trouble. So far, she is pretty darned good at the game, in the show. She hasn’t run into many blunders aside from the High Sparrow debacle. King’s Landing is so much more colourful with the real Cersei in place, seeing shadows of enemies everywhere. She is more likely to kiss a wight than let Tyrion go free. She is the kind of person who blows septs, which is believable. She isn’t someone who sits through a meeting in her home turf and let’s everyone go their way.
Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion, the most famous dwarf of Westeros, had been shrunk to a mere comic relief in the sixth season. Tyrion, the master mind, who has a solution to everything and can outwit almost anyone, has sucked hard this season. But Tyrion deserves a blog of his own, so stay tuned in for his blog.
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This is a blog series about the things that went wrong with GoT, we will be putting links of the other blogs below, as and when they are released.
The Plot That Was Promised: Dorne
The Plot that was Promised: Tyrion Lannister
The Plot That Was Promised: Petyr Baelish aka Littlefinger.
Further Reading if you love A Song of Ice and Fire
Randomly Abled 
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