Game of Thrones returns

As Game of Thrones enters its fourth series, it’s easy to imagine that the show’s writers and producers would be pretty pleased with themselves: the huge success of the show, unforeseen at its inception three years ago, and a vast fanbase that stretches far beyond the usual fans of genre TV means that viewings figures are predicted to stay high for the foreseeable future. After such success, there’s always a risk that the creators might sit back and rest on their laurels, confident that people will watch either way. Thankfully, that shows no sign of being the case for the series so far.

Another consequence of this could be that the writers decide to take more risks, and evidence of that might be found in the increasingly frequent departures from the source material we’ve seen. A lot of the choices of the writers to add and rearrange events from the books make sense, but for others the motivation is less clear. We examine what the series has got right and got wrong so far.

Warning: contains spoilers for all aired episodes!

The Good

For anyone who’d read the books, there was only one event early in the series to get truly excited for, and that was the moment we’d been waiting for since series one: Joffrey finally getting what was coming to him. From all of the build-up to his wedding to Margaery Tyrell, it seemed inevitable that something big was going to happen, even to those who didn’t know what was coming. As the wedding got underway, it was clear that this wasn’t going to a joyous occasion for all concerned. After managing to insult just about every high-born guest at the wedding with an ill-conceived performance by a troupe of dwarfs, then further humiliating his uncle Tyrion, the climax came after what felt like hours of tension: Joffrey, purple-faced and choking to death.

Although a victory of sorts to all those who hated Joffrey, his death immediately led to some pretty big problems for Sansa and Tyrion, both at the top of the list of people who had reason to kill him (admittedly, a very long list). While Sansa managed to escape from King’s Landing before being apprehended, Tyrion wasn’t so lucky, and now faces being executed for treason unless he can convince his father and sister of his innocence.

Away from King’s Landing there is a bunch of wildlings South of the Wall causing all sorts of trouble. Tormund, Ygritte and their new pal Styr have been pillaging their way around the North and, in the case of Styr and the other Thenns, indulging in a little cannibalism. Since Styr’s arrival in the first episode, there’s been an obvious tension between him and Tormund. Watching how this plays out should add an extra layer of intrigue to what is already going to be a very interesting plot. If they do end up attacking Castle Black, it should be a pretty exciting showdown. From the inevitably tearful reunion of Jon and Ygritte to watching Tormund and his wildlings with their particularly vicious combat techniques, it will be one hell of a scene. If we’re lucky, Styr might eat Alliser Thorne...

The Bad

Daenarys’ journey to conquer Westeros only after paying a visit to every city, town and large-ish hamlet on the way continues, with very few glimpses of the dragon babies (now dragon teenagers, one presumes) to sustain the viewers’ interest. To be fair, the endless scenes of slave liberation are infinitely more exciting than those in the book, but it still seems as if the Mother of Dragons hasn’t really gone anywhere except from one desert to another since series two. Also, Daario Naharis, the flirtatious sellsword who’s been piquing Dany’s interest, has been recast, and yet still doesn’t have the blue-dyed mustachios and three-pronged beard he’s described as having in the books.

Another place where things seem to be going nowhere is the Wall, where Jon Snow has returned to his own fair share of troubles: namely, being accused of betraying the Night’s Watch by killing Qhorin Halfhand and having inappropriate amounts of fun with a wilding lady. In spite of being accused of treason, no one seems to actually want to lock him up, so instead he just reverts back to the classic Jon Snow pasttimes of pouting and showing off his swordfighting skills.

Finally, Aiden Gillen seems to be attempting yet another questionable accent, with little to no improvement at making anyone actully take Littlefinger seriously.

Also being annoying at the wall is Sam, who, in spite of all his fretting about Gilly, has yet to make a move. You’d reckon her naming her son after him would be enough to convince him he was in with a shot, but instead he decides to send her away from the Wall to a dubious-looking inn-cum-brothel for her safety, then spends the next two episodes whining about it.

The Ugly

Game of Thrones has taken its fair share of criticism for its frequent and often unnecessary scenes of sexual violence, but the third episode of the series, in which Jaime Lannister raped his sister Cersei, was particularly reprehensible. It was also a complete departure from the scene in the books, in which Jaime and Cersei have sex which is, if distasteful (given that is happens over their son’s corpse), at least consensual. The series, however, saw fit to change the scene to one in which Jaime calls Cersei a ‘hateful woman’ then rapes her as she pleads with him to stop.

Not only was the scene uncomfortable to watch, it also completely reduced three series of character development on Jaime’s part to nothing. After seeing him push a child out of a window at the end of the first series, the slow redemption of Jaime Lannister has been one of the better-done plotlines of the show, follwing his capture and release by Catelyn Stark and his acquaintance of Brienne. All of that was undone by the rape scene: in particular, the following episodes’s scene where Jaime gives Brienne his sword and a coat of armour in order for her to fulfil her vow to Catelyn fell flat, following his brutal treatment of his sister.

The creators of the show appeared to have differing interpretations of the scene as well, with the director claiming that the scene ‘became consensual at the end’ and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime, replying ‘Yes, and no,’ when asked if he thought the scene was rape. If there was any ambiguity intended in the scene, it didn’t come across in the filming.

The threat of rape and sexual violence is fundamental to the setting of the book: Westeros is emphasised time and time again to be a pretty horrendous place to live, especially for women. That doesn’t explain or justify the insertion of a rape scene that served no plot or character development purposes.