Book To Series - Tumblr Posts

I am invested in both actually. And they have some things alike actually, mostly their background information, the hostage situation, Theon being arrogant (even though way less then his book counterpart) in the beginning and liking girls. But they did some mayjor changes to him the more the show went on. Some I can absolutly understand (anything physical I would not want any actor to go though) some I don’t get at all (Ned was my father) but that is normal in adaptations. Different mediums will have different outcomes (that’s why there are no movie adaptations of “the catcher in the rye”). GRRM writing is something. He has a very interesting style that isn’t for everyone and doesn’t have to be. I personally love his dialogs but his descriptions I don’t like as much. And how good he is at writing dialog you can see of the GoT episodes he wrote. And having a actor back that up can be incredible (Theon shaving Ramsay scene is show only, written by GRRM but absolutly fantastic in conveying Theons emotions through Alfie Allens acting). I am absolutly with you about changing things from book to screen, it is incredibly hard,espeically characters that convey way more on the inside than the outside are very hard to adapt. Sansa is a really good example of that aswell, because she can’t speak her mind freely and they definitly tried with Theon and Alfie Allens performance is flawless, so they did a job, but I don’t think it was the best job possible writing wise.

Cutting out dreams is fine with me in general, they cut out all the dreams and as much as I love them it makes for a clearer outlay in the series so it’s an understandable change for style reasons. And because you wouldn’t want to make it so clear that Robb was going to die. But I generally think that the showrunners didn’t go for an as grey portrayle on any of the characters as they are in the books (especially later seasons, but even when they covered book material they tended to cut out anything that wasn’t part of the sterotype they wanted to go for-not saying all of them are sterotypes but they flattened the characters more and more over the seaons). I actually watched the show before reading the books so I wouldn’t be as critical and could enjoy the show more. Which is why I still love a lot about the show, especially the acting is amazing in general and it saves a lot of the scenes that just don’t fit the rest of the story plotwise. But going back to it I realize more and more how often charcter changes were made for what they felt like without taking the backgrounds the characters had into it (Ned was my real father vs. Ned was his captor) that they kept from the books. And if they changed these preexisting things I wouldn’t have minded. (Cut out the Maester Luwin scene and you can have the Ned scene). There are movies that I love (Howl’s moving castle, Scot Pilgrim to name some) that are very different from their source material but that pulled through on their chang but Game of Thrones is not one of them. At some point they kept taking book plotlines/ characters traits and stuffed them into the show without having the background for it and it felt off when I watched it already and am only now realising why that is. (Edmure being an idiot for everything, then having his baby catapult scene, to going back to being an idiot in the finale.) And I can absolulty get behind why you aren’t sure if book!Theon has regret/remorse because at heart he is still an arrogant ass (I mean that in the nicest way, even though it doesn’t read like it) and that is something I like very much, because as I mentioned in my original post being a victim doesn’t do a 180 on you it just fucks you up. So I appreciate GRRM not making Theon a completly different person (I get why the show changed him so much and I actually like it aswell, just for different reasons) because it shows that he has a better psychological understanding of torture than the showrunners. For a character ark Theon’s show storyline is more obvious to the viewer, especially for people that do react more like you to expressions and tone of voice (thanks to Alfie Allens acting), dialog is very different to interpret. Both are hard but for different reasons and some people catch on to one thing better than the other (I’d love to know what that means about our brains). To go back to my original point of the post: I think the books showed his inner turmoil earlier than the show did because he develops PTSD whereas I see remorse in show Theon but not straight up spiraling into mental illness because of it. And I think they changed that not because of timing issues but for character plotline changes and it’s a change I personally don’t think is good due to the implication that his change is more through Ramsay than himself. (Honestly one two scenes of him waking up sweaty and overreacting would have been enough for me) And it seems they did similar things with Jamie and his hand getting chopped of and Sansa getting raped making her stronger (that season 8 dialog with Sandor was not good, I guess what they were going for but only due to the acting not because of the words that were spoken). Just in general psychological or phsyical torture doesn’t make you stronger it just screws you up and you have it on top of your already excisting character flaws that you have to work through and watching Theon’s ark I felt that he changed more due to the torture because there was little build up before it. Not saying there wasn’t, just not enough.

I am very glad GRRM decided to give Theon PTSD pre Ramsay. The fact that Theon gets PTSD in the middle of the war, because he has a break is showing that GRRM has an understanding of both PTSD and that torture doesn’t make you a better person or whatever D&D were going for. Theon developed PTSD during a break in war for him, he started his nightmares about dead people which is something that can totally happen to any person that is coming out of the adrenalin rush of survival (of any sort, but in this case war). The other thing is, Theon subcotiously started to regret his actions, deciding against Robb, letting bad come to the smallfolk of Winterfell, that were in no way at fault for his hostage status and the killing of the miller’s boys, as much as he tries to tell himself that they were JUST the miller’s boys and therefore for war purposes not important. But something in him knows that this is bs, that is is wrong to kill these innocent children and all of that triggers his PTSD way before Ramsay starts torturing him. The way it’s done in GoT shows Theon showing regret and remorse after he gets tortured, wich implys that his change in character comes from said torture whereas book!Theon has this point way before. And that is way better. Being a victim does not make you stronger or a better character. Reflecting on your actions and knowing they were bad does. Torture will just screw your brain up, it will not make you a better person, it will just fuck you up. But apperrently D&D think differently- The same thing happend to Jamie aswell, just saying.