ciscocosta asked: The TV series has done a great job in the casting department and Nina Gold deserves every bit of praise she gets. In your opinion, which were her biggest missteps (keeping in mind that Benioff and Weiss share responsibility there as well)? I'd go with Natalie Dormer (too distant in age from Sansa) and Dany's bloodriders and handmaidens (forgettable and interchangeable, though that may simply be writing/directing, not casting). And on that subject, are you wary of any of the new additions?
I would say that the fault lies with the filmmakers and not the performers regarding Dany’s Dothraki retinue. Even if you can’t turn them all into major supporting characters, if you look through the history of genre filmmaking there’s certainly no shortage of Memorable Henchmen for whom a distinctive look, outfit, or weapon are enough to set them apart from the pack and get them to stick in the audience’s mind. You had that to an extent with Rakharo and Doreah and Irri, but the show went and killed them off. I don’t get it.
I think Michelle Fairley…well, here I’m not sure how much is the writing and how much is the performance, but she doesn’t feel like you’re gripping a livewire the way you do when you read about Catelyn in the books. That’s my least favorite of the POV performances.
I think in general, aging everyone up hurt the show versus the books in that the young ages of the characters relative to what they’ve been put through — Stannis, for example, is my fucking age — is a big part of what makes that world seem so intense and alien and unforgiving. Nothing to be done for that, though, since you can’t show 13 year olds fucking. Anyway the aging-up hurts more in certain cases than others: I think Catelyn has suffered for it, and I think it hemmed the filmmakers in with regards to how to explain Robb’s abandonment of his betrothal to a Frey (he’s too old to blame puppy love and teenage fuck fever), and even the Lannister siblings are a bit older than you’d expect given the prominence of their relationships with one another in their lives — I think that’s the kind of thing that gradually goes to the side as you grow up and live your own life, at least in terms of how frequently you interact with your siblings if not the intensity of your connection to them.
By new additions do you mean new characters for season three? I don’t follow that stuff super closely and, to be honest, have too much else to worry about without resorting to looking at some British character actor’s IMDB page and going “no no no, this guy’s ALL WRONG.”
