The Imp Bites Back
Well with “The Children” Season Four comes to an end. I was interested how this episode was going as I knew how many scenes were left but I didn’t know how they were going to fit them all into an hour’s worth of show. It did not disappoint. The scenes I expected were very well executed. The ones that I didn’t (one because I expected it to be in the next season the other being completely unique to the show) did also impress. What I missed most was a small but very important plot point involving Tyrion and Tywin. To a certain extent I’m surprised. They had the set up for it in the first season but I guess the writers decided it wasn’t that important after all but still it’s going to change a lot of Tyrion’s motivations for the rest of the show which should be… interesting. But what I missed the most was the book’s epilogue which brings the unexpected return of a certain character. But who knows perhaps it was a subplot that needed trimming or… it will be yet another reason to look forward to season five.
As for the season as a whole this was fun. To a certain extent I thought the pacing was too slow but I think this was mostly due to just how “Storm of Swords” was split into two seasons and a need to keep characters who disappear for two books visible. Frequently this is something I only have a problem with only when I watch it one episode at a time. When I’m watching the entire season on DVD this ceases to be an issue.
The other thing I find fascinating is just how different it is from the book. As I mentioned earlier one of the things I’ve been enjoying as a reader of Song of Ice and Fire one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most is handicapping the episodes, making educated guesss on just what they are going to tweak, embellish or trim. Another thing I’ve noticed is how a lot of these changes began to snowball becoming larger changes in future seasons. For all of the changes that had been made in the past for the most part the seasons stayed on the general outline. This season in my opinion started going off script in major ways most obviously seen in Sansa, Arya and Brienne’s stories. I’m beginning to be reminded of such franchises as Akira, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Full Metal Alchemist where the adaptation passed the original and became something very different. (no complaint mind you just something interesting) As a whole what I missed was no one made any use of the “Hands of Gold” Song something I thought they had several opportunities to put in context and would have been great!
