Talk:Dark Wings, Dark Words

Catelyn and Jon
Brace yourselves, guys. Word out on the street (from Westeros.org and other sources) is that the second episode of Season 3 contains an "invented" scene for Catelyn Stark, which some are calling tantamount to character assassination. Of course, TV-Catelyn has so drastically diverged from book-Catelyn in the first two seasons that this is just yet another trip down that path, apparently. The vague pattern we've noticed is that they deny Catelyn "political agency", give decisions she makes in the books to Robb in the TV show, and increasingly make her whine about "I just want to see my children!" as if the only way to make a female leader sympathetic is to lock her into being a stereotypical mother-role. I think they're trying to make her mother sympathetic and soft, but it comes off as whiny and weak. My guess is that they felt they need to go above and beyond with Catelyn because they thought the viewers would not understand her hatred of Jon Snow, and see her as a "wicked stepmother", unless they hit us over the head (almost literally) with "she's a loving mother!".

Anyway, the actual scene itself doesn't sound too out of keeping from the books. All I've heard is that it's Catelyn giving a long monologue on her feelings about Jon Snow (I don't thin that's too spoilery). My running guess is that this actually does correspond to the book scene in which Robb decides he needs to name a legal heir (given that they think Bran and Rickon are dead, and Sansa and Arya to be in Lannister captivity); Robb wants to name Jon Snow but Catelyn insists on naming an incredibly distant relative from House Royce. So if it's "a monologue by Catelyn on her feelings about Jon Snow" that does correspond to something from the books, or seems brought up by something from the books. But multiple reviewers - Westeros.org being only the most prominent - who have seen advanced screener copies said it felt like a "character assassination" moment. I have no idea what that means: book fans would be outraged that she once again diverges even further away from book-Catelyn in her feelings about Jon Snow? Or would even TV fans feel it just seems out of character? Either way, all of the advanced reviews say that for folks worried about "adaptation from book to screen", the shit hits the fan in this episode.--The Dragon Demands (talk) 01:40, March 30, 2013 (UTC)