User blog comment:The Dragon Demands/Worst changes made by the TV series/@comment-3968559-20141217165331/@comment-5014364-20141217185236

Dunno. I tend to be very forgiving - because if we're forgiving of what CAN plausibly be forgiven, it makes the one or two unforgivable things less easy to defend (if we complain that "you cut out most of Arya's Harrenhal arc!" -- well, realistically there wasn't that much time for that. If we then complain "you cut out Tysha!" they'll say "well, you were also complaining about the lack of Arya's Harrenhal arc" -- one can plausibly be omitted, the other cannot.  Listing both unreasonable and reasonable complaints together only lets adapters wave aside the reasonable complaints...it's a matter of priority).

...I'm on the fence about the Greyjoys. Because on a certain level, I could sympathize if they just honestly said "we have no way of fitting that into a ten hour season at all". The books are unfilmable. I understand that. Given a dire choice between Arianne Martell and the Greyjoys, I'd go with Arianne.

But for god's sake they need something for the Greyjoys, even in extremely condensed form. So I don't know if we'll get Balon's three younger brothers as full cast members, but we need something.

Fundamentally, the complaint isn't "you chose to cut this" - because many things will be cut in an adaptation - but "you chose to cut this but include that other thing which was worthless!

I mean...imagine you're planning a dinner, right? For five people. Steak costs 10 Gold Dragons, a loaf of bread costs 1 Gold Dragon. Giving all five people 1 steak and 1 bread would cost 55 Gold Dragons. If you have only 9 Gold Dragons between you, none of you could ever have a steak at all. If you have 15 Gold Dragons, however, you can at least buy one steak and five breads, one for each person. Then you either assign the steak by lots, or perhaps divide it into five pieces. But you've got one "steak". ...Now imagine that the guy in charge of spending your pooled money instead buys 15 loaves of bread. You complain that he could at least have bought ONE steak with the money he had. Instead, he says "we never had enough money to buy five steaks, one for each of us"...how is that an excuse?!

SO FAR, mind you, I understand that the Greyjoys weren't in book 3 so they wouldn't really be in seasons 3 and 4 either...but they need Yara to do SOMETHING at this point. My suggestion was to have her be the "microcosm" Greyjoy character. Don't even need to build new Pyke sets. Just have her in King's Landing as a "Greyjoy ambassador" -- which would be a great way to work in that point from the books when Tywin hear's Balon's terms and scoffs at them. Balon treated Theon like an idiot but Theon's assessment proved to be disastrously true, he said this back in book 2: Why attack the Starks AND declare your independence? Maybe side with the Lannisters as loyal vassals, but if the Starks eventually lose...what the hell did Balon think would happen? That Tywin Lannister of all people would "reward" him for declaring independence and attacking the Starks?! When he should have attacked them anyway as loyal vassals of the Iron Throne? So I'm waiting for this moment in Season 5 which probably won't happen: Yara Greyjoy comes before Cersei's small council as an ambassador, and they just cut down Balon's entire proposal, and accurately point out how ridiculous it was, and Balon is an idiot at politics. Words fail to describe how absurd Balon's so-called "plan" was.