User blog:Son Of Fire/First blog, Ironborn and Big Ol' Stories

Well I'm not much for "blogging", but after getting into the books after a painfully long wait for the next season to come out I thought it would be nice to write down some of my thoughts after being a show-first consumer for the benefit of the two people reading this. You're welcome. Also I have no one else to share my views with as none of my friends are nerdy enough to look into this show as much as I and scoff whenever I mention the books. I suppose that's what you get for having illiterate friends!

The concept of a story being told through two very different mediums has always intrigued me. Mostly what people view the characters as after reading the books and watching the show/film. If you read the book first, then watch the show, when you go back to read the books do you see the actors or the characters you saw when you first read the books? I have had people say both the actors and people who say their original impression.

Being a show watcher before a book reader, as with most people, I cannot shake the images of the actors when reading the books. Tyrion looks like Dinklage, Daenerys looks like Clarke and Ned looks like Bean. However, as with everything, there are a few exceptions. I'm currently almost half way through A Clash of Kings and after reading a few of Theon's chapters, I don't see him as Alfie Allen and I do not see  ​Yara ​ Asha as Gemma Whelan, though I do enjoy their portrayals.

I'm pretty sure this is to do with how much more I enjoy the whole ironborn storyline in the books as opposed to the show. It just feels much different and much better to me than the show, not that it did a poor job. Up to this point, I've felt that the show did a fairly good job of putting on screen what I read, but this may be my show-first bias speaking. Theon's uncles do change and add a lot to the storyline and is maybe why I like the book version more. Well, that and the fact that I think book-Theon and Asha are much better characters than their TV show counterparts. This seems to be the biggest difference so far - I still have many more words to read.

Simply put, I'm just more invested in book Theon than I ever was in the show. He just didn't feel important in the first two seasons of the show for me to care that much about him, even after watching the show four times. I really feel bad for him after spending so much time away from home and upon his return, he gets nothing but humiliated by his family that he doesn't deserve, even though the character isn't the kindest fellow in the kingdoms. In the show it almost entirely felt like exposition, rather than another character that I can get invested in. I suppose the books have much more to work with than the show which I guess is fair enough.

​This is the other reason for me reading the books, to get more out of the story. My favourite (yes I'm English, for blogs I feel I don't have to use American English) stories have been ones with an infinite source of content. Star Wars is a great example. Want some good films to watch? Watch Star Wars. But what happens when you reach the end of the three films? Watch the prequels (not that I'd advise it, but they're there). How about a little more on the different background races? There's a plethora of different ways to obtain such information, from comics to games to TV shows.

The world that Martin has created is so vast that I doubt anyone but the master himself can obtain all this information. Some of which probably wont ever be relevant, who cares if a city we will likely not see has three bells called Noom, Narrah and Nyel? Well the point is that it might be relevant later on. And this way I can use this information to better predict what might happen later on and I'll be a king among my GoT friends. Like piecing together who Jon Snow's mother is before Sean Bean had to ruin a big surprise for many show-watchers, but who can be mad at Sean Bean?

Well I hope you two managed to read on this far. Drop a comment if you did, I'd hate to be writing this to have no one reading it, though I suppose it's pretty incoherent so what does it matter?