Book-to-screen adaptation: Game of Thrones
By Liyana binti Ahmed Rasly
“Valar Morgulis”. A term recently made popular by one of HBO’s most popular TV shows, Game of Thrones (GoT). When a popular novel series gets turned into a movie or TV show, one of the most vital things that get questioned is whether or not the adaptation lives up to the book. In this case, the best and worst critics would be avid GoT fans, who have already read the book series titled A Song of Ice and Fire.
When books gets turned into TV shows, we obviously do not expect the show to adapt every single detail from the book and some changes for the TV show would be expected. However, many devout readers of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire were very much surprised at the vast alterations that were made when they watched GoT.
For starters, many were surprised at how the Red Wedding turned out. In the television series, we see Robb Stark’s wife, Talisa, getting killed along with her unborn Stark child.
In the books, Robb’s wife is named Jeyne Westerling and she never managed to get pregnant with a Stark child. It was also written that she survived the Red Wedding, as she was not in attendance. While the changes from page to screen may be vast, the Red Wedding scene still managed to fulfil the same plot as portrayed in the books.
Another big change that could be seen in the TV show from the books is Jaime Lannister’s return to Kingslanding and his relationship with Brienne of Tarth. In the show, Jaime does not seem to be as infatuated with Brienne as how it is written in the books.
They were only seen to have a close connection with one another due to their pairing up for mutual survival. It is also written that Jaime’s return to Kingslanding happened much later in the books than it does in the show.
One of the major scenes that shook fans of the show and readers of the books was the death of Oberyn Martell also known as the Red Viper. The moment Oberyn Martell stepped into the show; he instantly won hearts and became one of the most beloved characters of the show. Readers of the book already anticipated his death, but what they did not anticipate was how brutal and visual that scene would be on screen.
In the show, Ser Gregor Clegane, also known as The Mountain, killed Oberyn Martell in the most barbaric way, where the bare hands of Gregor Clegane crushed Oberyn’s head. As a fan of the show and reader of the books, that scene surpassed my expectations.
While the book-to-screen adaptation may have seen many changes, one scene that was done very well would have to be the finale of season four; the big plot twist of it all where Tyrion Lannister killed his own father, Tywin Lannister, by shooting him in the bowels with a crossbow. The scene was delivered in a very serious and thought provoking manner, despite the dark humour behind it, where George R.R. Martin wrote in the books as Tywin dies, “But the stink that filled the privy gave ample evidence that the oft-repeated jape about his father was just another lie. Lord Tywin Lannister did not, in the end, shit gold.”
Yes, we do not expect a TV show or movie to successfully adapt every little detail of a book. While the changes seen in GoT are blatantly obvious to those who read the books, many could not deny that the producers of the show have delivered the changes in ways that do not disappoint. Does GoT live up to the books well written by George R.R. Martin? It definitely seems so.