The Night Lands

Tonight's new installment of Game of Thrones definitely cemented for me the feeling I had after last week's season premiere: I'm going to enjoy this story in this medium more than I did actually reading A Clash of Kings.

I'll have to tiptoe extremely carefully for a moment here, so as not to spoil anything for those who haven't read the books. But as even the TV viewers have now seen, Theon Greyjoy is a more prominent character in book/season two over book/season one. And when I read it, I pretty much hated him. Now George R.R. Martin does have a way of starting you out hating a character, then twisting things around to make you like them later... or at least feel sympathy for them. I struggled in this with Theon, as I find his motivations rather hard to accept or justify.

Oddly, it took just this one episode for me to suddenly start down the road of understanding Theon better. Punked by his sister, replaced by his sister in the eyes of his father, rejected by his father. Yes, he's still an entitled little brat who hasn't had life even half as badly as he thinks he has... but I'm starting to see the bigger picture of how he basically spent his whole life dreaming of a homecoming, and then is spurned when it comes to pass. Mind you, all of this material is also present in the book, but the series writers have found just the right way to bring it to the screen to highlight the most important points. I'll be looking forward to Theon's story in the coming weeks.

Of course, the two characters I most often hear are reader/viewer favorites -- Tyrion and Arya -- were both great this week. Tyrion's marvelous manipulation of the former Captain of the Watch, and installation of Bronn, was a great scene. But he also traded barbs with the Spider and his sister once again this hour, and both were highlights of the episode. Meanwhile, Arya had a great exchange with Gendry, and showed she's lost none of her fire during her recent ordeals.

I may have to go back and check my reading comprehension here... or maybe it's just that it's been a rather long time now since I read A Clash of Kings, but I don't recall it being presented as whole truth than Stannis was sleeping with Mellisandre (though I do believe it was at least implied). Of course, neither of those characters is a perspective character in the book, so I suppose without someone else there to watch them, implication is all we could get. It adds an interesting texture to an already murky relationship.

We had a bit more of Jon Snow this week, and a brief touch of Daenerys. But several stories were necessarily put on hold for the week to make room for the rest; no Bran in Winterfell this week; no Robb or Catelyn out in the field (and nothing of captive Jamie either); no Joffrey (though he was still very much a topic of conversation between Cersei and Tyrion).

And as always, some interesting additions. As with last week, the biggest chunk of new material not from the book (if I recall correctly) was a scene involving Littlefinger. In case we'd forgotten his betrayal of Ned last season and needed a reminder of just how dark and dangerous a character he truly is, we saw him this week menace one of his women with chilling civility.

Once again, I look forward to next week.