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Having just finished listening to the interview with Nonso Anozie who is playing Xaro Xhoan Daxos in the second season of Game of Thrones, I feel as if all my worst fears for the season have been at least halfway confirmed. Of course, one shouldn’t go entirely by what an actor says, we’ve had some odd reports in the past that way, but it really sounds as if HBO has decided to change Daenerys’s storyline quite considerably.
Oh, and beware of spoilers.
I won’t even bother repeating my feelings about how miscast Nonso Anozie is for the slight and effeminate character of Xaro of the pale “Milk Men” of Qarth, what he says in the interview is bad enough. He says he is “the Prince of Qarth”. Uh-huh. So, their ruler or something? Sigh. He says he has read the first book, but it sounds as if he didn’t read the whole of the second book because the show is doing things so differently anyway. Lovely. He calls the book storyline in Qarth boring and mundane and goes on about how the show adds more layers and a real game of thrones. Oh, so now the book is being improved upon, is it?
Daenerys is my favourite character. I always say I am a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire because of the classic fantasy elements and how well they are done, not because it is not much like fantasy at all. Fantasy is what I read and what I love. Daenerys’s chapters have a sense of wonder and magic that only Bran’s chapters can rival and in A Clash of Kings, which is my least favourite book overall (which even so means it rates pretty darn high, but still), her storyline is by far my favourite and the most important event in the book for me is her visit to the House of the Undying. Boring and mundane? Please.
It feels very much as if HBO has caved in to what is typical for a TV series. They just couldn’t let Dany have as few chapters as she has in the book, they had to make her role bigger. The fact that characters have less chapters in some books, even disappear for some books, is as integral to the storytelling of A Song of Ice and Fire as the surprising deaths. No one is safe from death and no one is safe from being relegated to less important for a while. But apparently that was one part of the books HBO couldn’t see themselves being daring with. No, they had to give each character the same room every season.
I wonder what will happen to Theon in the third season? Will he be around? That would be a complete and utter travesty.
And even if they felt they had to give Dany more story this season, why not build on what was there? I am completely and utterly terrified of what they have made up, to be honest. A love story with Xaro? A little rebellion in Qarth? Dragons being unleashed a few seasons too early? Dany should be on a quest this season. A very fairy-tale like quest (albeit much darker) which ends in the amazing moment that is the House of the Undying.
Of course, looking at the first season, we probably won’t get much of that. Prophecies? Flashbacks? No, not important. Lets invent pointless stuff instead.
(Oh, and as a side note. What’s up with the Qartheen gowns not baring one breast? Non-sexual, culturally casual nudity wasn’t interesting to HBO?)
Comments
It’s just a TV show. Ranting about one interview/cast member seems a little silly.
Its all down to perspective, isn’t it? People get passionate about things they care about, whether its sports, politics, tv or what have you.
Considering the amount of time I spend working on A Song of Ice and Fire-related projects, I feel strongly about the adaptation and I use my blog to vent about what I feel are questionable decisions.
If I was sending irate letters to HBO and demanding that they change the show, I could see your point.
in that actors’s defence he didn’t admit to having read the second book (only the first). and obviously all he cares about is plugging the show for the producers.
the rest of your rant, i agree with. They want got to be Boardwalk Empire with swords, as they have dreamed so many times before.
I think there’s a misconception here about my post being an attack on the actor. That’s in no way intended. Yes, I disagree with the casting, but that’s hardly the actor’s fault.
What he said in the interview was that he read the first book and then he gave the impression that he started on the second but didn’t go on because the story was being done so differently on the show.
That’s what bothered me. Not whether he has read the first, the second or anything at all of the series. But if the impression is correct that he started the second book and stopped because it didn’t have that much with how his character and his story would be portrayed on the show, then yes, I am very concerned.
But that’s a concern directed at the showrunners, not the actor.
