LogFAQs > #939879294

Definitely 5, though it went more sharply downhill in the final two seasons.

I want to talk about some things brought up.

Nelson_Mandela posted...

I think it's just a confluence of factors that made 3 sharply decline from the peak of S2 (Blackwater):

* Too much attention to mystical/magic things (particularly the White Walkers and Bran's warging)
* Tyrion no longer in a position to manipulate his foes in interesting ways
* Four separate groups of characters walking through the wilderness at the same time (Brienne/Jaime, Arya/Hound, Jon/Wildlings, Bran & co.)
* Daenerys/Essos being too disconnected from the other stories for too long
* Stannis peaking way too early and is no longer the looming existential threat to King's Landing that he once was
* Everything involving Theon

I don't know how the books were paced, but it seems like everything falls flat after Blackwater and, although it eventually rebounds, it just takes a lot of the momentum out of the overarching story.

These things all happen, but they're moved back and forth a bit because the show didn't want to leave any of the big characters out for a while. I like the pacing of the books a lot better. Jaime/Brienne happens earlier because Jaime is almost completely absent for the second book and the show couldn't drag scenes of him being imprisoned out for that long. Arya/Hound is also dragged out quite a bit, because they needed them to be together before the Red Wedding and the Red Wedding was pushed earlier so that they could have it at the end of a season. Brienne looking for Arya and Sansa is completely different in the books and it's much better in them imo. Jon's adventures with the wildlings are also dragged out quite a bit to have him do stuff all the time. The big issue is probably that season 3 and 4 cover one book together, while the first two seasons covered a book each. The third book is longer, but not that much longer. I still thought the show was good then, because it's some of the best material. So if feels like less is happening with all those things because they're all dragged out.

They clearly had no idea what to do with Stannis in the show though.

Theon is weird, because everything he does in those seasons are absent from the books and it's only implied that they happen. This is obviously to not leave Theon out for several seasons. I think his chapters when you finally see him again completely messed up are among the best the books have to offer and it doesn't work the same when we've seen him decline. The actor is phenomenal though. That helped out a lot.

Nelson_Mandela posted...

Yeah I agree on that point. Pretty much everything in Qarth and Astapor is exactly the same. Dany encounters wealthy power broker who poses a threat to her. She is in trouble for one scene. Next scene she tricks said power broker by mercilessly killing everyone. Onto the next city.

This is another show issue mostly, though Dany being away from the rest of the story is a book thing too. Daenerys is very little present in the story in the second and third books, which means the second to fourth season. That means they basically rewrote everything that happened in Qarth to be very similar to what happens in Astapor, but that's a season 2 issue just as much if not more.

---

Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc, the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.