Drawing the Line: Where do YOU stand?

Most of us have had that moment: a certain point during the production of Game of Thrones—be it a casting announcement, a leaked photo, anything—where we’ve jerked back in horror, crying out our dismay to whatever cruel gods might hear. “This… is not… what I pictured!”

For most of us, these instances are both rare and miniscule. It’s pretty much evident to 99.9% of this forum’s gentle readers that this show is going to be excellent. Some of us even believe it will be what many of us hope it will be: The Greatest Television Show Ever. (Though even if it is, the Firefly geeks will come at us hard. Be ready, people!)

But nothing is perfect. Hell, the source material isn’t perfect. (Tumbling dwarves? What is this, Alpha Flight?) Things have to change for the show to be a success. They simply cannot have the same POV perspective without adding a shit-ton of inner monologues—which would then bog down the action, the flow, the visual narrative. GRRM agrees: changes must be made.

Recent conversations in recent threads have left ol’ FaBio with his brain a’thinkin’ about the different levels of tolerance each of us has. Two of our more eloquent and well-reasoned posters, Rinso and Wastrel, haven’t been exactly shy when it comes to tossing their opinions around regarding the high standards they have for the show. Nor should they; we each have our own expectations. High ones aren’t a crime.

And they did inspire me to pose this query: Where do you draw the line?

I’m going to throw my hubris right out there for all to see: I have long believed myself to be one of the most open-minded of fans. “So long as they tell an awesome fucking story,” I said, “I am open to any and all changes. In the end, I want to see A Song of Ice and Fire—no matter what it takes!” And I would be more willing than most to see certain aspects of the books radically changed—so long as those changes helped the story, assisted its success, and did not harm the awesome ton-and-a-half of GRRM’s epic goodness most of us already know and love.

I honestly believed that. And I now admit my head was in the clouds—fluffy little perfect white clouds shaped by the belief of my own superiority…

That was until a friend of mine played a cruel joke on me:

Matt: Hey, did you hear the latest change to the show?

FaBio: Probably, but maybe not. What it is?

Matt: They changed Sansa’s name to “Sara.”

FaBio: “%@#$&*^%$WHAT?”

See, he knows how to yank my chain. Dude understands I’m a Sansa guy, just like he knows my wife is on Team Arya. Matt understands the trade off: the wife gets a kick-ass little hellion, and I get the character I have personally predicted will be the Last Living Stark. It works.

Matt: Yeah, I guess the HBO powers-that-be decided “Sansa” sounded like “Stanza” or something, and wanted the sisters to have slightly more similar names.

FaBio: That’s … freaking … insane!

Imagine me furiously trying to log onto Winter-is-coming…

Matt: Well what does it change, really? They changed Sweetrobin’s name. So who cares? This doesn’t affect the show one bit.

He grinned at me, and only then did I know I’d been had (“taken the piss out of,” so to speak). He’d also painted me into a corner, because let’s be technical: changing any names wouldn’t affect the story. Not one iota. “Sara,” if she had the exact same story as Sansa, would still be Sansa. The same goes for the “Badger” instead of the Hound, “Teddy” instead of Ned…

You get the picture. Logic didn’t win the day for once. It’s sort of like questioning your own mortality.

So this is what I have for you all, in these dull days of countdown-to-fifteen-minutes-of-ecstasy: I come to you with a challenge! Know thyself! I am going to play Doctor FaB, and you are going to tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much changing any part of A Song of Ice and Fire hurts. How bad does it hurt?

1 means it doesn’t hurt much at all. “So long as they affix GRRM’s name to it and I get multiple seasons, I’m golden! Ewoks too? Why not!”

10 means any change whatsoever hurts enough that you want to commit seppuku—or at least take a baseball bat to your TV as soon as you see an HBO logo flicker across it. Some of you want—nay, demand—the heraldry to be 100% correct. No deviations, or, as R’hllor as your witness, you will be heard!

Somewhere in between the 1 and a 10 lie most of you. Some of you are of the opinion that yes, Brackens are Brackens, and associate with Blackwoods they do not, but if their horse is not quite sanguine nor quite so crimson as you’d believed, you’re willing to live with that.

Obviously there’s room for everything in between, Blackwoods and Brackens aside. Don’t be afraid to get creative.

Note that, generally speaking, I’m not talking about utter dealbreakers here. Most of the people who regularly attend this site will be watching the show. This is just an unofficial poll to see what makes you tick, and perhaps what ticks you off.

But for those who want to know… Personally, I think I am a 3. The rules are, for me, “Tell the story we know, make it visually believable… and oh, yeah, try not to change too many names.” I’m one of those rogues always campaigning against bad wigs. (Like you couldn’t just hire blondes? Come on, people! Eyebrows!) And seeing as I’d never before seen a “silver” wig done realistically (Betty White doesn’t count), I was ready and willing to skip the traditional Targaryen hair altogether. Paint it black, quoth the ‘Stones! I campaigned for it, early and often.

We still got the wigs.

And all in all, that’s just one small blip on the radar. (Emilia Clarke is going to nail this role.) One or two questionable looks doesn’t ruin a show for me. I am not-so uniquely qualified to recognize the huge pile of awesome that looms so high above everything else. The rest of it looks so damned real!

For me—that’s it. Believability. Make it real, and I will be there, front and center, each week, popcorn at the ready.

Where do you stand?

• Published on 12/03/2010 at 7:19 AM CDT
• Last updated on 12/03/2010 at 7:19 AM CDT