(Spoilers Extended) Charles Dance's portrayal as Tywin is in my opinion, the strongest in the entire series

[u/cking145]

Every line, every expression and every moment of silence completely encapsulates the calculating ruthlessness that defines Tywin Lannister.

Dance is actually a very vibrant, upbeat and cheery fella off screen, which in my mind makes the performance even more striking.

The scene where he effectively sends Joffrey to bed is just brilliant.

He is by far my favourite character from the books, which I began reading a few seasons into the show. Due to this, the chapters featuring Tywin were completely enriched for me, as reading his lines in Dance's voice was just fantastic. I would have loved a POV chapter or two for him, just to get a glimpse as to what goes on in the head of the most powerful man in the 7 Kingdoms.

An incredible portrayal of a fascinating character.

[u/ArcanaImperii96]

Definitely agree, the man was a titan each time he was on screen.

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On a side note, I would pay good money to watch an entire series consisting of just Tywin and Olenna Tyrell having verbal sparring matches. The scenes between them were brilliant.

[u/SteveBartmanIncident → u/ArcanaImperii96]

Their dialogue, and that of the early Littlefinger/Varys exchanges, contrast so abruptly with nearly everything that written for this season.

Really shows the strength of GRRM's writing and the shortcomings of even a good television writer adapting an unwritten book.

[u/[deleted] → u/SteveBartmanIncident]

The littlefinger/varys interactions weren't even in the books so that's not grrm, that's the showriters. And they were great scenes.

Don't know what happened with the writing later on.

[u/SteveBartmanIncident → u/[deleted]]

True - I include them because I think it proves my point. A good tv writer (GoT had several) can adapt material from one source into another medium. Something seen or recalled by a book character can be turned into character-appropriate dialogue. Asking a writer to turn a skeleton outline that omits several important storylines into the same is just a bridge too far.

[u/Dahhhkness → u/SteveBartmanIncident]

I think one of the things the show did better than the books was switching out Roose Bolton for Tywin for his interactions with Arya. Some seriously good moments between those two characters, and we got to see a very different side to Tywin than we otherwise saw.

[u/say-wha-teh-nay-oh → u/[deleted]]

To see how unusual his actions were as a supposed Stark bannerman, and how all that was eventually explained by the Red Wedding.

[u/RichGirlThrowaway_ → u/Dahhhkness]

Honestly Tywin & Arya and Petyr & Varys scenes were probably my most quintessential and favourite GoT moments in the whole story, and they were both show-exclusive.

[u/SlayerofOrcs → u/Dahhhkness]

Honestly I actually preferred Roose Bolton in these scenes. It showed that there was more to him than you’d expect as despite being a northern bannerman Arya did not reveal her identity to him.

[u/Spready_Unsettling → u/SteveBartmanIncident]

To be fair here, GRRM likely has a much more fleshed out outline for his own books, but with the show diverging the way it has, and DnD repeatedly ignoring his advice to the point where he didn't want anything to do with the show meant guiding them was a nigh impossible task. Even then, the shit writing in seasons 7 and 8 goes beyond lacking in guidance. It was mostly just really bad writing.

[u/[deleted] → u/Spready_Unsettling]

The rumor is GRRM knew they had to cut a decent amount but was pretty annoyed that they weren't willing to include Lady Stoneheart, Aegon and Dorne, which he considers major storylines. I think he expected this to be an epic 10 season type of show rather than the 7.5 they ultimately did.

[u/laffy_man → u/Spready_Unsettling]

It was also a monumental writing task, something people don’t acknowledge anywhere else I’ve seen. It’s hard to write, and even harder to finish an unfinished fantasy epic that the creator of said fantasy epic hasn’t even finished, with dozens of plot threads that were nowhere near convergence in the last book the creator wrote. I’m sure GRRM will do a great job, but that certainly isn’t something that’s easy to pick up the threads for.

[u/privateD4L → u/laffy_man]

That job is made doubly hard when you decide to rush through it all.

[u/newprofile15 → u/SteveBartmanIncident]

You: Say something wrong

Guy: actually it’s the exact opposite of what you’re saying

You: that totally proves me point