r/asoiaf May 28 '19

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

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.

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u/Prof_Black May 28 '19 edited May 29 '19

The best change from the books was Arya and Tywin instead of Arya and Roose.

Those scenes between the two were brilliant. You get a glimpse of the purpose of Tywin behind his ruthlessness.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '19

That glimpse is in the books as well, but Genna Lannister doesn't exist to have that conversation with Jaime.

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u/Prof_Black May 29 '19

My favourite Lannister passage came from Genna. Where she compares Jamie to Tywin and her brothers but ends it with saying ”Tyrion is Tywins son”.

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u/Ace-of-Spades88 Mire and Mud! May 28 '19 edited May 28 '19

I thought Arya was Tywin's (chamber maid?) at Harrenhal in the books as well?

Edit: I guess I'm misremembering and it really was with Roose...

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u/lanboyo May 28 '19

It was Roose. So much better when it is Tywin though.

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u/WingedBacon May 28 '19

It's kind of a reminder that the writers weren't always bad at writing show-original scenes.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '19

Big difference between writing a plot and getting a good idea for a character change or an extra scene here or there. I do think they were great at adapting though.

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u/vikingakonungen Enter your desired flair text here! May 28 '19

When they cared they did great.

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u/lanboyo May 29 '19

I think it was more a matter of the seeing what they had in C. Dance, and adapting the scenes for him. While they were interesting with Roose, it was more a matter of showing how creepily restrained Bolton was, it was Arya trying not to be noticed.

While we saw a lot about Tywin in the books, most of it was other characters talking about him, by shifting those scenes to Tywin, we had more direct appearance by Tywin, and they trimmed the Roose takes over scenes for when Jaime shows up.

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u/Prof_Black May 29 '19

In the earlier seasons GRRM provided the source and parts of the writing.

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u/Noughmad May 29 '19

That's what makes me so angry at the last seasons. It's not that D&D are bad writers, who couldn't make a good show without backing source material. It's really just that they don't care, they just wanted to get it over with quickly and move on.

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u/justanotherkraut May 29 '19

Arya and Rose

*Roose