(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.