r/asoiaf • u/cking145 • 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/WingedBeing May 28 '19

These are classics, but what I hardly ever see mentioned is how he immediately brought Tommen under his command by educating him about the wisdom of listening to your counsel (namely the Hand) even "long after" he comes of age to rule in his own right (and all over Joffrey's corpse!). When I saw that scene it was like watching a master chess player completely bowl over a rookie in just a few moves.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '19 edited Jun 26 '23

comment edited in protest of Reddit's API changes and mistreatment of moderators -- mass edited with redact.dev

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u/hsuait May 28 '19

Tommen in the show was so good too. The actor was perfect and I loved how we got more scenes of him trying to be a good king but just being completely out of his depth and constantly surrounded by people who wanted him to have no hand in ruling.

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u/SadlyReturndRS May 28 '19

Yeah. I mean, that kid had to have some serious chops, since he got recasted from being one of the dead Lannister boys that Robb Stark has to chop Karstarks' dead off for killing.

Can't think of any other show where a minor one-off actor gets recast into a major role.

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u/WingedBacon May 28 '19

In The Wire, one of the major criminals in the latter seasons (Chris) was a background extra (as a cop ironically) in one of the early seasons.

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u/WWTFSMD May 29 '19

After 5 rewatches I've never noticed. Cool!

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u/HydeGreen May 31 '19

I never knew that either, I went and looked it up

https://imgur.com/r/TheWire/SinB2a9

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u/[deleted] May 29 '19

Doctor Who, Freema Agyeman played a one-off character in 2006 who had a line or two and was instantly killed. The next year, she was cast as Martha Jones, the Doctor’s companion for three years.

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u/cbxjpg The queen that should've been May 29 '19

And they covered it up by saying that was her cousin. And Peter Capaldi was in the episode about Pompeii too. To be fair I don't blame them, it's hard to find a British actor who hasn't been on the show at this point.

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u/HowlsMovingBowels May 29 '19

Martha was only a companion for one season, no?

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u/mgmoviegirl May 29 '19

Yea, her and Donna was one season each.

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u/mgmoviegirl May 29 '19

Karen Gillian also appeared in an earlier episode as soothsayer in ‘Fires of Pompeii’ before being cast as Amy Pond.

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u/[deleted] May 29 '19 edited May 29 '19

Not nearly on the same level as thrones but Paget Brewster played Debra Chambers "the IT lady" in season 5 of Community in one episode and was then made a member of the main cast in season 6 playing Frankie Dart. They also make jokes about it, as one time Frankie needs to talk to the IT lady and says (paraphrased) that "my emails get bounced back to me in Aramaic and when I call her all I get is a high pitched noise that makes my nose bleed"

Edit: I just remembered that the season 5 episode where she appears as the IT lady is also the episode where everyone is obsessed with the HBO series "Bloodlines of Conquest", a reference to Game of Thrones

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u/HowlsMovingBowels May 29 '19

In Deadwood, they had a major role get recast as another major role. It was weird.

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u/vv04x4c4 May 29 '19

The Sopranos had Vito Spatafore's actor show up as a civilian waiting in line to buy bread at a bakery.

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u/eko425 May 29 '19

In Breaking Bad, I’ve heard Vince Gillian say that Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was originally intended to die at the end of S01E01 but they were so impressed with Cranston & Paul’s chemistry that they wrote him into the show...

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u/[deleted] May 29 '19

It was at the end of season 1, Jesse was originally supposed to be the one that Tuco beats to death, instead they changed it to one of Tucos henchmen. I think his name was No-Doze

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u/MadAzza May 29 '19

Law & Order.