Screenwriters, please stop

[00:00:00]Why do screenwriters think that the changes that they make are going to improve the original text? It happens in so many movies and shows lately that I just I'm getting more and more annoyed by this. It's in everything from Harry Potter, you know, not being stunned in the lightning-struck tower to the bastardization of Gimli in the movies and turning him into comedic relief.

[00:00:22]And lately, I'm reading A Game of Thrones. And there is a tiny instance here that I think really solidifies my annoyance with screenwriters making small changes because they probably think that the scene is going to work better. And the scene that I'm going to talk about has a specific purpose for George R.R. Martin. And I think the screenwriter just didn't understand that. And he wanted to make something easier to film.

[00:00:46]I was actually writing an essay about just how dumb Robb Stark is in this one instance in the books.

[00:00:51]And I watched the scene on in the show, and I was shocked that they had the same beats, but they just missed one small thing that I think to me changes the read of the scene entirely.

[00:01:03]Okay, here's the scene. Robb Stark is taking Bran out to go riding around in the godswood. Bran has a new saddle, and he's thrilled.

[00:01:11]The show does great with this. It shows the excitement of Bran, and it shows Theon and Robb talking on the side, much like the books have this. So far, I don't really have any other problems here, but Theon is a lot greasier in the books. So, he stays back to talk about wenches with the guards when Bran and Robb in the books ride along ahead rather than in the show, where kind of Bran just goes off on his own.

[00:01:34]And Robb Stark's talking about all the bad news that their family has been getting in the books. How essentially, you know, their father is in a coma now because of a broken leg, and how their mother has Tyrion Lannister in the Eyrie, and how things are just insane.

[00:01:47]And so, they cross this ford together, and Theon and the guards are nowhere in sight. And so, all of a sudden, they hear the direwolves howling a few hundred yards away. And in this This is the section of the books. Let me just read it because I think this is so important. The stream was running high and fast. Rob dismounted and let his gelding across the ford. In the deepest part of the crossing, the water came up to mid-thigh.

[00:02:10]He tied his horse to a tree on the far side and waited back across for Bran and Dancer.

[00:02:15]The current foamed around rock and root, and Bran could feel the spray on his face as Rob led him over.

[00:02:21]It made him smile.

[00:02:23]For a moment he felt strong again and whole.

[00:02:26]He looked up at the trees and dreamed of climbing them right up to the very top with the whole forest spread out beneath him.

[00:02:33]They were on the far side when they heard the howl.

[00:02:36]A long rising wail that moved through the trees like a cold wind.

[00:02:41]Bran raised his head to listen.

[00:02:43]"Summer," he said.

[00:02:44]No sooner had he spoken than a second voice joined the first.

[00:02:48]"They made a kill," Rob said as he remounted. "I'd best go and bring them back. Wait here. Theon and the others should be along shortly." "I want to go with you," Bran said. "I'll find them faster by myself."

[00:03:00]Rob spurred his gelding and vanished into the trees.

[00:03:03]Now, this is the important part that the show leaves out. Rob leaves Bran all alone. In the show, they don't have this scene because Bran is just overcome by joy by riding on his horse and he rides off accidentally and Theon and Rob don't know where he went.

[00:03:18]Now, if I'm a screenwriter, this sometimes feels harmless. It makes logical sense to Bran would absolutely be overjoyed by the absent-mindedness and he would ride his horse off into some random section of the godswood not knowing where he's going.

[00:03:31]Except this one scene compounds because there is a significant scene after the whole battle with the wildlings and the dead and the deserters and Theon and Rob.

[00:03:41]And the show nails this section almost word for word in the book, but in the show it doesn't really make a make sense according to how I think it should have been done.

[00:03:50]In the real comparison before when Rob leaves because after this whole ordeal Rob is furious at Theon for shooting that arrow. But the question is why is he furious? This is the section in the book.

[00:04:02]"Jon always said you were an ass, Greyjoy." Rob said loudly.

[00:04:06]"I ought to chain you up in the yard and let Bran take a few practice shots at you.

[00:04:10]You should be thanking me for saving your brother's life.

[00:04:14]What if you had missed the shot? Rob said.

[00:04:17]"What if you only wounded him? What if you had made his hand jump or hit Bran instead? For all you knew the man might have been wearing a breastplate.

[00:04:26]All you could see was the back of his cloak.

[00:04:30]What would have happened to my brother then?

[00:04:32]Did you ever think of that, Greyjoy?"

[00:04:35]Theon's smile was gone. He gave a sullen shrug and began to pull his arrows from the ground one by one.

[00:04:42]Rob glared at his guardsmen. "Where were you?" he demanded of them.

[00:04:46]"I was sure you were close behind us."

[00:04:49]The men traded unhappy glances.

[00:04:52]"We were following, my lord." said Qwent, the youngest of them. His beard is soft brown fuzz. "Only first we waited for Maester Luwin and his ass.

[00:05:01]Begging your pardons. And then, well, as it were."

[00:05:05]He glanced over at Theon and quickly looked away abashed.

[00:05:09]"I spied a turkey."

[00:05:11]Theon said annoyed by the question.

[00:05:13]"How was I to know that you'd leave the boy alone?"

[00:05:16]Rob turned his head to look at Theon once more.

[00:05:19]Bran had never seen him so angry.

[00:05:22]Yet he said nothing.

[00:05:24]Finally he knelt beside Maester Luwin.

[00:05:26]"How badly is my brother wounded?"

[00:05:29]Now this is the section and Rob's anger is the most important part of the scene because I think in this one Rob has really acted foolishly. He's ridden off and he's left his crippled brother alone in the middle of the woods. He didn't wait for Theon or for the soldiers. This scene is about Rob. It's not about Bran, even though this chapter is actually told through Bran's perspective. I think this is a brilliant writing device from Martin because we're seeing things that Bran sees and we can kind of intuit some things that Rob does based on Rob's actions.

[00:06:04]Rob gets angry. Why does he get angry?

[00:06:08]In the show, it's clearly because Theon was just being reckless. It's because Theon shoots his guard and he pays no real mind for Bran in this entire scene.

[00:06:15]In the book, I think this is very different. And this is why I would have just loved for them to have stuck with the original that Martin wrote where they hear the direwolf and Rob goes off running.

[00:06:27]Because there is an interpretive element here that makes this scene much more brilliant if Rob goes off running. Rob is terrified. He's essentially alone and he's ruling a kingdom that he never thought he'd have to rule at this age.

[00:06:36]And he's doing pretty well so far. He hasn't had any real struggles yet, but so far so good for Rob. But now Rob is really scared and he's nervous and I'm sure his emotions are all over the place. And he rides off and leaves his brother to defend himself against the dangers of the wild.

[00:06:54]And then Rob comes back to find his brother in captivity and in serious danger.

[00:06:59]But luckily he's saved.

[00:07:01]And we're all good. But Rob gets furious. Bran notes that it's the angriest he's ever seen Rob. Why?

[00:07:09]It might be because he's just angry at Theon, but think about this as a teenager like yourself.

[00:07:16]If you were in this position, Rob is mad at himself. And he takes it out on someone else here. And just the simple fact that he doesn't ride out on his own diminishes the element that this scene makes it good in the book because >> [music] >> in the book we know that Rob is frustrated and annoyed at himself for letting this happen, but we have no interpretation in the show. In the show, he's just mad at Theon because Theon was reckless. And again, this could have been the real reason why he was mad, but anyone who knows a kid that age knows what it's like to be a teenager with huge responsibilities heaped on your soul shoulders.

[00:07:51]And you know Rob is insecure here.

[00:07:54]And that's what kills me about this one change. It's one small decision moved from Rob to Bran, and almost every other line of dialogue survives the rewrite here. The screenwriter reads this chapter pretty close enough to the actual scene and understands the fight scene isn't just the important part. [music] They just didn't ask themselves why Martin wrote the Ford scene in the first place. It's not there to explain how Bran got separated. There's plenty of other ways to do that. There's plenty of other ways to do that. This is for when Rob shows up late and he sees Theon and his guardsmen and he shrugs off questions where he was, and we already know the answer. Rob left him, and he did it on purpose because he wanted to be a child again and run after a hunt.

[00:08:37]And he made his little brother pay the risks for it.

[00:08:40]And I think if you take that away and you take away Rob's fury in the second scene, it stops being about Rob at all. It becomes a straightforward reaction to Theon's carelessness. It's just a king scolding someone who subordinates them.

[00:08:52]But I don't think Martin's really writing a scene like that. I think Martin's scene is not really about Theon's carelessness, or at least if it was, it was significantly more layered than that.

[00:09:02]I think Martin's writing a scene about a 15-year-old boy discovering that being in charge makes you have, you know, human bodies attached to you. And that the person that he's most furious furious at is impossible to punish, which is himself. [music] So he punishes the next best thing.

[00:09:17]And this scene only works if the reader has already watched Rob make the choice himself to leave Bran.

[00:09:23]This is the part where I think screenwriters seem to miss this all the time. It's not every single detail in the book. Like every There's not Not every single detail is load-bearing in the same way, but you don't get to tell which details are structural and which are just these decorative details by just asking whether the plot still moves forward without them. The plot did still move forward fine in the show. Bran still gets hurt, Theon still shoots the arrow, Robb still yells, nothing is really broken.

[00:09:48]But, there's significant consequences for this scene. And it's a scene that we don't really get to understand the deeper character of Robb more, and I think that's a significant point. And I think this shows up as an actor having to invent a motivation that the writers really never never give him in the first place. Or it maybe comes off as a scene that reads kind of as a confident instead of devastating for what Robb is really doing here.

[00:10:09]That's the problem with all these small changes. They're never really evaluated against what the scene is actually doing and what it could do long-term. They're evaluated against what the easiest thing is to shoot. And these small changes make really big issues later on in the point where I think the building slowly collapses after this, and that's exactly what the show did.

[00:10:27]So, all this is to say, trust the OG writers, screenwriters. Please, just trust the writers and their ability to know what they did with their writing. Because this scene for Martin, I think, is brilliant. But in the show, it's just okay. [music] There's no real significance, there's no real reason why Robb yells. It's just an okay scene in the show.

[00:10:49]But such a good scene in the books.

[00:10:52]So, just trust George R.R. Martin with this. Goodness gracious.

[00:10:56]But that's all I got. If you had any more thoughts, let me know what your thoughts are in the comments.

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