A Song of Fire and Ice: Arya Stark's Story

So, I think my interest in Maisie Williams is turning into more of an obsession now. I went through the first three seasons skipping to all of her scenes and watching only her scenes. They're the only part of the show that gets me really excited. Although I enjoy other characters and other scenes too, most of the show is pretty lame in terms of acting and plot, and the cinematography throughout the series is completely mediocre.

I also found some youtube videos where they string together all of Arya's scenes, but due to copyright infringement they get taken down periodically. So I couldn't find the fourth season on youtube. While I was searching I came across the audio book of only Arya's chapters. It was five and half hours long. I listened to it and thoroughly enjoyed it. The books are so much better than the show. They go into more detail, are darker, more violent, and are actually very well written.

So right now I'm reading A Storm of Swords, but only Arya's stories. To be honest I'm not interested in the whole story enough to read the rest of it, but I just find Arya so interesting. The character in the books is younger, skinnier, and not attractive like Maisie Williams, but I think she's suited to the atmosphere the show has as apposed to the atmosphere of the books.

I find it so interesting how she has lice infested in her filthy hair, doesn't bathe for months, goes bare foot because her shoes wear out, and kills more people. The plot is much more interesting too. I like the details they give about so many other travelers on the roads, the state of the war-torn countryside, and how long and hard their journeys are. The way they're on the verge of starvation eating bugs and worms and filling their bellies with river water just to keep from dying.

Has anyone else read the books?

Do you guys prefer the show or the books? Why?

Who are your favorite characters?

What do you think of Arya Stark?

What do you think of Maisie Williams?

I'm not a Game of Thrones fan but I did see her in one of her Doctor Who appearances (Face the Raven). Unfortunately I didn't think she quite hit the mark for what was required for the character, though frankly I think the character itself was weak to begin with.

Doctor Who looks like a really boring show, at least the recent seasons. I might check out the first season at some point and see if it's at least respectable. Yeah, I thought her Doctor Who character looked weird in clips I saw.

I've never seen it described as boring before and that's refreshing – it is a bore.

My Dad and my brother like Doctor Who, so I watched an episode with them. Before it was over I was surfing the net on my phone and completely ignoring the show.

Check this out:

In Arya's story in the books I have read through all of her chapters in the second and third books, Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. I haven't read her chapters in A Game of Thrones, but I'm currently on the fourth book, A Feast for Crows. I'm reading them on obooksbooks.com, a very useful site without annoying adds or pop-ups, and it lists each chapter with the character related.

I am going to look for used copies of the books at a cheep price.

Do you remember which episode, just out of interest?

Nope, but it was one of the more recent seasons.

Okay, so I got my hands on the books. I'm on the last book now which is caught up with the show. I also got the fourth season on DVD, and after watching all of her scenes and having read her parts in the book... Well I do enjoy her part of the show, but it just doesn't seem worth it to do all that fast forwarding when the books are so much better.

I imagine that's typical of most productions, though. In print there's a lot more opportunity to explore characters.

Blade Runner would be a case where the movie is on the same level of excellence as the books. Also Ghost in the Shell and Akira.

Obviously they can't go into as much detail as the books, because they'd have to make a whole scene for some sentences and there is just too much detail in the book, but it's the way that what's written in the books is written well, but what's filmed in the show is not filmed very well, and often the acting isn't great either.

Blade Runner's a fantastic film. I wish Ridley Scott was still making them.

Yeah, it's half the battle if the quality in the book can be transferred to the screen. The original Moby Dick went one better by improving on the novel, making it leaner and more mythic.

Me.

The show is quite good, but I do prefer the books (so much so that I've stopped watching the series because I don't want it spoiling my reading experience). The writing is superb and there's always just so much more because GRRM's hands aren't tied by a production budget. That said, he's pushed things to the bleeding edge in a few areas; now it's time to start wrapping it up.

I wouldn't say I really have "favorite" characters, per se. As the major POV characters go, I do really enjoy Jon Snow's chapters (partly because of the setting, but mostly because he's super important). Jaime Lannister is also pretty easy to like.

As for the minor or non-POV characters, I like Asha Greyjoy ("Yara" in the show) and I'm a big sucker for the Blackfish and Coldhands, the latter of which never pops up in the series, to my knowledge.

She's cool. All of the Stark characters are, really. You can tell GRRM focused on them pretty heavily when he crafted the story. They're all on pretty unconventional paths, Arya probably most of all, and that helps keep things fresh and interesting. I'm not sure where Arya will ultimately end up, but it sure would be nice to see her reunite with her wolf, Nymeria.

She's a great find. Easily one of the best performers on the show and perfectly suited to the character.

Since she's basically growing up with the series, it'll be interesting to see how the character develops as a result. They've had some difficulty with Bran in that respect, I think: he started as a kid and now he's a deep-voiced teenager. But I think it'll actually benefit Maisie's portrayal of Arya, given the trajectory of the character. In a very real sense, she's growing up too.

Listen, I'm always the first to stand up and proclaim that life is too short to read books you don't like. So I can't fault you too much if you genuinely aren't interested in the other storylines.

That said, I feel like you're probably lying to yourself. Because GRRM's POV writing style is so episodic, it's easy to get wrapped in one or two characters over all others. But I'd urge you to give the rest of the story a try. It might seem difficult at first, but if you can open your mind, I think you'll start to see (and appreciate) the larger narrative at work. ASOIAF is not really about any one particular character; this is a world-changing event and he all have the pleasure of witnessing it unfold.

Well, I completely finished Arya's story, reading the first book last. I wonder how they'll do her final arc in the show. They changed a bunch of things in the show, but generally followed the course.

I can appreciate what you're saying Sleezy. I have read parts of other characters' stories, and they're all written well. I have the physical copies, so maybe someday I will. I just have a stack of books that I have not gotten around to finishing. Books are just so time consuming. I like reading, but I prefer movies. We'll see...

So I actually thought that book five was the last book and the story was complete. I just found out there are going to be two more books.

Nah I only read like the first 100 pages of the first book. I watched the show first and thought I'd be interested in reading the books but it ended up not happening.

I got 2 of my friends into the show and they both got so obsessed with the series that they read all the books in a few months, so I understand people being obsessed with GoT.

Can't really comment on this, but I actually liked how they did Daneryis or whatever her name is marriage to Khal Drogo better on the show than in the book.

My favorite is Ser Jorrah, I'm so glad that he's still alive in the show! I thought for sure he was gonna bite it one of these seasons.

I also liked The Hound and Jon Snow.

She's alright.

I only know her as Arya, so she's alright I guess.

You should check out the movie The Falling. I think besides Game of Thrones it's the best work she's done. Also the 1 hour TV movie Cyberbully (2015) was pretty good.

I thought The Hound was a good strong character, both in the books and show. His demise was a bit different in the show from the book, but the essence of it was the same. The duel against the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners was more interesting in the books, and he burned his arm and suffered from that injury which I thought added a nice touch.

I found things were more realistic in the books too. The magic and fantasy elements were toned down more in the books, and it's grittier and more violent.

I spent 8 hours making videos of all of Arya's scenes from Seasons 2, 3, and 4. Then when I watched them they were horribly pixelated. The individual segments are not too badly pixelated, but still are a bit. I used Open Broadcasting Software to record the scenes off my DVD's, and I used Windows Movie Maker to edit them and string them together. I have used that process to upload gameplay footage and they weren't so pixelated... I don't understand. It's really frustrating because it was so much work.

I haven't read the books yet but I really appreciate the multiple layers GoT put into its characters

George R. R. Martin was very critical of the way that many Tolkien impersonators write about all the good guys getting together to fight the bad guy. He tried to just write very human characters with flaws and complexities, a lot of dark and grey areas instead of just obvious good and obvious evil. I really like that about his writing because it's very realistic.

Do you have a favorite character Bubblerune?