Things change some... Like talisa is not the same character in the show vs the books(Jeyne). But overall I think it's about as faithful as a tv series could be for a book series of that length. Obviously some things need to be edited down.
The biggest difference for me is that they aged most the characters up (like the Stark kids especially).
I didn't think it was very corny in the show but the throat slashing was a little Sweeney Todd-esque.
Yeah it's surprisingly faithful, I thought. They aged everyone up for the sex scenes. For instance, Dany (13 in the books) is repeatedly raped by her new husband Drogo, so they had to make her 17 in the TV series (actress is even older of course). Because Dany was aged up, everyone else had to be aged up too (Jon and Dany are within a year of one another in age), plus it's easier to find better older actors (plus they wanted Sean Bean
).
I'm not displeased with they way the did the RW in the show, I've long since learned that very very very rarely will anything on screen be as raw or real as it is in your head. In the books, it wasn't half as neat and clean as it was in the show... they don't kill all the Northerners in the hall immediately.
Catelyn goes out of the hall to confront someone about his mail, then turns back to the hall and Robb starts getting shot, and other Northerners are getting shot or stabbed.
The rest of Northerners in the hall clue in and start fighting with anything around them. Greatjon Umber lifts up a table and runs over the shield Robb from more bolts (this part always stood out for me). But of course they're getting slaughtered anyways.
Cat doesn't kill Frey's wife, she kills a mentally disabled son instead. It's not a neat slash, she saws through his neck until the knife is grating on bone. Then she starts crying and clawing her own face apart, then she starts laughing and they kill her because they figured she's lost it and not worth it to ransom.
Robb's last words aren't "mother.." but "Grey Wind." This is not really significant but later in the books we find out that
when a warg dies, he usually goes into the body of his animal. So Easter Egg!! Robb died as a human, then was in Grey Wind when he died.
We don't see Grey Wind but find out later that he ripped the kennelmaster's arm off and killed a bunch of hounds before succumbing to the crossbow bolts.
Meanwhile, Arya and Sandor (my favorite duo) have been on the cart* (leading Stranger) going past the feast tents of the Northerners, and are actually getting along fairly well and trying to figure out how to get in the castle.
They pass the feast tents, everything's fine, and then Arya observes the draw bridge is lowered (thinking oh yay, that'll make it easier to get in!!). Sandor (who in the books is sharp, fit, in his late 20's** and one of the very best warriors in Westeros) turns to look and clues in right away, shoving her off the wagon and getting out his sword belt. She's furious, then turns and sees the Frey army streaming out of the castle, hears screams and looks back further. It takes her a second to realize the feast tents have collapsed on Robb's army and are on fire.
The she sees three riders coming right at them. Sandor cuts Stranger loose and gets on him in time to meet two of them. Arya is worried that Sandor can't take them all at once, frets about whether she wants him to die or not, then the third rider starts chasing her around the wagon.
Sandor breaks off his sword in one guy, and mortally wounds the other's horse, which falls on top of the rider in a shallow pool of water. Then he kills the guy chasing Arya. So in the background is the sound of the river, the Rains of Castamere with heavy drums playing inside the hall, the dying horse, the drowning man, the Northmen in the tents behind them.
Clegane wants to leave, but Arya is reluctant. He tries to talk sense into her, tells her her brother is dead, tells her to look at his army again. At this point the fire is huge and the Freys are catapulting pitch onto the tents.
"We're here," she shouted. Her voice sounded thin and scared, a little girl's voice. "Robb's just in the castle, and my mother. The gate's even open." There were no more Freys riding out. I came so far. "We have to go get my mother."
"Stupid little bitch." Fires glinted off the snout of his helm, and made the steel teeth shine. "You go in there, you won't come out. Maybe Frey will let you kiss your mother's corpse."
"Maybe we can save her . . . "
"Maybe you can. I'm not done living yet." He rode toward her, crowding her back toward the wayn. "Stay or go, she-wolf. Live or die. Your -"
Then she bolts, and he follows her a moment later, whacks her with the axe (she thinks he's going to kill her like Mycah and it's left ambiguous to the reader whether he does), and we don't read about her again for about 200 pages. Notice that he's bad at goading her into doing things, this comes up again.
So yeah, they weaseled out of quite a bit of the Red Wedding, but it was still satisfactory (satisfactory=a victory in my mind, because if they ruin an important scene like that, it's hard to watch the show the same way again). And I'm SURE they won't leave out LSH. No way, especially given her interaction with other important characters later on.
*yeah, the cart incident, they like to character assassinate the Hound in the show. As far as we've seen, he isn't so much of a dick that he kills people for nothing, and he pays when he can.
That was why they'd needed the wayn and the pickled pigs' feet. "I'm not going to be dragged before your brother in chains," the Hound had told her, "and I'd just as soon not have to cut through his men to get to him. So we play a little game."
A farmer chance-met on the kingsroad had provided them with wayn, horses, garb, and casks, though not willingly. The Hound had taken them at swordpoint. When the farmer cursed him for a robber, he said, "No, a forager. Be grateful you get to keep your smallclothes. Now take those boots off. Or I'll take your legs off. Your choice." The farmer was as big as Clegane, but all the same he chose to give up his boots and keep his legs.
He does love his ultimatums. The "foraging" part came from when he confronted Beric, Thoros, Anguy etc (the Brotherhood) about taking all the gold he got from saving Loras in the tourney in Season 1.
The Hound's mouth gave another twitch. "You're no more than common thieves."
Lem glowered. "Your lion friends ride into some village, take all the food and every coin they find, and call it foraging. The wolves as well, so why not us? No one robbed you, dog. You just been good and foraged."
Sandor Clegane looked at their faces, every one, as if he were trying to commit them all to memory. Then he walked back out into the darkness and the pouring rain from whence he'd come, with never another word.
** The Hound should look more like:
[/RESIZE]
http://eeba-ism.deviantart.com/art/ASoIaF-The-Hound-322619878
http://jekaa.deviantart.com/art/The-Hound-and-the-Wolf-Pup-73929650]
Read the books!!