Game Of Thrones: 10 Moments The Show Could Have Done Better
8. The Introduction Of The Thenns
What makes Game of Thrones great is that it refuses to present most of its characters as explicitly good or evil. While it is defined by epic scale conflict, no one side is the bad guy. This is what makes the world feel so real and compelling. Even a character as reprehensible as Ramsay Bolton is given relatable motivation. So you can imagine how disappointed one can be when it takes a group of characters and dumbs them down to Orc level wickedness. From the moment they are introduced, the Thenns are presented as comically evil. Their one defining characteristic is that they eat people; its all they ever talk about. But the Thenns are supposed to be one of the most civilized and cultured peoples north of the Wall. They actually have laws and lords. The Magnar is their leader, whom they willingly follow with absolute devotion. Their current leader is Styr, whom we meet in the fourth season. And in this scene, he and the Thenns are robbed of all this complexity and made to be generic bad guys. Everything about the introduction of the Thenns is wrong. Had the show actually presented them as they should, the scene would have remained faithful to the source while retaining its moral complexity. It is truly strange that the showrunners, the very people who love the material for being above such simple depictions of evil, would make this adaptation choice.
