Book 2 vs. Season 2: Cain and Abel Baratheon
Much like season one did with Ned Stark’s tragedy, season two of HBO’s Game of Thrones gives us another example of a plot that was changed to carry a different meaning to its book version, and again it was a tragedy. In the show, Renly is a benevolent political force and apparently the best king of all the contenders, cut down in his prime by his ambitious, malevolent brother, just before he could reach an agreement with the Starks to join forces and crush the Lannisters. Book!Renly would love this sort of PR (except the part where he died), but the truth is that he’s selfish and vain, his bid for the throne an ideologically void ego trip intended to help Renly and the Tyrells and only Renly and the Tyrells.
But to make the show version of this story work means that Stannis in turn must also be changed to provide the needed contrast. Where book!Stannis has always had his good points hidden in his resentment and lousy social skills - a wide meritocratic streak and a belief in good governance, for instance - show!Stannis is fuelled by ambition, grasping on to a foreign religion of obvious evil to gain political power. Just as Renly’s flaws, large and small, were edited out to facilitate this tragedy, Stannis’ virtues were systematically removed. On a macro level, the show’s treatment misses huge points of GRRM’s genre criticism, both regarding the duties of a king and the specific character types Stannis and Renly subvert.
The Good Brother
Let’s start with Renly.
The show’s take on Renly Baratheon is almost unrecognisable from the book version. Renly is introduced early in A Game of Thrones as an idealised version of Robert - younger, handsome, charming, and with an enthusiasm for martial pursuits. But where GRRM is clear that this is the image of Renly, the show has mistaken it for the substance of Renly (and removed his apparent pleasure in war sports). Even in book one it’s clear that underneath the surface Renly is quite the unpleasant individual: he mocks his niece’s looks and his brother’s marriage, he endorses Daenerys’ assassination without hesitation, and though he knows about Cersei’s illegitimate children, he doesn’t inform either Robert or Jon Arryn in favour of using the information to advance himself and his lover’s family, and the last time we saw him in AGoT, he proposed that Ned take Cersei’s children hostage and rule in Joffrey’s name.
Renly makes his first on-page appearance in A Clash of Kings in Catelyn II, watching a tourney, and again Catelyn immediately notes that “he is Robert come again” insofar as appearances go. His initial conversation with her there, in public, is indeed all graciousness. The first hints that this is only surface come as Catelyn is shown to Renly’s lavish pavilion, which is far too well-stocked with all Renly’s toys for his army to march effectively. The food porn of this chapter likewise shows that the primary concern is not with fighting but with feasting. Once Renly is in private with Catelyn, matters change. The first item on his agenda is to show her the size of his army, and immediately to compare it to the size of Robb’s forces. The implied threat is not very subtle. Then he moves on to threatening all the rest of Westeros: “He swept a hand across the campfires that burned from horizon to horizon. ‘Well, there is my claim, as good as Robert’s ever was.’” (Catelyn II) In other words, Renly intends to make war on Westeros until he becomes king, because he wants to be king. Conspicuously lacking is any talk of duty or merit - Renly speaks of duty not at all and merit only once Catelyn starts to believe Stannis might be right about the incest, and hence Stannis’ legitimacy.
Episode 2.03 (“What Is Dead May Never Die”) likewise brings us a pair of public/private chats between Renly and Catelyn, though the second is very different to the book. Again, in public, Renly is all graciousness, accepting of Brienne as a warrior. A significant argument about protocol was edited out, however; when Catelyn refuses to address Renly as “your grace” and kneel, she argues when called on it, while Renly stays out of the dispute to take Catelyn’s measure. In the show, Renly further demonstrates his graciousness and approachability by short-circuiting the argument himself, saying “there’s no need for that.” The more private discussion between Renly and Catelyn provides no contrast, as Renly addresses a smallfolk worker by name and inquires after a specific injury. There are no threats made, just a moment of kindness and concern for social inferiors.
The show also adds several scenes between Renly, Loras, and Margaery, focused on Renly’s sexuality and the challenge of posing as straight. These are meant to engage audience sympathy for Renly and are indeed quite successful in their task. Furthermore, Renly’s defense of Brienne as “a very capable warrior” is a long way removed from his book version’s private mockery of her. In 2.04 (“Garden of Bones”) we see Renly express his dislike and distaste for the treacherous Littlefinger: “I don’t like you, Lord Baelish. I don’t like your face. I don’t like the words that come oozing out of your mouth. I don’t want you in my tent one minute more than necessary.” The intent is to depict Renly as a good and open-minded man. It’s successful, and these scenes are well-written and acted, even if they miss the larger point of Renly’s character in the books.
The Storm’s End parley (2.04 still) between Renly and Stannis is subtly different to how it went down in the books, reflecting the changed characters of the men negotiating. In an obvious visual signifier of this, Renly’s party shows up on white horses, whilst Stannis’ party shows up on black (or dark brown) horses. (Ten-gallon hats of the appropriate colours would not be period-accurate.) Strangely, the till-now unfailingly polite and charming Renly reverts to something more like his book self for a minute or two, insulting Stannis repeatedly. In the case of the book, Renly’s rudeness was intended to destroy the talks, as he offered Stannis Storm’s End in the most insulting fashion he could think of, followed by repeating the rumour that Stannis’ daughter Shireen was fathered by the fool Patchface. At the opening of discussions in the show, Melisandre does a lot of the talking, again emphasising that Stannis’ faction is controlled by a scary foreign religion. Stannis’ revelation about the incest is edited out, since this information reveals to Catelyn that, if true, Stannis is no rebel by the laws of the land, and Renly alone is the usurper. Again, the show wants us to believe that the kingship has nothing to do with law or the rule thereof, but is a personality competition between the Baratheon brothers. We the audience might not believe in rightful kings, but Stannis and Renly do - as much as he might personally want the respect and recognition of his peers, book!Stannis clearly sees claiming the Iron Throne as part of his commitment to the rule of law; book!Renly doesn’t care about ethics or laws, he cares about power. The phrasing of Renly’s rejection is changed from “Tyrell swords will make me king. Tarly and Rowan and Caron will make me king, with axe and mace and warhammer,” and on in this vein for a while, to “the men holding those banners will make me king.” (Catelyn III) This change has Renly refer to smallfolk having a measure of political agency and claiming a mandate of sorts, as opposed to referring to smallfolk as nothing more than weapons of the nobles they are in service to, and an intention to just wage war until he becomes king without reference to law or need for negotiation and alliance.
Renly’s emotional reaction to the parley’s failure did a 180 in adaptation, too. In the show, he rides away angry and upset, saying “Would you believe? I loved him once.” As for book!Renly, I’ll quote the whole section here, since that shows quite well the sort of person he is:
“‘That was amusing, if not terribly profitable,’ [Renly] commented. ‘I wonder where I can get a sword like that. Well, doubtless Loras will make a gift of it for me after the battle. It grieves me that it should come to this.’
‘You have a cheerful way of grieving,’ said Catelyn, whose distress was not feigned.
‘Do I?’ Renly shrugged. ‘So be it. Stannis was never the most cherished of brothers, I confess. Do you suppose that tale of his is true? If Joffrey is the Kingslayer’s get-‘
‘Then your brother is the lawful heir.’
‘While he lives,’ Renly admitted. ‘Though it’s a fool’s law, wouldn’t you agree? Why the oldest brother, and not the best-fitted? The crown will suit me, as it never suited Robert and would not suit Stannis. I have it in me to be a great king, strong yet generous, clever, just, diligent, loyal to my friends and terrible to my enemies, yet capable of forgiveness, patient -‘
‘Humble?’ Catelyn supplied.
Renly laughed. ‘You must allow a king some flaws, my lady.’”
(Catelyn III, ACoK)
Let’s unpack that, because this is critical to understanding book!Renly’s plans and character on several levels. Renly is planning to have Stannis killed - how else would he claim Stannis’ sword from Loras specifically after the battle specifically, and how else should we take “while he lives”? What’s more, he’s not regretful in the slightest. Nor should we mistake Renly’s seeming ignorance of Joffrey’s parentage as anything but seeming, since his book one plot to replace Cersei with Margaery makes no sense unless he knew about the incest. The situation has changed. Now Renly must pretend that he and Stannis are equally traitors to Joffrey, because if Stannis is right about Joffrey, then Renly alone is the traitor and usurper. His feigned ignorance here is to sound Catelyn out - her response makes it clear that if Joffrey and his siblings are illegitimate, she would consider Stannis the legal heir to the Iron Throne, and the very fact that Robb sent Catelyn as an envoy indicates trust in her judgment. Renly must now take in mind what Catelyn’s going to tell Robb. (As we see shortly thereafter, his plan is to detain her, force her to watch the battle, and then to send her back to Robb with news.) And finally, from a characterisation standpoint, it’s no accident GRRM has Renly go on an overblown speech about his own supposed virtues, and then have Catelyn puncture the balloon with a word. What makes Renly’s ego so dangerous is that he can blithely shrug her very valid criticism of his pride off with a laugh.
Given that this passage shows nothing but that Renly is a colossal tool, it’s no wonder this isn’t in the show. It wouldn’t fit with Renly as he was thus far depicted.
In terms of military skill, in the books we soon see that Renly is utterly, hopelessly incompetent, making bad plans for bad reasons. The plan he outlines for battling Stannis could be titled How To Lose Against A Smaller Force. Catelyn compares Renly’s fast riding with only a quarter of his massive host to Robert’s boldness, but then thinks of what her late husband would have advised: “to bring up his whole force, to encircle Stannis and besiege the beseigers. That choice Renly had denied himself in his rush to come to grips with his brother. He had outdistanced his supply lines, left food and forage days behind with all his wagons and mules and oxen. He must come to battle soon, or starve.” He gives command of his van to untested tourney knight Loras Tyrell out of nepotism rather than Randyll Tarly or Mathis Rowan - a mistake not even Mace Tyrell would make. Both Tarly and Rowan point out in Catelyn IV that Stannis has prepared this battle so that Renly’s all-cavalry forces will charge half-blind into the rising sun, but Renly ignores their advice to attack before daybreak, again trusting in Loras’ ability to break Stannis’ infantry. Renly is doing everything he can to lose despite outnumbering his brother - and ignoring the advice of his experts doesn’t bode well in any political arena.
Again, since these plans show nothing but that Renly’s not actually competent at this currently critical skill, it’s been left out of the show. Rather, the show takes the tack that numbers are everything. More on this when it comes to Stannis’ characterisation.
Then, of course, there’s Renly’s death. In the book Renly dies not proposing an alliance between Stark and Baratheon/Tyrell, but rejecting a Great Council in favour of warring everyone into submission. “Do direwolves vote on who should lead the pack?” he asks, “The time for talk is done. Now we see who is stronger.” Furthermore, Catelyn had already asked leave to return to Robb, which Renly denies her. He says that he wants her to see how Renly and his army treat Stannis. (Catelyn IV) The show, by contrast, opens 2.05 (“The Ghost of Harrenhal”) in Renly’s camp, with a scene confirming the terms of an alliance between Catelyn on behalf of Robb, and Renly. Renly refers to Catelyn not just by her first name, but the very familiar “Cat,” and reminds her of Robert’s friendship with Ned, which “held the kingdoms together,” a clear indication that Renly wants that sort of friendship with Robb. “Please bring my terms to your son,” he says, “I believe we are natural allies. I hope he feels the same. Together we could end this war in a fortnight.” Then he’s murdered.
The Evil Brother
Whether it’s the cold marble and spiritual emptiness of the Eyrie, Pyke crumbling into the sea, or the removal of Robert’s hunting tapestries from the walls of the Red Keep, the appearance of a castle in GRRM’s world will tell us about its lord or lady. And Dragonstone is, frankly, some sort of evil overlord’s lair. “Dragonstone was grim beyond a doubt, a lonely citadel in the wet waste surrounded by storm and salt, with the smoking shadow of the mountain at its back.” (ACoK, prologue.) It’s even covered in gargoyles, to make it more sinister. All in all it’s the sort of place one does not simply walk into, and not just because it’s an island. The man we meet there is grim without a doubt too, decades of resentment a smoking shadow at his back. He wears royal bling to public events, but otherwise his clothing is exceptionally plain, a contrast the narration remarks upon more than once. (Catelyn III, Davos II, more in Jon’s ASoS and ADWD chapters) We meet him angry and complaining about Davos and Robert and Renly - but also considering Maester Cressen’s proposal to try and make alliance with the Vale and through them, approach the Starks.
The show does not introduce Stannis listening to first one proposal and then another, hearing both sides, nor does it tell us immediately that Stannis knighted lowborn smuggler Davos as the book does (ACoK, Prologue). It introduces him with the events from Davos I, a decision that foregrounds Stannis’ purported religiosity/fundamentalist zeal right from the start. The establishing shots in 2.01 (“The North Remembers”) show us a ritual burning of “false gods” at dusk while sinister music plays in the background. The first words not spoken by Melisandre in this scene are “we need to stop her,” and Melisandre is shown to have her audience in thrall. It could not be more obvious that this religion is supposed to be evil. Never mind that the Prologue states explicitly that Stannis “did not share his wife’s fervent new faith.” The final words of Davos I emphasise that Stannis sees faith and Melisandre as a tool, while Davos II shows that Stannis’ relationship with R’hllorism might be changing. Either way, Stannis is no fundamentalist.
Maester Cressen, depicted as the one man who was willing to speak up against Melisandre in that scene, frames Stannis’ forthcoming military action for us. “That woman will lead him into a war he cannot win” plus “Ever since that boar killed Robert, every lord wants a coronation” equals the audience conclusion that Stannis should not try to become king at all. Stannis does not have the writers’ endorsement, his claim to the throne put on the level of “every lord.” (Another example of the writers trying to make the politics of Renly’s and Stannis’ claims to the throne equal.) Furthermore, Cressen says Stannis is “surrounded by fools and fanatics” with the implication that Stannis is blind to that. Book!Stannis is very aware of this fact, as he tells Davos at length in Davos II. While Stannis outlines his plans, still in 2.01, the show edits out his consideration of a Vale alliance and a Stark alliance, instead jumping directly to “Joffrey, Renly, Robb Stark, they’re all thieves. They’ll bend the knee or I’ll destroy them.”
Catelyn first meets Stannis in private, so we get a close look at how uncomfortable he is with her (“this was not a man made for easy courtesies”), and his atrocious interpersonal skills. He went from “I’m sorry your husband was murdered” to “I should have been Robert’s Hand” in a second flat. Always a charmer, is Stannis. He promises Catelyn justice (compare the wording; Renly would “see the Lannisters pay” and promises Catelyn Cersei’s/Joffrey’s head to the cheers of his men), and, as soon as she says she would rather have her daughters back, Stannis promises her daughters back. There is no warmth, and his manner of promising such doesn’t reassure her, but the substance of the promise is the thing that Catelyn wanted. None of this is in the show. Stannis never meets Catelyn privately, and therefore never has a chance to promise her the thing she wants most.
For all Stannis is called inflexible, the parley is not one of the occasions where he bears this out. He showed up to Storm’s End with a serious compromise: he was willing to pass over Shireen in the succession so he could offer Renly the formal position as heir. The show doesn’t just ignore us, it informs us over the evidence of our own eyes that Stannis is unprepared to compromise. Some of Renly’s last lines reject the possibility of negotiating with Stannis: “I’d have better luck negotiating the wind.” Indeed, in the show, it’s Renly who arrives at the parley unprepared to offer anything to Stannis, not even Storm’s End. I don’t know what to say about this oversight, since I think it’s actually an oversight, and the writers did not mean to show us that Renly, who they’ve depicted as a good person with the earned love of the common folk, did not want to budge an inch (which makes sense for power-hungry book!Renly), whilst inflexible non-negotiating Stannis had a good and generous proposal, albeit delivered as part of a threat and without the loss of temper post-baiting that book!Stannis had.
At last we come to Renly’s murder and Stannis’ wars. In 2.02 (“The Night Lands”), we heard Stannis’ analysis of the military situation: “In a real war, the side with the greater numbers wins, nine times out of ten,” and follow this up with “I cannot defeat my brother in the field!” Stannis’ anguish as he delivers that line is meant to underline the frustration and desperation that made him turn to Melisandre’s magic. The implication is clear: there was no way for Stannis to win but cheating with the sinister dark forces Melisandre offers. This is a far cry from book!Stannis who, also outnumbered, set out to mitigate that in a mundane and professional fashion. See racefortheironthrone’s analysis of Catelyn III and Catelyn IV for the military breakdown of this non-battle.
It is also unclear how much book!Stannis knows about Renly’s demise, as we see in Davos II:
“For a long time, the king did not speak. Then, very softly, he said, ‘I dream of it sometimes. Of Renly’s dying. A green tent, candles, a woman screaming. And blood.’ Stannis looked down at his hands. ‘I was still abed when he died. Your Devan will tell you. He tried to wake me. Dawn was nigh and my lords were waiting, fretting. I should have been ahorse, armoured. I knew Renly would attack at break of day. Devan says I thrashed and cried out, but what does it matter? It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean.’
Ser Davos felt his phantom fingertips start to itch. Something is wrong here, the onetime smuggler thought.”
So while the reader has the details to confirm that Stannis is indeed somehow responsible for the murder, and this recount itself suggests that Stannis suspects the same, it is rather less clear to what extent Stannis was consciously involved in the plan to murder Renly. We are not privy to what Melisandre told Stannis in the books. It is clear, from the same chapter, that he does mourn Renly’s death. “‘Fools love a fool,’ grumbled Stannis, ‘but I grieve for him as well. For the boy he was, not the man he grew to be.’ He was silent for a time, and then he said, ‘How did the commons take the news of Cersei’s incest?’” Stannis also says, “I did love him, Davos. I know that now.” Stannis’ actions in this scene bear out the sincerity - the silence, the surprisingly vulnerable recount of Renly’s murder. It is the actions that are missing in the show. Though Stannis says (in 2.05) “Fools love a fool. I grieve for him as well, but for the boy he was, not the man he grew to be,” there is no reflective silence thereafter. Stannis does not even stop walking. It was preceded by Davos saying “I’m sorry about your brother. I wanted to let you know that people grieve for him,” a line with the implication that Stannis is not grieving sufficiently, and the reaction meant to demonstrate that Stannis doesn’t care. And rather than admit his troubles about the manner of Renly’s death, show!Stannis refuses to hear Davos’ concerns about it:
STANNIS: Soon I will be sitting on the Iron Throne.
DAVOS: Nothing is worth -
STANNIS: I’ll hear no more about it.
Then there’s Stannis’ relationship with Davos. For all we first see Stannis complaining about Davos’ efficacy, it’s also made clear what Stannis likes and values about him - to the point where Davos can make him laugh, smile, and halfway apologise for his actions (hilariously, he doesn’t mean his actions in punishing Davos for smuggling, but rather failing to punish his bannermen for treason). “Davos, I have missed you sorely…aye, I have a tail of traitors, your nose does not deceive you. […] I need them, but you should know how it sickens me to pardon such as these when I have punished better men for lesser crimes. You have every right to reproach me, Ser Davos.” (Davos II) By contrast, in the first half of the season this is a very poorly depicted kind-of-friendship, with Stannis consistently brushing off Davos’ advice save for that about leaving Melisandre behind, and never providing the validation and support that book!Stannis provides Davos. Stannis even goes so far as to say “I never thought I’d have cause to doubt your loyalty. Was I wrong?” when Davos continues to push on the Melisandre issue.
Conclusion
While the bones of the story make a decent one-season tragedy in and of themselves, the depiction of Renly and Stannis demonstrates a thorough misunderstanding of GRRM’s aims with the two. GRRM created two different, contrasting images: the Good King and the Evil King, and then undermined both. Popular, charming Good King Renly is a nepotistic thug and a destabilising, regressive political force; abrasive, vindictive Stannis believes merit is more important than birth and alone makes a good faith promise to return Catelyn’s daughters to her if he finds them.
For the adaptation, the show made the surface image the reality, and in doing so changed the meaning of the story dramatically. After all, in the book, it’s not much of a loss for the realm that Renly died, whereas in the show Renly goes out immediately after saying “we could win this war in a fortnight.” That is another thematic point the show missed: Stannis’ myopic concern for his rights and Renly’s selfish bid for power are both wrong and both destructive. As Catelyn said at the Storm’s End parley in the book, but not the show, “The realm bleeds.”
Renly’s murder at the hands of his evil brother is a story for one season, yet the “evil” brother, under the influence of the exceedingly sinister and obviously evil Melisandre, has a lot more to do in this series. What’s more, after acting as an antagonist to Tyrion at the Battle of the Blackwater, book!Stannis grows steadily more heroic as his good qualities win out over his worst ones. And eventually, with help from Davos, he too sees that the realm bleeds and decides to do something about it. Needless to say, this is not an arc the show gives us.
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