Tune in tomorrow for the Case for the Defense. Naturally, there will be massive spoilers for Season 4 of Game of Thrones.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the decision to cut A Storm of Swords in half for the television adaption has caused more problems than it solved. To wit, it's left non-book-readers horrified at the results of the Red Wedding, forcing them to wait a year (or y'know, read a book) to be happy with the story again. It's also inspired an insanely uninformed rant over at io9 about race politics that I've already linked to once, and once is too many.
If the novel had been finished, the shock of the Red Wedding would have been blunted by the tremendous downfalls that the Lannisters suffer in the final 300 pages of the novel. The anger that the show-only fans have expressed at the show would be mollified somewhat by the reveal of Stoneheart. The consequences of Dany's "white savior" actions would come back to haunt her.
There would be no need to reintroduce characters like Beric Dondarrion and Ygritte only to immediately kill them off. There would be no need for Stannis to take an entire season to get to the Wall. They wouldn't have to stretch out 300 pages of plot across an entire season; to put that in perspective, that's a pace of 30 pages per episode, whereas the first season was roughly 90 and the second season roughly 100.
But most importantly of all, splitting the season like this does serious damage to the narrative structure not only of A Storm of Swords but to the original trilogy* as a whole.
*Yes, this is a hideously inaccurate term. Deal with it.
You see, the first three novels follow the three-act structure almost perfectly. The first novel sets the stage. The second furthers the action and sees the Lannisters win a game-changing victory at the Blackwater. Finally, the third novel contains all the consequences of all the choices the characters made in the first two (not counting the Jon and Daenerys arcs) coming to a head. From the Red Wedding on, A Storm of Swords is just an avalanche of consequences. Splitting it up, it seems less relentless and less powerful.
I acknowledge the logistical difficulties in getting this show made and accept the argument that they could not shoot more or longer episodes. With that in mind, here is a list of what I would have cut from Season 3 to make room for the extant material in Storm's final 300 pages.
It rhymes with weak
Theon Greyjoy's story went absolutely nowhere this season. I understand that they needed to keep the actor under contract because he does show up again later in the story, but the torture porn added nothing to the overall story of Westeros. Most damning of all is that inane escape/chase/capture sequence. I've seen it a hundred times on classic Doctor Who and I know what it's for: wasting my time.
Merge Astapor and Yunkai
Dany could have sacked Yunkapor in episode 5 and then gone straight on to Meereeeeeeeeen. Oh, joy. But in all seriousness, name one way in which her story advanced since she left Astapor.
Ygritte swooning over windmills
Their relationship is established by the time they're over the Wall. The very next episode could have been Tormund ordering Jon to kill a civilian. For that matter, if they'd followed the book and had Ygritte drag Jon off to have sex right after they got to the Fist of the First Men, they could have slimmed that story down further.
Half of what happened on Dragonstone
Edric Storm wasn't in Season 2 and there's honestly little reason to have him in Season 3. Stannis could have burned a Florent for suggesting he surrender, rage about what to do next, and then be told by Davos that he needs to save the kingdom to win the throne. By the way, Shireen is an even more pointless character in Storm than she is in Clash.
Some of the extra Margaery scenes
Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Margaery actually has a character in the show. That said, she's used for quite a bit of filler.
Sansa's wedding reception
We know Joff's a monster. Move along.
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