I liked Melisandre, but I agree about Stannis. I'm hoping he'll get better. And I hope that Renly will be better now that he's king.

Renly is a shadow of his former self.

Great point. Maybe they're saving that scene. It's so great! Is it then that she tries to slap him again and he grabs her and and says she won't do that again! Maybe with her slapping Joffery they didn't want her slapping half the people she talked to in one episode.

It's funny to think about King Robert slapping her and now it's her rebuttal of choice.

Another thing about changes I didn't like. In season one Jaime said the line, "The king shits, and the hand wipes." But in the book it was, "The king eats, and the hand takes the shit." I just like the book line so much more. So many things in these books should be word for word.

My theory on Stannis is that if we like the character, they're doing it wrong.

Yeah Melisandre just doesn't seem foreboding and/or seductive enough for me. Maybe if they'd have kept her red eyes. I feel like she should have a voice like Galadriel in TLotR.

And Stannis was BORING, although he's described as such when Loras said "Stannis has the personality of a lobster."

I thought the same thing. I remember thinking at the time, I can't wait to see how Peter Dinklage pull this scene off...

I agree

I think that's why they have her wearing the glowing red neckace.

She seems much more dark in the book, they also skipped a lot of that scene. Stannis didn't have any interaction with Master Cressan.

In the book Stannis seems much more outspoken and dark, that just me?

Another drawback of going the audio route with the books. In those, I got to know him through his voice, and his voice sounded nearly identical to this guy -

http://www.planet-familyguy.com/pfg/...ers/pirate.jpg

Agreed. My complaint isn't that they don't portray Stannis as likeable (he isn't supposed to be), my complaint is the old "he isn't what I pictured when reading the book" which isn't really valid but nonetheless it is there.

I don't know why, but I always envisioned Stannis as bald for some reason.

For some reason, I had it in my brain that Stannis was the oldest Baratheon, and RObert was middle kid. I could have sworn they said Stannis was the middle son in the show.

Is that correct, or is my attention to detail just plain poop?

Same for me. I always thought Stannis was the oldest brother.

(I think we're both wrong about that, however)

I'm pretty sure Stannis is the oldest. And speaking of how his pictured in your mind's eye, I always pictured him as a younger version of Christopher Lee's Count Dooku. No idea why, but like Vailpass said, it's probably why I'm not entirely on board with this actor yet.

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Stannis_Baratheon says he's the "elder of Robert Baratheon's younger brothers". (That's the older wiki that was originally for the books, not the newer wiki for the tv series).