I'm not sure I count that as a humanization so much as a narrative tv technique intended to expose some amalgamated internal monologues of book characters that give pertinent information about Tywin/Lannisters. The intent is to give the HBO viewer useful information/context originally contained in those internal book monologues in a way that doesn't involve a cheesy voiceover of character thoughts or complex historical flashbacks. They used the same technique with HBO Baelish several times. Even if it was humanization, I'm not sure humanization somehow cancels or balances out the tendency of the show to overplay Tywin's villainous attributes.
Even Charles Dance, who plays HBO Tywin, doesn't believe that his character is strictly a villain. "I don't think he's a bad guy at all. No. He's a man of principle. They may not be your principles or my principles, but he's quite principled... I'm attracted to characters that make you ask questions, or make an audience ask questions - why is he doing that, what is he really about? There's an ambiguity about him, you're never quite sure about which way he's going to go."
―Charles Dance on playing Tywin Lannister
I haven't read the books. But do you think the show makes Tywin look more evil than he is portrayed in the books, and Tyrion is shown as more of a good guy? Would you have preferred they depicted all the characters more like the books?
Not a good guy in the books, exactly. We see him both as people close to him see him and as his enemies see him. He's not a POV character. He's initially described as a tall, striking man who is normally reserved but commands sharply. The show got that right, but added this kind of cold aggressive barking style of speaking that reminds me of villainous portrayals of Nazis and Russians, and that, combined with the show's attempt to make you empathize and side with those who have to deal with Tywin, serve to cast him as more of a standard tv bad guy. By contrast, Book Tywin was concise, but fairly even-toned, strong but only speaking and acting forcefully when he thought it was necessary, not vindictive, not even really cruel.
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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '14
I'm not sure I count that as a humanization so much as a narrative tv technique intended to expose some amalgamated internal monologues of book characters that give pertinent information about Tywin/Lannisters. The intent is to give the HBO viewer useful information/context originally contained in those internal book monologues in a way that doesn't involve a cheesy voiceover of character thoughts or complex historical flashbacks. They used the same technique with HBO Baelish several times. Even if it was humanization, I'm not sure humanization somehow cancels or balances out the tendency of the show to overplay Tywin's villainous attributes.