So, I've been having some trouble coming to terms with how I think about show!Shae, and I figured--hey I think better out loud/through discussion than I do on my own, and thought I'd throw where my head is at at the world. If you have thoughts, let me know. Otherwise...yeah. Here they are.
Putting things under the cut and not tagging putting in the tracked tags.
I have basically never really been sold on Show Shae. Not because I'm mad about her being rewritten--I'm usually not to peeved about characters being recharacterized. But more because I don't think she was rewritten in a way that was compelling to me and in a way that makes sense given her function in the show.
In the show, Shae serves two functions:
Be Sansa's friend.
Be Tyrion's love (and actually love him this time)
In order for this to have been achieved, they needed to have her be rewritten. And to me, it's not so much the fact that she was rewritten, so much as the sensation that "I've seen this before" in this show--specifically the way that Jeyne Westerling was replaced with Talisa Maegyr. (If you haven't read this meta, read it now, then proceed with my musings.)
Show!Shae has to be feisty, and passionate, and loving, and stubborn, and in love, and her love is something that is fundamental to Tyrion. But in making that Shae's characterization, it undermines the idea that a girl in the horrible position of having to become a prostitute can't also have her own goals and desires. Book!Shae is someone who likes music, and entertainment, who wants wealth, and ease because she has had a hard life. These goals seem not to matter to show!Shae, who only seems to want love. Which is fine, I suppose--I just find it unsatisfying.
I think a large part of my dissatisfaction began in season 2 (when the re-characterization really was set in motion, you could argue.) And so when I see them writing dialogue for show!Shae that is taken from book!Shae (one of the few instances where they just transplant dialogue, interestingly enough) she's angry, she's argumentative, she's frustrated at not being treated equally in the relationship. All fine things, except that there's never any subtlety to it. Shae is an intelligent woman (passionate, caring, loving, etc.)--given the way that she's written, it doesn't make actual sense for them to have transplanted this dialogue. Not at all. Because it's like she never tries to understand Tyrion's genuine fear of what his father is capable of doing to women he loves. (Which show!Shae would because she's heard his story about Tysha.) And that makes her somehow seem less "loving" of him, even in their tenderest moments? It makes her seem as though she's approaching their relationship differently--again, fine--except that at the same time, she's supposed to be throwing her 100% into it ("I am yours, and you are mine" and yet I don't understand what your fears are and don't pay attention because I don't think it matters?).
inkasrain brought up last night (in response to this post) that:
I tend to think Tysha is not as crucial to Tyrion’s psychology in the show, which makes it easier for him to fall in honest love with Shae. Personally, I like the betrayal as one truly of the heart - different, but it works for me.
I completely understand this, and am glad that it works for you. They haven't been emphasizing Tysha as much. I also agree that Shae has definitely been forced/brutalized/threatened into throwing Tyrion (and Sansa) under the bus--despite her love for both of them. That in itself is sad to me, but the problem is I am still looking at it from the perspective where Shae's re-characterization doesn't do things for me. In order for that "OMG SHAE" feels to hit home, I have to have been sold on her dynamic with Tyrion (whcih I'm not--above) and Sansa (which I'm not--below).
The last is less an "I'm not sold" so much as a pet peeve. Hers and Sansa's friendship, while lovely, doesn't sit well for me because part of what I love (loathe, but love because it's so painful and really hits home for me) about Sansa's experience of King's Landing is she is completely ostracized. She doesn't get to have a confidante. I like seeing someone genuinely caring for her, but again, Shae's re-characterization serves to water down things that are supposed to hurt. Book!Shae is scornful of Sansa and is really scornful of Lollys. It's gross to read, but in its grossness it also feels real, like this is a person, who wants what she wants and doesn't want what she doesn't want. I remember reading somewhere (I don't think I reblogged it, so I can't find it...) that Shae's recharacterization to make her so passionate about Sansa is actually a huge structural flaw because it basically makes her not only have to "betray" (as the show writes it) Tyrion but also Sansa--someone who she's threatened to murder for and who she constantly seeks to protect from all harm. And I get that she's brutalized into doing this...but where's the fire? Where's the feist? (Things I'm going to be angry if they don't include, because it will just continue with my feeling that Shae doesn't make sense: Shae pleading with Tyrion that she understands why he was afraid now? Because if she's being threatened and brutalized, she realizes that now, doesn't she? Does she?)
