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As a Brit he does sound to me just like an American putting on a pretty good BBC accent. That doesnt take away anything from his performance though or his comic timing which are both consistently outstanding.
Just the look on his face in the last series just after the Mountain came back from certain death to kill Oberyn Martel and supposedly Tyrion's hopes of avoiding execution, that few seconds in which no words were needed showed Peter Dinklages acting capabilities.
And what exactly does a Westerosi accent sound like?
Game of Thrones isn't set in Britain.
Yes, but since he is one of the few main actors not British and the Hollywood trope of all upper class characters no matter where the setting having posh English accents, then him having an obvious US drawl would be more than a little incongrouous and distracting. We wont mention his on screen brothers ever so slight Danish accent, as it must be very difficult to speak and act convincingly and fluently in something that isnt your native language.
Its also notable that of the lower orders in the show that the...well we cant really say goodies as this is Game of Thrones....but lets say the not quite as evil as the others, characters have blunt direct Northern English accents while the even more unsavoury types seem to have London/Estuary/Cockney ones.
The northern accents are generally regarded as more trustworthy. Which is why most call centres tend to be based in Northern England, Scotland and N.Ireland as the accents from these regions are seen as more friendly and reliable.
While the cockney accent is seen (outside of SE England anyway) as snidey and untrustworthy.
Ironically the gorgeous girl, Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte with a broad Yorkshire voice, " You knaw nothin', Jawn Snaw" is in real life a bona fide member of the aristocracy and was born in her fathers Scottish castle.
Accent inconsistencies bug me too, but the Brits need to accept that all the world is not England. Expecting the people of Westeros to speak proper British accents is like arguing over what species of rabbit Bugs Bunny is, and then nitpicking his ear length.
Westeros is a fictional place. It would be nice if at least all the Lannisters had a common accent, and it makes no sense whatsoever that the Starks and Wildlings and other northmen don't speak their own language entirely. But down that road lies madness. It's a fictional world. As long as it's plausible it doesn't have to be completely believable. Otherwise we'll all start analyzing the stitching in the nobles cloaks and debating thread count and cotton exports.
If you want to get really annoyed at the accents, listen to the audiobooks sometime. Hilariously bad in places. Davos sounds like a bad Long John Silver, "Arrrrs!" and all. Theon Greyjoy sounds like Ringo Starr. Lord Varys sounds like he has no teeth rather than no testicles.
Accent inconsistencies bug me too, but the Brits need to accept that all the world is not England. Expecting the people of Westeros to speak proper British accents is like arguing over what species of rabbit Bugs Bunny is, and then nitpicking his ear length.
Westeros is a fictional place. It would be nice if at least all the Lannisters had a common accent, and it makes no sense whatsoever that the Starks and Wildlings and other northmen don't speak their own language entirely. But down that road lies madness. It's a fictional world. As long as it's plausible it doesn't have to be completely believable. Otherwise we'll all start analyzing the stitching in the nobles cloaks and debating thread count and cotton exports.
If you want to get really annoyed at the accents, listen to the audiobooks sometime. Hilariously bad in places. Davos sounds like a bad Long John Silver, "Arrrrs!" and all. Theon Greyjoy sounds like Ringo Starr. Lord Varys sounds like he has no teeth rather than no testicles.
The accent that Davos has is what everyone in the UK would recognise as a generic northeastern Geordie or Mackem accent though the actor laying Davos is actually a Dubliner. So he's putting that on. The accent is as far away in both sound and distance as it possible to get within England from the 'Ohh arrr me hearties" pirate type accent of south west England.
Its interesting that to an American ear they sound the same as to us they are like chalk and cheese but I suppose the average Brit in the street wouldn't know the difference between a Texan or a Boston accent without the differences bring pointed out.
If the actor playing Davos, Liam Cunningham, was able or allowed to speak his lines in broad proper Geordie I doubt any Americans and also quite a few Brits would gave a clue what the hell he was saying as its a very thick dialect that to the unsuspecting ear sounds barely English.
The accent that Davos has is what everyone in the UK would recognise as a generic northeastern Geordie or Mackem accent though the actor laying Davos is actually a Dubliner. So he's putting that on. The accent is as far away in both sound and distance as it possible to get within England from the 'Ohh arrr me hearties" pirate type accent of south west England.
Its interesting that to an American ear they sound the same as to us they are like chalk and cheese but I suppose the average Brit in the street wouldn't know the difference between a Texan or a Boston accent without the differences bring pointed out.
If the actor playing Davos, Liam Cunningham, was able or allowed to speak his lines in broad proper Geordie I doubt any Americans and also quite a few Brits would gave a clue what the hell he was saying as its a very thick dialect that to the unsuspecting ear sounds barely English.
I was talking about the audiobook, not the TV show. No one on the TV show sounds like Long John Silver to me.
My point being that as inconsistent as the accents can sometimes be on the TV show, you ain't heard nothin' till you've heard the audiobooks. The audiobooks are faaaaaaar worse, oftentimes hilariously so.
Someone ought to do a GoT spoof with various American accents. The Starks could sound like Wisconsinites. ("Winter is comin', yaaaah.") The Lannisters could be Boston Brahmin. The Dothraki could be Texans. I'd pay good money to see that.
Sorry, my mistake. Your idea of the different US accents is a belter though. I'd pay good money to hear Cliff Claven take charge of the Nightswatch. "Hey Naahm, we gottah go to the faaaah side of the waaahll."
I was talking about the audiobook, not the TV show. No one on the TV show sounds like Long John Silver to me.
My point being that as inconsistent as the accents can sometimes be on the TV show, you ain't heard nothin' till you've heard the audiobooks. The audiobooks are faaaaaaar worse, oftentimes hilariously so.
Someone ought to do a GoT spoof with various American accents. The Starks could sound like Wisconsinites. ("Winter is comin', yaaaah.") The Lannisters could be Boston Brahmin. The Dothraki could be Texans. I'd pay good money to see that.
As a Texan, I resent being compared to the Dothraki horde. WTH?
Honestly, just because the Northmen are from the North doesn't make them similar to Wisconsinites. When I visited England and Scotland, I felt the Scottish were more like Texans in spirit.
Did anyone notice how far the story line of Sansa, Brienne and Podric has moved away from the books? That part of the story is completely unpredictable now (unless you cheated and saw the first 4 episodes online ). I'm guessing it was created in collaboration with GRRM, but having felt "trapped" by endless walkaround subplots in Vol.4 and 5 it actually feels refreshing to be in brand new territory!
I was really moved to see Arya sail in through the "gate" of Braavos (sp?) formed by the legs of the giant. That was the scene I hoped Season 4 would end with, and now we got it in Season 5--better late than never!
It's so funny about the accents. It seems to be an accepted style these days that a period show/fantasy show in a semi-historic European-type setting has to have British English as the default language of the good guys, and the various bad guys have a variety of other accents. I'm sure that will seem silly in the future, just like it seems silly now when we watch old movies where they're supposed to speak a foreign language, and instead they speak English with some all-purpose Southern or Eastern European accent.
At least we're treated to some very genuine-sounding non-Westerosi pseudo-languages + accents in GoT. I get a kick out of those! Always trying to understand them without subtitles!
Last edited by Clark Fork Fantast; 04-20-2015 at 11:36 PM..
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). I'm guessing it was created in collaboration with GRRM, but having felt "trapped" by endless walkaround subplots in Vol.4 and 5 it actually feels refreshing to be in brand new territory!
