The Official Game of Thrones [A Song of Ice and Fire] Thread (includes spoilers)

[Spectre]

Doesn't mean Stannis does it. Stannis is in middle of a snowstorm and about to be in battle in the books, while Shireen and Melisandre are at the Wall.

You're implying that Melisandre might do it but then why change that? She's with Shireen in the show too (albeit in a different location) so the geography isn't an issue... why not have her be the one to do it in the show too? I've found for the most part, the changes that D&D make to the books are done for the sake of streamlining the story. This doesn't streamline anything and has major implications for major characters. It would be a reckless change, especially after getting direction straight from GRRM.

 

[Man Called X]

You're implying that Melisandre might do it but then why change that? She's with Shireen in the show too (albeit in a different location) so the geography isn't an issue... why not have her be the one to do it in the show too? I've found for the most part, the changes that D&D make to the books are done for the sake of streamlining the story. This doesn't streamline anything and has major implications for major characters. It would be a reckless change, especially after getting direction straight from GRRM.

I'm still torn as to who actually came up with the Shireen idea. D&D say that it was straight from GRRM. GRRM has come out and blasted D&D and refused to take any credit/blame for Shireen.

At this point, I've accepted that D&D have their own story they want to tell, and GRRM's is going to end up completely different.

 

[Chris]

You're implying that Melisandre might do it but then why change that? She's with Shireen in the show too (albeit in a different location) so the geography isn't an issue... why not have her be the one to do it in the show too? I've found for the most part, the changes that D&D make to the books are done for the sake of streamlining the story. This doesn't streamline anything and has major implications for major characters. It would be a reckless change, especially after getting direction straight from GRRM.

I Have no idea. Possibly because it creates better TV drama and shock, something that appears to be high on D&D's priority list?

@Man Called X where did GRRM blast it? I've heard nothing of the sort and am curious because everyone keeps saying GRRM authorized it.

 

[Man Called X]

I Have no idea. Possibly because it creates better TV drama and shock, something that appears to be high on D&D's priority list?

@Man Called X where did GRRM blast it? I've heard nothing of the sort and am curious because everyone keeps saying GRRM authorized it.

Honestly, I don't remember the article. Read quite a few over the past couple weeks. I don't think he blasted the Shireen issue directly, it was a lot of subtle jabs at D&D and the pacing of the show, etc. Been a pretty big rift developing between them recently.

 

[Sebastian]

I'm still torn as to who actually came up with the Shireen idea. D&D say that it was straight from GRRM. GRRM has come out and blasted D&D and refused to take any credit/blame for Shireen.

At this point, I've accepted that D&D have their own story they want to tell, and GRRM's is going to end up completely different.

Sigh. A show called Game of Thrones where no one is fighting for the throne. Let's have more Dorne instead.

 

[Rich]

Honestly, I don't remember the article. Read quite a few over the past couple weeks. I don't think he blasted the Shireen issue directly, it was a lot of subtle jabs at D&D and the pacing of the show, etc. Been a pretty big rift developing between them recently.

George's own dumbass fault. They've said since season 1 it was gonna be a 7 season show. All on George for not believing them.

 

[Spectre]

George's own dumbass fault. They've said since season 1 it was gonna be a 7 season show. All on George for not believing them.

^ This. It's almost as though the pacing was good and agreeable to GRRM up until the point that they ran out of his source material. Oh, wait.

If he had gotten the books out every 2-ish years like he did the first few or even met the 3 year window he set for himself and not piddled around with other projects, A Dream of Spring would be out well before the finale and he wouldn't be in the position where the show has to create its own content and likely end up spoiling his own books.

 

[kosis]

The actor playing Yohn Royce has confirmed that he's in season 6. No surprises there but I assume it's safe to say that the Vale will indeed march on Winterfell. Figure that's who will catch/rescue Sansa and Theon.

Which had me thinking that Littlefinger is going to be less than pleased to know that Bran and Rickon are alive if he desires a hold on the North. Might be a pretty interesting plot point.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

The actor playing Yohn Royce has confirmed that he's in season 6. No surprises there but I assume it's safe to say that the Vale will indeed march on Winterfell. Figure that's who will catch/rescue Sansa and Theon.

Which had me thinking that Littlefinger is going to be less than pleased to know that Bran and Rickon are alive if he desires a hold on the North. Might be a pretty interesting plot point.

Looking forward to the look on LF's smarmy face when he finds out Sansa isn't there. And my guess is she's going to be a bit pissed that he hitched her with a psychopath.

 

[Man Called X]

George's own dumbass fault. They've said since season 1 it was gonna be a 7 season show. All on George for not believing them.

It's gotten progressively faster paced as each season goes on. Up to Season 4, it was staying relatively in line with the books. From Season 4 on, it's been a clusterfuck of shit where characters are able to travel hundreds of miles on foot in 20 minutes.

So while D&D wanted it to be 7 seasons from the beginning, they certainly weren't pacing the story to finish in 7 seasons. It was normal pacing and then OH SHIT WE'VE ONLY GOT 4 YEARS TO FIT IN 4 BOOKS THAT SHOULD PROBABLY BE 6 BOOKS. And then this massive hackjob where they condensed a hundred different storylines to rush the story along.

 

[Rich]

Regardless of how they paced it, they told George right away how long this would be. At some point they were going to catch and pass the source material. He thought (at least I think he thought) that they would stay so true to the books, that about half-way through they'd give up on their 7 season plan and extend it. He was wrong. They sped shit up. They kept their word.

And, again, I'm not gonna complain about everything they've sped up. I know I didn't want to watch an entire season of Sansa doing basically nothing in the Veil. Did you? I didn't want to read it in the books and I sure as shit didn't want to watch it on screen.

 

[kosis]

7 seasons for 7 giant books was just a bad idea from the start. I get that there are other issues that go into that, but from a storytelling perspective it's doing a disservice to GRRM's writing. There's an abundance of source material that they have to discard because 7 seasons.

Dorne is the best example of this. They didn't have time to give even a semblance of background to that region/plot.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

The one book per season pattern worked well enough through the first two books and the first two seasons.

But what really messed it up was the quality of the 4th and 5th books. When they decided to split book 3, Martin optimistically said that they'd have to do the same with books 4 and 5 because they were just as "dense" as ASOS. He figured that would give him a few more years.

The problem was that to many people (perhaps including D&D) books 4 and 5 were dense with boring plotlines. Sure, some people loved Dorne, and the Ironborne, and the dicking around in the riverlands. But it seems like D&D really didn't, and they condensed those two books into one to keep on the schedule. Had those books been better, they probably would have tried to extend things.

I think they did a fairly good job given the source material for this season, and I'm hoping to see it all move better when the next book comes out.

 

[CardiacCavs]

IIRC the main impetus to D&D putting the cap at 7 seasons is because they are just exhausted as a result of running the show, and are afraid of it losing steam.

Here are a couple quotes from D&D regarding this:

Seven gods, seven kingdoms, seven seasons. It feels right to us.”

It doesn’t just keep on going because it can. I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.

I guess how you fall on this debate is whether you think the plot benefits from extensive condensation, or whether the plot suffers because it lacks detail and the requisite building blocks for major plot points. On one side, you get to knock out seemingly bland storylines that have a lot of building up in them (and no real pay-offs YET, but we don't know where a lot of these stories are building to). On the other hand, it seems that the books are telling a much richer and more entertaining story by dedicating time to certain storylines. (Riverlands Jamie vs Dorne Jamie/ Book Stannis marching to Winterfell vs Show Stannis, etc).

It is hard to say. I mean, for the most part, I have loved Game of Thrones so it is hard for me to complain about what they have been doing so far. At the same time, I love the books too.

 

[Rich]

My point isn't whether or not 7 seasons was a good idea.

It's that George was told very plainly this was the plan, and only recently has he started to get salty about it. He knew it was coming and he chose to either ignore it or just hope that they'd change their minds. His fault.