Now that Season 5 is “in the bag” the creators and executive producers of Game of Thrones are looking back over the journey they have taken, while trying not to rest on their laurels before they reach the end. Or as D.B. Weiss put it in a new interview with Variety,
I think that everything starts to go to hell when you start smelling your own farts and complimenting yourself on how great they smell. We’re not going to turn into fart-smellers.
That was just one of a few good metaphors in the article. More highlights after the jump.
When asked about moving past the books, David Benioff said,
Season five is still very much within the books for the most part. The very first scene of the season and the very last scene of the season are book scenes. It’s more season six that’s going to be diverging a bit.
However, D.B. Weiss responded to the question with a bit of a metaphor.
It’s like looking at a landscape and saying, “OK, there’s a mountain over there, and I know that I’m getting to that mountain.”
Many of the questions and answers are ones we have heard before but I think one response was new, at least to me. When asked what was the biggest challenge of making the show, D.B. Weiss’ response was enlightening.
Being away from home for six months of the year and seeing your kids grow up on Skype all that time. I think I saw Molly walk for the first time on Skype. That’s not good.
Something to keep in mind when we ask them to make more than 10 episodes a season or go beyond the 7 seasons they think it will take. They do sacrifice in a very personal way to bring us this show that we love so much. Love ’em or hate ’em, you gotta respect that.
Speaking of going beyond 7 seasons, here’s what Benioff had to say to that:
We’ve got a very definitive idea of how much longer it is, and we’re getting there. We’ve just started writing episodes for season six. I think we’re heading into the home stretch. Hopefully, we’ll have a clear answer soon.
We could go another four years — and we could come up with good stories — but the one thing that really got us excited when we pitched this to HBO was that this isn’t just a regular series. It’s a real story with a beginning, a middle and an end.
We know what the end is, and we’re barreling toward it. So the idea that we’re going to try and stretch it out by an extra couple years just because we’re all having a good time doing it and people are making money off it just feels like it would be a betrayal.
It’s either gonna be a normal seventh season or a two-part seventh season. I’ve given up on eight seasons by now.
is happening
Fart comments aside, this was an interesting article.
I am always amazed when I read that that they are writing next season as we are just starting to watch the current one.
Dutch maester,
I always thought they’d just do extra episodes in Season 7 to help tie everything up but that would be it.
The ending scene is most likely the epilogue from ADWD.
For the watch / dany riding drogon are scenes I would personally place in the ninth episode.
I think what this interview served to remind me was how bloody hard D&D work. I think we have probably all criticised them at one point or another for some of the decisions they have made, but I think it is pertinent to note just how much of an effort they put into the series, and how much they want it to succeed. Some of the disgraceful comments I have seen about them being hacks on other sites saddens me, because I have always found them to be deeply concerned with making sure they do a good job. Of course, sometimes this means making cuts to some storyline, but it really is inevitable, and without these cuts the show would surely crumble under the weight of the number of storylines.
Keep up the fantastic work D&D, and I hope you have a well-earned rest once this is all finished.
davy,
Hmm…you make a strong case there. Now that I think about it, one thing actually that might argue against
Winnie,
And why not a cliffhanger? It would be great ending for season 5.
I don’t want another Dany themed ending. We’ve had two fire themed endings, I’d say its time for another ice one.
Even while we talk to him about the ending, it doesn’t mean that that ending that he has currently conceived is going to be the ending when he eventually writes it.
So, will the show and the books have the same endings?
Excuses for spoiler coding btw, kinda figured out this kind of stuff hasn’t aired yet a bit too late.
All,
Use the spoiler tags please. I have updated your comments thus far but I don’t have time to babysit them. Of course you can talk about what you think is going to happen, that’s always fun and expected. BUT just spoiler comment it out.
davy,
That’s what I was thinking. The ADWD epilogue would be a fantastic way to end the season, in my opinion.
One problem with that particular cliff hanger is that it would be
Seasons 1-4 have not ended up on a cliffhanger about any character. They have ended mostly on positive, looking-forward-type notes (1,3,4). Even the Season 2 ending was not a cliffhanger for Sam. So I wonder what book scene will be the end of Season 5, that is not a cliffhanger, and is somewhat hopeful?
1 – Daenerys/dragons
2 – Sam + WWs
3 – Daenerys/dragons flying overhead
4 – Arya
Will it be Daenerys/dragons – and they continue the trend of ending the odd-numbered seasons on hopeful notes?
“There’s this one character who crosses both of our paths, and [Ramsay] certainly enjoys tormenting this character,” Allen says with a laugh. “It can be tough to watch for some people, without a doubt.”
http://www.zap2it.com/blogs/game_of_thrones_alfie_allen_promises_terrible_season_5_event-2015-04
So, he will torment Sansa? Why? Why?!! I don’t want to hate this change before it happened, but why would they make victim of Sansa again?!
I don’t know what to think.
Lyanna Mormont,
I only see 2 possible endings to the season.
Book Spoilers:
2. The ADWD epilogue, with a different twist, replacing ‘Aegon’ with Dany.
mau,
That’s the impression I have got from interviews with D&D/the actors involved.
Lyanna Mormont,
mau,
Lyanna, your comment makes is VERY obvious that you’re talking about
Mau, your follow up comment makes it VERY obvious that the actor Lyanna was talking about is
.
I’m just going to start deleting comments like that. Use spoiler tags. It’s not that hard.
Jeb,
I hope that you are right. I’m not sure any more.
mau,
Actors don’t tend to be seen on set unless it’s a location shoot. They do however get spotted if they go to bars/clubs.
I think
shouldn’t be saved as a cliffhanger – if they do it, it should be earlier in the season or saved for season 6. I agree with most above that
would likely be too difficult to keep quiet as to not spoil the cliffhanger.
But the
would be a great way to end the season. It’s not a hard to keep quiet cliffhanger, but does result in
.
Jeb,
Yes, but that is a technical issue. It is good for this story to have
as the last scene. And that is the only thing that matters.
mau,
Sounds troubling. I’ll just wait and see tbh, I do think the think character referenced will channel whatever torment they receive into some form of revenge. I can’t see it being abuse upon abuse with no counterattack.
At this point, I strongly doubt it.
In general, I don’t see a problem with a cliffhanger…
That would be epic.
They pulled it off with House of Cards. I can’t say more to avoid spoiling that show, but yeah, they can do it. It’s not the epilogue.
I am still wondering if the wounded Kit gets captured by WW at Hardhome rumor is true. If Kit is placed on ice so to speak for most of WInds, I don’t see D&D going that route, you cannot film a story from the POV of a warged Direwolf so be realistic.
What better way than to showcase the WW world than by having Kit as a prisoner insread, they of course want him to be a go-between of sorts with the world of men.
House Ray,
Yeah, but House of Cards is a smaller scale show. It doesn’t really lend itself to the feverish fandom that GoT does.
As for whether the epilogue occurs this season, I think it has to.
The epilogue would be the perfect way to do this, although I wouldn’t rule out them switching the order of the epilogue and
as the latter would surely provide more of an emotional punch to the audience.
Benioff , season 4 Red Carpet, was pretty definitive at 7, but just recently hinted at 7.5 or some modification.
I think the success of season 4 has caused some flux in the situation. HBO apparently was willing to leave things alone, it’s not clear that’s the case any more.
Reading that interview was pretty exciting. It’s all starting to feel real as we’re moving towards a conclusion. I have to give B&W major kudos for *living* GoT for five years, almost nonstop around the clock.
I don’t respect that at all. I came into it knowing that they had to make a lot of sacrifices. People who work on oil rigs make sacrifices much greater than theirs for a great deal less.
I always admired their willingness to do this, but that’s not my concern. My concern is the show. Who makes it, really, in the end, is irrelevant. If they’re spent – if they’re done – then pass it on. I respect them enough to hope they’d find the right people to pass it on to. I mean this is what I’ve said for a couple of months. They’re completely done. They want it over with before it actually has to be over with. And that’s understandable. It must suck having to work constantly. But when life becomes more important than the actual project, you know, maybe you’re just done. Maybe it’s time to pass it on, and just oversee it. Don’t end it prematurely just because you want to splat your load already.
David & Dan aren’t perfect, but I honestly believe there is no one in Hollywood who would have done these books justice the way these two have. It always makes me angry to hear people hate on them.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
The second choice would be all sorts of awful .Just get over it,that character is cut because that story is too complicated for tv,what don’t you get it ?
Jaco the Galactic Patrolman346,
I didn’t comment one way or the other on the character from the books that has likely been cut. I just said the scene could still happen with
You’ve been consistently wrong for a couple months, having gone off very little evidence to make a definitive statement about how other people are feeling.
You didn’t read the whole interview, they were not saying they didn’t like the job. Here is the quote in the correct context:
I don’t here them complaining, just them saying that its a real challenge to not see your family. And I get that.
Maybe the final scene IS
but with
…
so the cliffhanger would be
Lyanna Mormont,
Jeb,
I’m by this point sadly convinced Littlefinger’s “plan” is just a fig leaf to get Sansa to Winterfell so she can be a damsel in distress again, this time for Theon (and probably various other characters).
Winter,
ash,
Agree completely. Some are quick to criticize a situation despite having limited actual knowledge about what is required to get it on the air.
[Spoiler] test [/spoiler]
I thought the final scene would be Dany with Drogon in the Dorthraki Sea when the large Khalissar comes upon them and finds her.
Fedejru,
If they were to do this, I can’t see it being one scene. It would be better if
occurred at the end of episode 9, or around halfway through episode 10, so people would think
before the reverse.
ash,
Completely agree. Besides, the show wouldn’t last a transition. Even if Cogman became showrunner you would still have to get several new writers in, because D&D are double the team, resulting in around half the effort. The whole style of the show would suffer an inevitable shift, and wouldn’t be the same.
Re: tired. I think it’s like when you are trying to finish a project, such as a thesis, a long cycle, writing a book etc. It seems horrible while you are doing it, but when you look back you are so happy you did it, and are proud of what you achieved. I think it’s the same for D&D, but on a much larger scale.
Although, I’m sure they don’t read fan blogs like this, I bet they still hear of what people are saying. Whilst constructive criticism is brilliant, some of the disgraceful comments I see of people calling them hacks, and people wishing the series had writers who cared more/understood the books is pretty insulting and disgraceful both to them, and GRRM who obviously knows if they understand the series a lot more than any of us. It is this sort of bile that I’m sure could get them down.
Sean C.,
I guess we will know for certain in nine weeks, but no I can’t see her being
My prediction for two key GoT threads:
Kevan isn’t that significant in the show. After the “Walk”, the KL ending will be Varys killing Pycelle, maybe Kevan and probably Tommen…hence continuing Chekhov’s prophecy gun established in the first scene. Hopefully, there is a “Fire & Blood” aspect to Varys’ actions.
I think what is not discussed enough is that these guys have read all the books and know what the end game is for the series. The reason for 7 seasons is simple enough… they do not see sufficient quality material to make it go at same quality as the first four seasons. They have made major changes and cut away great chunks of books 4 and 5 not to be expeditious but because they are simply nowhere as good as book 3 which they split into two seasons. Previous years they had tons of praise for book 3 and how excited they were to do the Red and Purple Weddings. I cannot recall similar excitement to scenes or sections of books 4 and 5. I also think this is starting to wear on George who feels the material should be stretched out similary to book 3 so series stretches to 10 years and he can somehow in theory finish prior to show. I find it telling that he posted in his blog about a major plot twist that occurred too late to occur in the show but will take place in the book after the reviews on first four episodes poured in and most of the ones who have read the books stating they saw changes preferrably to the actual story written… I think this will not end well between the three of them IMO and will grow more problematic as this season goes on as the changes become clearer as large deviations from his text.
Jeb,
Some people could say:oh,she will return to CB this season.Let’s say,they will leave CB in episode 5-6 and march to Winterfell.They will need to show struggle with the harsh conditions in the North(Winter is Coming) and some fight will most likely happen since we saw that video “Pledge your alliance to House Baratheon” with Stephane infront of woods with blood on his face.
On the Alfie Allen interview linked by mau…
I think they should end it with their version of the Pink Letter and have everything all hype then very beginning next season do FTW. No way to keep secrets that big all offseason
I think they should have
Chríss,
Literally the only reason that I would want the series to stretch out to extra seasons is to give GRRM a chance to keep ahead of it. Since that isn’t going to happen even if the show goes to nine seasons, I’m on board with ending it as soon as possible. That’s not because I want Game of Thrones off the air, because I don’t, but the mark of a good story is that it’s no longer than absolutely necessary to tell the story.
Because of the nature of the medium, so many great TV shows have absolutely gone off the rails because they just kept extending it past the point that the show should have remained on the air. Recognizing that and wanting to avoid it shows solid presence of my mind on D&D’s part and I am fully onboard now with them figuring out the minimum number of episodes needed to tell the story and making that their target.
I agree with the principle of your point. But when you’re excising massive chunks of the story, and stripping it to its bare bones, that’s not keeping it to the minumum, that’s cutting parts of it off to finish it quicker.
Someone earlier got a bit defensive, as many do when D&D are criticised. Yes, brave knight, you are correct in saying that I can’t read their minds. I can only give my opinion on how I perceive the situation.
Is it really not clear that they are pretty fatigued at this point? I mean honestly?
PS- I had reservations going into season 5, and there are some parts I’ve hated, but genuinely, so far, I think it’s been of a very high standard. Certainly better than season 4, and the Cersei stuff has been brilliant.
Independent Kingdom,
I agree.
Plus, even though Kevan isn’t all that familiar to show only people, Pycelle is. His death will have impact.
Delta1212,
Supernatural *cough, cough*
Jeb,
+1 on Benioff and Weiss. They started it, it is their vision that drives it, and kudos to them because they want to finish it. They are intelligent, witty, highly educated men of conviction. Calling them hacks, especially at this point, is just plain stupid.
House Ray,
Chriss
Your right, I have said the same thing over and over with Season 4 actually, that D&D are spent, they talk about living far away, working non stop year around all that. They act like money making is the excuse for HBO to want more, but HBO has said they delegate all decisions to D&D, so that excuse is just a red herring. The final say lies with the showrunners, and they want the show to end in 70-75 episodes, Which is barebones. Show can get away with 75 episodes and barely be a quality show, but the show needed 80-85 to really be A Song of Ice and Fire.
The second Dance with Dragons George was talking about in 2003 that would happen in a So Spoke Martin, CAN NOT happen in 70 episodes, just cant. Thus no Aegon so far, maybe the doors are open to him showing up in Season 6 if they cave in to do 80 episodes rather than 70 but who knows.
D&D are spent, but so was the Trueblood showrunner, and he let another showrunner take over. I think D&D should do the same thing now. The show is halfway over(5 seasons) and the final 3 seasons should be done by someone that isnt spent, that can complete the show adequately with fever for the themes of the books.
Delta1212,
Exactly. Mad Men is an example of a great show that should have ended one season earlier. Nothing new will be shown in these last seven episodes that could not have been done last season. Sometimes less is more.
But I also think your thoughts on a Dany/Drogon ending would be cool too…but it would be Dany’s 3rd season-ender. No fair! 🙂 Give someone else a chance! Although I’m rooting for FtW, we haven’t had a season-ender at KL yet.
Chríss,
Kyrion,
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and the two of you are certainly no exception, however it seems to me the two of you are basically saying because not as much of the books are being adapted as you think should be adapted, it indicates D&D are “over it,” or “spent,” or however you want to put it. You use some of their answers to interviewer’s questions as support for you idea, too. People are asking them specific questions about their schedule and what is the most difficult part for them. It isn’t like, unprompted, they’re just deciding to put out there how intense the schedule is, or how they miss being there for key moments in their children’s lives.
Nymeria Warrior Queen,
Thats very true, cant really argue that I’m conjuring the scenario purely out of disdain for cutting my favorite plot twist ever; the Aegon plotline.
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
I agree to certain extent.
Kyrion,
I would have loved to see that, or at least parts of it, too.
Watching the first 4 episodes has made me realize just how impossible, and borderline unwatchable most unsullied viewers would have found the show if they included all of the storylines from the books. And there is no way the entire monstrosity that has become George’s books could ever have worked on screen, while keeping the forward momentum for the main characters. D&D have said since around the time of season 2, that they planned the series as a 70-80 hour movie. 70-75 episodes is right in line with that. So the idea that they are so worn out that they are rushing the series is complete bullshit, IMO. Call it sticking up for them, fine, I am. Someone mentioned them stepping down as showrunners, and that is flat out disrespectful. They deserve the right to finish their show the way they see fit.
Kyrion,
I grew to accept that twist, though I hate it at face value.
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
I thought the first time Varys got his hands dirty was on the boat to Pentois with Tyrion in the box.
I don’t want to destroy any of your hopes, but the Dany scene won’t happen I guess.
This. The show is so much better now, when they have less storylines to follow.
It was always a problem that important characters like Roose Bolton had a screentime of what, 10 minutes per season? If they introduced all those minor characters from Feast and Dance, Roose would get even less.
Then again, Wyman Manderly in TV show version would get 4 minutes of screentime, and would be either a cliche, or a caricature.
I like FTW being the final scene because I would love to see the Unsullied’s faces when their beloved Jon Snow gets killed. Although, I guess I sorta agree that it could be difficult to hide his presence, thus ruining the all year fear that Jon Snow is really and truly dead. It’s possible. I bet it’s Daznak. It has that epic feel to it. Yeah, it’s Dany’s third finale, I agree I would like to see someone else, like an Ice ending, but let’s not kid ourselves, Dany is a big fucking deal, and everyone loves her. I feel like they haven’t built up Jon being something a part of the bigger picture, maybe I’m wrong on that so correct me, but they made it feel like it’s Dany that’s gonna be the real hero in the overall story. Although… IF they play up Mel/Jon shit, then we might see that Jon is the other big fucking deal. So I’m hoping for
FTW, just for that fearsome, depressing, intense ending to scare everybody again that ANYBODY can reach their demise. Then it gets ruined when... ya know.But it would still be cool, as would Dany’s finale. I wish they brought back the Dothraki though. I think George has said that we deal with that more in TWOW.I will try not to spoil anything from episodes 2-4 from within my spoiler comments below, because I don’t fancy being garroted, however:
I don’t see Sansa being Ramsay’s new torture focus. I think it’ll be Myranda or someone from the Wall. It seems likely that Theon will be a sacrificial lamb and play the redemption card with Sansa. He is looking much rougher this year despite not living in the conditions of the past couple of seasons.
Any scenes on the open water look really badly done CGI wise, to me. Really the only bad bit in that department so far. Reminds me of the old movies where they’re ‘driving’ and the scenery is moving around behind them. Considering I was up until 4:30 AM watching this, it’s also possible I was hallucinating….
Anyone else want Brienne to tell the Starks to eff themselves and go on a more productive mission with Pod somewhere?
Sygerrik of Skagos,
Spoilers!
I absolutely love the show I could watch it forever. But if I had to choose, I would always choose the books. After seeing the 4eps, I’m happy I have the books, I could go back to those scenes that didn’t happen in the show. Just certain details I miss, but understand that not all things can be the same. But I love the show immensely I love what D&D do. I would love to eventually hear their reasons behind their decisions, just to be a fly on the wall when they all talk and discuss what to use and not use and who maybe argues for what. Like maybe Benioff wanted Strong Belwas, but Weiss was like “nah we already got a bald fat guy”. Or Benioff is all like, “listen I don’t give a shit what it takes, Lothar Frey is wearing a Skyrim cowl”, and Weiss is all like, “jeezus, alright man just take it easy…”
Ah the classic “well they’re not starving in some third world country so they shouldn’t complain about anything in their life ever or offer any perspective on their daily routine.” Man you are a twat.
Sygerrik of Skagos,
First, someone cover all of those spoilers. Second, regarding Jon not being built up enough in the show, I would agree, up until the battle episode last season. He has had great material in the first 4 episodes this season,
Annie Wilkes,
There is Bowen Marsh in the show.He has been casted,but if he would be the one to do the job.We’ll see.
Sygerrik of Skagos,
There is more than just one hero in this story.Just like whole title ASoIaF is not about one person.
Annie Wilkes,
If they do the scene it will probably be Olly.
Whoa, ok I just stopped reading.
I’m a bit confused about the spoiler situation. Normally I read with spoilers shown and most of this has been discussion of ADWD material going in the show or not, but now I think I just saw something major from the leaked episodes that I wanted to be surprised about so I’m out for a few weeks.
Just going to wait until we get past the leak to read with spoilers off.
Enjoy!
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
I agree with you here.
My money is on Daznak’s pit, with Dany flying off with Drogon in ep 9 (maybe ep 10), and the cliffhanger ending of ep 10 being her wandering around the fields of essos, beginning to show signs of madness, with Drogon lurking in the distance. I don’t give a damn about fairness with final scenes.
Also think that Varys lighting some fuckers up will finish KL story, probably earlier in ep 10.
Jaime’s girl,
Thanks for the heads up! The net will be a treacherous place as long as leaked episodes have not yet aired.
Mods- are you doing anything to delete these? Or is that all fair game for posters?
when are we going to find out the episode titles of episodes 8-10 ?
You mentioned True blood as if it was a positive example…. True blood and Dexter are the prime examples of what can happen if you switch showrunners for last 3/4 seasons of 8 seasons shows. Those last 3 seasons were a total garbage.
JamesL,
I tried to put my comment in spoilers but it didn’t work and it won’t let me edit.
Hopefully one of the mods can fix that…
Jeb,
Well the word “hack” has been aimed at Shakespeare, Jeb. I can concede that Shakespeare may not be everyone’s taste today because of the old-fashioned language but a lady on a history website annoyed me because she called him a hack for the reason that his Richard III play did not portray Richard in a nice light. As if Shakespeare could have written about how lovely Richard was when Elizabeth I (who was the granddaughter of Henry Tudor later Henry VII whose army defeated Richard’s as Bosworth) was on the throne of England in a time when people who did not “toe the line” could meet unpleasant deaths.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
How about :
3. Dany meets the Khalasar en Drogon roasts the Khal
Give me one, only one example of good show that had more than 7 seasons? There isn’t.
mau,
Well, I can think of comedies (The Simpsons, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Cheers), but I can’t think of any dramas that were good for that long.
Yivo,
I was speaking about dramas.
Kyrion,
Because that turned out so well for True Blood also HBO isn’t a shit channel like AMC where they change the showrunner every year for the Walking Shit and not give a crap about the quality drop of the show .
Rei,
Can you please link to the video in which we can see that?
strong>Sygerrik of Skagos,
I will tell you the reason they chose that,it’s a reason with anyone with half a brain could tell you, AFFC and ADWD are both inferior books to the previous three and they don’t deserve to be adapted properly because Martin made them unadaptable which to be fair it’s his right to do but he and his fanboys have no right to complain when the show will look nothing like them .
The two rumors I’m
Hearing are next season they’ll introduce old town and all of Pyke ( where the kraken bones are and they do the kingsmoot) and Gary Oldman had intrest in playing euron . Than there’s this/ that right now they have enough to do 7 and a half seasons for twow and the outline for a dream of spring but what’s most likely If George finishes winds by the end of season. 6 it’ll give them flexibility to go backwards in certain aspects , to include key story lines , than we’d get atleast 8 , but if George goes on a hot writing streak , finishes winds by the time the guys finish the writing for season 6 and than ADOS overall outline grows moreb . And if it’s more compatible with the show and there’s no way to get around certain parts of the story telling it could go 9 . Based on George’s comments it feels hbo would get left hanging and than they’d only do 7-7 and a half seasons. From what I understand this problem
Is dan and Dave’s to deal with and is very much created by George . I’m keeping my fingers crossed , basically season 6 is gonna stil have some Feast/Dance to finish and ends somewhere in the middle of winds than . They’ve have the rest of winds and a dream of spring to finish to. It all is on George right now . If there writing episodes right now I wanna start a kingsmoot campaign cause the fans need the full story. , and we don’t want the ending to suffer because the beggining and the middle so far have been epic t v , the best ever , but why compromise the end of the story ??? It needs to have the same end , they should want there kids to grow and here there names ring out like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg , of our time or they can be known as something else. Like a bad butcher that cuts key meat off the asoiaf bone than you leave it to sit and rott , tie the plot threads (brother hood resurrection , gendry on a boat .) Balon , the leach! We need to see the greyjoys story, Euron as one of the most evil protagonists , would work great for the show , the battle of ice and the Battle of fire , clegange bowl? , some the reach , the lands of always winter , and countless more places plus dragon riders , ice dragons , azor ahai reborn . Please don’t be a bad butcher to the ending
The master of whispers,
Yes,this guy is right,listen to him,we need more filler galore like Martin does,more fucking garbage trash like travalogues and pointless storylines that lead to nowhere also more cliffhangers that mean nothing,more old characters being pushed for new characters no one cares about,this guy gets it D&D,you just don’t understand………….seriously dude get a grip and wake up in the real world,the show will end in 7-7.5 seasons and there is not a damn thing you can do about it .
Yeah, nothing comes to mind. Anyway, the only dramas that usually go on that long are formulaic procedurals like Law and Order, CSI, and their ilk.
A current 10 season show that was actually pretty great and underappreciated is Supernatural… for the first 5 or 6 seasons, that is. It’s a bland rehash of its former glory nowadays.
24 maybe? I know not all the seasons were good, but I’d still say it was a good show.
Did NYPD Blue remain good? I stopped watching after the first few, but it went on for about 12 seasons.
Annie Wilkes,
I thonk the kid he’s training guyman
ginco, there’s to much good story left to cut . So far I like what they’ve kept and cut and I have lil birds that tell me what’s going on , ados and winds total maybe another 3000 pages if that’s all filler why do you even care
The master of whispers, Ginco you have no clue , If you think any of my examples aren’t key to the story than you mustn’t of really understood it. It’s prolly over your head there buddy – read r l stine or something
Oly is gay? Makes sense why else would a child join NW …
mau,
Almost certainly: GRRM has been working towards an end for a while. After all, he has had a particular story in mind for a while, there are only so many plots that would serve that story, and after 5+ books, the degrees of freedom are seriously reduced.
What changes in these sorts of series is how an author gets to the end.
The master of whispers,
Euron is not a protagonist. He is not even a secondary character: he is a minor incidental one. Being a PoV character is a minimum requirement of being a protagonist.
Because said child has nowhere else to go after Ygritte & co. killed his parents and entire village?
Wimsey,
it’s being heavily implied that euron is set to be the main antagonist to Dany, hence Daario = Euron ( at least in the books)
I am absolutely amazed by what D&D have accomplished. While I loved aspects of AFFC and ADwD, some parts of the books completely infuriated me. Especially the constant use of ‘fake deaths’ brought the quality of the books down.
I am glad Mance's death is definitive, since his glamour was a real pull-you-out-of-the-story-moment after all the fake deaths and the resurrection of Cat that came before. Aegon is another one that came completely out of left field and only seems to have been added as a page filler. I do have to admit that I am not a fan of individuals being resurrected and people faking their death like it is a common thing to do. I do hope D&D manage to weave the topics associated with the Quiet Isle into the show in any way (doesn't need to be on an island or include some vague hint that Sandor has found peace). While GRRM is a brilliant storyteller, I fear D&D will have a better finish. It seems GRRM wants to do too much and lost the focus of the overall picture. Nevertheless I hope the last two (or more) books are equal in quality to the first three.Damnit what is the code for spoiler tags?
The master of whispers,
You sound really stupid, how can a protagonist be completely evil? yes there are protagonist who do bad things but they always redeem themselves and side with the good guys. Ironborn fans must be really dumb LOL
I tried to make a screenshot
And the Video It’s the trailer for the Day in the Life documentary.
ore,
Daario is not Euron.
Yeah for the most part they are doing a 8/10 job, they deliver the shock moments brilliantly and people whingeing don’t realise how it could have been
The casting is generally excellent with only some small issues surrounding the Mountain and Daario, perhaps Renly but generally the very central characters are fanstastic
The production values and vibe are brilliant
I don’t mind the fact they have to make radical adaption issues, as long as they make a nod to the books and missing characters, Jaimie to Dorne can work quite well, as can Sansa to Winterfell if done right
The only reason for mine it isn’t 10/10 is 1 point because they have done without flashbacks until now (to help whitewash Cersei, this starts to cause plot problems, eg Tyrions rationale for going up to see Tywin and Shaes character got muddled and then “zero Gold Mine output” is simply absurd
Another point because are focusing on only 2/4 angles, namely “Dragons and titties” (shocking brutality and novelty nudity) and are slowly driving out the machiavellian political intrigue and have pretty much driven out the magical/occult/whatever aspect altogether
Naturally they need to streamline everything, but they could have done with continuing with Quaithe in the East and Mance with the horn of Jormamun quest in the west to at least give a nod to this angle of the books even if they are doing away with Roose as leech lord and Barbrey Dustin and of course Euron, the HoU and the Maestar conspiracy seems to be going by the wayside which i can understand to a degree
As for the Machiavellian politics, season 2 with Tyrion vs Cersei was great, season 1 was great with the “who does the dagger belong to”. Season 3 has the Red Wedding but the Machiavellian side seems to have given way to the brutality side in that case. As for season 4 Joffreys wedding was blurted out and not kept a mystery
Rei,
But wasn’t there a filming video that showed up last year where
To do spoilers type [ spoiler] your stuff [/ spoiler] but without the gaps.
I also find it amazing that some book purists criticised the opening four episodes of being slow, and moving around the locations too much, but still complained about the character omissions. There are no words.
Liam Cunningham was interviewed by a romanian newspaper, the only question I found interesting: (sorry for any mistakes in my translation)
DID YOU SERIOUSLY THINK I WOULD LET YOU GET AWAY WITH CALLING D&D THE CREATORS?!?!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!?!
BUY A GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ace,
I didn’t say that, but frankly, when you’re getting so defensive over someone expressing an opinion over TV show creators that you’re flinging abuse at people, it might be time to take a step back.
This is what I mean. I see a lot of people here saying how vile those over at Westeros are, but it’s really no different here.
EP 9 – ends with Cersei’s walk and the Robert Strong reveal
EP 10 – Ends with Varys killing Kevan, Pycelle, maybe Lady Olenna, Tommen or Margery also. I think Kevan will stay in Kings Landing throughout the season unlike in the books when he leaves. He already gave Cersei on jab in the opener so it will have in impact. He gives his speech about Dany and then we cut to Dany in the grasslands. Maybe like Jorah, Tyrion, Daario are part of the group that find her there and she now has control over Drogon.
I just don’t see FTW being the final scene of the season.
@Koempel
spoiler (put in [ ] brackets) then type your spoiler and close it with /spoiler (put in [ ] brackets). Hope that works for you.
In general. Reading all these diverse comments today makes my head spin. I think that D & D have done a fantastic job of book to screen adaptation. There is no way to “have it all” and so many people want different things from what they read in the books on the screen.
It can’t happen. They have made judgment calls, many times WITH the knowledge of GRRM when making them. The issue as most DO know…is the GRRM says he knows how the story should basically go from here and what he has in mind for the ending AND has communicated that to D & D. So they are not flying blind, but the wealth of information in books 4 & 5 have to be pared down to manageable. As many have noted, GRRM put so much distractor stuff in those two books, they wouldn’t all make sense as far as how the screen version has already set up the main POV characters.
GRRM – IMHO – should either seriously crack the whip and get the next book out so they have it as a reference point or else work more closely with D & D on season 6 so they have a more cohesive product as the book SHOULD be as he now visualizes it. We have already waited all this time for the next book…will one TV season really make that much difference??? Not in my mind if it means that he would collaborate on season 6 to make it a better product.
As to D & D being too tired/burned out to finish out the last seasons. BULL HOCKEY. I get they are tired and miss family, who wouldn’t be. But they are and have been totally dedicated to this show blood, sweat and tears. I do not see them trusting any other souls to do the job that they know they can do to the finish line. This is THEIR baby, their project pitched to HBO and they will be there the distance and I do NOT believe for one minute that the show will suffer because of it!!
Peace out
AngryGoTFan,
Dude, your act used to be amusing when it was actually an act.
Yeah, unfortunately it is looking more and more like that may be the only option, at least as long as people keep posting spoilers from the leaked episodes without marking them as being from the leaked episodes. 🙁
[If they do end the season with For the Watch they could have Jon whisper Ghost and then have his eyes retract into his head like they did with Bran just to show that he’s still alive.]
Chriss,
Ok,bye, no one cares what you have to say anyway,a pile of dog turd is as important as your opinion .
Tyrion Pimpslap I agree,why do people still pay attention to this unfunny loser is beyond me. I hope e stops showing in the twitter recaps or else i will have to do without it and i’m sure i am not alone in this .
Rei,
JamesL,
She might return quickly, but there is no way she isn’t becoming a Dragon Rider by the end of the season. Its too cinematically stunning to not happen.
HelloThere,
Something like that has the potential to look cheesy on the show. Dragon riding might be a bit too high fantasy for this show.
Hodor’s Bastard,
I like the way you think.
Mash
Yivo,
As far as I see it, HBO and D&D are facing a much bigger problem. The charisma of the series is decreasing, and that may affect the audience. Why? Well,most of the characters with the most charisma (for good or evil), with the exception of the big principals (Jon Snow, Daenerys and Tyrion, also Arya), are dead. Tywin, The Hound (I’m a book reader, so I know, I know…), Joffrey, Robb, Catelyn, Ygritte, Jeor Mormont, Oberyn and a big ect. They are all dead, and they were either favorites or, most important, a very big role in the evolution of the series. I see two problems here. The first one: no new charismatic characters are going to be introduced, such as Oberyn last season. And, not naming the principals I named before, not everyone is a Sansa/Theon/Jaime etc. fan. Some of them are hated. We have antagonists, yes, like Ramsay and Roose Bolton; and there are some exotic places and new characters that are going to be introduced (Dorne, I’m looking at you), but none of them have the level, in plot or character, as the ones that are dead or still living. And let’s be honest: by the end of season 7, or before, most probably; many of the characters that are left (Loras, Edd, Samwell, Gilly, Jaime, Bronn, Margaery, Cersei, Jon, Arya, Sansa, Littlefinger, Varys, Tyrion, Sansa, Daenerys, Daario………….) will die. It’s not a spoiler, it’s a fact. That is the way the Game of Thrones is played. So, lets imagine that Brienne stand till the end, and for example two or three big characters (I asume that Littlefinger and Varys are safe, by now) die. How would the audience react to that? You can’t make a sucess of a movie where Brienne of Tarth plays a major role (speaking of the suporting roles). There are people for each side, I have friends that abandoned after the Red Wedding. They have to be careful with that. It’s a big risk. The show can’t lean on characters like Brienne, or even Sansa. And that is speaking only of the principal roles. But what about characters like Bronn, Grey Worm, ser Barristan, Loras, or Edd? What happens if they die? Like Grenn or Pyp, those are character liked by the audience, even if they are no important to the evolution of the story; just familiar faces. More and more of those characters are dying, less and les are coming into the show. And there are a few characters that could be introduced and become instantly a fan-favorite, or at least attract them, like Oberyn did. Some of the Ironborn like Victarion or Euron, but it seems like they are being abandoned.
I’m sorry if I made mistakes or if it’s poorly written, I’m spanish and english is not my native tongue.
Javier,
Your English is fine. I would add, that at this point, I believe the audience is hooked on the series, and will stick with it till the end, and the ones who may quit, will not be a significant number. It would be a lot trickier if the show was trying to stretch the series out to 9-10 seasons. At that point, I think you would see greater losses in the number of viewers. With 7 or 7.5 seasons, the finish line is in sight, so why quit now?
JamesL,
Javier,
.
HelloThere,
They don’t need to have people riding them in order to burn cities to the ground.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
I wouldn’t say they should quit, but they should know who to kill, you know? I’m sure they think many times things like “Oh, God we could stil have XXXX around for making things easear”.
Stella,
Thx…and right back at you! 🙂
Seriously, this first episode of S5 had many moments of possible foreshadowing and gun-hanging. It will be interesting to see how episode 10 mirrors them. I have resisted the temptation to dive into the illegal/unethical torrenting faposphere (for better or worse, I don’t have the time!) but it does seem from the spoilers that we’re in for an interesting ride. The showrunners’ comments have given me confidence that the key events/threads in ADwD, which I enjoyed, will be respected. Regardless of canon comparisons and critiques though, I just want to have fun with co-fans on Sunday nights!
Javier,
Hopefully this starts with the return of
Javier,
If they haven’t timed out, you can edit them. Don’t place any spaces between the [ and the spoiler or /spoiler.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Thanks for the answer, but I have no option to edit it (not now, neither when I posted it).
I also do not think that the viewership will drop because of the “charismatic” factor. I think people are too invested in the show/books, either way. I will still read the books when they do finally come out and I will watch the show until the last episode.
Why wouldn’t I want to know what happened? It is how even bad soaps continue to go on decades and decades. Or those horrid reality shows. It is about the drama…and there will be plenty of drama regardless of which character is bringing it.
Javier….I think you should notify a moderator and have them delete your duplicate and “no spoiler” comments. 🙂
JamesL,
Hodor’s Bastard,
Seriously, you really made me think about what might happen at the endgame (or one of them, anyway] for Season 5.
Thanks for putting these scenes in my head. Seriously. 🙂
Geralt of Rivia,
Don’t be so sure about that, the show is doing it’s own thing and will not have the exact same ending as the books for every story arc.
mau,
I may be a bit late to the party on this one, but the main reason that I don’t think
can be a series ending cliffhanger is simply one of logistics.
If, as many people suspect,
then the game is going to be totally given away by the inevitable sightings of
Apologies, I’m sure many other people have answered this already, but if I’m being honest I can’t be bothered to check.
Obviously people can’t generally manage the spoiler comment instructions, so there should either be a functioning interface (button, etc.) for spoilers provided by the site, or the site bosses should get over spoiler postings. There doesn’t seem to be any effective in-between. I mean in practice.
Off-Topic Otto,
I don’t get why it’s so difficult – I’m a relative newbie and instructions are blatantly indicated right before the posts…I doubt a button will help either! 🙂
Off-Topic Otto,
The ‘buttons’ of WordPress comments aren’t compatible with the spoiler coding codes we need to use. It’s too convoluted to explain. We tried before. It doesn’t work, everything goes to hell. Maybe again someday. But no, we are not going to allow a free-for-all when it comes to spoilers.
The spoiler coding works fine, when actually used. And frankly, we had just as many problems with people not covering their spoilers or screwing up their coding back at WiC when we had a button. People just…don’t do it right. I can’t explain it.
And goodness if you accidentally post a spoiler-filled post and mess up the spoiler coding, please don’t post that post two more times. Use the Contact link to ask a moderator for assistance.
The instructions on how to make spoiler coding are above every single comment section and in the FAQ. Very straightforward.
JamesL,
They seem to be doing away with the Dothraki Sea moment, and the Dothrakis in general
I expect her to go East to Asshai in S6, hopefully we see Quaithe
JS may indeed be killed off at Hardhome in a For the Watch moment, I hoped it would be at the Wall but they may separate the conflict between Wildlings and Queens Men from Jon Snow and NW
I hope to see it at the Wall but if there is no Pink Letter it makes sense
They made a point of showing Jon notice Orell go into his Hawk when Jon stabbed him back in season 2 and then the bird pecked him and flew off which was a build-up
Ghost’s Lunch,
I wonder how Dany will get R&V in line before she sails to Westeros?
Stella,
[Please note that I never believed Tyrion was ever kidnapped in ADwD. Varys and Illyrio had Haldon deliver Tyrion to Jorah in the whorehouse. They simulated the kidnapping to get Tyrion out of the picture while they focused on prepping for Aegon, JonCon and the Golden Company]
.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Hodor’s Bastard,
Mind blown. I never even thought of it being a ‘plan’. Love it!
If D and D are burnt out enough for it to be detrimental to their health/lives, they will back out. I don’t see it being an issue at this time. I worked 12hrs/day, 6 day/wk for almost 5 years. Though there were times I felt myself running out of steam, never did I think I was ‘burning out’. Nor was I going to quit my job because I was often feeling exhausted. And when people like Dan and David bring in customers to a business at a rate that exceeded the company’s expectations, the employers aren’t in a rush to let them go. HBO execs know they have a golden egg here…they aren’t going to threaten the caretakers of the goose in question.
As for the long awaited second Dance of Dragons…how long will it take? How important is it to the overall story? Dany getting throne-blocked is the only purpose I see, nothing more. So she may have to prove herself worthy of being Queen to the Westerosi, much like someone else’s story arc.
Feast of Crows and Dance with Dragons were supposed to be one book…now we wait for the end of Feast in Winds of Winter. Who can say if Winds will be so long that chapters will need to be held off for the following book?
So, the long awaited for Dance with Dragons will happen when? In the third act of Feast? Or after the third installment of Feast?
Believing that Dany will be in Westeros in the next book is positive thinking, which is a good thing…but is it realistic?
That’s odd.
Twice I used the spoiler tags ([ spoiler ] leave no spaces [ / spoiler ]), and the message shows. Even after hitting the Hide Spoilers button.
Is it just me?
Wolfox6,
I see the spoiler tags on your posts.
Try refreshing the page.
Thanks! 🙂
I’ve refreshed twice, and closed the tab, but I still see the ‘spoilertext’ even after hitting the Hide Spoilers button each time.
Ah well. I haven’t typed anything spoilery, but it is confounding. 🙁
As to editing … what is the time allowance once I’ve hit Post Comment? I’ve never been able to edit my posts, either.
Just so I don’t create a wall of posts in the future.
I wonder about that. After reading TP&tQ, I never got a sense that mature dragons were that beholden or subservient to each other. It was sort of a “fend for yourself and your rider” situation, imo.
Honestly, I never thought the TV show would outpace the books. Books 1-3 came out in fairly quick succession and the gap between 4 and 5 was supposedly due to the “Meereenese Knot”. Now that it’s supposedly been resolved, I would have expected tWoW to have been released this year or even last.
It’s going to be an interesting conundrum for D&D: They know how the series ends but they can’t really use it without spoiling the upcoming books, even if the events leading up to it are different. They pretty much have to massively diverge after this season or no one will buy TWOW when it eventually is released.