It’s time once again for the winter TCA press tour, where the networks talk up their latest projects. HBO stepped up to the plate today, with HBO’s programming chief Casey Bloys giving the network’s presentation in Pasadena, CA. Naturally Game of Thrones is the most exciting part of his talk, for us!
From what Bloys said to the audience at the TCA talk, it sounds like HBO is going all out on Game of Thrones season 8.
“I think any time you end a show this important and this big, a lot of people project onto a finale what they want it to be, what fans think it should be, hope it will be,” Bloys said. “The only thing I will say as a fan of the show is that I think the guys have done a brilliant job of ending the show in a dramatically satisfying and emotionally satisfying way…I do believe that fans are going to be really really happy with how it all wraps up.” The HBO executive goes on to say about season 8, “it is all spectacular.”
In GoT spinoff news, Bloys tells The Hollywood Reporter, “We’re looking at an early summer shoot date for the pilot and we’re excited. SJ Clarkson is directing. Everything is moving ahead. We’re excited. No other plans to pick up anything else until we get that one going and then we’ll think about if there’s any other one that we want to make. We really just want to get this one going, get it off to pilot and then we’ll think about other options.”
Right now, it seems the network is just working on the one spinoff, but is open to more, based on the interview. Still, Bloys says, “I do think it would be crazy not to try the prequel and to see what else is out there because George R.R. Martin has created this incredible universe and there’s a lot of different places you can go. But we want to be careful not to overdo it.”
“SJ just came on at the top of the New Year so they are going through locations and they are working that out.” He confirmed to Deadline that some filming will still be based in Belfast but “beyond that, they are still scouting.”
It’s a very full year ahead for Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire fans. Celebrate the end of our Long Night of little content and enjoy all this goodness!
I would say Hodor but it is a Friday night and I am pretending that I have a real life and am out for drinks.
Hodor.
Onedon,
Good on you!
Each day we get closer and closer!
They also announced Veep for March 31st and Big Little Lies for June (Kidman was right). I just checked the HBO schedule and it’s updated through the end of March. From the end of the month after the True Detective season 3 finale until the end of March there is nothing in the 9pm timeslot Sunday nights. Every Sunday has a movie around 7pm, but the 9pm spot is blank.
Veep is 7 episodes, so looks like their finale will be a week before GoT’s. Nothing on Euphoria or Watchmen.
Mango,
Lol.
I’m pretty excited for new filming locations. I think what they have done with merging the natural settings and fantastic sets, both in studio and on location, is a huge .org of what has really set this show apart. It seems like it has set s new standard, and shows like Vikings have followed suit. Even Netflix shows that seem several tiers down, like the medicis, last kingdom, knightfall, have benefitted from the higher production standards set by GoT. Let’s hope this new show doesn’t let up!
Sounds like he’s excited. 🤪🤪🤪
The main show after season 4 was piss poor fan fiction at best. Prequels are going to be even worse. They are going to absolutely milk it.
Jack Bauer 24,
Finally Veep is back. But I understand why it was delayed, luckily Julia Louis-Dreyfus survived.
That’s your opinion. Personally I think s5-s7 are better then S2 and S3. S2 jumped from one character to another every episode, we got 1 or 2 scenes per character. Later seasons was better and they showed more scenes per character per episode en less characters per episodes.
The Later seasons are also better received on imdb (fans) and critics. Even the best received episodes are in the later seasons. Hardhome, BotB, WoW the door, Spoils of War etc.
I think s5 till s7 are received badly in some minds is not because of the lack of quality but because S4 was the best out there and everything a little lower is bad.
about the prequels, I’ve learned (here) that we just need to wait till it’s aired.
kevin1989,
I’m sorry but I have to agree. It seems like season 5- were just pure fan fiction.
kevin1989,
First off, Sorry for my very late answer.
Thank you very much for your kind words about my fan hypothesis on prequel plot.
I’m very flattered.
Actually was pretty bad, but thanks anyway.
Regarding your answer to One of Euron’s mutes, I actually share his vision a bit.
Season four was in fact the most beautiful for rhythm, plot, acting, narrative, dialogues and brilliance.
Seasons 5-7 have progressively less quality on the aspects mentioned above.
Moreover, they rely less and less on the printed page of the books and more and more on George’s explanations and summaries.
However, IMHO, I believe the last few seasons to have achieved not only goals regarding the VFX but also regarding the narrative aspect, at least the pace in which the events are shown.
The first seasons were too slow and dragged into this aspect.
With the exception of season seven, especially the first three episodes (wich are too fast), the action is set in a more stimulating and concrete way, even if, I admit it, sometimes to the detriment of the introspection and character development…
UltimateShipper,
It’s funny that you say that about Season 5 since it probably contained more actual book content than Season 4. Very few made up storylines.
costello,
Sorry, but no.
Season 5 is full of fucked up storylines.
Sansa’s was raped, Dorne’s was butchered, Stannis’s was cut short, the Riverlands disappeared without an explanation and so did the Iron Islands.
Oh, and let’s not forget the absurdity of Stannis sellswords and ships which basically were ret-coned together with the Wall and Hardhome geography (Yeah, Jon and the Wildlings land NORTH of the Wall for no apparent reason so that Thorn can let them in after a scene full of suspense.)
Sister Kisser,
Yes, I think that GOT has pushed all the other networks to improve their budget for this genre.
Generally, more money is being spent on TV production as streaming becomes more important. More big name talent is also willing to do TV work. HBO used to dominate but now they are faced by Netflix, Amazon and others that are really making the space very competitive. Luckily for us, in this case, competition is driving standards upward. (No, that is not always the case. In movies the opposite seems to be true.)
As for the spin-off, I am willing to simply wait and see. I do not watch a lot of TV and am a bit of an innocent on these things. However, I think that Star Trek with Jean Luc Picard (a spin-off) was much better than the original with Shatner and many thought Shatner’s version was so ground-breaking and could not be matched by a spin-off.
I will take a look when it starts and give it a go.
Angel,
Explain to me what is so fan fiction about season 5 and beyond. Even grrm stated that there are changes but overall the same story is told. Even the earlier seasons you can say they are fanfiction. Season 4 was the most fan fiction season because there were lot of changes there. Stories being shorter than in the books and the same time stories being longer than in the books. The whole Arya and bran story is fan faction in that season. And they changed almost everything in that story line except the beginning and end. Later more on that.
costello,
Season 4 remains the most changed season of them all. Almost everything is changed. Whole story lines are rewritten where only the beginning and end is the same as in the books. But still for me the best season.
UltimateShipper,
About sansas rape. It was more focused on ramsay then storyline. Which happened in the books. Jeyne pool. Still I’m with you that they did Sansa short.
Dorne true.
Stannis, no not true. Not that whole shireen burning argument because it is stated by grrm and d and d that that will happen in the books as well.
Iron Island was moved to season 6. Riverlands wasn’t important in that season.
True about that scene with wildlings and thorn. But those mistakes happened in earlier seasons also.
—
Now I’m going to put the changes from all seasons from the books that could be seen as fanfiction.
Season 1: the whole Ross storyline. Even that scene in episode 7 where the important story of Brandon stark and lf was overshadowed by a soft porn scene.
Cercei had a child who died in childbirth
In the books cat wanted Ned to go to kl. In the show in was a 180 degrees turn which result in a different cat.
Dany raped by drogo in episode 2 was also different in the books.
Season 2: no reeds in show. The escape is different in the show.
Talisa, not need to say more. The whole Robb story is changed there almost fully fanfiction.
Aryas story in harrenhall is only the location the same and that there are 3 deaths everything else is changed.
Jon story is also changed a lot. Especially when ygritte came in the story.
Dany storyline is completely changed. Kidnapping of the dragons. The whole house of undying in different. It are 2 complete different stories the book and show. Still I liked those stories in those seasons.
Season 3: robb see season 2. Sansa story is bigger in the show. Written for the show. Jon is perfect in season 3. Arya story was also little bit changed. Talisa death in episode 9.stannis story is not in the books the way it was portrait. The taking of gendry.
Season 4: Jaime shouldn’t be back that early. Thats why episode 3 it looks like rape when he did it with cercei.
Bran story is not in the books. Only episode 10.
Arya story was made up as well. If they held on to the story of the books she and sandor were departed after 2 episodes and was not attacked by brienne.
Brienne story was made up as well was not in the books
Jon same. The first 5 episodes were fanfiction only the preperation was in the books and the battle was different.
Tyrion was almost as it should.
Sansa was also very good translated to screen. Same as dany.
Davos storyline was also different in the show then the books.
See a lot of fan fiction in the earlier seasons. Season 5 was almost the same with some small changes and combination of storyline. We got too see hardhome instead of just hearing of it. Walk of shame was perfectly done.
Kevin1989,
Yeah, I agree. People don’t seem to complain about changes when they liked them, then hypocritically state that other changes are bad fanfiction.
And you know… like it or not: it’s an OFFICIALLY LICENSED ADAPTATION, so by definition, nothing in the show is fanfiction.
Every season of GoT is great and there is nothing like GoT on television right now, there wasn’t and there won’t be.
Thank you D&D for everything, thank you even for Sand Snakes. 😀
I loved every episode of this show and I’m sure I’ll rewatch it until I’m older than Aemon. lol
If find it very, very amusing that you’d say that leaving out entire locations and characters is a departure from the books…what is Feast for Crows. What is Theon.
The example of a scene like the Thorne one making no sense…that’s one scene dude. It’s not an entire storyline changed.
Other people have already pointed out the flaws in the argument otherwise.
King in the North East,
True, even when I complain about some small things the show is a masterpiece.
mau,
The sand snakes were amazing in season 7.
costello,
And still we can give a simple explanation of that Thorne scene. What if Jon did not go beyond the wall because of 1 thing: he doesn’t want the wildlings south of the wall without approval of for instance the rest of the night watch or stannis who was sort of his king at that moment. That’s why he moved west from north of the wall to castle black.
I know its still a mistake of the show but for your own pleasure when watching you just need to give it an explanation why.
Kevin1989,
I agree with everything, but in every fandom echo chamber is just too strong. People just list differencies between the books and the show and act like it’s objective fact that the books are better. But guess what, some of us prefer Sansa’s storyline in the show, including rape. Not becuse we support rape Lol, but because we find it more emotionally powerful and interesting.
And I’m against creating minor female characters like fake Arya, which only purpose would be to be raped. So, yeah I liked Sansa’s story in S5 more than her story in AFFC and that one chapter from TWOW.
And there are examples for echo chamber in Harry Potter fandom as well. Fans hate Michael Gambon because he never read the books, but they praise Richard Harris, who also never read the books.
Fandom just accepts some opinions and it’s not possible to discuss them. I think GoT fandom is more liberal, because here some people can say that they like some things from the show more or that they even like show more than the books.
In HP fandom that opinion is not allowed. Lol
Can you imagine saying that Star Wars ST is better than OT on any fan site? No.
So, yeah. Every fandom is like religious cult. But I still think GoT fandom is better than most.
I agree. My reasoning was that there were still random groups of wildlings not at Hardhomme that they wanted to convince to join them on the way. Hadn’t they said that most had gathered there but were still other scattered groups?
mau,
You have sinned against Official Game of Thrones Doctrine by uttering those dissenting comments.
Please leave this fandom forever and never return.
Your watch is ended.
mau,
Me too I prefered Sansa’s storyline in the show. I really don’t like The Vale storyline in the books, I find it boring.
And I prefered Michael Gambon as Dumbledore in Harry Potter.
mau,
So true. I watched the show first and then I simply couldn’t get through the AFFC. It was sooo boring and gave me a feeling that I was continuously missing a chapter or two: couldn’t rememer all those flocks of tertiarry charracters and their dead end storylines. D&D did a much better job and the Sand Snakes were as good as Sand Snakes could be.
King in the North East,
Shame shame shame.
Chilli,
I too prefer Michael Gambon. I guess I’m contrarian in every fandom. Lol
Inga,
Yeah. I prefer more focused approach D&D have.
GoT is the story about Starks, Lannisters and Targaryens. ASOIAF started that way and then in AFFC it became a story about “world of Ice and Fire”, about Westeros and Essos, and worldbuilding became more important than the plot.
mau,
True, and some things are better on screen and some in book. For instance in the books GRRM sometimes skip a battle, like for instance the sacking of Mereen, and it’s okay if you just hear from it afterwards. On screen it’s better to show it. 2 different medium asks for 2 different kind of storytelling.
Same with Harry Potter, the whole background of Dumbledore’s past is left out of the last movie because it would be too dragging for the movie, same why they shortened the story of Snape. But for book it was better the way it was written, fleshed out. (still think a tv-show could have had both one episode worth but different medium)
And true about fandom. When I tell a Harry Potter fan that I prefer Gambon over Harris, I need to run before I will burn to the stake as a witch. (Pun intended)
And about the focus of the story. Personally I liked both versions of FfC and DwD storylines. I think the way it was in the books could have worked on screen, instead of 10 episodes it would have needed 15. There wasn’t enough time for that. it needed a conclusion at the end of season 5. And even more important we see that with season 8, we are ready for the conclusion, if we did everything of those 2 books we would be tired by now.
How I would handle Dorne and Iron Island story if it was more like the books on screen (and meaning the FFC and DWD part and not what will happen later on in WW) is having both in 3 episodes. I would have both in 2 episodes where we see little of them just 1 scene or maybe 2 like they did in the show. And 1 episodes focused on both of them. Dorne could have one episode where we learn the characters of Dorne. And that Arianne would have a plan, we could learn about her brother. would be around 7 minutes. And then a episodes dedicated to Dorne and having all of it until Arianne was being imprisoned by her father. and the third could have been about her release and her fathers plan (that was given to Varys in the show).
As for Iron Island I would have one episode with a short scene of that Balon was dead. Then one whole episode that starts with, there is a kingsmoot, the kingsmoot and Euron winning. and an episode later the plan to get to dany.
I think that would have been the only way that those 2 storylines would work on screen because it drags away from the main story (starks lannisters Targs) and one episode dedicated to it will show their importants to the overall story and we can go back to our favorite characters.
UltimateShipper,
F*ck it, I’m in a cranky mood so I’ll pile on a bit…
• I love the show, but I still can’t figure out why the showrunners thought it’d be a good idea to merge Sansa with Jeyne Poole and have her raped. It was repulsive, unnecessary, cliched, sexist, and served no narrative purpose. As it was, the show spent way too much time on Ramsay and his sadism.
• I don’t know how I can disagree with those who’ve condemned using rape as a “go-to” plot device for “empowering” female characters, as if surviving a horrific sexual assault somehow inspires, motivates, or develops a girl or woman.
Aren’t there any other stock situations or conflicts in the (outdated) Official Screenwriters’ Book of Cliches to evoke compassion and sympathy (or admiration) for female characters other than rape? Was it simply a matter of having too few writers (and none of them women) that resulted in the collective brain dead brainstorm, “Hey! Let’s rape Sansa!” … with nobody there to dissuade them?
• As an aside, for those who say that it wasn’t so bad because we witnessed the act itself through the eyes of meth-jittery PTSD-twitching Theon, to me that made it worse. He wasn’t the one being violated and suffering physical pain. And I’m sorry: I don’t consider Alfie Allen bugging out – but doing nothing – to be great “acting.”
As if that weren’t bad enough, did we really need Bran of all people to blurt out (in S7) that he too was watching Sansa getting raped? Is that the best he can do with his SuperVision? Get off on watching his sister getting violated – and then telling her he witnessed it? [Bird Brain needs a lobotomy. Discloses too much information when it personally embarrasses someone, but doesn’t say anything when he has time-sensitive, important information – eg, their baby sister Arya has been MIA for seven years except for one brief sighting in S4 – and Bran doesn’t bother mentioning to anyone “Hey! I saw Arya at the Inn at the Crossroads – she stopped there, and intends to go south to KL to whack Cersei.” Nope. That doesn’t come out until S7e4. Nor does he get word to Jon that Arya’s alive and well and guzzling ale with Hot Pie.]
• Why not just have Meryn F*cking Trant rape Sansa and get it over with early? Did we need a whole season of Sansa being used like a plastic f*ck doll? What was the point?
• Last but not least: LF’s marriage plan made no sense to begin with, and Sansa agreeing to go along with it was even more confounding. Marry into the family of the traitor who’d butchered your brother the king while his coconspirators slashed your mom’s throat and butchered your pregnant sister in law? WTF?
LF’s pitch was: “Avenge them.” But no part of his “plan” was designed to function to enable Sansa to exact revenge. In fact, his plan was no plan at all.
Now, I could’ve gone along with it if LF [who unbelievably knew nothing of Ramsay’s proclivities] told Sansa something like….
“Plan A: Start hinting to Ramsay that he’ll be back to second-class status once Walda produces a true born heir for Roose; remind Ramsay that the Northerners may fear Roose but hate him for killing Robb Stark – and subtly suggest to Ramsay that he can be a hero if he engineers a fatal “accident” for Roose.”
“Plan B: If things turn to sh*t – e.g., if for some reason Stannis doesn’t defeat the Boltons as I’ve predicted he will – here’s a vial of Tears of Lys. Most effective poison on earth. Doesn’t leave telltale signs. You can wipe out House Bolton in a matter of hours, and everyone will think it was some bad egg salad or something. Either way, problem solved. [Bonus points: You get to steal Arya’s thunder before she poisons House Frey in S7].
“Plan C: Three of the Bolton household guards are actually spies in my employ. Anything goes sour, just say the word and they’ll get you out of there in a hurry. I’ve also got an undercover assassin working in the WF stables. The guy with the funny hood. He’ll kill at your command. No questions asked.”
“Plan D: If Ramsay mistreats you in any way, go Lorenna Bobbit on him in the middle of the night, and blame Greyjoy intruders seeking payback for what he did to Theon.”
• Of course, none of that happened. LF left his prize pawn with a bunch of murderers, traitors and deviants who flay people alive and leave their skinned corpses outside to greet visitors. Lovely.
P.S. I gotta give my honey Myranda some credit. She did try to warn Sansa about Ramsay, but Sansa thought she was trying to intimidate her and ignored her.
– End Unintended Verbose Rant –
Ten Bears,
Why not rape Sansa? When in the history of television or mainstream movies you saw a scene where character you known since she was girl, was raped? Never. Because no one was brave enough to show that. But that’s what rape really is.
Disturbing and horrible. Why not write it? Because audience is too weak to watch rape of a popular fictional character? Than they should know that there are a lot of girls and boys all around the world who are raped as we speak. And they are not fictional. They are real.
That’s why that scene was important and brave.
Ten Bears,
There are so many examples, you barely touched on all of them.
The one example that comes to mind of how they f***ed up was the ‘For the watch’ scene. You have an amazing chapter from the source material to work with yet completely missed the point of it and produced absolute drivel.
GRRM builds up the battle of the bastards the whole book. Jon vs Ramsay. The moment we think ‘wow not only are we going to get a battle of the bastards, but Jon is the leader he has been built up to be and ride south to play the game of thrones..’ then he takes it all away from us
wtf was that in the show? the pink letter was such an anti climax next season. Not even going to start on how they handled Jon after he was brought back.
I’m fuming
mau,
No it was not brave. They are adapting a book to a tv show. If it doesn’t fit the story then it is poor story telling.
It undermines LF, as we know him to be this meticulous schemer but hands off Sansa (his prized asset) to her rival family who are a bunch of psychos.
The whole point of having fAyra marry Ramsay was to build up a rivalry with Jon Snow. Sansa and Jon do not have a close bond. Ayra and Jon do. So it serves no purpose at all.
We have seen Sansa been used as a punching bag. For storytelling and character development why take 10 steps back after the Vale scenes by her getting raped by Ramsay.
Shock value does not make good story telling.
mau,
You are absolute right! Don’t see what the problem was. Off course it is horrible, but life in Game of Thrones is horrible. Theon was unmanned, Jaime lost his favorite hand, Jon was stabbed to dead, Bran lost the use of his legs while he loved climbing, … Everyone experiences horrible events in Game of Thrones, why not Sansa? I find it interesting too see how they cope with that. I wouldn’t want a storyline where everything goes perfect for everyone, that would be very boring. It’s very inspirational how people, after all they have been through, still find the strength to keep on fighting. And I like present Sansa much more, than the Sansa in the first seasons.
I largely agreed with Mau, Chilli, Inga, & Kevin.
The show is in no way fanfiction. Nothing else compares. It may not be flawless and there are certainly things to complain about, but overall, you really just have to be thankful that such an awesome thing exists.
I fell in love with the show before I had ever heard of the books. Naturally I realized they were awesome as well (despite getting quite over-bloated), but they weren’t some sacred text to me beforehand. (They were literally nothing to me!) Thus I can easily see preferring alterations made by D&D, or even the series overall.
Again I really had no problem with Sansa’s story being changed a bit. Getting raped didn’t need to “empower” her; it’s just a horrible thing that happens to people sometimes, and something a person like Ramsay doesn’t think twice about committing. I wouldn’t have called it a bad idea, since it was fairly inevitable after marrying that guy.
But I fully concur w/ Ten Bears re: Bran, and Littlefinger. I imagine that my girl Arya, like myself, would’ve gone to work at least on Plan D pretty quickly.
I still can’t say I like Sansa, but I have sympathy for the undeserved traumas that have befallen her just as I do for those affecting other characters. And that’s life, especially on Planetos…
As for Trek, I actually prefer TNG, Deep Space Nine, & Voyager to TOS, even though I definitely do like TOS. Even Enterprise was better than it gets credited for.
And the Dumbledores…still prefer Harris, but Michael “GOBLET OF FIYAH” Gambon made a respectable replacement. Even if it was sad and weirdly noticeable and Dumbledore seemed to grow younger. Guess there were only so many actors who would’ve fit the part.
Ten Bears,
Starting with your first point:
Repulsive: many things in the first seasons are repulsive. Look at what Joffrey did to Ross and that other girl in 2×04. Theon’s dick chopped off. Somebody loses a hand. And can name many more things that happened in the first 4 seasons that are repulsive, those scenes are what made GoT what it is, that they dared.
cliched: Why is it cliched? Did you expect a character like Ramsay act differently with his wive? It’s like everybody would expect him to be.
Sexist: If that is sexist the earlier seasons are sexist too, we can even argue that season 6 and season 7 are the least sexist of all of the 7 seasons. And why is the almost rape scene of theon in 3×03 okay but this scene not?
Narrative purpose: It did shape a narrative purpose. It give more away what kind of person Ramsay is. And more important it was the catalyst why Theon and Sansa escaped in episode 5×10 and why Sansa was determined to defeat Ramsay in 6×09.
too much time on Ramsay’s sadism: If that’s true that fault lies with season 3 and 4, especially 3. That rape scene is nothing compared to what we saw in those 2 seasons with ramsay.
Who said it was done to empower Sansa’s character? It is something that happen in times like that (comparing to real world), you can have 2 choices show it sometimes or making it seems it never happen. It did happen, there were victims so it should be shown. And I don’t know if you ever watched outlander? The books are written by a female, a feminist, and she had multiple times in her books where “rape” is a theme. And there’s a reason why she put it in. Because it happened in those times (She has a degree on history).
And for me seeing Theon’s face made it worse for me, because you know how Sansa is at that moment. Theon’s emotion made it even worse because you see another being torment by what happens. And we as an audience knew, Theon is still there.
Bran: Bran is not Bran anymore that’s what that scene was about. He is more a robot now, so saying that made it clear that Bran isn’t there anymore.
about his plan: When did LF ever cared about anyone (except maybe cat but I think that was also more a powerplay for him). He didn’t care what happened to her, and he knew Roose so he though Sansa would be safe.
Personally I would have had Sansa like the books and having Jeyne pool in the show, but I can see why they went this way. It helped the story in season 6 and 7 a lot, Jon/ Theon for instance in season 7. Capturing WF again.
mau,
+1
Chilli,
+1
Yes! Thank you!
mau,
Second that.
kevin1989,
I agree with u, mau, n chilli.
Kevin1989,
The Stannis storyline was ruined because they set everything like what happened with Jon in the 6 season.
Until they changed gear.
Stannis will NOT burn Shireen in WOW, his mother and Mel will, to change this has distorted the character of Stannis.
Because yes, he burned people alive.
But with an almost sterile wife who will never give him more children again and with a daughter who has already risked losing in the past, there is no way that Stannis can do what he does in the series.
Shireen would have become queen after him.
Killing her would be a stupid mistake similar to that made by Elizabeth I when she usurped the throne of the half-sister and that of Mary Stuart knowing that she would not want to have children.
I love the series.
But there are simply some characters that D & D can’t handle right.
Doran and Mance are an example.
Varys, Tyrion and especially Littlefinger are even more obvious examples.
costello,
Feast and Dance were never meant to be apart.
Actually, they’ve been split because of printing problems.
They were just too big to be one volume only.
Theon was meant to be a shock.
And there is the possibility that Martin simply changed his mind.
That’s not bad writing.
That’s artistic choice.
D&D did some, but what they increasingly did with the last seasons was not.
Truth be told, I enjoyed season 5, but you can’t disregard that D&D squeezed two huge books in only one season of just ten episodes.
By the way, are you irish/ of Irish descent?
Ten Bears,
Totally agree.
UltimateShipper,
Did you already read WoW? probably not because it’s not out yet, so we don’t know how things will go in the books. Probably you’re right and Shireen get’s burned by her mother in the books but still it did not butchered Stannis character in my opinion. He doesn’t shy away with killing innocence in the book. His nephew Edric Storm he wanted to burn, family and other’s he know, his own brother. And probably in WoW not Shireen but it looks like Theon or Yara will be next.
As for the battle of Winterfell. Who says the books don’t go that route of the show. Jon already got a letter that is presumed to be written on Stannis skin. We can assume the same thing will happen in the show, the only difference is, the show has a more human factor why Jon wants to take winterfell back. Rickon. The books will not take that brotherly route probably. So Stannis will still be defeated in the books by Ramsay like in the show, only a chapter or 2 (or 2 episodes) later.
About those names you said which D&D don’t know what to do with it:
Doran I agree with. But that’s more the fault of the fans. They had a plan for season 6 with Doran (he was supposed to be the fire and blood person, even the actor said he was supposed to be in multiple episodes), but they didn’t go through with it. I’m just guessing but I don’t think time was the issue or that they couldn’t write that story in. There was time enough. I think they read the backlash of season 5 Dorne plot and they just skipped season 6 plot for it.
Mance: For me Mance in the show is much much better than the book version. The show version I remember, the book version not.
Varys and Tyrion are excellent done in the show, even in the last season those 2 had amazing moments, and we need to wait till season 8 to see where that lead.
LF I need to agree a little bit. But still I can see his demise being a little bit the same in the books. He thinks he is smarter than he really is, and he fucked up when he teaches Sansa his art, with the combination of his blind spot for Cat/Sansa she can and probably is going to exploit that in WoW. I don’t see LF in the last book, I think he will die in WoW but not in WF but in the Vale. Sansa is already securing her safety at the end of DwD once she got that, she will destroy LF.
About Feast and Dance. I’m reading the books again. Almost finished with the first. next week the second. I read 100 pages per day so I probably finished in March. But this time I’m going to that combination of the books. I’m wondering how it would read.
But still GRRM did fuck up there. Halfway through DwD his Feast characters are already back. Dance is the biggest of them all and Feast the smallest. He could easily have put those chapters in Feast, or at least a big bunch of it, minus Bran, Maybe Theon and trimming the rest. If he had put 250/300 pages from DwD in feast, we could have the ending of Dance it needed that is pushed to WoW. I loved the books and Dance is my favorite next to SoS, but still he could have handle it better.
about squeezing 2 huge books in 1 seasons, there’s 2 things you need to think about. It was not 2 books, but rather 1,5 because a bunch of it was in season 4 and a bunch in season 6. It should have had 13 episodes. Second. We didn’t have 13 episodes for it. We had 10. They didn’t have another choice there. Yes they could have had 2 seasons with 6/7 episodes each but not one bigger one.
About season 7: Who says that change doesn’t ocure in the books as well? There’s even a huge change in writing in feast and Dance, compared to book 1-3. We can see WoW and DoS having a different tone as well. And people complain about how fast season 7 is going and the time shifts, but even season 1 had them, there are a lot of time shifts there where we just skipped 1 week or more. There are even fastforward and going back in time in season 1. for instance, Sansa writing a letter to her family, which take at least a week before arriving, they read it, but then the next scene with Sansa is just a day after her writing the letters. Why did they did that? Simple, better for the story.
The premiere is still two months away and I’m already struggling to keep up with all the articles on Watchers right now.
As for S8 being satisfying it’s going to be impossible to please everyone, I just hope we don’t see Dany ruling and Jon dying. or too many of my favourite characters (Jon, Arya, The Hound, Tyrion) dead. As for Bloys, didn’t he say we’d get the trailer before the end of 2018? It’s not mid-Feb so I’m not going to take what he says with too much credit right now.
GRRM reviewed the outline for S5 with D&D and Dave Hill. They also explained that they could not cover the vast world set over two books in S5 so had to condense it, so hardly fan fiction.
Add me to that list S5 made improvements on the books in a number of spots and Sansa storyline was one. Not saying the season didn’t have faults but the source material was weak and expansive so they did very well overall to condense it.