Earlier today, George R. R. Martin engaged in a talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As well as divulging information about his upbringing and literary influences, he responded to questions regarding A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. We’ve rounded up some of the highlights.
Warning: Character spoiler for The Winds of Winter/A Dream of Spring after the break.
- George takes a lot of influence from English, French and Scottish history in particular, as they have the benefit of being very well-documented in the English language.
- In writing A Song of Ice and Fire, he sought to break the mold of “Tolkien-imitators”, i.e. writing a fantasy epic that was told and made sense within its own context.
- Responding to a question about Renly and Loras‘s love scenes, Martin pointed out that the show has been more explicit about gay relationships as a result of the camera being an objective observer. The Guardian quotes Martin as saying there could be gay sex scenes in the future, if the story dictates it. “I’ve had letters from fans who want me to present particularly an explicit male sex scene – most of the letters come from women.” He explains, “I’m not going to do it just for the sake of doing it. If the plot lends itself to that, if one of my viewpoint characters is in a situation, then I’m not going to shy away from it, but you can’t just insert things because everyone wants to see them.”
- He wouldn’t consider any of his characters to be of either moral extreme; even Ned Stark renounced his honor in falsely confessing to crimes, as his final act.
- He doesn’t necessarily have any notable difficulty in writing women/dwarves/marginalized characters. Everyone is a human being and thus subject to human experience and emotion.
- He has not and will not let fans’ (correct) theorizing of plot points affect the eventual outcome of the story. If the clues are already in place, he owes it to the reader to deliver upon them as originally intended.
- He confirms that Willas Tyrell, while not a viewpoint character, will enter the fold in the upcoming books, and play an important part going forward.
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Oooh Willas!
Interesting that he thinks choosing saving his daughters’ lives over his “honour” made Ned Stark less morally sound.
I found it ridiculous that Varys had to twist his arm to save them!
I am very excited for the 6th book.
And mildly interested in the 5th season.
Mormont,
He didn’t say that. He said “Moral extremes.” People have a habit of claiming that Ned is honorable to the extreme, at the cost of all else, but in the end, even Ned lies (for good reasons).
I keep hoping that he’ll let something slip about tWoW… and I’m glad he’s going to stick to his original ideas no matter what. I’d hate for him to change important plot points in hopes that it would surprise more people.
Good report guys. Thanks for sharing!
GeekFurious,
I’m very excited for Jon and Stannis in the 5th season. Not very excited about Dorne considering all the changes. Excited to have Bronn with a bigger role to play though. Also looking forward to the return of
I wonder how the show will address Willas, if he is that important to the plot. Maybe introduce a younger sibling to the Lord Oaf of Highgarden (can’t remember his name).
I’m glad this is GRRM last event for the year. I’ve never been one of the fans that write angry comments about his slow writing, but I would hate it if the show caught up to the books.
EDIT: Apparently, Edinburgh isn’t his last event he still has Worldcon in London and the Emmys, but he will be free all year after that.
RandomGoTfan,
When, you mean
RandomGoTfan,
Regarding the show addressing Willas, I think it is more likely Loras will take over his plot points for the show. And I bet D&D had planned that all along.
RandomGoTfan,
There’s no chance the show won’t pass the books to finish first, absolutely none. Its doubtful that Winds of Winter will be out before the show covers the same material. As for Dream, even if GRRM writes it “quickly” the show will be over for years by the time he gets it out.
jentario,
I got a feeling the answer to “when” is never. They’ll either someone else (like Loras) take over whatever role Willas will have, or find a way to make things happen without him. Especially considering they want to wrap this up in 7 seasons.
Willas (and Garlan) FTW
You know I’m pretty surprised that no one in the past couple of days has mentioned how GRRM is republishing The Ice Dragon. I’d never heard of it before, but even if it is more of a kids book, I’ll give it a read just to lose myself in that world again.
After the Feast,
It’s because, despite the misinformation spreading around at the moment, it has nothing to do with A Song of Ice and Fire.
Cian,
Yeah, I know. I just felt that it sounded interesting due to the fact that it takes place in the same world.
In regard to the whole Willas/Garlan/Loras debate, the other Tyrell brothers just won’t be cast. There is just no way. I don’t like it but come on: If they won’t even bother with the Greyjoys, it’s highly unlikely the rest of the tyrell family would be given screen time.
Happy Willas has a bigger role. Always sounded like a good character especially with his forgiveness and friendship with Oberyn. Something you don’t see often in the Ice and Fire universe. Wonder if they’ll be any links to Bran with them both being crippled?
Whether they’ll have him in the TV series will depend on if they
On the subject of extremes. I’d say the only ones that are are The Mountain, The Laughing Knight (from what we know of him) and Ramsay Bolton. On the other side, I’d say Brienne can be a bit whiter than white sometimes, although I sense her storyline is leading to her having to do something not too nice for her to achieve her goals or break her code of honour. All the rest have motivations and a balance of good and bad to some degree.
jentario,
I’m one of the last few hopeful fans out there (I think there’s like 5 of us left, we hold a support group meeting through Skype after every premiere).
AA,
I suppose Loras is an option, but
. I suppose it’s possible that the show might not even follow that plotline, right now who knows what the show will do.
RandomGoTfan,
Right, it’ll make things even easier for D&D if
I think GRRM’s ideas of important characters are greatly exaggerated. Like when he got really pissed because Mago (a character no one gives a shit about) prematurely died on the show. Unless Books 6 & 7 replace Dany, Tyrion, Jon, Arya, and Sansa with Willas, Mago, and Osha, then I would take “importance” with a grain of salt.
Oh, and I almost forgot, there was a peasant from the Stepstones that was considered dead at the end of the War of the Ninepenny Kings, but turns out he’s still alive, and has a really important role to play in the upcoming novels.
AA,
They can easily replace Willas with Loras (haven’t they already?). So that means he won’t be part of the kinsguard and the attack on Dragonstone can be led by anybody else (assuming that the fact that it was LORAS TYRELL who did isn’t relevant).
I still don’t have a single drop of interest in season 5 so far, though.
Ironborn,
Not one storyline interests you? I’m excited for the stuff up North and in King’s Landing. I can’t wait to see the House Of Black And White. Sure, the Dorne stuff is a big question mark, and the Myrcella and Trystane romance sounds truly aweful, but there are still plenty of storylines that interest me.
Ironborn,
All the easier to make the Season 5 wait lol. Seriously, after “The Children” it’s been extremely easy to wait.
Leo,
‘The Children’ is the most underrated episode in the show’s history, IMO. Take away the fire throwing and add a couple more minutes to Tyrion’s escape, and it’s a pretty flawless episode. Definately better than the season 2 and 3 finales.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
It was an awesome episode. Maybe the best of s4, though I’d need to rewatch a good deal more to decide that for certain.
Not sure if you guys already saw it, but Lena Headey shared some filming news today at westeros…
Don’t know if I can copy paste her post here, but to sum up:
Leena,
Link? Lena hasn’t tweeted anything. Where is this rumor coming from?
It’s in the latest season 5 casting topic on westeros.org (the site has been on and off tonight, i’m getting a 502 error right now) her username is LH031073, she likes teasing some stuff there. but let’s not forget that she teased
Sue the Fury,
Basically there’s a poster on AFOIAF called LH031073 who some people think is actually Lena. I don’t for a moment think it’s actually her, though she definitely pretends to be her and posts with a sense of humour similar to hers.
EDIT: As Fury says below.
Leena,
Lena Headey doesn’t post at Westeros. And certainly she wouldn’t be popping over there to spoil filming of major plot events. Someone is messing with you guys over there by pretending to be her.
I’ll echo the notion that every time I hear GRRM state that a previously unimportant character is set to become “important” in his last 2 books, I consider it dubious info.
Martin is very precious with his characters, major and minor (as most authors are) and when he says “important”, it most likely means “we’ll see them again”. If all the characters that he’s previously stated are important to the story actually are, then we’ll end up having another 6 books and 350 characters all involved in the endgame. Start condensing, not expanding George.
The Ice Dragon really isn’t in Westeros. It was written long before he conceived of it and he’s given some h/t’s to it in ASOIF, but it’s a separate story.
It’s also in Dreamsongs, I think, which is honestly worth getting if you like Martin’s writing.
I used to be fairly annoyed by the show inevitably passing the books (though I think TWOW will come out before we see it in a year and a half).
But either (a) the whole seven seasons thing is a giant negotiating tactic with the talent and it’s going to be more seasons in the end and so there’s time or (b) they are going to slash and burn so many sideplots that it’s not going to truly spoil all that much.
(B) is massively more likely to me, but really, I don’t know that I am that worried because I’m not sure the two, even if Martin had written the books already, would resemble each other nearly as much.
Yep – For those of you happy to hear that Willas Tyrell will “play an important part”, don’t get your hopes up.
For GRRM, even the minor characters are important, like the bard Marillion or the Dothraki Mago. Don’t expect much more of Willas Tyrell.
Where did you hear that about Sam? That makes no sense?! What the hell could they possibly do otherwise?
That’s not as simple as giving Arienne to a Sand Snake. If they actually try and make Sam Jon’s “equal” going forward, or write anything to further give John Bradley that horribly annoyingly mistaken impression, I’m gonna be mega pissed. That would be the worst. He’s gotta do something! What the hell else would he do?
Alan,
I didn’t mind the fire throwing at all and somehow the Children being actual children, Three-Eyed Raven being a kind old grandfather and the wights being pretty weird looking skeletons straight out of some older movie (the making-of of them was amazing, it’s just that skeletons look inherently weird if animated) were really fitting since Bran’s story is the closest to a more traditional fantasy story so all of it worked. I didn’t like the episode because of the pacing issues you also mentioned, it felt the scenes had no time to breathe.
This isn’t directly related to GoT but in the 1960s there was a British children’s TV cartoon series “The Saga of Noggin the Nog”, which was inspired by the Lewes chessmen. One of the stories was “Noggin and the Ice Dragon”. As it pre-dated GRRM’s ice dragon I don’t think there was any pinching of ideas. I think GRRM came up with his ice dragon independently as he was on a different continent. A case of co-incidence.
Getting back on topic, in the explanatory video about the special effects, wasn’t it stated that the jerkiness of the skeleton wights was deliberate, because the makers wanted them (the wights) to have a re-animated after a long time. Judging by a lot of the comments on that particular scene (which I personally didn’t mind) the decision to have the jerky, twerky wights backfired rather.
I love me some brothers Tyrell. Bring on Willas!
King Tommen,
Well said. As much as I would like to know more about Willas, I’m not sure how truly “important” he can be.
TheTouchOfFrost,
Yes, it is easy to imagine how Willas = Show Loras.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
The problem that I had with that episode is one of expectations. I think it was over sold by D&D. I enjoyed it, it was well-done but, for me, not their “finest hour” as they claimed.
According to the casting news this could be the Plot of Season 5 imho…
Dealing with the wildling. Birth of new leaders (one for the Thenn, one for the ones heading harddome, one for the ones that will pass the Wall later on…). Chaos during the aftermath of Stannis with Varamyr presentation and death.
Stannis offers to legitimize Jon and make him Lord of Winterfell in exchange for his support nut Jon decides to decline Stannis’s offer. Before he can inform Stannis, Jon is chosen by the Night’s Watch, via Sam help, as its new Lord Commander. Janos Slynt refusal and death.
Jon sends Tormund, to make a truce with the leaders of the surviving wildlings, whom Jon allows into Westeros despite objection, and forces them to reinforce the Wall against the Others. Melisandre hides Mance identitity and sends him to Winterfell. She tells Jon repeatedly that he has enemies in the Watch. Discussion with the leader of the “daggers in the dark” (March/Thorne). Last scene with the entrance of Giants and Mammoths through the Wall.
Beyond the Wall
Three-eyed trains Bran in greensight. Using this ability, Bran sees memories of his father Ned Stark at Winterfell’s godswood in the past, and communicates with Theon Greyjoy at the godswood in the present. Maybe further investigation on the past(Tower of Joy) and present (through the crows of Bryndon Rivers) depicting the Kingsmot of Yara/Asha and Euron; and future (Jon stabbing). Connection (something similar to what the wolfs do when they see their original pack)wolfdreamwith Sansa (without her acknowledgement) and maybe Rickon. Beginning of a Love Story with Meyra Reeds. Last scene with Theon recovering his identity (showing him his past in winterfell).
In the North
Stannis deals with Jon. Then he sends Davos to the Umber and they in turn send him to find Rickon. Stannis recruiting of the Northmen. Deepmoth and capture of Yara. Last scene at the lake thee days from Winterfell.
Davos last scene on a ship to Skagos.
In winterfell we have a simplified version of the “North remember scheme” (Umbers double playing… the audience already knows they sent Davos on a quest to Rickon). Boltons trapped by winter. FArya replaced by Alys Karstark as the last living representor of the Stak. Last scene with the escape via Mance, Theon and the Umbers..
Riverlands/Vale
Brienne continues her search for Arya. In the same aerea the future High Sparrow saves the hound. Presentation of the character and the militant faith. Joining of Lancel Lannister. Arrival in King’s Landing.
Brienne’s Entrance to the Vale. Connection with Sansa. Scene with Littlefinger echoing the one with the Hound. Sansa remains with Littlefinger. Imprisonment by Littlefonger that doesn’t want any spread of the fact that Sansa is in the Vale. Brienne escape by the Brotherhood without banners. Scene with Lady Stoneheart or her replacement.
Last scene with Jamie as in the books.
King’s Landing
Tywin funeral. Kevan remains in the small council to work with Pycell to overthrone Cercei.
Cersei’s reign. Sexposition and corruption. Dream reminding her the prophecy. Unrest with the Tyrell. She sends Jaime to Dorne to get back Myrcella. In the meanwhile she restores the militant faith to get some cash. At the news of the assault of the Reach she sends Loras there (or to Dragonston as in the books).
Jamie comes back. Confrontation. Jamie leaves for the Riverlands. Kevan and Pycell conspire together.
A scheme to have the Faith put Margaery on trial for adultery backfires when the religious leadership imprisons Cersei herself on similar (correct) charges.
Imprisonment. Letter to Jamie. Walk of Shame. Last scene with Cersei dressed as the Faith wants while she speaks with Tommen.
Tyrion
Tyrion Lannister is smuggled to Pentos by Varys, where he is sheltered by Magister Illyrio. Meeting with Aegon (replaced by Gendry if the writers get crazy).After traveling with Aegon across Essos, Tyrion is kidnapped by Jorah Mormont, who intends to deliver him toDaenerys. Tyrion, and Jorah are shipwrecked and sold by slavers to a Yunkish merchant. At Meereen, they go straight to the pit. Last scene there while Daenerys flies with Drogon.
Daenerys
Daenerys marries the noble Hizdahr zo Loraq, despite her sexual relationship with the mercenary Daario Naharis, to stop a series of murders and avert a planned attack by Yunkai and Volantis. Despite the plague-infected refugees outside, the fighting pits are opened shortly after the wedding, at Hizdahr’s insistence, and interrupted by Drogon. 200 people are trampled in the resulting panic or killed by the dragon; whereupon Daenerys climbs on Drogon to calm him, who flies to his lair with Daenerys still on him.
Dorne
In Dorne, Doran Martell is confronted by three of his brother Oberyn’s bastard daughters, who want vengeance for their father’s death.
Jamie arrives. Lovestory Myrcella/Trystane. Jamie leaves. Queensmaking plot. Doran revelations.
Samwell
After conspiring to elect Jon, he is sent to the Citadel (via Braavos) in order to become a Maester. Sam is accompanied by aging Maester Aemon, the wildling mother Gilly, her newborn babe, and sworn brother Dareon. The voyage across the Narrow Sea is underway before Sam realizes Jon swapped the sons of Gilly and Mance Rayder, to protect the Wildling “prince” from sacrifice by the priestess Melisandre. Aemon becomes sick and the party wait in Braavos for his health to improve. After a Summer Islander tells Aemon about the Targaryen dragons, Aemon decides that Daenerys has come to fulfill a prophecy; but dies shortly after they leave Braavos. Finale scene with Master Aemon.
Arya
Arriving in Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the House of Black and White, a temple associated with the assassins known as the Faceless Men. As a novice there, Arya attempts to master their belief that Faceless Men have no true identity by throwing all her treasures into the water (except her sword, Needle) and posing as a girl called “Cat of the Canals”. Her former identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams, and also when she kills Dareon, sworn brother of Samwell Tarly, for abandoning the Night’s Watch. Extra scenes with Sam. Having confessed this death, she is given a glass of warm milk as punishment (?). She wakes up the following morning blind. While blind, she discovers her ability to telepathically perceive objects seen by cats. Last scene with her changing the face in the ugly little girl.
Sum up
Time shift compared to the books covering both the books but ending season 5 before Jon death(?); before the pink letter then; before Aegon (or his replacement) arrival on Westeros; before Sam arrival in the Citadel; before Arya assassination of the merchant; before Kevan/Pycell assassination; before Barristan acting as Hand of the Queen; before reappearance of Daenerys and the Dothraki; before Tyrion enters the mercenaries. The classical episode 9 finale could be the Meeren Pit, while the real ending would be the Walk of Shame of Cersei.
Most of the time on screen will be for Cersei, then Jamie and Dornish Story.
No Arianne (at least not active, she could appear in season 6). Her role replaced by the Sandsnakes.
No fArya. Her role replaced by Alys Karstark (no wedding with the Thenn at the Wall then).
Not yet: No Citadel. No Pate. No Archmaster.
Not yet Aegon (or his replacement) conquest of the Stormlands.
No Victarion. Euron shown briefly in a simplified kingsmot without Damphair as a real character.
No Wyman Manderly. His role taken by the Umbers. Gratjon Umber prisoner of the Freys as a key for their double playing behaviour.
No Quentin
No Val
Large space to D&D made stories on Dorne and Sansa with Littlefinger
uff,
A really considered and thought-through suggestion, thanks for taking the time. Interesting thoughts. The really left-field one of
is utterly mental, but in a way I could actually see them doing that in order to stop expanding the universe in ways the show-runners may not think necessary. With
. In all honesty I had that exact thought reading the books.
I hope they do reach
– he is my favourite character and needs something to do in the show.
Time is running out for us, my friend, but keep the faith! We still have a couple of months to hope…
I wanted to reply to something, but I can’t figure out how spoiler tags work here?
Annara Snow,
Spoiler coding is currently functional using shortcode: [ spoiler ] Insert spoiler here [ / spoiler].
Without the extra spaces in the brackets.
So, let me see if I got this right. He will consider including gay sex “if the story dictates it”, “if the plot lends itself to that”, which is really amusing, considering there’s lots of (unnecessary) sex with hot women and also a lesbian sex scene with Cersei.
He’s a boobies fan, after all.
Ironborn,
I’m confused.
You have no interest in season 5?
errrr… isn’t this site concerned – I dunno – kind of exclusively with the hbo show? Sure – there are discussions about how it syncs with the books, or doesn’t, but – it’s pretty much about the show.
I can honestly say that I don’t ever go to any sites concerned with daytime soap-operas/dramas, because well – I have no interest in them.
I certainly wouldn’t comment on them if I happened to accidentally come across one of the forums/sites while looking for something else – it would be a waste of my time. Unless of course I only went there to complain about how the soap-opera didn’t more closely follow dear abby. but my name wouldn’t be Mickey2093, then – rather it would be Troll2014…
But that’s me.
As for the whole Loras thing – someone above (in a spoiler tag, but I can’t remember who it was – sorry) made a comment in passing that I have been thinking for quite some time.
uff,
I can agree with a lot of the stuff there but I think
Can’t see Gendry replacing Aegon.
I love this –
“If the story…”, “If the plot…”
what – haven’t D&D filled him in on how the story is supposed to progress and end yet?
Maybe that’s what is delaying the novelization of HBO’s Game of Thrones?
OT, but I’ve just watched a recent Stephen Dillane interview. Nothing about GoT, but the fact, that he doesn’t do interviews very often, combined with the fact, that this one exception is a 60 second questions and answers is very Stannis-like. And so are some of his answers. 😀
GeekFurious,
If you are midly interested then why are you here on a fansite dedicated mainly to the show, wouldn’t westeros .org be more your taste ?
It would make no sense to replace
. It doesn’t make much sense for the Boltons to do that as a big power move, it doesn’t make sense them to go to Winterfell for that, it is far less meaningful (and also more complicated) because
and ruins his part of the story (therefore making him less connected to the overall storyline), it doesn’t make
and it ruins entirely the whole point of Theon’s story –
I cannot understand why people come up with all these needless and convoluted “alternatives” to
when there’s nothing wrong with the actual storyline and no reason why it can’t be adapted. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
Is it confirmd that
Please say no so I don’t cut sombody’s throat
I lol-ed at your comment. There’s more around. We just don’t hold Skype support group chats! On second thought that might not be such a bad idea!!! There’s still some time left for Martin and TWoW.
Lady nym,
Of course it isn’t. I would be completely surprised af Alys Karstark (of all people) makes it into the show. Though that doesn’t mean we’ll see fArya either (as the characters aren’t connected in any way).
Lol No, it’s a poster speculating.
People have been speculating on everyone and their mother replacing
for years. I don’t get it. Do people actually believe that the Unsullied don’t know what
looks like and would be confused?!?!
Willas is my favourite of all the characters that have only been mentioned without directly showing up. Thrilled that he’ll have a bigger role to play in the future of the books! 😀 Can’t help but wonder how differently the story of the books might have worked out if
I think
Willas Tyrell the flower who was crippled by the the snake