Game of Thrones on HBO

[stevew]

My friend was at shooting location the other day outside of that famous church in Croatia but she said that there were a lot of green screens up and she really didn't see any of the cast.

[JPhillips]

My favorite cover.

[NobodyHere]

I just realized Jorah Mormont was in Tomb Raider.

[NobodyHere]

Ilyn Payne has executed cancer!

BBC News - Wilko Johnson says he is 'cancer free'

[korme]

Just started watching the series. Winter is coming. I'm three episodes in and totally locked in

[stevew]

I just did a re-watch and it took like 6 days once I started.

[saldana]

Season 5 start date has been announced as April 12th.

[PackerFanatic]

APRIL. 12TH.

Please come now...

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Ilyn Payne has executed cancer!

BBC News - Wilko Johnson says he is 'cancer free'

That's awesome!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by saldana

Season 5 start date has been announced as April 12th.

Apparently "Silicon Valley" AND "Veep" are also starting on April 12! Quite a huge release day. I wonder if HBO is going to be releasing its standalone service (supposedly coming in April) the week prior?

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by korme

Just started watching the series. Winter is coming. I'm three episodes in and totally locked in

Welcome to the rest of your life!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Apparently "Silicon Valley" AND "Veep" are also starting on April 12! Quite a huge release day. I wonder if HBO is going to be releasing its standalone service (supposedly coming in April) the week prior?

I'd imagine they have to be planning on that, and it will be a tremendous disappointment to them if they don't.

[Chief Rum]

Hmm... very interesting.

http://io9.com/wow-game-of-thrones-s...gn=wednesdayAM

[Desnudo]

It's hard to imagine you could get any darker than pushing a guy's eyeballs out with your thumbs.

[Julio Riddols]

I've got Batman and Robin nips right now.

[Chief Rum]

The thing that surprises me is just how much they seem intent on diverting from the story. It makes me wonder if HBO and GRRM basically came to an agreement that HBO was going to go one way with the story and GRRM would continue his way, with GRRM still contributing to HBO's storyline.

[ISiddiqui]

Well they've been moving in that direction since Season 3, really. It seems the showrunners have up to a certain limit with how much magic they want to explore in the world.

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

The thing that surprises me is just how much they seem intent on diverting from the story. It makes me wonder if HBO and GRRM basically came to an agreement that HBO was going to go one way with the story and GRRM would continue his way, with GRRM still contributing to HBO's storyline.

Probably because they knew the show would catch up with the books before the next one is even released.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by The Jackal

Probably because they knew the show would catch up with the books before the next one is even released.

This.

Odds GRRM even lives to complete the books?

[Chief Rum]

True. But if this article is accurate, they really have ramped up the move away from the source material. I mean, even when they changed things or showed something that is "off page" (not in but implied) in the books, the essential relationships of the characters and the direction of the story was still pretty much the same.

Given all that, I am less disappointed in the lack of casting of more Iron Island people or the not as much as expected Dornish people, as clearly the showrunners are kinda doing their own thing. If this is true, I am probably going to approach the series as a whole new story with unexpected events coming.

I am going to take a wild stab, too, and say that whatever ending the showrunners have planned, it will be different than GRRM's. I think it will be a different interpretation, one GRRM may have even considered at one point and which he suggested to HBO as an alternate ending. That preserves GRRM's direction and ending and doesn't hurt his book sales, while allowing HBO to go forward with the show and not wait on GRRM to finish the books.

[The Jackal]

I feel similarly, CR. It will all lead to a lot of speculation about how much GRRM revealed to HBO about where he sees some of the plot-lines ending, but I'm fully ready for diversions in plot.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by The Jackal

Probably because they knew the show would catch up with the books before the next one is even released.

It's pretty much out there that GRRM has provided his story to the end (plot point wise) to HBO execs and showrunners.

Even if the show finished before the books, it would stand to reason (normally) that it would follow the same or a similar path to what GRRM planned.

This article suggests otherwise--that they are really off doing something different, rather than sticking with GRRM's plan.

Of course, it is unclear just how different, since we're talking about an episode synopsis of the show, not actually having watched the episode itself, but the author suggests it is significantly different.

[saldana]

Originally Posted by Lathum

This.

Odds GRRM even lives to complete the books?

i am pretty sure you actually can bet on that

[The Jackal]

I doubt they would have been able to get GRRM to say exactly what was going to happen and commit to never changing it, so going their own way makes the most sense.

[bronconick]

I think it's the simple difference between a writer who adds new characters left and right and leaves the current ones floundering which won't fly in television, who have contracts and actors.

[ISiddiqui]

Not like the show hasn't left characters floundering *cough* Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr...

[flere-imsaho]

I'm sticking with my speculation from 2013 (warning: spoilery thread linked):

Given all the many things he's said about the difficulty of continuing to write the series, I'm certain he has writers' block concerning tying up many of the loose ends, thus the "treading water".

Ironically, it may be the fact that it's now a TV show that saves him. Not just the deadline aspect, but the greater focus the show has to have may rub off on him.

Or, and this is my favorite speculation, I could definitely see him not finishing the books, and instead let the show finish the story (books would come, as novelizations, not necessarily written by him). He (and bored writers everywhere) will pass this off as a "brave new cross-media paradigm" but it'll really be a giant coverup for Martin's writers' block and inability to focus.

[Neon_Chaos]

Can't wait for Season 5.

Jaqen H'gar is back!

This will be the first season where they will be employing flashbacks... which definitely opens the window to a lot of other flashback-related spoilery items for upcoming seasons.

[NobodyHere]

This is going to get confusing on which GoT thread we can post which spoilers. I mean assuming the show passes the book we shouldn't post those events in the book thread right? And the show won't cover everything the books do.

It's all so confusing.

[NobodyHere]

And for fun

Game Of Thrones: the big, brain-splattering quiz | Television & radio | The Guardian

I got a 47

[stevew]

I guess the first 4 episodes got leaked. Posting about those early is being a dick.

[Neon_Chaos]

I've watched all four.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

I've watched all four.

Do they get into any material that are past the books?

ETA: Just curious, and I'm not looking for spoilery answers, just a yes or no.

[Chief Rum]

Just watched the season premiere last night. No comments on it?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Lathum

This.

Odds GRRM even lives to complete the books?

Pretty slim. Have to figure the show has 3-4 more seasons after this? They were going to have to do their own thing at some point.

[ISiddiqui]

Well, listen GRRM is only 66 years old. He'll likely get Winds of Winter done next year (as he seems to be dedicated to making it so), so even if it takes him 8 years to finish it all up, that'll make him 75. I can easily see him living that long.

[Kodos]

He doesn't look like he is in the peak of good health.

[ISiddiqui]

In every interview I've seen, he looks fine. Yeah, he's really fat, but it isn't like he doesn't have the money to deal with any future health issues.

[stevew]

His power move would be to conclude the material from the series midway thru book 7 and then leave enough extra for a movie trilogy/quadrilogy.

[Coffee Warlord]

Jaqen sighting tonight, kids. WHoo.

[SackAttack]

Couple of my friends who, ahem, availed themselves of certain video largesse prior to the premiere, have some issues with how the show is deviating.

My question, though: is it total deviance, or could there be an element of expedience + spoilers?

Spoiler

We know that the Arya/Brienne meeting was invented out of whole cloth, but could it be that Brienne does meet Sansa in Winds of Winter, and the showrunners just felt like it was better to address that sooner rather than later?

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Couple of my friends who, ahem, availed themselves of certain video largesse prior to the premiere, have some issues with how the show is deviating.

My question, though: is it total deviance, or could there be an element of expedience + spoilers?

Re: spoiler. I doubt that Martin would be on board with them wholesale revealing things that are already in his next book.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, but I'm reasonably sure that:

a) they've said they're going to be getting into spoiler territory soon since he's shared the roadmap, but they're running out of already-published material and
b) given some of the excision going on, the show may already be engaging in spoiler-by-omission. I mean, we don't know for sure yet because some of the excised stuff COULD pop up later, but...stuff getting left out would seem to imply said stuff is either a red herring in the books, or else the show is going to end up in a REALLY different place by the end.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

My question, though: is it total deviance, or could there be an element of expedience + spoilers?

Spoiler

We know that the Arya/Brienne meeting was invented out of whole cloth, but could it be that Brienne does meet Sansa in Winds of Winter, and the showrunners just felt like it was better to address that sooner rather than later?

However...

Spoiler

Sansa is obviously going North. Likely to try to infiltrate Bolton at Winterfell. Of course by the end of Dance and the sample chapter of Winds, Sansa is still at the Eyrie and trying to get married off to Harold Hardyng and Bolton may have been conquered by Stannis's army (or Stannis may have died in the attempt, who knows).

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Couple of my friends who, ahem, availed themselves of certain video largesse prior to the premiere, have some issues with how the show is deviating.

My question, though: is it total deviance, or could there be an element of expedience + spoilers?

Spoiler

We know that the Arya/Brienne meeting was invented out of whole cloth, but could it be that Brienne does meet Sansa in Winds of Winter, and the showrunners just felt like it was better to address that sooner rather than later?

Not sure why we're spoiling things that happened on HBO already (and I haven't watched the leaked EPs)

Spoiler

This whole Sansa/Baelish storyline is weird, because they never left the Vale and didn't appear likely to do so soon in the books.

I will take all the Jaime/Bronn pairing we can get. They should be awesome together.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Jaqen sighting tonight, kids. WHoo.

This surprised me. Mostly because I expected him to show up elsewhere later.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Yeah, but I'm reasonably sure that:

a) they've said they're going to be getting into spoiler territory soon since he's shared the roadmap, but they're running out of already-published material and
b) given some of the excision going on, the show may already be engaging in spoiler-by-omission. I mean, we don't know for sure yet because some of the excised stuff COULD pop up later, but...stuff getting left out would seem to imply said stuff is either a red herring in the books, or else the show is going to end up in a REALLY different place by the end.

Given how little plot movement actually happened in books 4 and 5, and also considering how many characters have been stripped out, there's zero chance we don't get into book 6 ground this season.

And I totally agree we're seeing some spoilers by omission - the later books already introduced a lot of characters that showed up, got pages of filler, then died/faded into obscurity. I think we're discovering that even MORE plots are filler.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Not sure why we're spoiling things that happened on HBO already (and I haven't watched the leaked EPs)

Spoiler

This whole Sansa/Baelish storyline is weird, because they never left the Vale and didn't appear likely to do so soon in the books.

I will take all the Jaime/Bronn pairing we can get. They should be awesome together.

Eh. Not everybody watches in real-time. My parents have HBO and yet DVR the episodes to watch on Tuesdays instead of Sundays, as an example. I don't think using spoiler tags is an unreasonable thing to do, but it's not a hill I'm willing to die on, either. I'll use 'em if the episode I'm referencing is the latest one, but I'm not going to demand that others do.

[stevew]

Is the plan to rescue Cercei's daughter and to wed Bronn to her?

[Grover]

Originally Posted by stevew

Is the plan to rescue Cercei's daughter and to wed Bronn to her?

I don't think Jaime would sink that low.