Will The Winds of Winter delay affect how people watch Game of Thrones…? 

the most closely-contested poll we’ve ever had. People were pretty split.

As you can see, it was easy for most people to make peace with the delay, since they’d seen it coming for a while—pessimistic but fair. Others think the show is going to separate itself from the books so much that the spoilers won’t be spoilery enough to matter, and others will watch despite knowing that spoilers are coming. The immediate takeaway: relatively few people plan to forego watching Season 6 in favor of waiting for the books. Spoilers or no, people will watch. As Davos 4 King said:

Why would I stop watching the best show on television? I really want to read TWOW but I’m not going to not watch.

The second option is the most interesting to me. There was an interesting discussion in the comments about nature of spoilers, and how many Season 6 is bound to have. Without having seen the new episodes, I’m most inclined to agree with David H, who acknowledges that while “lots of things will be different,” the general outline of the story will match.

The major plot beats will still be mostly the same. The fates of the biggest characters will be the same. I think it’s safe to say that Jon Dany and Tyrion won’t end up in completely different places in the books and show. And you can probably add Bran, Arya and Sansa. And maybe Cersei and Jaime.

To me, in fiction, the journey is more important than the destination, so I’m ready to accept a world where the show reaches the same destination of the books by a different path. Having multiple angles on the same story will make both richer.

But I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that we could end up with two different endings. 

showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss consult with Martin on the direction the books are going, but they’ve also said Martin has a tendency to go his own way. Here’s Benioff talking to 

We’ve had a lot of conversations with George, and he makes a lot of stuff up as he’s writing it. 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.

Also consider Martin’s comments from 2015 that he had come up with a “great twist” that will “drive readers crazy…The show has already – on this particular character – made a couple decisions that will preclude it, where in my case I have not made those decisions.” How many more of those twists will he have to come up with before his books end up somewhere entirely different than the show?

Also compare Martin’s original outline of the story to the completed 

 books. They’re vastly different. Martin makes stuff up as he’s writing it. Now that he, Benioff, and Weiss are all writing at the same time, the opportunities to go in different directions multiply.

Personally, I’m excited about that, and it makes me more excited to see what the show will come up with.

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Have you already read all the books and/or don\'t care about spoilers? You can reveal all the spoilers in the comments with the click of a link below.

hodor…it should be exciting because no one knows whats coming

I was prepared but I also don’t mind the changes on the show from the book. I know some people get real snobby about it, but hey I like the differences honestly. I look at it in a way where I will be surprised each time with the show, because I don’t know what’s coming since I already know what has occurred in the books.

Honestly it makes me uninterested in the books. If I know the outcome, makes me less likely to read or even purchase the books.

I hope that doesnt happen to me but I do fear that or even if it takes 7 years to wrap up or more if I will even still be invested at that point and its disappointing because I truly do love these books

As do I, I know that there will be people attempting to not watch the show and try to wait for the books, but it’s a fools errand. You could make it five of however many years after the show to read the final book(s) and be the one person who managed to avoid every spoiler though sheer will, luck and chance. Then 6 months before aDoS is released or even 3 days and that same person(s) will be standing in line at the grocery store and accidentally overhear everything you worked so hard to avoid in the five seconds you let you guard down.

Everyone’s best bet is too just watch the show and enjoy it for what it is. The books will be different from the show in 1000 ways, just like the books are that different from the show even now. I understand why many people will either boycott the show or lose interest in the books but this in nothing new.

The situation in unique but people are always picking and choosing which books they read in a series that is complete while movies/TV are being made from it. The fact that people don’t have the option to pick and choose to read ahead anymore is what creating all the drama. You want what you can’t have, if the books were finished only half the people who are upset would ever read them anyway. That combined with GoT being the most popular show on Earth (for the most part) is driving the issue far beyond normal reactions to the situation.

Just so my statement makes sense, I believe a couple of combative comments I posted in repose to may or may not have gotten moded out. I was attempting to mediate said comments, but either way my opinions remain what I intended them to covey

Nope, I was just confused and nothing changed, apologies to the Mods. Disregard my prior statement.

Although there isn’t a book yet, I think I know what is going to happen overall because of spoilers plus speculation and I have expectations for character’s storylines … Last season, I was surprised by the death of Stannis and the end of the Baratheon family. I didn’t expect that. I was a little bit disappointed because I couldn’t believe his story will end like that in the books. So, when my storyline expectations aren’t fulfilled, I will wonder if it’s based on the books or not. Those doubts won’t be solved until the book is out. Will Stannis sacrifice Shireen??? Will Ramsay win so easily?? I don’t think so. The show is cool, but I still want to read the books …

When will be the next event for actors/writers/producers? I think we will hear nothing until the first trailer (I thin february). So when we hear something, we will hear it from a red carpet or from a presentation from HBO.

I don’t see what the huge deal is. The fact that the show will finish before the books has been apparent for a very long time. GRRM has changed the story drastically from what he originally intended. That’s why there’s so much R+L=J evidence in the first book. He never intended this to get so big, but once he realized how much more there was to the story he felt he needed to give it all to us. And every time he changes he something he needs to go back and do rewrites. I personally went through these same emotions during Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. There was not only the chance he wouldn’t finish, he officially retired and was involved in a life threatening car accident. There was a solid chance he wouldn’t finish at all. But, eventually he did. He started the first book “The Gunslinger” when he was 19 and considered the series his crowning achievement. I am fairly confident that even though George wants to do more Dunc and Egg stories and a Fire And Blood book, he knows how important finishing ASOIAF is and he will eventually get it done. When that happens, I will read it and be grateful for it. In the meantime, I’m just happy to have HBO doing their adaptation and whichever one follows GOT. Just to get me through. The show is just that. An adaptation. The story isn’t finished until George finishes it. Remember, originally Jon, Tyrion and Arya were gonna be involved in a love triangle, Sansa was going to give Joffrey a son, and Robb was going to die in battle. So things can and will change.

I love that George is still getting new inspirations and adding twists that hadn’t occurred to him at the beginning. That’s what creative minds do! The TV series may ‘spoil’ the ending in a macrocosmic way, but it’s the microcosmic details that give me the most reading pleasure. Rereads, when we already know what’s going to happen, can be even more fun than first read-throughs, so why should the precedence of the show’s final season detract from our enjoyment of George’s official, original, fully-fleshed-out canon version? People whose first priority in reading is obtaining information generally prefer nonfiction to novels anyway.

I generally feel that it would be pointless evading GoT and I am prepared to watch it. I don’t mind tangential spoilers as I value more the road than the finishing line. That said, it would also not affect my reading of TWOW when it comes out. Simply, the producers showed me many times that series is much worse when they have no Martin’s words to rely on. So, I will watch it without any problems. And I also find distasteful calling people for not abstaining from watching. Just live and let the others live.

Dirnish plot, Winterfell plot in season 5, the pointlessness of Arya/Tywin in the second season, Dany jumping to trust Tyrion without any serious consideration… So, when they have no material to rely on, the writing is substantially worse.

Yeah most people don’t like the Dornish plot in the show. Fine.

But the Tywin/Arya scenes? Really? You are the first person I’ve ever heard say those scenes where “pointless”. They are scenes from the book. It shows the danger of the situation Arya is in, that she has no control over her current situation. And it also puts into context her relationship with Jaquen h’gar. And on top of that they are just awesome scenes to watch to see the interaction between Arya and Tywin.

Tywin/Arya scenes were from the books? I must have missed that part while reading them. Also I didn’t talk about how awesome they are, but how pointless entire interaction is. Something alone can be greatly conceived, but if it doesn’t fit as the part of the cohesive story, it ultimately serves no point.

I never said you talked about how awesome the scenes where or where not.

It’s been a little while since I read the book. Tywin was at Harrenhall before the red wedding being outmanouvered by a Rob Stark, and he chooses Arya to be his cup bearer. By memory.

I was thinking about something recently and this seems like the place to share. In previous seasons, some things from the books were omitted from the show. There are different reasons for this, and one of those reasons was prophesy. While you can get away with some prophesy in literature, doing so in television could cause people to lose interest. But those events would nevertheless play a part in the long story. If one had an idea that a delay like this might be coming, it might be possible to take these events from before and “bring them to the stage” as it were. This way, you could still be consistent TV wise, while not actually telling anything from TWOW that you don’t have to. Some examples: Dany in the HOTU. Lady SH. Sam and GIlly. The Greyjoys.

From what I’ve read and heard, we may in fact, be looking at some of these events.

I would love other people’s thought on this. Thanks

I am totally jazzed that Max Von Sydow is on board! #BryndenLives

I’m quite intrigued to see which way the series will go as opposed to the books. My only concern is that the last episode of the last series will happen before the last book comes out but the way things are going I think it’s safe to say there’s no way the books will be done first. I’m fully prepared for this eventuality or at least I will be when the time comes I hope. As I have said before I expect GRRM has shared major plot points with D&D. While D&D take the motorway and GRRM takes the scenic route i can only hope they have the same destination planned. I understand that some poetic license has to be taken in order to condense such a character rich story for TV but it would be sacrilege to change GRRMs ending completely. People talk of Stannis being killed but you never see the death stroke only the intended swing. I think he is still important to the story and when has GoT ever shied away from showing anyone being killed. If they can show a child being burned alive why wouldn’t they show a grown man being killed.

That’s great. I like the idea that Benioff and Weiss are screwed in their writings by GRRM Hahahaha!!! Good for them! They wanted so badly to make a show from the books, took liberties in their twists like if the story finally belonged to them (“GRRM-who?”) and forgetting where the essence came from… That’s awesome! Of course, I’ll watch the show but I won’t be excited as much as I used to be.

The Ariane-plot missing, the fail of the Sand Snakes (that pity fight scene, seriously!?!) in the show interfered in my interest, I must admit. I re-watched the season 5 last week for an article and for sure, the best episodes are from 7 to 10 : that makes only 3 great episodes on an entire season.

(The Walking Dead is a great example of this kind of mistake)

I think GRRM should have been more involved in the show’s writing without giving necessarily the end to those 2 because now, his writing is kinda “blocked” (here’s my point of view, see it as great adventure : you’re about to take the best journey of your life, but you already now where it’ll end or you made a deal that the end would be that way and not the other… That’s kills creativity and freedom, no more surprises here! And even more for the one who’s writing it. Creativity and Adventures don’t get along with constraints).

I can’t forget the excitement I had when I was discovering an actor/actress I’ve never heard of before, I can’t forget my surprise to see him/her completely changed when he/she appeared on my screen, I was amazed by the way they were introducing this new character into the plot line : GOT was gold/diamond digger and always ready to get out of its “comfort zone”.

Anyway, I support GGRM. I’m a fan of the show. I love winteriscoming.net.

P.S. : I have a theory that Jon Snow will return by fire, just like Dany. As something tells me they’re siblings.

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