Game of Thrones [Potential Book Spoilers]

Game of Thrones FUCK YEAH

So looking forward to this. Especially since I haven't found a show to like and watch in over two years.

It helps that Martin himself said it was a great adaptation.

Does anyone else get the nasty suspicion they'll keep a certain person alive so that they'll be able to keep a certain actor?

Oh, I can't wait for this thing to come out. And apparently A Dance with Dragons is going to be published soon, which justs adds to the awesome.

Now I just need to find a way to watch HBO.

^But, how could they? I mean, it would completely undermine the entire premise of the second book. Unless you're referring to a different character.

edited 30th Nov '10 11:17:07 PM by petrie911

The first book is almost 900 pages, isn't it? I think more ACTORS will be dead than characters by the time they're on ACoK.

I know Tyrion Lannister is meant to be an ugly dwarf but damn Peter Dinklage looks almost too good.

edited 1st Dec '10 6:09:00 AM by ZeroPotential

Each book will be condensed to one season, regardless of length. The only minor exception is that Dance and Feast will be split half-and-half over two seasons so that the story is told chronologically rather than geographically.

I highly doubt they will change the story that radically. I think they went with that actor so that newcomers to the story won't see his death coming, just like new readers don't.

edited 1st Dec '10 6:35:30 AM by ccoa

Doing one book per season gives George 4 more years to finish Dance of Dragons (well, 3 if they're gonna try to split Dance and Feast like that). And who knows, he may actually even finish it by then! But then of course he'd only have a year each to finish Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.

At last word, he had only 5 more chapters to go on Dance, all in draft form as of that writing. His editor was hopeful it would be submitted this month.

I'm more interested in the fact that this gives him a stronger reason to finish Winds and Dream in a timely manner.

edited 1st Dec '10 8:40:16 AM by ccoa

Sorry if I seem a little jaded. I read the first 3 books in quick succession back in 2003 (and loved 'em of course). I waited until 2005 for Feast... which was actually originally to be Dance of Dragons, but it got too long so he decided to split it into two books with events happening concurrently. At the time George RR said in one way it was good since it meant he already had a great deal of material written for A Dance with Dragons. I remember thinking "Awesome, that means it'll only probably be like a year or a year and a half tops until he finishes Dance". That was 2005. Since then I've been checking his website and blog several times a week. It seems like he's been "almost done" since mid-2007. From what I understand he's been stuck on a few tough Po Vs (like Bran... and wtf is the "Meereenese Knot"?) for several years now, although he indicated he made some good headway this year.

But enough whining from me. I'm pretty excited about this series. It could potentially be a huge hit for HBO given the quality of the original material. So far it seems everything is being handled well. It looks like I'll actually be subscribing to HBO.

Once again, I have to curse the Atlantic for preventing me from getting my hands on HBO.

The Meerinese Knot refers to the problems he's been having with the Daenerys chapters.

Originally, Martin intended to have a 5 year Time Skip in the series. However, when he got to the point where the time skip was supposed to occur, he realized that things would not realistically stay on hold for 5 years and that going ahead with it would require so many flashbacks, explanations, or plot holes that it wasn't going to work. Note that he realized this after publishing Feast, so his note at the end that Dance was upcoming was entirely truthful from what he knew at the time.

So, he had to scrap his timeline for the series and rework it for the new timeline. This added entirely new problems. The improbably low age of the characters and the small amount of time they have to gain the skills needed is one. Another is getting Dany to Westeros (which is apparently the biggest part of the aforementioned Knot).

In short, the reason Dance took so long is A) he had to almost completely re-write it and B) he had to re-outline the rest of the series before he could finish it. Add in that the man is a perfectionist to an absurd degree, and you get the gap between Feast and Dance.

Whatever, it'll be on piratebay the day it is aired, if not earlier.

The thing is, normally it doesn't take that long for him to write a novel, so we can assume that something obstructing him, whether it is a plot knot, or personal issues, or anything else, it isn't that unrealistic to hope that if it could appear, it can disappear as well, sooner or later. And once it is solved, we can hope for the other two novels in normal speed.

Edit: The red comet hits Westeros, and magically ages everyone up 5 years. Problem solved.

edited 1st Dec '10 9:55:14 AM by EternalSeptember

Still trying to figure out who is who in the trailer. I'll assume that's Old Nan doing the narration but who's the guy that draws his sword and gets surrounded in the first half?

Nevermind, there's some incredibly exhaustive commentary here.

edited 1st Dec '10 11:20:47 AM by ZeroPotential

Big, long, "Making of" trailer". Everything looks cool. Looks awesome to see the characters. Ned Stark looks exactly like Boromir, but I guess that's a bit unavoidable. Peter Dinklage is way older than Tyrion, but Tyrion never acts like he's in his twenties in the books anyway.

Didn't get much of the younger Stark children, especially the girls. I wonder if their role will be downplayed, since they don't drive much of the plot.

I'm desperately waiting for this to come out. Normally I'm wary of movie reproductions but a TV show should have enough time to include most of the plot, even with a book this long. And if Martin is so involved he can make sure nothing too egregious is passed over.

Arya and Sansa aren't too prominent until the next books anyway.

I am SO fucking excited for this.

But if it's true that each book will be condensed into one season, I'm kind of worried. They'll have to leave out a lot to make it work, and it seems like it's always the good bits that get left out.

Well the 11 minute long Inside look has really gotten me excited. Sure they aged the kids up, Jaime looks a little too old, and Tyrion is not ugly, but Littlefinger looks(and sounds) FUCKING PERFECT.

As for Daernys.....yeah PSL incoming.

edited 10th Jan '11 1:43:05 PM by syvaris

Sharing a damn nice new teaser:

http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1154893&filter=game-of-thrones&view=null

The characters look great, the Iron Throne looks amazing.

I kind of want a transcript (and a list of who said what). Just so I can start pinning voices to characters.

Quick question: Are HBO series available for purchase on stores like iTunes? I'm not sure I want to pay for cable installation, monthly cable, and HBO for this one show. :P

I kind of wish it was being made by Monty Python.

^ Hu? You have to explain that one.

I am really looking forward to this, even though have to use perfectly legal means to watch it. Should be a great way to pass the time till the next book finally hits the shelves and a good method to remember all of the different characters and names, because honestly, I begin to forget quite a lot of them.

edited 25th Jan '11 5:48:43 AM by eX

In case anyone missed it, you can watch the first fourteen minutes of the pilot now.

Not a bad adaptation at all so far.

Awesome few minutes, I noticed a few changes, but nothing distorting.

Only thing I don't like so far is Renly's actor. Just not the type I imagine.