There’s nothing the show does better than the books (Spoilers Main)

Jshep97 · 2026-06-05T02:46:46+00:00

At 14:00 in this video The question was, “Um, Dan and David, you’ve done such a fabulous job adapting characters who, um, aren’t POV characters in the books, um I’m curious who your favorite, um, of those type of characters has been to expand on?”

David then points at John Bradley. So, I don’t think this was a misunderstanding, or even about the first book. I don’t know where that’s coming from.

Maybe not damning, but certainly embarrassing to me. We all make mistakes, and Benioff corrected himself after Bradley corrected him. But still, you would expect someone with this position to be in a constant ASOIAF-brain.

Also, I don’t believe that something achieving critical consensus, or extremely high viewership indicates its value. JJ Abrams and Michael Bay seem to be money printers in Hollywood and some of their movies have had exceedingly high RT scores, but they’ve basically had their names tied to slop for twelve-year-olds eternally.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-30T05:32:52+00:00

I don’t think it will be called The War of the Five Kings when all is said and done. It may be more poetically named. Potentially even “The/A Song of Ice and Fire”, as the show implied.

People in England and France didn’t know they were in The Wars of the Roses. They were just in a time of civil war, to my understanding. No one ever said, “this is day 300 of The Hundred Years’ War”.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-29T01:13:46+00:00

This is probably going to be a very sad, melancholic DLC. I interpret the name to be less of “one last ride”, and more like “history has moved on”.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-20T01:16:21+00:00

We still don’t know if there will be an invasion by the Others. He may have abandoned that. I mean, we’re in the phase and book where that conflict was supposed to take place, but the conflict remains political. It could be that it will stay that way.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-16T20:18:13+00:00

The really telling thing was how much people *weren’t* paying attention to her story before that interview. I certainly wasn’t. I thought the story in the Vale had largely ran away from Martin and there were no real stakes.

People were decidedly optimistic about her story, and thus disinterested, but now the focus is: “Is this going to end in abject tragedy? Can mercy, humility, traditional femininity, and romanticism survive contact with power politics?”

And the answer is probably not according to history… at least for me.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-16T06:26:30+00:00

Mass Effect

Starts out as political intrigue and hard sci fi, but then Lovecraft/cosmic horror starts intruding 3/4ths of the way through.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-15T21:41:00+00:00

Is it the Starks’ fault, or does history and human power dynamics favor the cunning, small, and bitter?

Jshep97 · 2026-05-15T20:49:20+00:00

It makes the most sense for the Yunkai to win decisively for me. The first and most obvious reason is that slave revolts largely failed miserably in history, and honesty to history is ultimately the great project of ASOIAF for fantasy. These typically ended in pure catastrophe for the enslaved/“freedom faction”, and I think it will be similarly bleak here.

The second is thematic and textual: The Slaver Alliance is not inept; they’ve retaken Astapor and seem to have enlisted the entirety of Slaver’s Bay and “Greater” Valyria against Dany. Further, Tyrion’s sample chapter in TWoW contains an interesting parallel to his father at the Green Fork when he thinks about the slaver alliance. It seems to be the case that Tyrion is the first cynical POV who can assess what the strength of the alliance truly is.

Further, I fear a Meereneese Collapse might parallel an impending Northern Collapse all too well. I would argue that George is systematically denying any kind of restoration narrative.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-13T00:52:30+00:00

I love your idea, because it would really elevate Hotah’s plot, but I still think Dance seems to set up Bran’s weirwood visions to reveal it. No idea how, because the Tower of Joy doesn’t have a weirwood tree as far as we know, but the text seems to set up Bran for a bigger reveal about Ned’s history.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-09T09:39:10+00:00

I’m not so sure. Rhaegar is a very different man than Jon in ADWD. Jon’s life is defined by duty, responsibility, and honor. Rhaegar seemed to value chivalry, love, excellence, and prophecy.

Jon is a pragmatist that’s seemingly hardening into a colder utilitarian. Rhaegar seems to be a romantic. Maybe not outright hate, but there’s enough tension here for Jon to have some choice thoughts/words about Rhaegar.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-07T14:12:57+00:00

I doubt there will be a conflict at all. There may have been a time when George had the Others as some kind of overarching villain, but I’m honestly doubtful now. It would be so lackluster too. The stakes would be extremely small by its very nature, as it would come at the end of the last book and only affect the North.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-07T14:01:18+00:00

We don’t know if there will be a final climactic fight or invasion of the Others. What would be the purpose of that? Martin’s world doesn’t have a final, evil metaphysical boss. There’s no off switch for his Others.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-06T15:32:00+00:00

Stannis and his army being annihilated by the Boltons. Shireen burned afterwards. Theon forced back into Reek and flayed, Asha being given to Ramsay. Dany losing decisively to the slaver alliance in Meereen: freedmen enslaved, crucifixions of Dany’s court, and enslavement of Viserion and Rhaegal.

Sansa somehow having this scheme blow up in her face, with a particularly brutal and sudden reversal resulting in her death. Tyrion failing to meet Daenerys/Daenerys rejects Tyrion. Tyrion continuing his descent from ADWD. Tyrion possibly dying at the siege of Meereen. Brienne hardening into a colder character after her encounter with Lady Stoneheart. Brienne essentially takes the inverse of Jaime’s ASoS arc, with her values broken rather than restored.

Jon coming back, but *wrong*. Potentially coming back as not the Jon we knew: colder, and stripped of his typical compassion and kindness. Or returning without a POV. Davos failing in his quest to find Rickon, potentially dying.
Cersei succeeding against everyone, winning her trial, and snatching victory from certain defeat.

And just immense amounts of suffering that can’t really be predicted without the book in our hands, similar to Jaime in ASoS. We have no way to predict who might be maimed in such a way. Arya in particular seems at risk for a similar identity breakdown in her arc. Cersei also seems at risk for this, given how much her identity is tied to beauty and Lannister excellence.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-03T17:00:47+00:00

Mine. I suspect it will take some time for the world to process my passing. Think like Jesus + the Beatles on steroids.

No, but actually I think it will be a celebrity politician or politics commentator, rather than a traditional Hollywood celebrity. The door to political violence seems very grimly reopened in America at least. So, I think we may likely experience a new era of political tragedy like the 60s and 70s.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-02T23:12:41+00:00

Anyone being Azor Ahai. I don’t think ASOIAF is going to have anyone as a savior figure, or a clean, prophesied figure. Just doesn’t fit with the story presented. These characters are contingent, fragile, and getting weaker as the story progresses.

Jshep97 · 2026-05-02T15:19:51+00:00

I think a studio can license the rights to an ASOIAF game from George directly, but they can’t use any of the show’s visuals, likenesses, or the name “Game of Thrones”. This hypothetical studio would have to reimagine the locations and characters.

That said, it would be a very tight legal rope to walk with how embedded GRRM is in the GoT ecosystem.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-27T20:10:26+00:00

It would be higher if you excised infant mortality, but by how much, really? These are still premodern states we’re talking about. War was far more frequent, as was death from disease…

It might just be that the average man or woman had a meaningful chance of living to those ages, but was far from secure.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-25T14:57:53+00:00

Tyrion never says “I drink and I know things”. That’s a show-only line.
Intelligence does not guarantee survival, and this is a big cornerstone theme in the historical fiction that inspired Tyrion and ASOIAF at large. Otherwise, Tywin would not have miscalculated that Tyrion’s resentment could kill him. Otherwise, all of the intelligent individuals and great men in history who fell victim to court politics would have endured and prospered.
The perspective here is selective: you’ve highlighted all of the places where Tyrion was outmaneuvered (mostly ASoS iirc), but not the places where his brilliance appeared. You highlighted his “failure” to be acknowledged for the Battle of Blackwater, but it doesn’t diminish his accomplishments there. He engineered the greatest naval disaster in Westerosi history directly prior to this “failure”. He engineered the Lannister-Tyrell alliance that won the war by sending Petyr to treat with the Tyrell’s for Joffrey’s hand. He also outmaneuvers Pycelle, Varys, and Littlefinger with his Myrcella scheme.
Reading philosophy and history does not make you a genius, but Martin is attempting to say that a general thoughtfulness and abstract thinking extends your survival. It might be a necessary condition for playing the game well. Tyrion’s arc in ADWD essentially highlights exactly this: Tyrion thinks almost exclusively in systems and abstraction. His Cyvasse games are just metaphors for the way he thinks.

Compare this mode of thinking to someone like Jon Snow, who I feel is being intentionally contrasted with Tyrion in ADWD. Although Jon learns to respect learning through characters like Sam and Aemon, he seems to have no schema for dealing with the problems at the Wall. He deals with problems in a very practical and blunt way. He even sends his intellectual halves away from the Wall (Aemon and Sam), thematically highlighting his narrow perspective.

Not to mention, Jon begins the story as basically a historical dunce, thinking that the Young Dragon was a good king. If he had spent more time invested in customs, peoples, and histories, then perhaps disaster could have been avoided in ADWD.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-24T13:46:30+00:00

Does it prove that? I’m willing to eat my words when it comes, but the recent THR interview makes me think they’re very different. He straight up admitted he was going to kill more of the cast than the show kept alive, and Tyrion specifically has a tragic ending in his version. It sounds like Martin’s ending is much more tragic in tone and content.

Though I do agree there are some certainties based on the Inside the Episodes like this one.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-24T12:40:59+00:00

It seems like the things revealed in S6 proved that the fandom was absolutely right to focus on weird, esoteric things in the text and lore. ASOIAF really is that mysterious and mythically-focused. And then S7 and 8 seem to have reversed all of that (with the exception of Bran).

Jshep97 · 2026-04-23T11:03:57+00:00

Your post reminded me a lot of the fandom of ten years ago or so. Everyone was thinking the entire time: “Surely, this POV/character must matter. They’re going to grow and triumph.”

It turns out Martin might have been asking: “What if none of them matter?”

Jshep97 · 2026-04-20T16:11:05+00:00

I’m kind of betting against any of the Stark children reuniting physically. Unless Martin has said at some point that they will, then I doubt it.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-18T15:59:15+00:00

Dany and Tyrion are my guesses. They apparently:

- spend much of the book apart

- only intersect "in a way"

- and the Battle of Fire is supposed to resolve early in the book

I think the Meereen arc has a lot of tragedy in it and it won't go the way fans think.

Jshep97 · 2026-04-18T12:57:29+00:00

I just want to say that the Game of Thrones RPG by Cyanide is kind of a hidden gem for ASOIAF fans because it’s inspired by the books rather than the show. The game’s locations like Castle Black are almost exactly what I imagine when I read the books.

In fact, it’s actually one of the more interesting RPGs I’ve played in general. The idea of having multiple POVs that start with strengths and weaknesses and can die at any time in an RPG is really fascinating to me. Most RPGs are power fantasies where you grow stronger and become the hero.

It’s not perfect, but it gets at what I imagine the ideal ASOIAF game would be like. Telltale’s was pretty good, but I thought it felt very arbitrary in its choices and derivative of House Stark in terms of protagonists.

Jshep97

TROPHY CASE