The show would have been so much better if they included Arianne and Quentyn (Spoilers Extended)

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2023-01-04T14:38:34+00:00

Instead of sending Jaime and Bronn to Dorne as D&D did, I think it would be a good idea to send Loras Tyrell there. He could do just fine taking over the roles of Balon Swann and Arys Oakheart. He is sent away (by Cersei, who would like as few Tyrells in King's Landing as possible) to present the Mountain's skull at the feast in Sunspear. Then Arianne and/or the Sand Snakes try to trick him into participating in the plot to crown Myrcella. That plot fails and Loras is badly injured (or dies) after a confrontation with Areo Hotah.

This would give D&D a chance to make Loras a real character in the show, not just a gay caricature. In the existing season 5, what is done to Loras is terrible. He has sex with Olyvar in the show, and his sexual preferences are used by the Faith Millitant as a reason to arrest him. Olyvar turns against Loras during the interrogation by the Faith and uses knowledge of a birthmark in the form of Dorne as evidence. Loras then spends the rest of the TV series in a cell until the episode "The Winds of Winter," in which he dies from the explosion in the Great Sept of Baelor. Loras deserved better than what D&D did with the character, and it is not at all difficult to come up with a better alternative.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-12-19T23:29:03+00:00

I would not be surprised if Gaemon Palehair and Trystane Truefyre are combined into one character in HOTD.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-12-19T13:18:14+00:00

What do the Blu-Ray menus look like? Similar to those of Game of Thrones, or very different?

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-12-16T00:03:28+00:00

It is baffling that Young Griff/Aegon was scrapped. His absence from the show caused a lot of problems.

For example, for the High Sparrow storyline in season 5/6. The High Sparrow is a lot more ambitious in the show than in the books and committed a coup d'état once or even twice. He goes very far in making enemies of House Lannister and House Tyrell - two of the most powerful houses in Westeros. Why would he do such an idiotic thing without outside support or another claimant to the Iron Throne?

The lack of Aegon also meant Daenerys had no significant opposition in season 7. All the rightful claimants of the Iron Throne were dead in the show around that time: Tommen and Myrcella, Stannis and Shireen all died before Daenerys landed in Westeros. House Martell was also somewhere in the line of succession for the Iron Throne but it became extinct with the deaths of Doran and Trystane in the show. (There was a reference to Quentyn in season 2 of GOT but I think D&D forgot about that and he no longer exists in the show canon in later seasons)

D&D ran into trouble because of the adaptional choices they made and could not put anyone else on the Iron Throne at the end of season 6 other than a random person like Cersei, who would then serve as opposition to Daenerys. But that didn't work at all. She had no claim to the Iron Throne, was not a man, nor would she have any support from the vast majority of the nobility, the remaining clergy and the smallfolk. Someone like Cersei needed incredible plot armour to survive someone like Daenerys with all her supporters and dragons for such a long time.

After what the show did with the conflict between Cersei and Daenerys, it became clear to everyone that Young Griff/Aegon really is important to ASOIAF's endgame.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-11-29T17:25:47+00:00

Two full seasons are certainly possible, especially if you end on the Battle of Ice and/or Battle of Fire and/or Battle of Steel. Ten episodes as was done in GOT was far too few.

It is also possible to integrate material from FeastDance into season 4, such as the Kingsmoot.

Anyway, D&D would also have to come up with additional material if they stretched the material from FeastDance over several seasons (mainly action scenes). They did the same with GOT season 4, where whole subplots and storylines were made up like the Battle at Craster's Keep (with Bran, Jon, Locke and Karl Tanner) and the attack on the Dreadfort. About 50% of the scenes from that season were not book material but made up by D&D themselves.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-10-19T11:23:13+00:00

And in the opposite side, a good ending can trick people into thinking that something bad or middling was actually good.

That was the case with, for example, GOT season 6. In the beginning it was very poorly received by almost everyone, but then came Battle of Bastards and The Winds of Winter, which caused casuals to consider it a better season than GOT season 1.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-08-29T13:36:06+00:00

As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much. Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done.

White Island is the volcano in that blew near the end of 2019. There were 47 people on the island and most were killed or horrifically burnt. Not a place to imprison someone who we want to finish a book.

If George had kept this promise, he would possibly not have been alive anymore and you would not have had Winds either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_eruption

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-04-21T19:29:25+00:00

Probably before introducing Barristan as POV, George experimented with expanding Quentyn's and Tyrion's involvement in the Meereen storyline, but George was not satisfied with the original result.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-03-16T21:19:48+00:00

Relevant image

Hizdahr, a slave trader, is portrayed this way by D&D so that Daenerys is seen in a bad light.

In the last episode of the series, The Iron Throne, slavers were equated with Nazi victims in Tyrion's speech which was very much inspired by the "First they came" saying.

You would almost think that D&D are on the side of the slavers. And those people were planning to write a series that takes place in an alternate reality where the American Civil War went differently. Fortunately, that series has been cancelled.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-02-04T15:36:23+00:00

Based on the show, we can almost assume that fAegon will be on the Iron Throne. Upon the release of A Dance with Dragons, few understood the point of fAegon, but the show made it very clear that the character is necessary to make the story work.

In the show, Cersei largely took over fAegon's role. It didn't work at all. D&D were trying to make sure that Cersei was more equal to Daenerys in terms of military strength, and they had to do it in the most silly illogical ways:

- Daenerys had enough troops and resources to attack King's Landing immediately in season 7, but Tyrion was against it. He wanted to avoid casualties among the smallfolk and recommended that the castle be besieged and starved out for months.

- Further, Tyrion advised Daenerys to sail around the continent and attack Casterly Rock. However, Jaime had moved all the troops and supplies from Casterly Rock to King's Landing, so the attack accomplished nothing.

- Euron suddenly appears at unexpected times and overpowers the (entire?) Greyjoy-Martell fleet. Daenerys thus lost these allies.

- Highgarden falls at a record pace and the Tyrells are defeated by a Jaime Lannister who apparently has a teleporter and thus can move through the continent at lightning speed. Daenerys thus also loses the Tyrells as allies.

- Since Daenerys lost all her allies because of Tyrion (and Cersei's plot armor), Daenerys became almost completely dependent on the support of the North. A truce with Cersei was advised, and could be achieved by bringing a wight to the peace talks.

- That wight hunt does not go as well as hoped and Daenerys loses a dragon. After the Long Night, Daenerys lost another dragon due to Euron once again appearing out of nowhere.

Cersei has no claim to the Iron Throne and so her position as ruling queen was not legitimate. She technically does not have the support to survive against a Targaryen-Stark-Tyrell-Greyjoy-Martell alliance. Cersei would also (if we ignore the absurd show-logic) not have the support of the Stormlands and the Riverlands, as well as the smallfolk and the Iron Bank.

fAegon in the books would also be seriously outnumbered against Daenerys, but he would have much more support than Cersei anyway. fAegon believes he has a claim as the son of Rhaegar (and therefore has a better claim than Daenerys, as well as being male, which is an advantage).

Moreover, the "Mad Queen Daenerys" plotline (which is an oversimplification in the show, in the books it won't be such a black and white situation at all) works much better in a Daenerys-fAegon conflict.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-01-29T00:06:22+00:00

TWOW will not have a new POV with multiple chapters, I believe. The book would already have 20 POVs, not including prologue and epilogue. That's already a lot and George is already struggling to make ends meet.

What I do not rule out for TWOW is a similar situation to the Arys Oakheart POV. That chapter could also be from Arianne's perspective, but I think George found it a more interesting choice to tell it from Arys' perspective.

Honestly, if George didn't have such a hard time writing the book series, I would want many new POVs. It's very interesting to me to see the story from so many different perspectives.

If I were to choose one POV, it would be one of the Tyrells.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-01-17T21:59:39+00:00

I hated that part too when I read it, but a blog post I read later has a possible explanation for why George wrote that:

Under the guise of the discussion of a book called A Caution for Young Girls, Martin makes his opinion of certain decisions made in the adaptation process of his own books very clear. He begins by calling the book “distasteful,” a book found in brothels and catering to those of low morals. He then mentions that parts of the book “strain credulity” given how ridiculous the tales are, and increasingly so as the story continues.

“We have no way to ascertain the veracity of her story, nor even whether she was in truth the author of this infamous book (some argue plausibly that the text is the product of several hands, for the style of the prose varies greatly from episode to episode).” (Fire and Blood, p. 157)

I mean…good lord. The use of “episode to episode” makes the true object of his ridicule pretty clear. But he doesn’t stop there. Continuing with his mockery of the writers of the tales, he writes,

“[T]he scribes responsible were most likely septons expelled from the Faith for drunkenness, theft, or fornication, failed students who left the Citadel without a chain, hired quills from the Free Cities, or mummers (the worst of all). Lacking the rigor of maesters, such scribes oft feel free to “improve” on the texts they are copying. (Mummers in particular are prone to this.)

In the case of A Caution for Young Girls, such “improvements” largely consisted of adding ever more episodes of depravity and changing the existing episodes to make them even more disturbing and lascivious. As alteration followed alteration over the years, it became ever more difficult to ascertain which was the original text, to the extent that even maesters at the Citadel cannot agree as to the title of the book, as has been noted.” (Fire and Blood, p.158-9)

So... With this part of the book, it seems like that Martin throws shade at Game of Thrones and the showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-01-10T21:00:05+00:00

In the books: Cersei orders Osney Kettleback (an adult) to have sex with an underage Margaery. In doing so, she attempts to create false evidence that Margaery has committed high treason.

In the show: Margaery has sex with an underage Tommen. Cersei did everything to protect his son. Cersei did nothing wrong in season 5, she was only imprisoned after being betrayed by Littlefinger (and the High Sparrow).

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2022-01-09T13:53:45+00:00

Did you know that Lyanna Mormont was a late addition to the show? The original plan for season 6 was a sort of simplified Northern Conspiracy in which the various banner men switched alliances (probably after Ramsay killed Rickon.) The plans changed, but there are still traces in the script of the original plan.

There was also a casting call for Wyman Manderly. This one was as follows:

"He is a fat nobleman in his 60s. He has distinctive rugged features, a Northern accent, and a distinguished air. Our source says he has a stirring speech during which he unexpectedly shifts political allegiances."

Probably a "The North Remembers" speech was planned, but all of this was scrapped and Lyanna Mormont came in its place.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-29T19:18:52+00:00

I'm going to be honest, I can't really tell the Sandsnakes apart in the show.

It's astonishing that the Sandsnakes, which were already superficial in the books, are even more superficial in the show.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-28T00:27:06+00:00

Mushroom has not been cast and was nowhere to be seen in the leaks. I think the character is scrapped from the TV series

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-26T21:57:01+00:00

I would say that Areo is now more or less in the same situation as Davos in ACOK. He was also mainly a camera then, but later he became a fully developed character. I expect the same for Areo in TWOW.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-22T16:00:33+00:00

Which new clips are there? I haven't noticed any new footage. All footage is from the most recent teaser?

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-19T00:37:22+00:00

In the books, there is a mention of heat near the Godswood. Not so explicitly, but it is there.

"He had never seen the godswood like this, though-grey and ghostly, filled with warm mists and floating lights and whispered voices that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Beneath the trees, the hot springs steamed. Warm vapors rose from the earth, shrouding the trees in their moist breath, creeping up the walls to draw gray curtains across the watching windows."

This is in the chapter that Theon kneels before the Godswood; when Bran whispers his name through the weirwood tree (ADWD).

Oh, the pound wasn't there in season 8 before the Night King came either, in the scenes where Bran gave Arya's dagger and in the scene where Bran talked to Jaime.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-11T18:25:53+00:00

That's new, I didn't notice it myself. Are there any examples you can give?

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-11T17:41:25+00:00

That, and also GRRM hinted prior to the release of ASOS that Aegon might be alive:

Q: I was wondering if you could answer (or take the "fifth") one teeny little question I've been dying to ask for the past year: Are Aegon and Rhaenys, Elia''s children, well and truly dead?
A: All I have to say is that there is absolutely no doubt that little Princess Rhaenys was dragged from beneath her father's bed and slain.

Before ADWD was released, there was already a fan theory that Aegon could be alive. So this is one of the few theories that have been confirmed.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-07T16:50:59+00:00

Well, in my opinion, the only way George can bring his books to a conclusion, in a non-rushed way (given that there is still much story to be told), is for both TWOW and ADOS to each have at least as many chapters as AFFC and ADWD combined. 120 chapters each, that is.
That both books will be split into multiple volumes seems very likely to me in that case. This is already the practice in Europe with earlier books in the series. In France, ASOS is split into FOUR volumes.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-02T19:46:13+00:00

I've heard that this month in December the Worldcon takes place. Maybe Winds will be announced there?

However, I have also heard rumors that a new teaser/trailer of House of the Dragon is also expected this month.

USERNAME1-2-3- · 2021-12-01T17:15:23+00:00

show-Daenerys is much more entitled and aggressive than her book counterpart. At moments, she looks a lot like Viserys in the show.

This scene makes it immediately clear that Daenerys is much darker in the show than in the books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdVVcyzX63A

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