Game of Thrones

@Flashman:

The books really go downhill after a Storm of Swords.

They just have the characters meandering about aimlessly, with the author getting cold feet and refusing to kill off any more major characters.

The last two books should be ignored by the TV producers (or used for lighting fires) in favour of a completely new parallel storyline.

While book 4 was a let down (and shorter) compared to books 2 & 3, in hindsight, it wasn’t uneventful.  It basically was setting the stage for the climax as the series resolves itself.  And I thought book 5 was an upswing and on par with 1-3.

I wouldn’t mind seeing divergent paths between written and filmed material, and am used to it in other series, particularly manga (Gantz and Full Metal Alchemist come to mind).  However, the word is that the show writers and directors know the details of how it ends.  I think the fans aren’t that faroff either, but GRRM has said the ending will be “bittersweet” - there’s still a lot to come, I think.  Just laying the groundwork for it now:  Lannisters in decline, wildling integration and new northern threat, Dany & her dragons, the other Targaryen in Westeros with an army, Littlefinger seemingly raising the Vale under him (with an unblemished army to boot), Dorne secret allegiance with Targaryens, Ironborn still loose, the Starks Return?..…that’s just off the top of my head.

@frimmel:

I can’t wait to see if Margaery totally set-up Cersei with asking Pycelle for moon tea. Total amateur move unless she wanted Cersei to think (whether she was or not) she was banging around on Tommen. I don’t think for a second she couldn’t get it on the quiet from the serving girls.

So yep, Jermo count me in on the “Grand Tyrell Conspiracy” more or less.

I don’t doubt that possibility - but I would think the Tyrell matriarch is behind it all. Mace is the face of the family and really just a run-of-the-mill warrior, portrayed in the show and books as such.

@frimmel:

My impression is the current season is just going to finish all of ASOS. So they’ll have taken two seasons with that book. If they then take books 4 and 4.5 into three seasons he should at least have book 5 out by time to turn that into a season. Making it four seasons might even be possible without dragging it down. (I don’t watch the show so I can’t really speak to the pacing and what they’re pulling from where at the moment.)

But it does seem like they’re going to overtake the novels. I think a bigger concern would be that Martin’s not going to live long enough to finish the books.

Book 5 “should be” out next summer.  They spent 2 seasons on Book 3, which has been claimed not to occur again, but I don’t see how they are going to follow the books translated directly as seasons for the next two.  Since they are concurrent, it needs to be melded together and shown in that manner, and I think that will help keep attention better.  It may very amount to 3 seasons, and I’ve heard that they supposedly estimated 7-8 seasons in all.  But we’ll see once it happens.  The books will be Ghostwritten, in the case of the Wheel of Time series, and he’s prepared for that as well.

@Flashman:

e’s created a vivid fantasy world, but seems unable to go anywhere in it now except concentric circles of the same thing.

Where?  I don’t know what you mean so you’ll need to line out where you think this.

Cersei’s walk of shame, and, er, um.

I will trudge through 2 boring, uneventful, dull seasons just to see this.

@Flashman:

The book after ASOS could have been set 10 years further on when things had been allowed to settle down; but then is Stannis going to camp at the wall for 10 years?

Why?  I don’t see how that addresses anything and skips over a ton of stuff (which I listed above).  You may as well say “it was all a dream” and end it.

Is that all that makes great TV?

First off, people are invested for 4 seasons.  There are many things to address:

Arya
The Hound
The Mountain
A New King
Stannis and his quest for the throne
Wildlings
WTF with the Others?
Dany
Tyrion
The Boltons
Ironborn
Littlefinger/Sansa
Martells/Oberyn’s death
Varys
Brienne
Bran/Hodor
Margery/Tommen

again, off the top of my head.  And there’s still more to come.

@Flashman:

But so many storylines to cram into 10 episodes; most characters will get about 3 scenes in the entire 5th season.

And nobody dies.

Apart from –-e—.

A sad loss I don’t think.

There simply isn’t a way to do the next season the way the books are, it’ll have to be combined.  I think it’ll be more exciting that way.

@Flashman:

Last book not even started on yet.

At his rate of scribing there’s no way it’ll be finished before the relevant TV season is made.

Martin will have to supply the producers with a skeleton version of the novel for the final TV shows - aired before the book is published:

https://uk.celebrity.yahoo.com/news/george-r-r-martin-rules-eighth-game-thrones-104152422.html

He knows how he wants it to end - I think the path to get there is the hard part.  He’ll finish.