Game of Thrones Season 2

old.Tohtori

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I've not read the books, yet I'm reading all the spoilers :(

Fuck my life.

Don't take it as a "spoiled the whole f*cking series due to own curiosity getting the better of my should've known better gland", but as a "learning experience" :D
 

DaGaffer

Down With That Sorta Thing
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In the main, I think the scriptwriters have done an extremely good job of reconfiguring the books for TV. In many areas they've actually improved on the original (Tywin/Arya for instance, Theon's motivation etc.). Sometimes there's extra stuff that wasn't in the books, but you have to remember the narrative structure used in the show is completely different; in the books every chapter in written from the perspective of one of the POV characters; you're "in their shoes" so to speak, so the scriptwriter has one problem and one opportunity when writing for TV, the problem is conveying the POV character's thoughts on the screen, often with the danger of reverting to exposition, so to get around that, they also have to use or create characters for the POV characters to talk to about things that were otherwise in their heads in the books. Second, they also have the opportunity to show us things from this world that can't be shown from the POV characters' perspective (one problem with the POV character approach is you have a lot of stuff going on elsewhere that has to be relayed to the POV character by someone else second-hand). Hence we're never shown directly about Loras/Renly in the books because there isn't a POV character to see it, but it is hinted.

In addition, the show is doing something that would frankly have done the power of good in the books; giving them a good edit. Martin is trying to create a rich world which he has to do by describing that world, and an effective way to do that is by having characters wander around the world, often at a snail's pace, getting nice little vignettes from supporting characters as it goes along. The TV show can cut through loads of that because its a visual medium, and because it has to anyway when it only has ten 60 minutes episodes to convey a whole book. The problem with the books is as they've progressed, the meandering and the sub-plots have ballooned to a frankly unneccessary degree. There's an awful lot of fat in there, and sub-plots that help describe the world, but don't really move the plot forward. The show will have to dump a lot of that stuff.

On the other hand, there are changes that are harder to fathom, unless you're a cynic like me, e.g:
The whole Qarth sequence. Although it actually seems MORE complicated in the show, its probably been done because the scriptwriters didn't feel they could do justice to The House of The Undying sequence as its written in the book, not least from a cost perspective, so they created a longer, but actually less-CGI heavy sub-plot instead. Basically the same logic gave us the Battle of The Blackwater at night, becuase its cheaper to film.
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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Just finished book 5.

Cannot wait for the next one.
 

soze

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Seemingly it took him 8 months to write 200 out of 1500 pages and the 200 include chapters taken from book 5 I think so we might be waiting a little while :)
 

DaGaffer

Down With That Sorta Thing
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So, two more books, 1500 pages each, 8 months to do 200 pages, so 10 years to complete, he's 68 years old, likes pizza and is very overweight. Its not happening is it? :(
 

Cyradix

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He promised to keep up with the tv shows so he has 3-4 years to write all the rest.
They better put him under house arrest and supply him only with healthy food :)
And maybe promise a pizza every 100 pages....
 

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