Difficult Decision for book readers...

I am very confident that GRRM will not let GOT eclipse the book series. If it does, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it but my curiosity would get the best of me. I cannot leave either so will have my cake and eat it twice.

I do not think GRRM said the TWOW and ADOS will be any longer than books already released. He said the opposite I think.
 
They have already said that the plan is to combine AFFC and ADWD to one season with a little bit of them spilling into S4 and S6. I can think of a storyline or five that can easily be cut...
 
They have already said that the plan is to combine AFFC and ADWD to one season with a little bit of them spilling into S4 and S6. I can think of a storyline or five that can easily be cut...

As can I

Ignore the size of the books and look at the plotlines for the key characters. Which even for those with the most activity is a season and a bit of story progression.

I would like to see all of Arya's story on the screen, but if they get her to Bravoos in Season 4 (very likely as she does not have much ASOS material left). Then she has a one season arc in AFFC/ADWD. It is the same with Bran, Jaimie, Sansa, Davos etc.

Being a bit more controversial I would say that characters like Dany, Brienne and Tyrion have rather less than a season's worth of material.

That is what it comes down too really, some very interesting characters who people watch the show for who need to be given enough screentime and plot progression.
 
Considering season 4 is going to be the second half of Storm I think there's a good amount of time for GRRM. It also seems entirely plausible that Feast and Dance will be combined for the show and that they will go for a minimum of 3 seasons. Assuming TWoW is on the same level as ADWD and SoS in terms of length, it would likely get 2 seasons as well. So, GRRM has, potentially, 6 seasons worth of GoT before the last book has to be finished and 4 seasons to finish TWoW.

By my rough reckoning we are now 600 pages into ASOS, which is just over 900 pages in total..

It seems very likely therefore that ADWD/AFFC material will be brought into S4 and aside from that I am curious how you see a 3 season AFFC/ADWD working?

A five minute scene of Brienne plodding along a dirt road stopping at some random peasant "have you seen a maid of three-and-ten upon the road" and then resuming her forlorn quest with the negative respond. Cut to a two minute tracking shot of a table laden with food. Then cut to Tyrion pensively staring into space "where do whores go" he asks some passing stranger who doesn't speak his language. Finally cut to the exciting action in Mereen and someone falls asleep from boredom in Dany's courtroom.

The producers have said they are aiming for a seven season run, so thankfully we will hopefully be spared the above.
 
Rolynd and Jaglover - couldn't agree more, Unless the characters in the show start describing every meal they eat, there just isn't enough in AFFC and ADWD to fill out two seasons. Err rather there isn't enough without getting too heavy into new characters in Iron born/Dorne. They need to be eased in or it could cause viewers to lose interest, which leads to my next two observations....

1. The point about Dany not getting to Westeros is a good one. There hasn't been enough Dany, and there won't be for a while....


2. Does anyone else think that it is way better to watch the shows in at least two hour increments - especially if you haven't read the books?
My non-reading friends can't keep up with the characters because sometimes it's two weeks between a 7 minute scene with them. This could be an issue shooting Seasons 5/6 maybe they should do two back to back episodes of the same four story lines...then switch.


Unless they get 2 seasons out of WOW it won't be close.
Any suggestions on what they could do to stall for a season or two?
"Lost" formula maybe, some flashbacks to help flesh out the characters for non-book readers...
I'd say start sooner rather then later. I think it would help non-book readers out. Get Sean back ASAP. Mad king stuff would be great too.
 
Unless they get 2 seasons out of WOW it won't be close.
Any suggestions on what they could do to stall for a season or two?
"Lost" formula maybe, some flashbacks to help flesh out the characters for non-book readers...
I'd say start sooner rather then later. I think it would help non-book readers out. Get Sean back ASAP. Mad king stuff would be great too.

IMO they shouldn't stall it. There is no chance of GRRM finishing before the TV series does so we just need to accept that fact and move on.

He might be able to finish WOW before they finish converting AFFC/ADWD , but there is no chance of him finishing the series, bearing in mind as well that the show is written some time before it is aired, which cuts another 1/2 year of time.

Seven or Eight great, fast paced seasons like the three we have just had will be one of the greatest TV shows ever. Moving into a holding pattern would jeopardise them ever completing the story.

This is a chance to address as well the things that didn't work in AFFC/ADWD
 
While there is alot of material that could be cut away from Feast/Dance there are also quite a few storylines that could be embellished and played up. Short action sequences can become huge battles. What happens to Dany in meereen, while boring to read, could be embelished HUGELY to make it more exciting. the HBO show Spartacus has gone 4 seasons on the same basic premise of what Dany is facing in meereen. They can show much more of Dorne and develop those characters more, much like they did with Margary and They can embelish upon the ironborn as well.

The problem with these last 2 books was that not allot happens and nobody could really understand why. If they give some explanation and reasoning behind all the waiting around they could satisfy viewers and hold their interest.

Just my 2 cents
 
Eh...I hadn't really thought in terms of what they would show/cut from AFFC/ADWD, I was simply going on a page count of the combined two vs. the other novels. ADWD is almost the same length as ASoS so it seems they should get at least two seasons out of the combined books.

That being said, I don't think they can really skip the iron born/dorne stuff because those characters seem likely to play fairly important roles in the upcoming seasons. Perhaps Dorne and the Quentyn storyline don't seem terribly compelling right now, but I get the feeling GRRM includes them mainly because of their relevance to TWOW. I imagine the whole Quentyn thing would have been done via flashbacks if GRRM had followed his original plan and that we would be getting said flashbacks because they were pertinent to whatever the current goings-on were in TWOW. Similarly, Euron and Victarion both seem like they have big things to do before the series is over.

I think, instead of cutting them from the series, their roles could be embellished and made more interesting. Especially in the case of Quentyn, the show runners are probably going to want viewers to be more attached to him before his fiery death than readers were ergo, more scenes for him.

Likewise, there is lots of unexplored territory for Arya in the house of black and white and for Sansa training with Baelish. Perhaps a bit more time with Sam at the Citadel as well, getting more acquainted with Marwen (is that the magic loving maester's name?) and such.

Basically, there's plenty of nothing going on in the pages of AFFC/ADWD. But there's also plenty of stuff that I wish GRRM had spent a bit more time on as well. All this being said, Jag and Rolynd may be right in that there is only two season's worth of material in them.
 
Seven books, seven seasons:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/game-of-thrones-producer-discusses-series-end-20130517

JagLover said:
A five minute scene of Brienne plodding along a dirt road stopping at some random peasant "have you seen a maid of three-and-ten upon the road" and then resuming her forlorn quest with the negative respond. Cut to a two minute tracking shot of a table laden with food. Then cut to Tyrion pensively staring into space "where do whores go" he asks some passing stranger who doesn't speak his language. Finally cut to the exciting action in Mereen and someone falls asleep from boredom in Dany's courtroom.

This had me laughing out loud! Don't forget about Jaime twirling a quill between his fingers for a few minutes while thinking about what he should write in the White Book, distracted by Tyrion's voice echoing in his head "she's been ******* Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know..."

I really hope - and believe - that they will cut out Quentyn's storyline out. It would make sense to have the Dorne stuff happening actually happen in Dorne, so basically the Arianne-parts. I could see "Aegon" going back to Westeros much quicker in the books and then being weaved into Arienne's plot line a bit faster. Brienne's tour of the eastern Riverlands and beyond is a huge waste of time.
 
They have already said that the plan is to combine AFFC and ADWD to one season with a little bit of them spilling into S4 and S6. I can think of a storyline or five that can easily be cut...

They haven't said that. They've indicated they will be combined by timeline - they're not putting Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington on the bench for a season - but over what period of time has not been publicly discussed. They have said that the 1 season = 1 book structure has been abandoned, and will adapt the entire book series to television in the manner that works the best for them.

Also, producer Frank Doelger has said they expect to get to seven seasons, but showrunners (who are senior to Doelger) David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have said they envisage eight seasons.

On that basis, I expect some minor Book 4/5 elements to appear in Season 5, and then the bulk of Book 4/5 will be covered in Season 5 by itself, with maybe a few elements falling back to Season 6. I don't even rule them out bringing in early Book 6 material, such as the Battle of Winterfell and the Battle of Meereen, into the climax of Season 5.

Given how huge Books 6-7 are projected to be (that's 1500 manuscript pages, the same as ASoS and ADWD), it would be wise for the producers to allocate at least three seasons, or a season-and-a-half per book, to those volumes. Expanding Books 4/5 across two seasons would force them to lose a lot of time from later books. Expanding across three seasons is simply untenable and unrealistic, as that reduces TWoW and ADoS to one season between them, which will simply not work.
 
I don't want to be spoiled, so I will Take the Black if it comes down to it. I don't think I know of a series ended by HBO, but it may happen.
 
I don't want to be spoiled, so I will Take the Black if it comes down to it. I don't think I know of a series ended by HBO, but it may happen.

The Wire and The Sopranos both had definitive endings (although in the latter's case, a rather controversial one). Oz had an ending and so did Rome, though that was a bit rushed.
 
If you asked HBO they'd tell you Carnivale had an actual ending too...

My heart still bleeds for the lack of additional seasons of that show :(
 
Wert,

If they run out of seasons for the books, are movies an option? They talked about a Sopranos movie, but never did it. It would be a first no?

Maybe a good Idea for an ending..

Somehow I feel because of the popularity anything is possible...
 
Wert,

If they run out of seasons for the books, are movies an option? They talked about a Sopranos movie, but never did it. It would be a first no?

Maybe a good Idea for an ending..

Somehow I feel because of the popularity anything is possible...

You do have a point there, but it is not unprecedented. the X files movies were written into the show, almost like 2 hour long specials that were shown in theatres and while this is a ridiculous example, the Simpson's movie acted as an extension of the show as well. There has also been talk of stephen King's dark tower series being worked into a series of seasons and movies. Book 1 would be the first season, and book 2 would be 2 movies or something like that. It is a great format and it could certainly work.

Maybe Feast and Dace couldn't make 3 seasons but it could make 3 movies, each a year apart and about 2-3 hours long. That really only translates to 6-9 episodes depending on the length of each movie.
 
Oh, well, I meant to say, I don't know of a book series that was finished by a TV series, but I just can't think of one. It's an interesting prospect. And yes, it could all end up with a movie as an ending, I suppose. Wonder what negotiations would have to happen for that! In any case, I'm down for it. There is no way I could keep myself away.:)
 
For me, it is an easy decision. I will wait for the books.
I am a person who loves to read more than watch.
So, I can easily not watch the whole show.
 
For me, it is an easy decision. I will wait for the books.
I am a person who loves to read more than watch.
So, I can easily not watch the whole show.

Here's my dirty little secret: I haven't actually watched the show past episode 3 of the first season. I'm like you. I don't really watch much TV except for sports. Lots of sports. But I will indeed watch the show in its entirety when they finish the off the story assuming it's not canceled before then. I've said many times on this forum that I'm very pessimistic about the chances of us seeing TWOW let alone ADOS. ADWD is it for us, my friends. But, hey, there's always Wild Cards :rolleyes:.
 
Hello all, long time no see!

While I love, love the TV series so far, if it came down to finish I had not yet read, I would be forced to take the black!

Ultimately, I am a reader. Books (especially these) carry a depth that cannot be matched on screen. Just MHO!

Great to see you all again by the way!
 
I'm torn if I'll keep my vows-B- or take the black-C-. This is tough indeed. looking forward on TWoW, tho. Hopefully, it will be published next year. ^^
 

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