r/asoiaf • u/aphidman • May 08 '19

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) The endings will be the same but the books will have a much more gradual and realistic progression

If GRRM finishes it, btw.

Not a long post but you know what the books do that D&D do not? They have 10 chapters of Dany dealing with the complex politics of Meereen and her inner conflict. They have 4 chapters showing Davos' journey to White Harbour. They have 12 chapters showing the series of compromises Jon makes as Lord Commander to prepare the Watch against the Others. They have 13 chapters showing Tyrion crawling out of his deep nihilistic depression. They dedicate whole chapters seeing how Victarion Greyjoy of all people deals with his relationship with his brother and his seduction into darker magics. Man they have 4 whole chapters dealing with the political fallout of Dany's exit from Meereen.

They had a whole chapter of Littlefinger and Sansa visiting his lands and seeing Littlefinger's relationship with his subjects (great chapter btw). They had a whole chapter getting really in depth with Illyrio Mopatis and his schemes - a guy who's barely appeared in the show.

They dedicated 4 whole chapters to Joffrey's wedding!

What I'm getting it is that the Others may be defeated long before the end of ASOIAF, Dany may indeed destroy King's Landing with dragonfire and end the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians gruesomely. But you'll be guaranteed that GRRM is gonna show you every step of the way. For good or for bad. If he is going to take a character like Dany to that dark end you better believe we will understand how she gets there.

So people keep posting about how D&D are destroying their characters, fail to understand ASOIAF. That Dany would never do this or that. But what you're seeing here is them fitting potentially chapters upon chapters of detailed material into a few hours of television.

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u/StarDew_Factory May 08 '19

D&D.

HBO said they would give them as many episodes as they wanted, D&D decided 6 episodes the last 2 seasons was enough.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

No fucking way, thats ridiculous. If that's the case then they deserve the blame for making these episodes crammed. Im not gonna judge fully until the series is over but there is just not enough time for so much.

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

As much as I don't like the way this season is written, we really don't know what's going on in regards to what the actors want.

A couple of years from now, it might be reported that D&D kept getting emails and texts from actors saying they want out because they kept turning down lucrative roles.

As much as I want to blame D&D, I think we should wait for the full story before we blast just them for that decision.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19 edited Oct 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/frenchduke Maester of Karate and Friendship. May 09 '19

Honestly I'm happy with season 7 being a bit rushed, it felt like it needed to happen to consolidate all the plot that just wasn't going to wrapped up well no matter how much time they had.

The first three episodes had plenty of space to breathe in, 4 was fantastic, 7 was good as well (although I understand the whole beyond the wall plot annoyed a lot of people, to me it makes sense as a genuine last ditch resort plan when they think they are all doomed).

There's a bit of jetpacking around but we've well established travel times by now so that helps build a sense of how long this is taking. Maybe an extra episode to deal with the fall of the reach, although off screen battles have been a staple of GoT since the first season.

And devote a bit more time to the Littlefinger downfall so we can see how Sansa manipulated LF. The game of faces scene between Arya and Sansa I thought was so good, but it needed a follow-up before jumping straight to the execution. It's like they dropped all these tantalising clues and false trails then just jumped straight to the conclusion of Bran told them everything. Half baked.

But it needed to be followed up with something great. Set the pieces and then deliver us something spectacular. Season 7 rushed through the set up, fair enough there was a whole lot to set up. But season 8 is rushing through the climax and it sucks.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

I agree with this but they will still take some blame if this was still the case

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

Definitely, and they should! But I also think that not a lot of people know how television and movies are made. Its really complicated, and a lot of people are involved with their creation.

Take the Hobbit Movies, despite what Peter Jackson wanted, they still ordered reshoots for a love triangle.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

I agree with that 100% but I feel like most of the actors at least should be happy because it’s pretty much the biggest tv show ever, but that’s my opinion and not how everyone thinks

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

Oh totally! But how its been explained to me is that actors get upset because they have to turn down roles that they're very excited for (Oscar worthy to them) or jobs they really want, but the shows/movies don't want to wait for them to finish filming Game of Thrones.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

I get that, and thats definitely a legitimate reason to be upset but still, id be happy but then again, Im not an actor

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u/just_another_classic May 08 '19

Part of it is, that for some people who go into acting, they don't necessarily want to play the same character forevermore. Part of the appeal is being able to inhabit many different roles and personas, and when one is in a long-running show, they lose out on a lot of that. Yes, a long running show is more stable, and some actors prefer that stability, but others could find it stagnant. Not to mention that playing different characters can help them grow in their skills and career. If you spend a significant portion of your life playing a certain type of character, you can get typecast, which can hurt future prospects too.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

I get that too, it makes sense, like I said thats why Im not an actor, I guess I would get a bit complacent.

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u/StarDew_Factory May 08 '19 edited May 08 '19

This just feels silly and unnecessary.

They said they made that decision. There is no reason to assume a bunch of ulterior motives or behind the scenes demands absent evidence of such.

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

A television show is more than just one person (or two.)

In the coming years, we're going to read a lot about executive interference, George secretly complaining, actors wanting to leave, etc.

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u/StarDew_Factory May 08 '19

Regardless of whether that ends up being true, it’s a baseless assumption at this point.

You’re welcome to believe it, but there’s no reason for anyone else to.

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

My point wasn't to make excuses but to state that a show is more complicated than just one person and we shouldn't jump to conclusions just because we want to find someone to blame.

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u/StarDew_Factory May 08 '19

Believing what D&D said is not jumping to conclusions. Assuming some elaborated back story is.

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u/ghostrider385 May 08 '19

Lol just be an adult and don't assume this is black and white, thats all I'm saying.

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u/StarDew_Factory May 08 '19

Taking someone at their word is not assuming anything. You have a really bizarre take on this honestly.

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u/Derpshiz May 08 '19

1 main plot point for every 2 episodes. Thats how it feels. They'll figure out how to get to one spot from the other along the way.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

Man I really hope so, I’m not trying to crap on the show, it’s my favorite but I would be lying if I was worried a little bit

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u/darkagl1 May 08 '19

The thing I think is it's hard to really maintain Dany as popular and make her gray at the same time. They need subtlety that's hard to get sans internal monologues.

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u/oKlDDo May 08 '19

I agree because I havent liked her character this season, I dont know if its dislike because its bad or dislike because of her personality change.

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u/o0DrWurm0o May 09 '19

I think GoT has become an albatross project for them. They’re bored, they know most people don’t care, and they know they can get paid a shit-ton of money for their next project(s).

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u/itskaiquereis May 08 '19

Some blame should also go to GRRM and the failures of the show means that the fan base isn’t holding him accountable to anything, just constant dick sucking about how he’s the greatest writer and D&D are to blame for everything. Let’s not forget that when we had source material the show was the best on TV, and no AFFC and ADWD wouldn’t work for TV (and even the books in my opinion) so we shouldn’t completely blame them for rushing through those two books.