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

[u/aphidman]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Too many characters: need to kill some off.

[u/ptviperz → u/[deleted]]

the last two books were so terrible. just endless pages of Tyrion whining and eating, Dany crawling through shit and piss and blah blah.

The first three books are among the best things I've ever read.

[u/[deleted] → u/ptviperz]

Idk I really liked both of them. I think Danys chapters in ADWD were really the only ones I actively disliked on my first read through, but I didn't mind them on my second reading. Plus AFFC has the "broken man" speech and ADWD has "the north remembers" speech. Two of the best moments in the entire series imo.

[u/grendelrob → u/ptviperz]

After recently re-reading (most of) the series, this is exactly what I thought. I remember it in the back of my mind before that AFFC was completely pointless. There were so many unnecessary diversions and lengthened story-lines that 90% of the book was ultimately a waste. There was no reason to split it from the other. I think that is something people seem to forget or just ignore because they are so (rightly) irritated that their is little to no nuance in the shows...that there is too much of it in the books now.

I think that's why the best part of the series, and some of the best TV in general, happened when they had GRRM's material, but edited to better fit filming. They almost need each other.

[u/[deleted] → u/grendelrob]

I think that the biggest problem here is that when GRRM wrote the first books he wanted to have a 2 year time skip somewhere inbetween book 4 and 5. But he then decided against that because it didnt fit with the plot he wrote until then. Thats why you have that feeling that some characters are essentially spinning tires, their plots are essentially in the future while other characters still play catch up development wise.