Scuzz
3581
So does that mean if book 6 isn’t out before the sixth season on HBO the HOB writers will just finish it on their own. :)
Razgon
3582
The end of the series? What I meant should be clear enough. The show will not be canceled before the end of the series.
They’ve never said anything of the sort.
Razgon
3584
Well, apparently they did
“We told George [R.R. Martin] we’d go as long as he kept writing,” HBO co-president Richard Pleper said at a TCA panel yesterday. “I can promise you that we won’t stop it before it’s ready to stop,” agreed Michael Lombardo, HBO’s programming president.
“We told George [R.R. Martin] we’d go as long as he kept writing,” HBO co-president Richard Pleper said at a TCA panel yesterday. “I can promise you that we won’t stop it before it’s ready to stop,” agreed Michael Lombardo, HBO’s programming president.
Meh. More or less an empty bag of words. From HBO’s point of view it may well be “ready to stop” when there are less than a million people tuning in each week. Still, it’s nice to hear that they recognize the fact of an overall story in there.
Now that’s just crazy talk. :P
GRRM is heavily involved with the series, right? It wouldn’t surprise me if he tightens up the story on level 2 a bit.
I liked the scene with Cersei and Littlefinger. It reminds us that he is kind of a social outcast (bought his way to real nobility) and he and her have quite different views of how the world works. And she humiliates him - and it is implied, I guess, not for the first time. All important stuff.
See, I didn’t care for that scene at all. Littlefinger would never be so stupid as to throw the spreading rumor of her incest in her face like that.
I haven’t read the books, but it certainly seems they’re trying too hard with the Littlefinger character overall. He’s clearly not as interesting as they want him to be. Well, not to me - anyway. Also, the blatant sex thing got old after the first episode. Maybe it’s because I’m a dane (we don’t have a problem with sex on TV) - but I find that the vast majority of sex is completely superfluous for the scenes in question.
There’s sex in the books. Nothing as Cinemax cringe-worthy as the whore lesson in Season 1, but a lot more than the typical swords and sorcery novel.
Teiman
3591
IMHO, theres two themes in Game of Thrones (the novels), celebration of life and lords vs common people.
Is a world with terrible winters and wars, where millions die. People is terrified of the next winters, and live in very very very long summers, with plenty of wine. So people fuck like theres not tomorrow because, maybe is real, that theres not tomorrow. Winter is comming: Carpe diem.
The lords vs common people theme is growing. Littlefinger is a small Oliver Cromwell. He may aspire to something else, but perhaps not something better.
He’s not heavily involved. He gets to write one episode per year, which was part of the contract when HBO bought the rights to the series. He’s one of the very rare authors who gest to do that, but it’s only because he spent 10 years as a producer/writer/executive producer in Hollywood. He also gets a co-executive producer credit, but those are largely ceremonial (his deceased agent also got one; he’s the dude who sold the series to HBO, for example).
D&D respect the hell out of him, and ask him questions, but GRRM has stated that he doesn’t get anything resembling override power. D&D are the showrunners. Hell, he even said that HBO wouldn’t even send him screeners in advance for some episodes last year. And, besides, GRRM is far too busy with other things (like writing the rest of the books) to be heavily involved.
And, in other news, the show just won a motherfucking Peabody!!!
nixon66
3593
Official world maps coming later this year! About time!
GRRM mentioned a map book at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Then there’s the official cookbook coming out in May, written by the authors of the awesome Inn at the Crossroads blog. They’re chefs who took it upon themselves to create recipes for all the meals described in the books, even the really unusual stuff, such as swan and jellied calves brains. Their recipes are awesome, and GRRM’s editors signed them to a book deal.
Of course, the unofficial (ie, unlicensed) Ice and Fire cookbook just came out.
And then there’s the big companion volume coming that’s being written mainly by Elio and his wife. They’re the two who run Westeros.org and are considered the keepers of the lore, even to GRRM. When George forgets something about the lore, he’ll email Elio, who sends him the answer, including reference pages.
Worth noting is that Anne Groell has stated the coffee book World of Westeros or whatever it ends up titled isn’t coming until late 2013.
I think people fuck like there’s no tomorrow all across this and most fantasy worlds.
Doesn’t really make it any less superfluous to dwell on.
Dave47
3597
I thought it worked well. Or, rather, I’m hoping it will work well. I think the differences between the way the Lannisters wield power and the way Littlefinger gains and wields power could become really interesting.
When I first started reading the books I assumed that Cersei acted the way she did because, to a Lannister, power was an ancient prerogative that arose from incredible unending wealth and strong family. Meanwhile, to someone like Littlefinger, both family and wealth were seen as far more transient, and maintaining power (let alone growing it) demanded constant maneuvering. That leads to the confrontation: Littlefinger sees Cersei as weak, and tries to point that out. But Cersei still has her gold, and the armed guards it buys; she doesn’t see herself as weak, and refuses to play along.
I think this could lead to a more interesting downfall than in the books, where it eventually turns out that Cersei was trying to play the same game as Littlefinger, but was just really bad at it. It also sets up the Lanisters are more explicit foils for the Starks; the houses are both “old power” that are not ready to deal with the new realities.
But it doesn’t seem like Littlefinger would confront Cersei directly, though. It seems inconsistent with his character to needle her that way with nothing to gain from it.
Also, keep in mind that the TV version of Littlefinger is dumb enough to lay out his grand plan to a couple of whores.
Side note, but I’m rereading ACoK while on vacation (did the same thing for AGoT last year), my 3rd read of the book ('99 and '03 being the previous reads), and I caught something very interesting on page 276 of the paperback version. Varys is speaking with Tyrion and says that Doran Martell still grieves for Elia and her babe. Not babes, but babe. Now, either GRRM slipped there, or he intentionally had Varys slip. And I can’t decide which way I lean after reading that passage for the first time in almost a decade and post-ADWD. This probably belongs in the Dance thread itself, but my wireless connection is horrific here in Naples (FL), so doing a search is too painful.
