WTF just came out of her vagina.
No, don’t tell me.
wahoo
3783
quick question…any news of the start of the new book…he was supposed to start this spring but…
I’m mostly ok with getting the completion of the story in tv format, written by someone else.
See, I doubt I’d watch it. Sure I’d read online the character arcs and overall story, hoping the producers stayed roughly faithful to whatever GRRM passed on to them, but I can’t imagine watching a season 7 that’s entirely in the hands of TV writers. Based on how much paring down is occurring early in season two, I shudder at the butchery required by the narrative’s end.
There’s a new chapter floating around already so… once you let everyone see it, a writer is not likely to change it afterwards so I’m assuming a bit of it is already set and done and it seems there’s decent progress going on. That being said… who knows?
— Alan
He supposedly had around 200 manuscript pages completed that were in good state when Dance was finished. Some moved to book 6 out of choice, some out of necessity due to Dance’s length. How many more he’s written since finishing Dance almost a year ago I haven’t heard. And if GRRM is smart he won’t say a word about his progress until he’s down to the last 100 pages or so.
rowe33
3787
The Jets are gearing up for the 2012-2013 season so he likely won’t get back to work until after the Superbowl.
I don’t pay attention to how many pages he says he’s written anymore…didn’t he say something similar about Dance?
Considering how poor ADWD was, I think that the television writers may be able to do a better job with the rest of the series than Martin would provided they have an outline of where the series is supposed to go.
If anything, Martin’s work needs to be pared down.
I think the sprawl started to happen with book 4. I keep having this ugly vision of the series turning into another Wheel of Time.
I definitely agree that books 4 and 5 were the weakest in the series, but Dance ended with two battles looming. So I think some of those PoVs are going to be reduced. The TV show would just replace narrative complexity with more Roz/cum face/lesbian/spanking/Caligula-ish penetration scenes. No thanks.
That’s not outside the realm of possibility, though if he were younger I’d be more confident GRRM will finish even if it takes eight books. I think everything depends on book 6. The pace is going to have to feel incongruent to someone reading the entire series for the first time, with books 4 and 5 being plodding reads and 6 suddenly seeing an almost disjointed, abrupt leap forward in the story’s pace.
Khoram
3791
I think the current series writers could make a season or two of interesting episodes out of the events of Books 4 and 5, what with being able to intersperse scenes from both and paring away the useless, boring cruft. If they had to shoot book 4 by itself, they could almost write off the rest of the series. What a bore that would be. And book 5 really doesn’t need as much time given to Mereen to get across the point as the written word gave it. I think they can distill the interest essence out of them both with their current scripting philosophy.
There are a couple of ‘reveals’ in the later books of the series that I am surprised that the show is not emphasizing, given the chance for a fresh start.
In other words, there are a couple of major-ish plot points which matter in later books that were not even mentioned in earlier books, but arguably should be. With a ‘fresh start’ for the series, these plot points could have been more seamlessly integrated into the show.
These are simply my own theories and observations, and were spurred by thoughts in the ‘OMG, the shadow totally ruined the show’ thread.
Cersei’s Prophecy
[spoiler]It always felt like Cersei’s prophecy of a young, pretty queen coming to destroy all she held dear was an element GRRM introduced to cause conflict in the later books.
However, if she truly was driven by this prophecy - would it not also apply to the nominal Queen to be - Sansa Stark?
The Producers of the show could have used the prophecy to retcon and highlight Cersei’s motivations for cruelty to Sansa . . . [/spoiler]
Bran’s Prophecy
[spoiler]It was surprising to me, in all the Godswood’s scenes to date, as well as the upcoming ones with Sansa, that we don’t see Bran making an appearance.
Again, a big reveal in the later books, but something that could be hinted at and shown now.[/spoiler]
Point taken on the number of extra’s, but for what it is worth, I loved the look of Qarth and its walls.
While the Castles and cities of Westeros have a medieval European vibe, I thought Qarth had a great mid to late Bronze Age vibe. It seems very suitable given the supposed age of the city itself.
Maybe as Dany moves west into other cities, the theme will continue. Yunkai inspired by Troy? Meereen by Golden Mycenae?
Sepiche
3794
You might also like this:
http://www.kimberleypope.com/Kimberley_Pope/GOT_Quarth.html
I saw them posted on Winter is Coming earlier today, but those are a number of concept art pieces that were used for the show including some incredible ones of Quarth.
BTW, in the book, at Harrenhall, I don’t remember a torture scene like the one in the latest episode, with the rat in the pail and all–who is the questioner supposed to be?
roBurky
3796
The torture scene would be based on the ones in the book that happened after Arya got captured, but before she was taken to Harrenhal. The torture methods were different. I’m guessing the questioner would be The Tickler from the books.
Which is a great name for a torturer, and the show should have used it.
This second season seems particularly bad for introducing characters. They haven’t referred to Melisandre by name as far as I can recall, or reintroduced The Mountain.
That was supposed to be The Tickler I think. They basically condensed much of the journey to Harrenhall in that episode.
Who do you think was picking out the prisoners to be tortured? Arya even called him the Mountain in last week’s episode.
But overall I agree. Especially bad with Stannis and Davos.
I almost missed that too actually. Especially since they changed the actor playing him as well. I liked how Hot Pie was staring him down out of misguided advice :)
I still don’t like the scenes with whores as they seem unnecessary gratuitous filler though I guess showing Joffrey shooting kittens would be too much even for HBO. Peter Dinklage continues to just kill as Tyrion as well as the actor playing Tywin.
I think Joffrey was actually shooting rabbits in the books, not that that would’ve made it wiser to hew to the text. The kitten thing is probably from when he was younger, cut a pregnant cat open to see her kittens. Robert hit him so hard Cersei thought he’d killed the boy.
Elio’s Suvudu review of the episode praises the whore scene, and I couldn’t disagree more. I was yelling at my TV something like, “God damnit, HBO, stop this crap!!,” as Roz’s head was dipping down toward the other girl’s nether region.
