Does anyone feel the same way I do about not watching the show?

[CuriousEdd]

I have my own personal imagery of aSoiaf and the world of Westros and Essos. My own image of each character with their own voice. It's the same with any other book I read before I see an adaptation. The thing is every time I watch an adaptation, it's hard to get the images out of my head, that of the actors and the sets and I hate that. An adaptation is adaptation of course and should do it's own thing, but for me it alters my rereading experience and makes it feel less pure, as the images are taking more of a resemblance of actors as appose to the character descriptions in the books. I know I'm going to have the problem when I finally get around to reading LotR. Does anyone else feel the same way? I feel like no one else has that same point of view so I'm curious.

[White Ravens]

I have my own personal imagery of aSoiaf and the world of Westros and Essos. My own image of each character with their own voice. It's the same with any other book I read before I see an adaptation. The thing is every time I watch an adaptation, it's hard to get the images out of my head, that of the actors and the sets and I hate that. An adaptation is adaptation of course and should do it's own thing, but for me it alters my rereading experience and makes it feel less pure, as the images are taking more of a resemblance of actors as appose to the character descriptions in the books. I know I'm going to have the problem when I finally get around to reading LotR. Does anyone else feel the same way? I feel like no one else has that same point of view so I'm curious.

You're right, of course. I read all of the books before I watched the HBO adaptations and had my own visions for what the characters and settings looked like as well as the sounds of the voices for many of the characters. Now when I read the books the main characters all look and sound like their TV counterparts. And the changes don't stop with the appearance, accents and sounds of the characters. They actually say things and do things that differ from how things are described in the books. Still, I'm really glad that I saw the TV adaptations. For the most part they are very faithful to the books and very well realized.

[BRANDON GREYSTARK]

Those who watch the series must honestly ask themselves if they were not fans of the novels would they still watch ?

[Lopsang]

Yes, I agree. I don't want my imagination to be tampered with by the series. It's hard indeed to undo what you have already seen. That's the problem with the internet - I can't do much searching around and stuff without seeing the characters.

[Trogdor Targaryen]

I saw the show, 3 entire seasons, before reading the books, and my mental imagery of the books is drastically different than in the show. Some characters, like Tyrion and Jon look the same because of the show, but most of my favorite characters look much different when I'm reading. I'm glad the show is drifting apart so I can isolate the two more.