122 replies to this topic

[Ran]

Another question for George:

He gave a broad outline of what his episode for the series would cover. Could he indicate about where his episode would end?

In particular, will he be writing any Tyrion or Dany scenes in his script?

And I suppose, will the first season still cover the whole of AGoT, or is there the possibility of their shifting some scenes to the next season? (I bring this up just because it was raised elsewhere.)

[The white rabbit]

I would gladly add another one (poor George!)

Why episode 8?
Was it his choice or David's and Dan's?

[Trebla]

He did mention that Dany would be in his hour.

Okay...I don't know if this new news or old news but....

ADwD POV Spoiler:

Spoiler

Melisanndre is a POV character

- From Q and A

- There have not been any characters that have been both a warg and a Faceless. That ruined a theory of mine.

- The next Dunk and Egg chapter will indeed be at Winterfell. Or at least that is the plan. He won't start writing it until after ADwD.

- He's trying to figure out if he can add the Dothraki language to his novels but there is legal ambiguity. HBO owns it. He talked about how politics gets into EVERYTHING subject from this because there is another linguist who has renounced the Dothraki work because HBO's man belongs to a certain group that the other linguist does not like.

- ADwD has passed 1300 pages. He is currently working on the epilogue though that doesn't mean it's finished. And he will announce it on his site and blog. QUIT looking for hints that he close to finishing it in his other posts. He doesn't do hints.

- He will NOT!!! answer whether John the Fiddler and Ser Alyn were gay. Those are questions we just have to answer ourselves!!

- Why Bittersteel did not support Daemon II is something that may be revealed. He mentioned thie earlier discussion of politics here. The Blackfyre Pretenders are no different. There are factions within factions.

-The Mereneese knot: It's kinda driving him nut. He has not enjoyed writing it but it will get finished. However, he has thoroughly enjoyed writing Arya. He feels like he could write a whole novel. Maybe even a YA one. lol

- He MIGHT be an extra in the HBO series. Watch closely.

- Expect disease to play a big part in ADwD just as religion did in AFfC.

That's pretty much all I got on the series. Lot's of good discussions on other topics, though. Will post those later. We've had a great time. Much different from a literary con but sill really cool.

eta: Yes, he did mention that GoT will cover all of the first book and then season 2 shifts into ACoK. Whether that is a hard firm line between the books? I dunno. He did say that season 2 would be more difficult because the characters split up so much and it will get harder to follow around. His point on the series is that if you loved how Peter Jackson did LOTR, you will like the series. If you were one of the ones that hated it because there was no Tom Bombadill, you won't like the series!

We are having dinner with him tonight, I'll judiciously ask some questions but I know there is stuff he won't answer. I told Lady N. and Luga I knew he wouldn't answer the John the Fiddler/Ser Alyn question.

Edited by Trebla, 18 April 2010 - 03:37 PM.

[Ran]

Excellent work, Treb! Good stuff.

ADwD:

Spoiler

Finally confirmed Melisandre. Nice. And disease ... is Meereen going to be swept by a plague, hurrying Dany's departure? I've got a feeling that this will be the case.

[lady narcissa]

There were 25 questions asked and answered at the Q&A this morning. I wrote them all down along with GRRM's answers. Trebla's given you the highlights but if people want to know all the things he said, I can type them up later. I have about 10 pages of chicken scrawl notes written down.

[Trebla]

Ran, on 18 April 2010 - 03:49 PM, said:

Excellent work, Treb! Good stuff.

ADwD:

Spoiler

Finally confirmed Melisandre. Nice. And disease ... is Meereen going to be swept by a plague, hurrying Dany's departure? I've got a feeling that this will be the case.

Spoiler

Yeah, weren't sure or not whether the Mel POV was confirmed or not. Even he didn't know for sure if he had announced that.

Yeah Ran, my first thought was that disease would either hit Meereen or spread by the large groups that are headed her way. He gave this as another example of him trying to place major medievel issues into his writing. Just as how religion came to the forefront in AFfC.

[The white rabbit]

Thanks Trebla.
That was great.

Except for the first sentence about Dany. It's not your fault, it's mine. Not the native speaker, and did not get it.

edit: disease = Meereen - that was my first thought, too.

Edited by The white rabbit, 18 April 2010 - 04:02 PM.

[Lord Varys]

Not answering the gay question is a sign in itself ;-).

Oh, and Trebla if you feel like it, ask why the hell Viserys I was not married to a female Targaryen, but married two times into non-valyrian houses. Also there is the question about Rhaenyra Targaryen's Prince Consort, and/or some details about her death, and Aegon's II.

Or details about how Aenys I ascended the Iron Throne, how Maegor ended up there, and why he did not rid himself of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

Oh, and to ask out of the blue if Jaehaerys's II concealed arm may have been burnt might get some kind of interesting reaction as well.

And about Fireball: Why did Aegon not make him a KG after the Dragonknight died? Or are we supposed to believe that Fireball only wanted to join them even later in Aegon's reign?

[Ran]

lady n,

The transcription will be great to see, in time! Thanks so much for your efforts. And have fun at the dinner, folks.

Trebla,

GRRM did hint at the POV previously, but yeah, no precise confirmation.

Spoiler

He said once it was one of the new Dark Sword figures, at a time when Loras, Sandor, and Melisandre were going to be released. Then he said it wasn't a Tyrell. And then he said it wasn't the Hound. So that left Melisandre, but he never explicitly said so up to now.

Which reminds me, yet another possible question: given that it seems Dance may show us some events in Westeros outside of the North and the lands beyond the Wall, are we going to learn more regarding the fates of Loras Tyrell, Margaery, and Cersei?

Spoiler

In fact, IIRC, he's suggested he will push Cersei's story forward, at least, in Dance... But mainly I'm wondering about Loras, who seems to be left in an ambiguous state of maybe/maybe not dead.

[Ran]

Lord Varys,

Quote

Not answering the gay question is a sign in itself ;-).

Not really. GRRM doesn't answer lots of things, and questions of this sort in particular ("Is this person this/do they think such/etc.") are ones he prefers to leave up to readers to decide. He may eventually give a genuine answer after a good while. Maybe after the next Dunk & Egg story?

His answer, re: Bittersteel, certainly suggests there was a more politick reason for his lack of support than just, "Didn't like him because..."

Quote

ask why the hell Viserys I was not married to a female Targaryen,

The usual answer for this sort of question is, what makes you assume there were female Targaryens available?

Quote

... why he did not rid himself of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

Why would he, exactly? They weren't rivals or anything, far as I know. If they kept their heads down and didn't presume to try and take the throne from him, why would be bother?

Quote

Why did Aegon not make him a KG after the Dragonknight died? Or are we supposed to believe that Fireball only wanted to join them even later in Aegon's reign?

At a guess, knowing what I know of the timeline, Fireball was not present in Aegon's court until some time after the Dragonknight's death. So someone else got that post before he extracted that promise from Aegon the Unworthy.

[Lord Varys]

Oh, and about Dance as well:

Does Epilogue mean real Epilogue (from a new POV), or just the last chapter of the book (Samwell's last chapter in AFfC worked as an Epilogue, but it was nevertheless no real Epilogue in the sense Merrett Frey's chapter in ASoS was)?

I actually liked the idea of an Epilogue as it was introduced in ASoS, and I'd like to see him going on with that.

And maybe to rephrase the question about dangling cliffhangers from AFfC: Are there other characters from AFfC despite Sansa that we are going to hear nothing about in ADwD? And if so, who are they?

Edited by Lord Varys, 18 April 2010 - 04:29 PM.

[The white rabbit]

Trebla, on 18 April 2010 - 03:31 PM, said:

His point on the series is that if you loved how Peter Jackson did LOTR, you will like the series. If you were one of the ones that hated it because there was no Tom Bombadill, you won't like the series!

Well, I am delighted to hear this, pretty sure now that nothing important would be cut out.

[Lord Varys]

Ran,

well, Maegor is supposed to be cruel and evil, right? I actually would like to know if Maegor was sterile (the fact that he did not father any issue although he had that much women may be a sign for that). And then he likely kept Aenys's children around as his heirs. But if he would have had any children, Jaehaerys (or his children) would have been a threat to his successors.

Ah, I forgot my favorite question: Did either Rhaenys or Visenya outlive Aegon I, and if so, what impact had she/them on the political situation of Westeros in the aftermath of Aegon's passing?

To ask about Daemon's I wife (being her a Targaryen, as Daemon II shows no signs of non-inbreed heritage) could be interesting, too, although I doubt he would talk about her, if he omitted any details about her from TMK.

Maybe any question about Viserys I would profit from a more detailed approach, say something like that:

Why did Viserys not marry a close female relative? Where there none around, and if so, why? Jaehaerys I ruled for 50 years, and Viserys was his grandson, he should have a sister, female cousin, extremely young aunt around to marry? Did House Targaryen not develop any side branches during the peaceful reign of Jaehaerys and Viserys (similar to the army of dragons Daeron the Good conceived)?

Oh, and why was Fireball absent from the court (that would be no question to GRRM)? TMK stated that he taught all the Great Bastards and Daeron's sons as well. To have any impact on Daemon's skills he should have been around the last years of Aegon the Unworthy.

[Lord Varys]

Quote

Yes, he did mention that GoT will cover all of the first book and then season 2 shifts into ACoK. Whether that is a hard firm line between the books? I dunno. He did say that season 2 would be more difficult because the characters split up so much and it will get harder to follow around. His point on the series is that if you loved how Peter Jackson did LOTR, you will like the series. If you were one of the ones that hated it because there was no Tom Bombadill, you won't like the series!

I completely overlooked that. I like PJ's approach to Tolkien less and less, but not because he omitted Tom Bombadil. So as long this is no hint that HBO is going to omit the character of, well, Stannis, I will not be pissed at all. I certainly will have no problem if Salladhor Saan is not around, or Hot Pie, or Jalabhar Xho, or someone of similar importance to the overall storyline.

I will be pissed, though, if that means HBO deals with the dialogue the same way PJ did in the LotR (meaning including pointless one-liners from blackbuster movies, or giving important lines from the books to the wrong people, thus ruining the characters involved).

[Garlan the Gallant]

This is kind of an obscure question, but can you ask him if the magic in his world follows a system with laws and mechanics or if he just leaves those kind of things obscure? An example would be: does he know why and how the dragon eggs hatched when they did? Dunno if he will answer this one.

My second question is: does the lengthy winter have to do with planetary motion around a star or does it have to do with magic?

Third question is: when GRRM writes about a new Valyrian sword, does he sketch it out beforehand? If so, then he would know exactly what Dawn looks like. Thus, and even if he says no to the sketching, can he give a more lengthy description of the blade and what it looks like (for us aspiring artists)?

Last question: Is Gendry proof that genetics work the same way, or very similar, to how they work in our own world?

Thanks so much; hope these arent too late!

Edited by Garlan the Gallant, 18 April 2010 - 06:09 PM.

[The Wedge]

You're all crazy. I'm going to talk to him about Mark Sanchez.

Mark Sanchez is all dreamy. And he's a New York Jet! (not that I care about the Jets, but I know GRRM does)

[Lord Varys]

Magic is magic in Martin world, so there is no real system behind it I'm aware of. Also, there are plenty of different magical traditions (Valyrian, Qartheen, Alchemists of Westeros, First Men etc.), so it would be pretty irritating if there were one system behind them all.
Dany's ritual likely worked because she was the one who could do it, and because she had a sacrifice at hand which was necessary for blood magic.

And he has already confirmed that the season thing has a magical cause.

Oh, and Dawn is no valyrian sword. It was forged from meteor iron (that's also why the Dayne castle is called Starfall).

[Daeron Targaryen]

Quote

My second question is: does the lengthy winter have to do with planetary motion around a star or does it have to do with magic?

I believe that question has already been answered in his emails: the seasons' duration has magical origins.

[Ran]

Lord Varys,

Oh, I see. I thought it was fairly obvious Maegor had no heirs, hence his many marriages... And in any case, even if he did have heirs, his being cruel and capracious does not necessarily mean he'd murder his own kin. We've no evidence that he ever did such a thing.

[quote]TMK stated that he taught all the Great Bastards and Daeron's sons as well. To have any impact on Daemon's skills he should have been around the last years of Aegon the Unworthy. [/quote]

Aegon the Unworthy outlived Aemon the Dragonknight by a number of years, and all of his acknowledged bastards were children at the Dragonknight's death (some weren't even born). Fireball coming to court and becoming master-at-arms a year or two after the Dragonknight's death (and his replacement) would still give him plenty of time to teach Aegon's bastards.

Garlan,

[quote]does the lengthy winter have to do with planetary motion around a star or does it have to do with magic?8/quote]

Answered [url=http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/1623/]here[/url]: "He assured us that we will someday find out how seasons work in his world, and that it will not be a scientific explanation because hello, it's a fantasy novel. He said that some fans have written him with fantastic explanations involving two suns, one of which is a black dwarf but that they will be disappointed."

[Lord Varys]

Ran,

yeah, okay, I admit we do not know much about Maegor the Cruel. But deliberately robbing Aenys's children of their birthright seems to be not that far removed from kinslaying.
Well, anybody, just ask George to tell a tale about Maegor the Cruel. Maybe about how he earned his nickname, or why he felt the need to execute three Grand Maesters?

And, how Aenys I did die? He ruled only a few years, so he might not have died of old age. We know next to nothing about him, except that he had pretty golden crown, dreamy eyes, and was supposed to be a weakling. Which makes him sitting the Iron Throne in the first place feel pretty strange. If Maegor had no second thoughts about robbing Jaehaerys of his birthright, why did he not push his elder brother aside as well?

The Wedge,

admit it, you are just afraid to appear like complete nerd ;-).