The wait before Season 6 and tWoW

[Masha]

Forget about the content of each book. The show will end with the 7th season. that's it. They will tell the whole story in two more seasons.

Next season will deal with things that will happen in book 6, but a big part of the beginning of that book (the battles of Meereen and Winterfell) will be skipped altogether.

Technically "Battle of Winterfell" was done in the last episode

Damn it I wrote a long piece asking where people anticipate the main storys for Season 6 to be. My guess is as follows:

- Dany is in a bad spot with the Dothraki who intend to send her back to Vales Dothrak with all the other widowed Khaleesi's in line with their tradition. Somehow she will escape and by the end of the season head to Westeros knowing she has no future in Mereen. Alternatively she is the big death next season and Bran takes control of her dragons.

- Jon needs to be revived, if he's not I am guessing Mel will be killed, Davos will go looking for Rickon and the White Walkers will conquer the wall towards the end.

- Cersai is going rage mode and I fear for Jamie's fate, netiher of these are end game players in my eyes so one or perhaps both will die next season. I expect Cersai to win her trial also.

- Bran will come back and I expect us to see his powers either in relation to the dragons, white walkers or Jon. Surely as a probable end game player he will play a big role.

- Tyrion will rule in Mereen and possibly set himself up for the end game as I suspect he is the most safe of the whole cast/POV in terms of making it to the final season/last book.

- Euron will rise as a power base and attack Old Town in the second half shortly after Sam arrives.

- The Boltons look unchallenged without Jon so they must wait for the White Walkers or Littlefinger.

Did I miss anything?

1) I really hope that there won't be attempted rape (or actual rape) of Dany. I mean D&D are so in love with that for shock effect and based on the previous description of Dothraki rapey culture in the show, I am pretty sure they would go with it. I suspect Jorah would attempt to infect Daario, regardless his condition would be revealed. Tyrion/Varys would attempt to clean up Maureen (and St Tyrion would succeed of course), Dany returns/escapes with/out Dothraki horde and they set out for return to Westeros.

2) Jamie arrives in KL, Cersei blames him and mostly centers her attention on Trystane. I am not sure if he would be imprisoned outright, but certainly his life would be threatened. I do hope it won't mean another return to Dorne for Doran's reaction on Ellaria and Sand Snakes. I hate Dorne know, so boring. Jamie might be sent off to Riverlands too, again.

3) Gilly and Sam would travel through Riverlands and would take on parts of that story from Jamie and Brienne, I expect we would see glimses of Freys, rumors of wolves (not sure), and meeting with Thoros and Co (I doubt LS would be there). If they can get the actor in - Edmure being imprisoned, possibly siege of Riverrun/Blackfish by Freys (with/without Jamie). Meet with Septon Meribald and his "friend". Oldtown storyline with Sam's father who would not be too impressed with him and disparage him. Oldtown is attacked by ironborn.

4) Obviously return to Iron Islands/Kingsmoot. Euron is confirmed

5) Bran will do something

6) Sansa/Theon injured attempt to hide/run from Boltons, Ramsey in hot pursuit. Hopefully, Brienne would finally join them. They would attempt to go to Wall first then news about Jon/Devos meet them halfway and they get hint/idea to go for Rickon. Possibly after making it to the shore, their storyline would merge with Yara's

7) Arya = Little Blind Girl/Mercy POV chapters at the end of season I expect her to be on a way to Westeros.

8) I think Kevin and Pycelle would be murdered - by Littlefinger (or transporter traveling Varys). Their death in the books is so sudden and unexpected, I doubt that D&D would be able to hold themselves back from THAT.

9) I dearly hope that neither - Brianne nor Arya would be sexually assaulted /raped next season, showrunners records for their female characters on that front is not great, they think of their writing ability too much thus ignoring any criticisim on that part, I actually will be extremely surprised if either one of main 5 female characters (Brianne, Arya, Cersei, Dany, Margaery) would NOT be raped or sexually assaulted next season. I suspect I should take Dany out because its virtually guaranteed that Dothraki at very least would attempt to rape her.

[Technofire]

I live in Northern Ireland and I know Kit Harrington was spotted in Belfast at the weekend just before the finale aired. This indicates that he may be here for filming for S6, but who knows.

Where did you get this information ? He was on a talk show not long ago, so that seems fake.

[Greenseer Stark]

Where did you get this information ? He was on a talk show not long ago, so that seems fake.

Well that's your opinion but I got this information from a friend who was eating in the same restaurant as Kit on Saturday night! Maybe it was just a social visit but I'd like to believe he's here for filming starting again. What talk show was he on? Remember he has had pretty good PR training so he wouldn't dare let slip about being back for S6 if indeed he is.

[JagLover]

. I suspect I should take Dany out because its virtually guaranteed that Dothraki at very least would attempt to rape her.

Don't agree at all actually

That scene was very ambiguous to me. They wouldn't be circling around some random girl they captured in the grasslands they recognised her IMO.

In the books she confronts them in a position of strength. In the show she might have done the same were it not for CGI budget constraints.

They might end up following her straight away for all we know.

[oierem]

Well that's your opinion but I got this information from a friend who was eating in the same restaurant as Kit on Saturday night! Maybe it was just a social visit but I'd like to believe he's here for filming starting again. What talk show was he on? Remember he has had pretty good PR training so he wouldn't dare let slip about being back for S6 if indeed he is.

Filming hasn't begun yet, it won't until July.

And normally, the scenes related to the NW (and overall the stuff from the north) is shot very late in the process, so they can benefit from the cold (unless it's a studio shoot).

[Roose is Azor Ahai]

True. NW scenes are usually filmed in November.

[KINGpanther]

Don't agree at all actually

That scene was very ambiguous to me. They wouldn't be circling around some random girl they captured in the grasslands they recognised her IMO.

In the books she confronts them in a position of strength. In the show she might have done the same were it not for CGI budget constraints.

They might end up following her straight away for all we know.

y

Yeh S.5 CGI budget was dry after that Drogon hurt scene. S.6 with a whole new CGI budget I expect Dany to scream when Dothraki try to do things to her, Drogon shows up, flame on.

I hope though we see more Direwolf than Dragon in the CGI next year.

[redxavier]

I also suspect that Winds of Winter will be out early next year. GRRM has made a point, to focus on the book, (not directing any of S5, skipping conventions etc).

We also have what, 11? sample chapters released.

ADWD was 71 chapters.

Assuming tWoW are the same, 15.5% of the book is already released.

Some of these have been out for a few years.

The question is how much is left unfinished? I assume that he has finished far more than released. Hopefully he is close to finished and gets it out before S6.

Except that there's little evidence that GRRM is actually writing. He's still posting about his involvement in half a dozen other projects, he's going to Europe for at least a month soon (which means no writing at all) and most of the 11 chapters that he has read were pushed from ADWD. There's also the fact that he has missed several payment deadlines and has only submitted one batch of pages, which was the same pushed ADWD stuff.

GRRM demonstrates all the signs of a procrastinator, and the thing about procrastinators is that they usually get very pleased and vocal about when they finally do the thing they're putting off. Instead, GRRM has no enthusiasm for when he completes chapters and when asked in the hundreds of interviews his response ranges from reticent to irritated. I interpret all this to mean that he's not writing. Too bad there's no Myreenese knot or five-year gap to blame this time around.

[Keniutek]

There is a 50/50 chance, Martin finishes the book just ahead of the 6th season. As for ADOS, we will be lucky if he finishes it at all...

[FookinLegend]

Just to clarify to people; Stannis, Myrcella and Meryn are 100% confirmed dead. There was an article in which Nutter and D&D confirm who's 100% out of the show, and they name those 3. They say Sansa and Reek survive the fall. Jon is something Nutter refuses to answer, and he points to D&D. We know how D&D answered.

[KINGpanther]

Why didn't they show Stannis killing blow? That is so lazy by D&D.

[Arkash]

Just to clarify to people; Stannis, Myrcella and Meryn are 100% confirmed dead. There was an article in which Nutter and D&D confirm who's 100% out of the show, and they name those 3. They say Sansa and Reek survive the fall. Jon is something Nutter refuses to answer, and he points to D&D. We know how D&D answered.

Link ?

[Xie]

Why didn't they show Stannis killing blow? That is so lazy by D&D.

Likely to save money. Brienne was swinging hard enough to sever his head, and reproducing the actor's head and body for that would just cost a bit more.

Assuming he really is truly dead, I'm sure it was about money. They like gore, and if they were going to blow a bit of budget money on a killing in that episode - be it Stannis or Trant - they went for the Tarentino with Trant, much more their "thing" than a simple beheading, unfortunately.

[Xie]

Except that there's little evidence that GRRM is actually writing. He's still posting about his involvement in half a dozen other projects, he's going to Europe for at least a month soon (which means no writing at all) and most of the 11 chapters that he has read were pushed from ADWD. There's also the fact that he has missed several payment deadlines and has only submitted one batch of pages, which was the same pushed ADWD stuff.

GRRM demonstrates all the signs of a procrastinator, and the thing about procrastinators is that they usually get very pleased and vocal about when they finally do the thing they're putting off. Instead, GRRM has no enthusiasm for when he completes chapters and when asked in the hundreds of interviews his response ranges from reticent to irritated. I interpret all this to mean that he's not writing. Too bad there's no Myreenese knot or five-year gap to blame this time around.

I don't think he's getting much done either. All evidence points to the contrary.

There's also the first couple sentences of the second paragraph of his original proposal for A Song of Ice and Fire: "As you know, I don't outline my novels. I find that if I know exactly where a book is going, I lose all enthusiasm for writing it."

Oh ho, here we go. HBO contractually obligated him to give them some sort of outline so they could finish the series, we know this is true because D&D have said they know how it all ends up.

So basically, because he had to decide what was going to happen, effectively providing an "outline" for the show, he's not interested in writing it anymore. I assumed it was just that he was so social he preferred going to conventions and all that jazz, but it would seem that the show deal perhaps sabotaged his desire to write at all.

Once again, I'm very glad they got said outline from him. The story will be finished, even if it's only in televised form because I really don't think he'll ever finish the book series.

[chandl34]

I just assumed he lost interest after the third book, and now he feels forced to complete the series. He says the book will be ready before next season, but like GRRM likes to say 1000 times in aDwD, "words are wind".

[JonSnowed]

Have I missed something it's been widely reporting he's working his ass off to get Winds out before Season 6?

[Masha]

Don't agree at all actually

That scene was very ambiguous to me. They wouldn't be circling around some random girl they captured in the grasslands they recognised her IMO.

In the books she confronts them in a position of strength. In the show she might have done the same were it not for CGI budget constraints.

They might end up following her straight away for all we know.

I don't think so. Regardless of CGI budget constraints, they could have inserted a still of Drogon sleeping in the background.

While in the books, Dany does confronts them from the position of strength, I don't remember exact quotes from the book, but I was left with feeling that Dany was about 10 steps away from Drogon, definitely within his sight and he would be able to react.

In the show, its obvious that Dany wondered pretty far away from Drogon, out of his line of sight and possible far enough not hear her voice.

That's why my assumption would be that Dothraki would threaten her and capture her, and because this is the show were young female character threatened by males = sexual assault, that why I expect that for Dany. Then perhaps Ex-Machina that Drogon would re-appear and she would be able to assert her dominance.

[Spilt Pea Soup]

We can only hope TWOW doesn't come out and spoil the show

[Arakan]

We can only hope TWOW doesn't come out and spoil the show

now you are taking the piss Borodin-Style ;).

[Spilt Pea Soup]

True. lol.