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[BOOK SPOILERS] Watching the show if it overpasses the books [Part 2]


Stubby

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If there is an 8th book, there's no way that Martin can finish the books within six months of the series finale. Even assuming TWOW in 2015, the 7th book would probably be 2017/18 and the 8th 2020/21 - up to three years after the show's conclusion. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I don't want to swear off the internet for 3 years.

That seems a little extreme. I'd get comfortable with the idea you will be seeing the conclusion to the story on-screen before you read it. The other option is both bizarrely ascetic and almost assuredly fruitless. Perhaps if this was 1984 that would be conceivable but to avoid something like that for several years or more?

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That seems a little extreme. I'd get comfortable with the idea you will be seeing the conclusion to the story on-screen before you read it. The other option is both bizarrely ascetic and almost assuredly fruitless. Perhaps if this was 1984 that would be conceivable but to avoid something like that for several years or more?

I don't know if it'd be that hard to do. For instance, I didn't find out how Harry Potter ended for at least a couple of years (I finally saw the final movie on an airplane sometime). If you avoid sites specifically dedicated to something (like this one!), and hives of scum and villainy like youtube comments sections, I think spoilers for stuff can be avoided still.

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I don't know if it'd be that hard to do. For instance, I didn't find out how Harry Potter ended for at least a couple of years (I finally saw the final movie on an airplane sometime). If you avoid sites specifically dedicated to something (like this one!), and hives of scum and villainy like youtube comments sections, I think spoilers for stuff can be avoided still.

I'd really hate to have to swear off this place for 3 years. 3 weeks would be tough enough. This is my internet home. However I remain confident that in the event of the show overtaking there would be a very strict spoiler policy enforced. Especially as I expect Linda at the very least would not continue to watch the show (she's very purist if I remember correctly.).

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Especially as I expect Linda at the very least would not continue to watch the show (she's very purist if I remember correctly.).

She's even more hardcore than that. If I remember correctly, she's never even read the RW chapter of ASoS.

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She's even more hardcore than that. If I remember correctly, she's never even read the RW chapter of ASoS.

That strikes me as odd, unless she were spoiled prior to reading. Doesn't have much to do with how this site will handle the show overtaking the books though.

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If the show overtakes the book, a "strict spoiler policy" alone won't work. There are many people who just want to intentionally spoil, and when a moderator removes the post, dozens will have already been spoiled.



The only way I could see this working is creating a special subforum were only for "validated boarders", meaning boarders with an antiquity of at least one year and over a minimum of posts. And even with those restrictions, you won't avoid the smartasses who will watch the series but say they doesn't, and then will post "guesses" that will turn to be accurate. :(



The only viable solution I see is going to Belfast and burn down the Paint Hall.


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If the show overtakes the book, a "strict spoiler policy" alone won't work. There are many people who just want to intentionally spoil, and when a moderator removes the post, dozens will have already been spoiled.

The only way I could see this working is creating a special subforum were only for "validated boarders", meaning boarders with an antiquity of at least one year and over a minimum of posts. And even with those restrictions, you won't avoid the smartasses who will watch the series but say they doesn't, and then will post "guesses" that will turn to be accurate. :(

The only viable solution I see is going to Belfast and burn down the Paint Hall.

A better solution will be to put all the hardcore purist in cryogenic sleep until 2030 when the books are done :D

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Inevitably I will watch the TV show even if it surpasses the books, but for me the issue is not just about spoilers and taking away from my experience as a reader. It's the idea that they have the "broad strokes" but no actual source material. No epic dialogue or descriptive scenery to draw from... It's like if Peter Jackson had made the LOTR trilogy while Tolkien was still writing... And by the time Return of the King was ready to go into production all Peter Jackson had to go by was "Frodo ends up here... and then there will be eagles? I think the elves might leave I guess???? I don't know but that's the general idea I have."


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I honestly struggle with the apocalyptic insanity that this keeps looking more and more like a reality. I love the show, I did see it first, but THE BOOKS are the real thing. It's such a horrible thought. Id like to say I'd stop watching the show once they fully catch up, but there's just no way. It would be extremely hard to avoid spoilers, and I'm not into masochism. It's just also difficult, because even if GRRM fully sticks to the plan he's been telling D&D, which he kind of has to, there will still be differences, ones that I feel will make the whole relationship to the books and show become awkward and clumsy, especially for those who have read the books up until this point, and then see the TV end before the last book is published.



Crazy as it is, I prefer to remain optimistic, that by some miracle, George gets The Winds of Winter out within the next 12 months, and that from there, he is able to write book 7 with the speed he wrote the first 3 books, getting it out at around the same time as the final season of the show. It's the only win scenario, and its what everyone, D&D maybe most of all, wants. They don't want to bear the weight of bringing out the ending first, but they know they can't hold back. It's been said many times already, but I can't feel bad for George, he got himself into this dilemma. i have faith though that we will do everything he can to beat the show to the finish, except compromise the quality of his books, and that's the best he can do. Will his best be good enough? Fingers crossed.


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^ Certainly not impossible, but this is George Martin we're talking about, I think his "gardener aproach" is biting him in the ass now. He opened so many new plot and create so many new characters that he's struggling to have a proper ending now, I' sure he always had an "ending" for most of the main characters on his mind, but as the story progress it became harder and harder to get there.

Yes, here's an SSM from nearly nine years ago: "he talked about the next book which is tentatively called Dances With Dragons . It was supposed to be #2, then #3, then #4, and now #5. He said no matter how much he writes it recedes into the future."

it receded so much that ADwD ended up containing nothing of what he said it would focus on: Dany's invasion of Westeros. So I have no confidence he'll end this in seven books, or ever. I'll not only watch the show if it passes the books, I'm looking forward to it just to get some kind of ending.

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it receded so much that ADwD ended up containing nothing of what he said it would focus on: Dany's invasion of Westeros. So I have no confidence he'll end this in seven books, or ever. I'll not only watch the show if it passes the books, I'm looking forward to it just to get some kind of ending.

He said that ADwD was originally going to be about her return to Westeros - ie getting there - not necessarily the return itself. If they are both like ASoS, then I think TWoW and ADoS could be enough to finish the series.

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He said that ADwD was originally going to be about her return to Westeros - ie getting there - not necessarily the return itself.

To say he was only referring to her journey to Westeros is imo an incredibly strained and unbelievable interpretation of the following quote (and even if it were true, ADwD still wasn't even remotely about that either): "The next book, A Dance With Dragons, will focus on the return of Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros, and the conflicts that creates."

Furthermore:

SSM: "He said that in his original plan (when he wanted to write a trilogy) the Red Wedding would take place in book one, and Dany's landing in Westeros in book two. Now he says that Dany's arrival in Westeros will take place in book 5, A Dance with Dragons. "

SSM: "he started to plan a trilogy, since there were 3 main conflicts ( Starks/Lannisters; Dany; and the Others) it felt it would neatly fit into a trilogy"

SSM: "The second [dance of dragons] will be the subject of a book.

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Talking from personal experience, I read some books after the corresponding season aired out and it was not a problem. On the contrary, the books were a clearly enhanced experience. There was the loss of that shocking effect of certain events occurring, it's true, but I still managed to enjoy it. The book atmosphere is always more involving. In fact, I felt the opposite. It was worse to watch the show after reading, since in many parts knowing what was going to happen stripped the show from its main source of interest.


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I will keep watching the show even if it catches up with the books. I just think it would be interesting for the series to feel new again. I watched the first episode before reading the books, I knew what to expect in the episodes following and that kind of spoiled things a bit.



The book will flesh things out better and give us more detail afterward. That will just feel like learning new things on a reread.



Wouldn't it be kind of funny to see how the tables are turned between book readers that don't want to spoil it, and tv viewers who are now ahead of them? Turn about is fair play.


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I don't think the show deserves to be punished for overtaking the books. I'll continue to support it and hopefully millions of other people will too.

For me, it's not about punishing the show. It's about experiencing the story for the first time the way I want to. And honestly, I hate the idea of an adaptation coming out before the book it's based on. I can't believe that such a stupidly unprecedented situation is actually possible, and that it's happening with Game of Thrones (and let's face it, after the fiasco that was the Vanity Fair article, we know now that it's happening, no question). George really should have protected himself contractually against this sort of situation.

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George really should have protected himself contractually against this sort of situation.

The series would not have happened if he tried that. HBO would quite wisely never have agreed to a provision saying "and if I can't get the books out in time, we'll just stop the show for a few years".

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Depending on when TWOW gets a release date, I'd be willing to watch 1 season. That'll only be about a third of a big book like TWOW and I will read that on my first night with the book anyway.

If the spoilers start coming and we still have no word from George, I'm out.

One thing I'm nervous about though is when exactly TWOW will start popping up. We've already seen stuff from ADWD/AFFC; what if next season had a big shocking no one saw coming and turns out its a scene from pg850 of twow???

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The series would not have happened if he tried that. HBO would quite wisely never have agreed to a provision saying "and if I can't get the books out in time, we'll just stop the show for a few years".

Not to mention the incredibly amount of hindsight it would have taken George to make this very restricting proposition. The deal was made in what? 2005? At that point, the idea that the show could ever catch up to the books (Probably projected to be complete in 2010 assuming Martin wanted to get back to a book every other year) would have been absurd.

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For me, it's not about punishing the show. It's about experiencing the story for the first time the way I want to. And honestly, I hate the idea of an adaptation coming out before the book it's based on. I can't believe that such a stupidly unprecedented situation is actually possible, and that it's happening with Game of Thrones (and let's face it, after the fiasco that was the Vanity Fair article, we know now that it's happening, no question). George really should have protected himself contractually against this sort of situation.

ADoS will be a novelization of the TV ending, and GRRM will write 1500 pages that bring his story in-line with the TV ending. It will be glorious, watching the unsullied become the purists. I started with the show and then read the books, so I will gleefully watch the show after it passes the books. I can't remember how many plot lines purists spoiled for me, so I won't lose sleep when it happens to them.
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