Vanity Fair: George and D&D regarding the last two books

[The Snow King]

If it goes into an 8th season, many, if not most of the main characters now will be dead. Problem solved.

How does that solve anything? If you are going to kill MOST main characters you can add well give up, finish there and do some epilogue montage. Killing one or two characters is one thing, the shock value and buzz alone is worth it, but such strategy has its limits. It's not like anyone would keep watching another season with all new cast of previously background characters. Ok, some people would. But that's not a recipe for success with a million dollar series and HBO would be crazy to do something like this.

[Harry Lime]

How does that solve anything? If you are going to kill MOST main characters you can add well give up, finish there and do some epilogue montage. Killing one or two characters is one thing, the shock value and buzz alone is worth it, but such strategy has its limits. It's not like anyone would keep watching another season with all new cast of previously background characters. Ok, some people would. But that's not a recipe for success with a million dollar series and HBO would be crazy to do something like this.

Yeah, as much as people like to say that anyone can die at any time, there's some characters that GRRM obviously can't kill until at least the very end because he's invested too much build-up into their stories. Arya, Dany, Jon (who does he think he's kidding?) are all safe for now, in my opinion. Tyrion could go either way (although it would be George's ballsiest killing since Ned in terms of fan popularity).

[sgolvera]

GRRM may say f--- it and let HBO end the story. Then many many years later when he goes to the big kingdom in the sky his estate will release the chapters he wrote. I just hope I'm around to read them.

[Annara Snow]

Sansa just had her flowering on the show

If Sophie gets too old it will be past the point of rationality for her to be just 14/15.

Arya well yeah there's not much holding her to being a child besides the fact people mistake her for a boy and if she's an official teen that's not possible.

Maise could probably make this work since she's a good actress

Bran is a little crippled boy no one will think about him getting too old since he's always sitting down or being carried on the show

Rickon will most likely need to be recast

Its funny how only Robb,Dany,and Jon have benefited from the aging up

Sansa did not "just" have her flowering, it was two seasons ago. In the book she has turned 13 at this point, in the show she is 15 now. Arya is 11 in the books, in the show she was at least 11 in the pilot, if not 12 (I don't think her age was mentioned on the show, we just know she is between Sansa and Bran), so she is 13, maybe even 14 now. Bran was 10, he is about 12 now. The actors are just 2 years older, so I don't see a problem. Maisie looks young, and Arya must be going through puberty on the show. Sansa was always supposed to look mature and womanly for her age, and also tall according to AFFC. It's also not implausible that a 12-year boy has already entered puberty, and going forward, their characters will all be teenagers if they are not already, which removes any potential problems. FFS, it's not uncommon to have 26-year olds and 30-year old actors playing teenagers (GoT is an example of that, too). If people were able to swallow the idea of Richard Madden being 17/18, Maisie's character being 13 is not a big deal. Many people think Maisie is younger than 16 anyway.

The only character who needs to be a child for the story to work is Sweetrobin, but fortunately the actor is still short and childlike looking. Bran or Arya don't need to be chidren at this point. There may be a problem with Rickon though, because they stated his age as 6 in season 1. Then again, they also stated Tommen's age as 8...

[Annara Snow]

Yeah, as much as people like to say that anyone can die at any time, there's some characters that GRRM obviously can't kill until at least the very end because he's invested too much build-up into their stories. Arya, Dany, Jon (who does he think he's kidding?) are all safe for now, in my opinion. Tyrion could go either way (although it would be George's ballsiest killing since Ned in terms of fan popularity).

I'd add Sansa and Bran as safe for the same reason.

Would anyone want a writer to randomly kill major characters before their story has reached climax? That would not be ballsy, it would be stupid and bad writing. George kills them when it makes sense for the story. (I never for a moment bought Bran being dead during ACOK, that was the most expected revelation ever.)

[Kyharane]

Maybe the show can have a different ending, this way D&D can have the liberty to create whatever they want without spoiling book readers (ex: the show can end with dany sitting the iron thrones and ruling for a long time as she seems to be very popular among show only people. How it plays in the book, she may also get the IT but I doubt that she'll hold it for long)

And if they go 7 seasons, how would they depict all the big upcoming battles (at least 4) with their budget restriction?

[Don Roberto]

One thing HBO could do, funnily enough, is the 5-years gap, right after season 4. Didn't work in book form, but could work in an audiovisual one. They still wouldn't be able to drag the show forever, and probably wouldn't stop it either, but would certainly help diminish the embarassment of having 19yo Maisie Williams play 13yo Arya, or 22yo Sophie Turner play 15yo Sansa. It already looks ridiculous, imagine three seasons from here.

[A wilding]

This. I really don't get why people think the show is going to ruin the books, or will destroy the books. What on earth makes the show coming out first a train wreck? Countless people - including myself - came to the books because of the TV show. I knew from the start of reading what was going to happen to Ned, and to be honest I think it made the reading experience better. Until that execution scene, it's really just another fantasy novel, of the kind that I largely stopped reading years ago. I doubt I'd even have finished reading Book 1 if I hadn't known the ending.

I don't think it will ruin the books, but I do think it will damage the enjoyment of the first read of them.

For example, while I always thought Ned was going to die, I only saw about half the stuff in the last quarter of ASoS coming and my first read of it absolutely blew me away as a result.

But personally I don't think it matters any more as I now doubt the last book will ever be published, sadly.

[MegaAIP]

I don't think it will ruin the books, but I do think it will damage the enjoyment of the first read of them.

For example, while I always thought Ned was going to die, I only saw about half the stuff in the last quarter of ASoS coming and my first read of it absolutely blew me away as a result.

But personally I don't think it matters any more as I now doubt the last book will ever be published, sadly.

I think it would for sure ruin the books

[Hiram McDrogon]

I don't think it will ruin the books, but I do think it will damage the enjoyment of the first read of them.

...

But personally I don't think it matters any more as I now doubt the last book will ever be published, sadly.

Fair point - yes, knowing the ending will take away part of the pleasure of that first read. But people are throwing around words like disaster and train wreck and ruin, and that just seems overly dramatic.

I hope you're wrong with that second point, but ... yeah.

[Le Cygne]

One thing HBO could do, funnily enough, is the 5-years gap, right after season 4. Didn't work in book form, but could work in an audiovisual one. They still wouldn't be able to drag the show forever, and probably wouldn't stop it either, but would certainly help diminish the embarassment of having 19yo Maisie Williams play 13yo Arya, or 22yo Sophie Turner play 15yo Sansa. It already looks ridiculous, imagine three seasons from here.

Agree, just age them up. Joffrey got a mid-series age jump, as will Tommen.

I think it would for sure ruin the books

I think the ending is going to be very sad, and while it won't ruin the books, it could affect book sales.

More on the aging up examples... Joffrey was stated to be 17 in season 2 (2x08, Cersei and Tyrion scene), Tommen was stated to be 8 in season 1 (1x05, Renly and Loras scene). And the new actor who plays Tommen is 16.

[Mr Fixit]

What books are those? True Blood? May the Old Gods and the New save us all from "fans" who quit because they don't like the leaked ending.

[Gannicus]

At this point I'm just curious to see how the thing ends. I love the books but GRRM is writing less than 1 page a day. I'm done waiting. Few people like pressure and even fewer like deadlines. Tough luck, but that's the way of the world.

Thank goodness the show is putting the pressure on.

He needs to finish TWOW by late 2014 or early 2015 and ADOS by 2017. Either he gets it done or the show finishes his story.

[King of the Road]

Agree, just age them up. Joffrey got a mid-series age jump, as will Tommen.

I think the ending is going to be very sad, and while it won't ruin the books, it could affect book sales.

More on the aging up examples... Joffrey was stated to be 17 in season 2 (2x08, Cersei and Tyrion scene), Tommen was stated to be 8 in season 1 (1x05, Renly and Loras scene). And the new actor who plays Tommen is 16.

The new Tommen actor can be made to look a lot younger. If we assume that the time difference for the show is upped somewhat then they could say that Tommen is by now 10.

[LooseyRoosey]

It ultimately doesn't matter to me. The show has been telling the story in broad strokes for the past season and it's been working perfectly. The story is still there, but the details are very different. Accuracy to source material has nothing to do with quality. The TV series stands on its own. I'll be among the among the many watching the series finale on HBO in 2017-8.

[Le Cygne]

The new Tommen actor can be made to look a lot younger. If we assume that the time difference for the show is upped somewhat then they could say that Tommen is by now 10.

Why would they want to do that? That defeats the purpose of bringing in an older actor. A 16 year old is going to only look more and more mature, in short order. He's going to have a 5 o'clock shadow and a deeper voice, and they'll be pretending he's 10 or 11?

Also looking at the global timeline, it has been about 2 years from the beginning of the story to the purple wedding. And time slows down after that... About 3 years has passed in the span of 5 books. Not sure if everyone knows about this:

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/84563-most-precise-asoiaf-timeline-in-existence/

On the show, they can change this perception, to make it seem like more time has passed, and even state that the characters are older than they were. Better yet, stop stating ages at all, don't pull viewers out of the story like that.

[DaveyJoe]

I'm not convinced that HBO is the one telling them to bring it in at 7 season. If producers have been quoted saying 8 seasons up until this year, what has changed? The week long meeting with GRRM mapping out the rest of the story. Is it more likely that HBO is suddenly tightening up the coin purse at the height of the show's popularity, or that D&D have seen how the story ends, and decided that it'd be better to keep it tight and focused, rather than bloating it up at the mid point? I think it's the latter, especially since D&D won't have the details of the final two novels to use as a guide.

[franko99]

I think the ending is going to be very sad, and while it won't ruin the books, it could affect book sales.

I don't think a sad ending will affect the sales, anyone who want a typical hollywood ending should had quit by now, if anything the long waits are the main reason people had leave the serie (or never started at all, there is A LOT of people who don't want to start reading ASOIAF because they know about GRRM slow writing reputation)

[Le Cygne]

I don't think a sad ending will affect the sales, anyone who want a typical hollywood ending should had quit by now, if anything the long waits are the main reason people had leave the serie (or never started at all, there is A LOT of people who don't want to start reading ASOIAF because they know about GRRM slow writing reputation)

I'm saying watching a very sad ending, then reading about it, that's maybe more than some people will care to do.

And a "typical Hollywood ending" in an era when shows kill off main characters all the time, that doesn't mean anything anymore, if it ever did.

Also, a downbeat ending is not necessarily a good one.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Heh...

GRRM is not the killing machine people think he is. So far, he has always killed secondary characters whose dead has helped to keep the plot going forward. We got attached to them, but that doesn't mean they're important. Ned was the only one, then, Robb. Only Ned had a POV and we ended up caring about him. The rest of POVs are mostly alive and will probably die at the end of the story, which is WoW or DoS.