Jump to content

How different was the wait between AFFC and ADWD?


Joy Hill

Recommended Posts

40 minutes ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

No, he wasn't on Facebook then. Actually, when he started writing AFFC, there was no Facebook, period, since Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school. The series is seriously old.

I understand that. I was just using the FB thing as an example; maybe I should've clarified that and taken out the repeated questions. However, there were still message board forums, so my question still stands:

How was the general fan reaction to the prior delays?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 25/01/2018 at 3:12 PM, Gertrude said:

But are you watching?

I think the show started out great, and now it ... is this hole, I agree. I struggled to decide if I would watch these last few seasons, but I figured it would be hard to avoid spoilers and if I was going to be in any way spoiled, I'd rather it be first hand and not piecing it together from the bits of it that leaked through to me. Even though the story is not what I want or hope for when the books finally do arrive, it is something. It keeps me engaged and speculating and appreciating the books as I think a complete content drought wouldn't do.

I started reading the books after the show came out, but without watching it. I tried to avoid spoilers, but still came across some of them, mostly thanks to memes that would pop up on my computer. Still, they weren't all accurate (a comment made me believe that Tyrion was going to die). Spoilers pieced together from leaked bits leave a good deal of mystery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Grover Bluejoy said:

I understand that. I was just using the FB thing as an example; maybe I should've clarified that and taken out the repeated questions. However, there were still message board forums, so my question still stands:

How was the general fan reaction to the prior delays?

It's really incomparable. Facebook today, with its, roughly, two billion users and, roughly, three moderators, is one of the best examples of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in action. It isn't comparable to the fan sites of the early 2000s, it isn't even comparable to the fan sites of today - as confirmed by the people who popped in GRRM's FB profile and felt unpleasantly surprised by the levels of spite. Here, we're generally civil, and the moderation is generally effective.

Maybe you could compare, say, westeros.org of today with westeros.org of 2004. But I wasn't here back then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In regards to the show having delayed him:

He does have other commitments now that he didn't have before, but at the same time when he signed up for the show it could have gone two ways: either the show would be unpopular and get canceled before reaching the plot of Dance, or the opposite. Now, since he had written 5 books, and if each season corresponded to 1 book, then in five years time the show would catch up to him, ergo in 2016. Considering it took him 5 years to write Feast and another 5 for Dance, then he must have known that, if the show became popular, it would undoubtedly surpass his books time-wise and eventually finish the story first. So if he didn't want that, he would have to write faster. But he didn't. And I just find that very interesting, because it's weird and unusual.

Of course he couldn't have known that the show would be extremely popular. He's reallly lucky that the show hasn't overshadowed the books completely. I guess it's a testimony to fans' loyalty and the quality of the story that even show-watchers made the decision to seek out the books, and prolong their longevity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Lady Anna said:

In regards to the show having delayed him:

He does have other commitments now that he didn't have before, but at the same time when he signed up for the show it could have gone two ways: either the show would be unpopular and get canceled before reaching the plot of Dance, or the opposite. Now, since he had written 5 books, and if each season corresponded to 1 book, then in five years time the show would catch up to him, ergo in 2016. Considering it took him 5 years to write Feast and another 5 for Dance, then he must have known that, if the show became popular, it would undoubtedly surpass his books time-wise and eventually finish the story first. So if he didn't want that, he would have to write faster. But he didn't. And I just find that very interesting, because it's weird and unusual.

Of course he couldn't have known that the show would be extremely popular. He's reallly lucky that the show hasn't overshadowed the books completely. I guess it's a testimony to fans' loyalty and the quality of the story that even show-watchers made the decision to seek out the books, and prolong their longevity.

I think it is pretty usual if tv series or movies based on books become popular then the books also become more popular. 

I think it happened to a lot of sucessful franchises... What nobody could have expected is that the show would be the biggest thing on tv.

I think it will be more interesting to know the involvement of grrm in the prequels. Anybody with half a brain knows that GoT became a sucess because the first seasons were amazing because the story was just that good. When D&D started writing the season people started disliking the show and pointing several stupid mistakes... So what makes anyone think that a prequel in the asoiaf world without being written by grrm will be any good? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Joy Hill said:

Thanks! :)

Yeah, I read that quote before, but I'm still puzzled as to why this took (maybe is still taking?) sooo much time (5 years!). There are plenty of other intricate storylines in the series. Oh well, maybe I'm just sour that a storyline that I'm not very interested in is eating so much time (which is admittedly very selfish).

I'm not sure... trying to figure out who arrives where when and how, for so many characters! It must be a total nightmare... And then if you change one little thing here you have to go back and change so many other things etc etc. 

Quote

I agree that GRRM is terrible at making predictions, so he souldn't speculate on release dates. That being said, I personally would enjoy an update on what he wrote now and then (for example, he once wrote in a comment that he just wrote a conversation between Jaime and the Blackfish. That kind of thing would be nice).

I get it. I would like if he took a more middle ground approach and gave us something, anything. And not all the time, but at some point in the last yr or two, a little something like, "I have 2/3 of Winds ready - and that doesn't mean jack because it can take me another 15 yrs to finish the last third". That sort of thing. But I've made my peace w/ no info until it's done, and I much prefer this approach to updates that ended up being totally off. :dunno:

@Lady Anna and @divica (and whoever else I might have missed) no show discussion here, as per forum rules. Pretty please. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, divica said:

I think it is pretty usual if tv series or movies based on books become popular then the books also become more popular. 

I think it happened to a lot of sucessful franchises... What nobody could have expected is that the show would be the biggest thing on tv.

I think it will be more interesting to know the involvement of grrm in the prequels. Anybody with half a brain knows that GoT became a sucess because the first seasons were amazing because the story was just that good. When D&D started writing the season people started disliking the show and pointing several stupid mistakes... So what makes anyone think that a prequel in the asoiaf world without being written by grrm will be any good? 

Regarding the prequels, I was thinking about them in another post, but it could be that it won't be D&D to write the prequels. I'm sure Martin will be involved but other people could write them instead. Anyway I'm not really interested in them.

And sometimes an adaptation of a book becomes more famous and well-known than the source material to the point that either people don't know there was a book, or, after many years, people only know the adaptation and the book is no longer read. I agree this won't be the case with asoiaf because not only is it critically aclaimed but it's also not tied down in time or to a specific trend. Still, the show is a huge thing and I wouldn't say the books are more popular than it.

edit: sorry for talking about the show guys

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

@Lady Anna and @divica (and whoever else I might have missed) no show discussion here, as per forum rules. Pretty please. 

 

Hi! I thought we couldn't discuss the show's spoilers, not necessarily its existence and its relation to the books. But I apologize. Will remember to move to the other forum ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Lady Anna said:

Hi! I thought we couldn't discuss the show's spoilers, not necessarily its existence and its relation to the books. But I apologize. Will remember to move to the other forum ;)

No, the book forum is a space blissfully abomination-free! :D

And cheers!

ETA: ah, and if you want to check out why:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

I'm not sure... trying to figure out who arrives where when and how, for so many characters! It must be a total nightmare... And then if you change one little thing here you have to go back and change so many other things etc etc. 

I get it. I would like if he took a more middle ground approach and gave us something, anything. And not all the time, but at some point in the last yr or two, a little something like, "I have 2/3 of Winds ready - and that doesn't mean jack because it can take me another 15 yrs to finish the last third". That sort of thing. But I've made my peace w/ no info until it's done, and I much prefer this approach to updates that ended up being totally off. :dunno:

Until 2016 didn t grrm talk about twow in his interviews? Like I just found out how I want to kill this character or danny will embrace fire and blood or tyrion is in a dark place...

He just doesn t post anything in his blog (and I think that is a mistake)... He could make a post each 3 or 4 months related to asoiaf. Like write how dificult it has been the last months of writing or be abstract about what is causing him writting problems, make a poll about a gruessome death of a random character in a battle, talk about the lenght of the  book, say if he reached some objective for a character arc... There are a lot of minor things he could write about that would keep the interest in the books that would give almost no information about the content of the book or when it will be published. 

While this complete silence might be better than failing to meet deadlines it still isn t the right answer...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, divica said:

Until 2016 didn t grrm talk about twow in his interviews? Like I just found out how I want to kill this character or danny will embrace fire and blood or tyrion is in a dark place...

He just doesn t post anything in his blog (and I think that is a mistake)... He could make a post each 3 or 4 months related to asoiaf. Like write how dificult it has been the last months of writing or be abstract about what is causing him writting problems, make a poll about a gruessome death of a random character in a battle, talk about the lenght of the  book, say if he reached some objective for a character arc... There are a lot of minor things he could write about that would keep the interest in the books that would give almost no information about the content of the book or when it will be published. 

While this complete silence might be better than failing to meet deadlines it still isn t the right answer...

Yeah, not a bad idea, actually...  But for whatever reason he decided against it. And personally I prefer no info instead of wrong info! :D

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Kandrax said:

But didn't he says that he only use his blog?

He only posts on his blog, at least for the most part. These other platforms are managed by his minions as far as I know. I could be wrong. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main difference is the show.  The two have gone their separate ways.  While they may have the same ending in very broad terms, whether the humans win the war or lose to the white walkers.  The fates of the characters will be different.  HBO is not into making art.  George is.  HBO has a show lined up for Kit Harrington after the show ends and corporate has their hands involved.  You can bet they're going to erase every objectionable thing he did on the books to make him out to be a hero. They're already thinking ahead to prepare for his new show.  I don't like it because I don't like Jon but I am comforted in knowing that George is still writing the book and he is an independent thinker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...