THE GAME OF THRONES/ASOIAF SPOILER THREAD (WARNING: SPOILERS)

http://www.vulture.com/2015/07/jon-snow-lives-kit-harington-spotted-in-belfast.html

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/01/game-thrones-ian-mcshane

I bring this to you in the hopes that somebody can figure out who he's meant to be

Well, they're past the books, unless he's meant to be someone from the iron isles.

Cool

euron greyjoy or maybe outside chance randall tarly, but he'd be too good as euron to miss that chance

Yeah, Euron seems like the most obvious choice.

he's the new rickon. they've aged him a little like the rest of the kids

apparently he'll barely be in it which makes randall tarly a possibility (if i was al swearengen i'd be incredibly disappointed if samwise tarly was my kid) but maybe they're going to have just enough greyjoy stuff in it to deal w/ those plots. mcshane as euron would have the effect of actually making me kinda look forward to that plot.

btw i don't know if anyone mentioned it but io9 had this thing w/ asoiaf fan theories. some obv, some daft, but some were really interesting and clearly supported by the text. thinking esp of the one w/ magic and the citadel (which in some ways seems to be the secret main plot of the series) but also that the northern houses really were conspiring against the mad king well before rhaegar 'kidnapped' the stark girl or before the mad king went off.

Link? Couldn't find it...

i think this was it, i went down some wormholes afterwards - http://io9.com/all-the-game-of-thrones-fan-theories-you-absolutely-nee-1629544319

as a non-reader who's no longer bothered about book spoilers, what's euron's deal?

actually what i'm talking about is generally covered here - http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2012/01/05-southron-ambitions/index.html

i think this is what covers the maesters/reason/science vs magic/religion angle - http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2010/08/24_if_its_chains_you_want_/index.html

Thanks!

Realized McShane could be that maester at the Citadel who is the only one who believes in magic.

http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

:/

I'm fairly sure I have heard of a film that was being developed before the book was actually finished (not counting manga, I definitely remember it being a prose book).

On the one hand I believe that he's telling the truth that he has hundreds of pages, but on the other hand, I suspect he doesn't have a great deal of interest or incentive to actually finish any time soon, or possibly ever. I'm kinda with whichever blogger it was or will be that said or says he'll just write the novelization of the TV series from here on out

Really hope he at least has the plot sketched out (sounds like he does). It would be such a bummer if they just turned the TV show into an endless series. They sure have the financial incentive to do so.

I think actually the showrunners are insisting on keeping it shorter than both HBO and GRRM would like. I read somewhere that they want 7 seasons, and GRRM was kinda assuming they would use 10, so that he had some more years to finish.

HBO + DB&DBW have to take into consideration the rates and interests of their recurring actor staff - they can't afford to do 10 years, people are going to want to move on, or demand Seinfeld money, or just start growing up (as is already happening)

I suspect he doesn't have a great deal of interest or incentive to actually finish any time soon, or possibly ever.

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 3 January 2016 01:17

Ever? Why do you think that? All signs point towards him being extremely eager to finish.

if only to be left the fuck alone, yeah.

worth reposting: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/11/just-write-it

He should type up a whole bunch of outlines and then just outsource it to fans to write for him. Like Star Trek or something. Or serialize it! That would be cool, actually, if he published it in short volumes, like comics or prose, which allows for digressions and detours and also shorter bursts of creativity. He's hampered by the doorstop model, but that's just vanity at work. Go short, GRRM, go short!

if GRRM put out 20 page monthly chapter ebooks for a $20 yearly subscription, he would make his publisher a shit ton of money but i bet he'd hit a wall quick enough.

Nah, because any time he wanted to crank out some standalone story that's not related to the central mythology he could.

that would spiral in on itself and we'd have three years of an unrelated character gambling aboard a riverboat somewhere in Shaktarka or some shit

I think just writing for two books that might take another decade would be less frustrating than lots of increments that make bibliographical lists more complicated. Think of the bibliographies you savages!

he should just fuck it off completely and sit on his pile of money, who even cares any more

Evidently loads of people care.

ah the poor guy just doesn't want to write the damn book, it's been like 10 years, he's killing himself

it's been four years fwiw

And it's roughly the same pace as the other books, he is not a quick writer.

he wrote the first 3 in a shorter period of time (and they're the good ones)

it really does seem like his interest in completing the series has waned over time

I would think the burden of living up to fans expectations had a lot to do with that. Wonder if any writers are thinking "shit, I'd better write my entire series over 15 years then released them all in one go"?

Yeah I don't think it's a lack of interest. Just for some odd reason he never figured out the plotting beyond 1-3 and he's desperately trying to figure out how to keep the narrative together.

he should take his time & do it however he wants who gives a fuck

Becoming rich in old age probably has something to do with this

I don't know, he writes books that are about 3 times longer than normal books in about 5 years. That seems pretty decent.

Plus writing and editing lots of other books too.

oh wow, they are still publishing Wild Cards books

he writes books that are about 3 times longer than normal books

Again: why do the books have to be so fucking long? I read the first two books, but I've seen the whole series to date, and there's very little of the books I miss, just more minutia and mythology. The show is just so ruthlessly efficient compared to the prose.

Anyway, if this guy really does have an idea how he wants it all to end, I wonder if it is indeed the show that's thrown him off. That is, maybe the joy of discovery in writing, as he's writing, might have fizzled out after he essentially "wrote" the entire series for the show runners. That's a lot more intense than an outline, that's really bringing others along on an entire journey, locking in the narrative (at least to an extent), then basically going backwards and starting the trip again, while struggling to catch up with the people you gave a head start. It's got to be dispiriting to have someone else usurp your creative momentum.

Incidentally, I just re-read the Harry Potter series with my daughter, and sure, they're I think on their face much better, imo, but more importantly they rarely seem so rambling and focused on pointless minutia, as full of pointless minutia as they may be. There's a clear quest from the start, more or less, and it all comes together tightly in the end. That's seven books in 10 years, a couple of them pretty big, and they never read like the whole narrative is spilling out of control.

he's mad that ppl figured out his marquee reveal so easily and he is stalling while he tries to figure out a plausible alternative.

That's possible, too! It'd be like coming up with a cool story and boasting about it, and then some 10-year old boy is all "what, he's a ghost who has been dead the whole time?" And then you just deflate.

Anyway, if this guy really does have an idea how he wants it all to end, I wonder if it is indeed the show that's thrown him off. That is, maybe the joy of discovery in writing, as he's writing, might have fizzled out after he essentially "wrote" the entire series for the show runners. That's a lot more intense than an outline, that's really bringing others along on an entire journey, locking in the narrative (at least to an extent), then basically going backwards and starting the trip again, while struggling to catch up with the people you gave a head start. It's got to be dispiriting to have someone else usurp your creative momentum.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, January 4, 2016 12:21 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's something to this imo. not fussed about it either way tbh. looking forward to the season, happy to read the book whenever it shows up.

The main benefit of the show finishing first is that he can use all the response to improve upon it. I can't imagine he'll feel the same pressure when the show finishes in 2017.

I'm pretty excited about the 6th season but I can't help but feel it'll suffer for not having finished books, intense fan discussion and hindsight to work upon.

oh wow, they are still publishing Wild Cards books

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmrA8nOZF2Q

Gee, maybe Jon really is dead!