I love a story that GRRM told Kevin Smith, in which a fan, after showing concern over the ending of the books, asked George what happens if he dies before the books are finished, to which George replied "Fuck you!"

But it is at least a viable concern. 66 and he's not exactly the picture of health.

He could live to 150 and still not finish the books... However, that's not something you should bring up to his face. I'm sure he's already well aware of it.

Well we know the ending to be Jon Snow celebrating at the wall and sees the 3 ghost of Ned Stark, Rhaegar Targarean and GRRM congratulating him from a far.

I finished the first season and it finishes much better than it started. Up until episode 7, it's really bad. But episode 8-10 are ok. Still not great, but watchable. Doesn't mean I will bother season 2.

I was surprised to see Sean Bean get his head cut off. I think that in order to secure your watching for another season, they just put all the good parts in the last few episodes. It's kind of just lazy TV making. The scripts are pretty dire, too.

It gets better, way way way better.

That's it right there. Eventually a pattern for the deaths does emerge, but for awhile it seems like anybody could lose their heads at any time. That is what drives the show and books through the slower moments. Martin's world building and character development are what set it above the other murderporn shows though

Telltale's Game of Thrones game will apparently be set during Stannis' march from ADWD. Interesting time frame, I wonder if they will reveal what happens at the end before Winds does.

Bran not appearing in Season 5

I know there was back and forth on whether Bran would appear but this confirms he's sitting Season 5 out.

Well publisher HarperCollins has announced that Winds of Winter will not be released in 2015. In related news, HBO announced that there will be blood and nudity in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones.

They didn't say that. They said it's not currently on the schedule. If Martin finishes it, it will be put on the schedule.

The series was never going to be finished the minute GRRM decided to scrap the 4th book and re-wrote it as Feast + Dance. Now we have to be resigned to watching GOT to see the story's conclusion.

Right? The series would be done by now if he hadn't done that. Instead we get 2000+ (well written) pages of formerly flashback material and the end.

Hopefully Book 6 gets done by 2016. I think the tv season will end in 2017 and they will wait two more years to turn the last book into 2 movies. Why else were we getting an IMAX test release and GRRM stating he wanted to end the show as movies? Also they have already turned HBO shows like Sex and te City and Entourage into films.

Though those shows were turned into movies AFTER the original TV run was complete.

That said - I agree the theatrical release on IMAX this week is perhaps a small test for some grander theatrical plan with the final book.

If Book 6 was released late this year or early next year we'd be in better shape. That is if GRRM can actually complete the whole story in 7 books. I doubt that.

They may even do the Dunk and Egg books in between the show and movies. Better still I'd love to see Robert's Rebellion as a prequel season on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Mi17nLflY

That was amazing...

I don't think he will ever finish the books to be honest. If he wastes time on Skype chats during some random pub quiz in Croatia, he's probably doing that all over the world. He not writing

Nope he wont. He's been piss farting around for 15 years now and has not been fully focused. He'll get the next book out probably early next year - but after that I'm not holding my breath for books 7 and 8 (there will be an 8th in the works I'm sure).

I can now live with the show completing the series.

Deviating from source material has, from what I can gather, helped the show so far. I'm hoping that continues when there's no source material to follow.

Yes I'm up for surprises and the fact we can watch scenes without comparing to the book!

Some work, some don't. Arienne was one of the only things I liked about the Dorne chapters, so cutting her makes me upset. Same with Griph and Young Griph. What's the point of even introducing them if they aren't important enough to make it on the show? On the other hand you get things like Bronn and Jaime training together, which is pure gold.

Stoneheart I don't care too much about, as you can do the same plotline without her leading the BWB.

I hope its not true that they are giving away some of Wyman Manderlay's plot to Baelish and Sansa. That is one character that they need to have in the show especially his North Remembers speech

No Frey pie then?

I know I would be pissed too especially with the Rat Cook tale foreshadowed by Bran at the end of season 3

They should really just spoil the show on TV if George RR is planning 8 cause the chance of him never making it there then becomes a toss-up

I finally blitzed through 1-4 over the course of a week after having had the blu rays in my possession for...years. Sub'd to HBO Now so I'm ready and up to date with everyone else now.

My thoughts:

Eddard Stark was too trusting and should have listened to Little Finger. Also, if the dying King is going to be making his last testament shouldn't have he had more than just himself and the King in the room writing that document...Witnesses!

I love Daenarys and her rise to power and struggle. It was cool seeing her enter the fire and come out with the dragonlings. I love how she's been conquering all these cool looking cities. She should just rule over her current city with the pyramid structures. It's very Babylonianish.

Drogo didn't have much to do in this series really. He'll be better as Aquaman I'm sure.

I like the stuff and lore going on at the Wall and the Wildlings and Nightwalkers. I thought the big battle sequence was so cool and nice action. Made me wish I had gone to that IMAX screening but I wasn't caught up so I couldn't. I liked Snow's girl. She had a really nice voice and hair. They were good together but could never be really. She was quite a killer.

I'm not a big fan of the crippled Stark and his visions. I also don't like his story line going to the North either. Probably would have been better if he and his brother were actually the ones killed by Theon.

Poor Theon. Double crossed Rob and got double crossed himself. Horrible what happened to him but then he goes and double crosses his own "people" as his Reek self.

I had heard of the Red Wedding episode but knew nothing of what it meant. Wow. I couldn't believe what was happening but you knew something was up went Lady Stark saw the door get shut and then the armor on that one Lord. Crazy. I loved it though. Poor Rob. He really made a bunch of errors towards the end. Letting Jaime escape, not protecting the capture Lannister cousins, executing that Lord and going back on his word.

I like Arya Stark and her banter/relationship with the Hound. They had some very comedic moments.

I also liked the Brianne of Tarth character. Her relationship with Jaime is an interesting one and I somewhat felt bad for poor Jaime during his captivity where he lost his hand.

I was glad Joffree finally bit the bullet. He was so cruel and mean. He was a terrible King and it was clear no one could keep in line. I doubt Tywin could have either.

I loved the battle between the Hound and Brianne. That was awesome. Also her fight with Jaime earlier before their capture was cool too.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Tyrion after his escape. They just got rid of Tywin who was a great character you love to hate. I'm interested in seeing how the Tyrell family continues to factor in. I wonder if Daenarys will eventually ride her dragon since their relatives apparently were able to ride their dragons and it was sad seeing her lock up her 2 smaller ones. I don't know why that one dragon got so much bigger.

A lot of the published reviews for season 5 have huge spoiler alerts that deviate from the books.
Click on the link below to see who dies but didn't in the book



The side characters like Varys, Littlefinger and Stannis have stepped up their game and had huge screen presence and the reviews also said that Cersei has really impressed.