I think with TV shows I end up skipping a lot of episodes but then telling myself I basically watched it and got the gist. Although I am questioning now how much gist I ever really got.....
I don’t remember that at all. I kinda wanna rewatch mad men. But I don’t even have time to watch current things let alone rewatch something
Oh yeah baby, because Matthew Weiner is the worst. People wrote all kinds of thinkpieces at the time about how they were subtle geniuses showing that rape doesn’t just happen violently or that modern viewers have different understandings of consent, but then they made it clear later that it was meant to be consensual and blamed it on the actress not doing her job.
I dunno there's just so many details, subplots and lore that breathe life into the story in the books and GRRM is pretty much the architect of it all, and unlike Tolkien he also improvises a lot of it during the writing process. There was a rough outline of the next two books and certainly an ending he's writing towards, but apparently not much more than that. The show writers were probably tasked with either opting for a minimalist version of the story or attempting to fill in the gaps by making up their own lore and basically trying to impersonate how they think GRRM might tackle it. There was bound to be some disappointment no matter what.
It’s best not to think too hard about it when it comes to that guy. Or the fact that he is a known control freak but somehow would allow that to make it through...
We know they were told ahead of time: -Jon’s parents -Hold the door -I assume the very end (at least what Martin had as the ending at the time? Who knows) -??? blanking on anything else lol And in their recap they were like “For several seasons now we had planned for Arya to kill the Night King,” which definitely conveys that they thought of it themselves
Have they said exactly when GRRM told them everything? Like the ending being crazy rushed and confusing now would still fall on them writing themselves into a corner and not because they were told super late, right?
Extremely recent quote from GRRM about the end “The major plot points about the ending will be things that I have told David and Dan a few years ago, but certain changes or extra pieces of plot-lines may be added or removed." So yeah ending is still his vision it seems. Or was at least.
I really hope that if the leaks are true this is just referring to the absolute bare bones of his plan and not any of the how or why or details.
Apparently GRRM approved them as the showrunners when they correctly guessed who Jon Snow’s mom was back in 2006, so I’m assuming some point between then and season 1 lol Also I believe GRRM was upset when they didn’t use Lady Stoneheart. So I have to assume they were at least some things that he told them were *essential* plot points to hit from the get-go (LS not being one)
I would bet money on Jon and Dany falling in love (and of course Jon eventually learning about his parents) being one of those essential plot points
Man, what if it turns out years later that they had just been creeping on some ASOIAF messageboard and lucked into who Jon’s parents were, and then got in way over their heads. Lol.
Or when they first met with him he tripped and spilled a manilla folder full of documents and D&D noticed “R+L=J” written all over one of them
From what I understand the Night King is kindasorta vaguely alluded to in the books, but so far only appears in the show. It's possible there might not be a Night King in the books, but that Arya will still turn the tide in the battle when the army of the dead strike. This seems to be heavily foreshadowed in both the novels and show. He officially left the show because of creative differences around season 4. A couple weeks ago I was trying to figure out "Why doesn't he just fuckin write seasons 7-8?", and someone linked me an article going into how a lot of those differences were because the scripts he wrote were quite a bit longer than regular scripts and required expanded budget and usually took several months per episode to finish. And from GRRM's perspective I guess it does kinda seem unlikely that with his slow and maximalist writing style he would have much fun authoring a streamlined visual medium adaptation of his novels before writing them.
Honestly I think GRRM and D&D screwed each other over. You don't have the show without the books and GRRM isn't nearly as well off without the show. Once the show ran out of source material and starting taking more and more creative liberties, it felt rushed and poorly contrived. It's to the point that no matter how it ends, lots of people are going to be dissatisfied. GRRM messed up by not finishing the books first. Now, no matter what happens, whatever he ends up writing (IF he actually finishes it) will forever be compared to how the show ends. What if the show ending sucks and fans hate it? Well, then maybe he writes a different ending, even if D&D use the ending he told them about. Or what if the show knocks it out of the park in the end? He's gonna try to write something just as good or better, and it will fall short of expectations. Worst case and most likely scenario: the show ends in a way that pisses everyone off and GRRM never finishes the book and the whole thing is a case study on wasted potential for years to come.
Omg I hope the ending of the show sucks and GRRM makes a different ending for the books and acts all like “Yeah honestly idk what the fuck those guys were doing like jfc I never would have done it like that what fuckin amateurs”