TV: Game of Thrones prequel pilot ordered

[Cas]

pretty sure the teaser was number 1 trending on youtube and twitter. lots of ppl will be interested that loves the show and got really pissed with how it ended. the main culprits of the disastrous ending arent involved.

I don't know - the more I think about it, I think the main culprit is... George R.R. Martin.

He basically wrote his story into a mess and has no idea how to get out, which I think helped push Game of Thrones towards the mess that it wound up being in starting in Seasons 5 and 6. I don't think the showrunners were good enough to deal with the problem, and what they wound up with was pretty bad, but I think Martin himself deserves a fair amount of blame.

 

[ecemleafs]

I don't know - the more I think about it, I think the main culprit is... George R.R. Martin.

He basically wrote his story into a mess and has no idea how to get out, which I think helped push Game of Thrones towards the mess that it wound up being in starting in Seasons 5 and 6. I don't think the showrunners were good enough to deal with the problem, and what they wound up with was pretty bad, but I think Martin himself deserves a fair amount of blame.

troo to an extant. obv the show runners wudnt have had an opportunity to f*** it up if grrm wud finish the books. show runners tried fitting 4 seasons worth of material into 15 episodes which was just crazy imo. watching the interviews with dan and dave after episodes just showed how much they wanted to end the series and were almost f***ing things up on purpose out of spite.

 

[Osprey]

Martin finishing the books beforehand probably would've helped, but the showrunners were still following his notes and still wanted to end the series and move on to other projects. That suggests to me that we probably would've gotten rushed seasons, regardless.

 

[Cas]

Martin finishing the books beforehand probably would've helped, but the showrunners were still following his notes and still wanted to end the series and move on to other projects. That suggests to me that we probably would've gotten rushed seasons, regardless.

To be honest, I'm not convinced Martin really has notes - I think he knows how he plans to end things, but has no idea how to get there without invoking cliches or plot-breaking conveniences that he is loathe to use. That's the only way I can explain the Meereenese Knot - he sent a ton of characters there and now can't figure out how to get them out and back to the main plot.

 

[Osprey]

To be honest, I'm not convinced Martin really has notes - I think he knows how he plans to end things, but has no idea how to get there without invoking cliches or plot-breaking conveniences that he is loathe to use. That's the only way I can explain the Meereenese Knot - he sent a ton of characters there and now can't figure out how to get them out and back to the main plot.

That's what I meant by his notes: how he planned to end things. For example, he likely told them how Daenerys' character arc was supposed to end and then they sat down and fleshed out the details. Even if he would've fleshed them out, himself, in a novel beforehand, it doesn't seem like it would've made much of a difference. It still wouldn't have pleased those who were unhappy with how her arc ended or those who were unhappy that it was rushed.

 

[JimmyApples]

The show runners signed up to adapt an epic fantasy book series into great television and did exactly that. They were in over their heads when the most popular TV show ever passed the books, and they had a rough idea how to end the series and a grumpy, pissed off author not willing to help much.

 

[RandV]

I'd be fairly certain GRRM knew how he wanted to end it - Dany going nuts and Jon having to kill her and Bran becoming king, along with a few smaller things along the way like Hodor, and those are the 'notes' he gave. But otherwise how he was going bring anything to get there is still wildly up in the air.

Really though I don't think any of that would have really mattered in the end. There's kind of two sides to it here, while books 1-3 from GRRM made for great TV adaption, books 4-5 he lost control of the plot and a direct adaption was no longer feasible. It was fine for a reader like myself who likes massive fantasy books, but that's not going to be easy on any writer who has to turn it into a script. The point here is though that in this case D&D had the material, and a lot of the heavy adaptions they made were just terrible, with Dorne being at the top of the list.

Regardless though, I don't think any of this will have an effect the prequel here. The main plot points are already mapped out, I'm sure HBO will have a proper team of writers this time rather than just two guys in their first gig, and they can map everything out for TV right from the start. I doubt it will be the same as the first few seasons of Game of Thrones as that was the trailblazer but it should still be great TV.

 

[Cas]

I'd be fairly certain GRRM knew how he wanted to end it - Dany going nuts and Jon having to kill her and Bran becoming king, along with a few smaller things along the way like Hodor, and those are the 'notes' he gave. But otherwise how he was going bring anything to get there is still wildly up in the air.

Really though I don't think any of that would have really mattered in the end. There's kind of two sides to it here, while books 1-3 from GRRM made for great TV adaption, books 4-5 he lost control of the plot and a direct adaption was no longer feasible. It was fine for a reader like myself who likes massive fantasy books, but that's not going to be easy on any writer who has to turn it into a script. The point here is though that in this case D&D had the material, and a lot of the heavy adaptions they made were just terrible, with Dorne being at the top of the list.

Regardless though, I don't think any of this will have an effect the prequel here. The main plot points are already mapped out, I'm sure HBO will have a proper team of writers this time rather than just two guys in their first gig, and they can map everything out for TV right from the start. I doubt it will be the same as the first few seasons of Game of Thrones as that was the trailblazer but it should still be great TV.

I do agree with all of this.