The Small Council: Does it matter that Game of Thrones will likely outpace A Song of Ice and Fire?

Last week, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirmed a few things a lot of fans had been fearing for a while: 1) Unless George R.R. Martin completes the final books in the Song of Ice and Fire series far sooner than expected, it’s all but guaranteed that the show will wrap up before the book series does; 2) While the show will arrive at the same basic endpoint as the book series, a lot of little things will be changed along the way; and 3) the show won’t be able to help spoiling the ending of the book series.

With the forthcoming fifth season of the show expected to diverge from the books to a greater extent than ever before, the issue of adaptation is on many fans’ minds. This week, the Small Council will tackle that issue by considering whether it matters that the Game of Thrones TV show will likely outpace the A Song of Ice and Fire book series.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!

DAVID: Of course it matters! I have been reading these books since 2000 when my best friend, who was reading A Storm of Swords, called me at 3 a.m. to yell at me about a guy named Walder Frey killing his favorite character, Robb Stark and his mother. At the time I was reading The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson, and my buddy insisted that I drop those books, pick up A Game of Thrones, which I did, and I have never looked back.

When HBO announced that it would air the first season of Game of Thrones, I was over the moon. My absolute favorite books being translated to the small screen, was all I could ask for…and then it happened. The Lannisters didn’t have golden hair. How could a description so painstakingly written about in the books, by GRRM himself, not be in the show?

Call me a book purist, if you will, but there are certain moments, descriptions and scenes from the books that I have always felt were needed. For instance, the near-exclusion of the story of Tyrion’s first wife, Tysha, and how that affected the murder of his father, Tywin, has always bothered me…but I digress. As the seasons have progressed, the more rational side of my addled brain has taken over, and I now watch each episode with the proverbial grain of salt…but still. I do NOT want the show to out-pace the books.

Look, I know George R.R. Martin doesn’t care about spoilers, he’s said as much, but is it too much to ask that as a loyal died-in-the-wool A Song of Ice and Fire fan, get some sort of preface on how the saga will end, before HBO ruins it for everyone? Okay, not ruin it, but at the very least, end it? Oh well, Valar Dohaeris.

DAN: Of course it doesn’t matter! The books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series have a lot more to recommend them beyond the desire to find out what happens next. I’ve reread A Storm of Swords multiple times, for example, despite the fact that I already know about the Red Wedding. For that matter, I recently rewatched Twin Peaks even though I’ve known who killed Laura Palmer for years, and have reread The Lord of the Rings despite knowing the ending by heart. Really good books—just like really good movies and really good TV shows—aren’t worth experiencing just for the surprising twists and turns along the way. They’re worth experiencing because they’re really good, and knowing how they end doesn’t change that.

Granted, the impact of said twists and turns may be a bit blunted by foreknowledge, but the essential elements that make the Song of Ice and Fire books great reads will remain untouched: meticulous worldbuilding, rich characterization, compelling use of language, and adroit storytelling. Plus, if a book reader really doesn’t want to be spoiled by the show, there’s always the option of not watching it (that option isn’t available to us, obviously, since it’s our job—sorry, David). That path may be a difficult and frustrating one, but it does exist for those patient enough to brave it.

And even those book-readers unwilling to forego the show may end up watching something on the screen that doesn’t much resemble what happens on the page. The show has diverged from the books  more and more with each passing season. This upcoming season is expected to widen that gap even further, what with Varys joining Tyrion in exile and Bronn still being around. For a while now, the show has seemed less like a faithful adaptation of the books and more like an alternate version of the story they tell, which makes it increasingly easy to enjoy both on their own terms.

CAMERON: When a popular work is adapted into another medium, two schools of thought emerge regarding how to consider the relationship between the source material and the subsequent adaptations. One: the books are the books, the film/show/comic is the film/show/comic, and the relationship is incidental. From this perspective, David Benioff and Dan Weiss are the authors of Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin is the author of A Song of Ice and Fire. In this case, the show would not actually be spoiling the books, because the relationship to the books is immaterial to one’s enjoyment of the series. I think this perspective is endorsed by a lot of show-only viewers as a way to enjoy the series without that constant nagging feeling of “maybe I should read the books.”

Two: the events of the work are actually things that happened (at least in the reader’s mind); from here, David & Dan and George R.R. Martin are like journalists from separate news organizations reporting on events from different perspectives. The relationship between the source material and the adaptations is more than incidental here, since a perspective George has on a character or event in the series may differ from how David & Dan view that character or event, which can lead to a disconnect for book-readers when something does not happen exactly the way it’s supposed to. Obviously, from this perspective, the show is spoiling the books, because the show and the books are “reporting” on the same set of events. (Interestingly, this perspective also allows for the possibility of the show hitting the same broad plot points as the books while having different interpretations of the hows and whys of those plot points. It’s like politics: the Democrats and Republicans can sometimes come to an agreement that there is an issue to be solved, but have completely different perspectives on how to solve that issue.)

Despite being a book reader, I think I’m firmly in the first camp. It’s much less stressful, I think, to just let the show do whatever it’s going to do and let George do whatever he’s going to do, and we can reconvene to talk about the adaptation process when we actually have the source material from which the upcoming seasons are going to be adapted. And I like having less stress in my life.

SCOTT: George Martin starting writing A Game of Thrones (the novel) in 1991. The show debuted in 2011. That means Martin had a 20-year head start on the show. 20 years. The fact that he has allowed the show to catch him is all but inexcusable, especially for someone who’s basically been a full-time writer during those years. Now we are faced with the reality that the show will give us the ending first.

For me, the show outpacing the books will fundamentally change the way I read the books. I read each new chapter in fear of what horrible thing will happen next. It’s a big part of my enjoyment of the series. I love Martin’s dark exploration of politics, religion, leadership, and ethics, but what keeps me turning pages is the tension. It’s discovering new secrets about the characters or sitting helpless as they meet a grisly and unjust end.

With that experience gone, Books 6 and 7 won’t be the same. Yes, the details along the way may be different, but David and Dan have said they intend to show us Martin’s ending. There will still be some surprises for readers, but we’ll know how it ends, and that’s the ultimate spoiler.

Sorry, George. I love you and the world you created for us. I’m grateful for it. I don’t want you to rush. I want you to be satisfied with your final two volumes. But you had a 20-year head start, and you couldn’t beat them to the end. It’s incredibly disappointing as a fan, and I wish it hadn’t come to this.

ANI: In just over two weeks, Season 5 of what Benioff and Weiss continue to insist is a seven year run will begin. That means we are past the halfway point. It might be one thing if Books Four: A Feast For Crows and Book Five: A Dance With Dragons were linear in nature, and Benioff and Weiss could and would plod through them directly in the following seasons. But the books are not linear–they are concurrent. Chances are, with the hints we’ve already received that certain characters are skipping ahead in their story lines so as to not disappear from our screens for long lengths of time, next season will probably clear the majority of both books. (The fact that three of our main characters don’t even appear in Book Four and very little happens to them in Book Five is also a factor in condensing them.) Scott is right. Martin has partially brought this upon himself.

When the show passes Martin and starts telling the parts of the story that haven’t been put to print, it will be an interesting experience to watch the canonical story switch mediums like. Star Trek and Star Wars have flipped from TV to movies and from movies to TV. But both of those are visual mediums. Yes, the rhythm and flow of each are different when it comes to telling a story. But at their base level, both are acted out for us. Will the book readers accept that the TV show is now canon? Will the book then be considered a novelization of the TV show? There’s always the stereotype of the book readers saying the TV show is not equal to the books when the books come first. But very few ever say that the novelization is superior to the visual when the book comes second. This is why Star Wars can easily dismiss decades of novels based on the series as “not canon” with very little fuss. This is also why many fans were startled to realize that when Doctor Who returned to television, Moffat and Davies were willing to accept all the novels (and comic books and so on) that happened while the show was off the air as part of the show’s canon.

Either way, this will be an interesting moment in the world of fandom when it occurs. Make no mistake–unless we hear in the next few weeks that Book Six is about to arrive, get ready. Fan Wars Are Coming.

• Published on 03/27/2015 at 1:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 03/27/2015 at 1:30 PM CDT