[POLL] GAME OF THRONES BOOK VS. TV SERIES

There exists no Game of Thrones book series. There exists the Song of Ice and Fire book series, the first of which is called Game of Thrones.

I don't think I've ever seen a film adaptation of a book (series) that's better than the book(s), and this is no exception. The books are better.

I have to imagine the books are better because I don't think the series is that great

The biggest problem I have with the series is that they're changing the actors so often ... Also they started some of the subplots and just canceled them when recognizing that there's not enough screentime left and the subplot is not that important (I guess that's the problem when you start a TV show about an UNFINISHED book series). Some changes in the series just feel like being done for popularity reasons ("because the fans don't like Mormont's raven" and stuff like that) and that always sucks.

Still way better than the screwed up story of "Jaws" or "First Blood (Rambo)" ... Popular or not: Those two are perfect examples of horrible Hollywood bullsh*t dirt "fixed" for the whiney mainstream audience!

TV is always the media that has more consumers than books. No matter if awesome or lousy. Because most of the people are just to lazy to read ... Even I am.

I feel the show has really lost the thread in the most recent season. Basically the more off book it goes the worse it seems to get. Now it's probably not terrible. But the last season wasn't... great. I mean sure it had great moments but if you even stop and think about a lot of the events for even a bit they mostly don't make any sense at all.

The books on the other hand make a lot of sense. In fact you could say that from the books released so far you can pretty much tell what is going to happen going forward. Despite the books being a kind of commentary on regular fantasy tropes and whatnots there's a clear trajectory the story is taking and in its broadest strokes it is predictable. Because of what has been set up so far.

Though I guess the TV show also knows some of this. Because it knows the "cool moments" that need to happen. But don't seem to bother setting any of it up at all. Or it does set it up but then just botches the execution so badly. Like most of the action in the North the last couple of seasons. Jon is killed and resurrected and the Night's Watch doesn't give a fuck either way. Sansa doesn't tell Jon about the Knights of the Vale despite being literally asked about if there's anything she knows seconds before. The Bolton Bastard is just an annoying prick throughout that has so much plot armour it's just silly until he finally gets killed. That guy must have been the writers' pet or something because he's so obnoxious but everything he does is steeped in "look how cool this guy is" even when it's mostly annoying. Joffrey at least made a little bit of sense.

And the whole show is like this now. Or so it feels like. Remember how in the early show and in the books Jaime is the "Kingslayer" and is constantly reminded and branded because of what he did. Well in the show so many people have slain kings (and queens) now it's ridiculous. At least in the books there is actual politicking (and it's the best parts) there are factions that need appeasing and factions that oppose certain things. In the show it just seems that whoever kills the previous regent becomes the new regent. (See Dorne, King's Landing and the Seastone Chair (or the "Salt Throne" as it is known in the show. An incredibly stupid and useless name change if you ask me)


The thing is the show is pretty good and I enjoy it. But writing this makes me angry at it. It just doesn't pass... Thinking about it. Otherwise it's pretty good.

author=Jeroen_Sol

author=lianderson
...the books, which are plagued with an obscene amount of unnecessary characters and plot lines with no end in sight.

I heavily disagree. Worldbuilding is everything, and Martin knows it. You can't build a world without populating it, and actually turning those characters into people rather than simply generic soldier #527 is what makes Song of Ice and Fire great. And killing off people is also much more impactful than killing off generic soldier #1032. Of course there's still a lot of nameless soldiers in Song of Ice and Fire, but it's a lot better than "You got your main cast of unkillable heroes and they fight hordes of nameless orcs." Besides, people die a lot in Song of Ice and Fire. If not "unnecessary characters", who will take their place?

The complexity of the plot also makes the world come alive. At any given time, all over Westeros and the East, tons of things are happening. Time never stands still just because no "main characters" are there at the moment. And the plentitude of plot lines also serves to make sure no true main characters exist. After all, life has no main characters, and anyone can die. Again, this is a lot better than "You got your main cast of unkillable heroes and they do the only interesting things in the whole world."

Sure, you're right in a broader sense.

The problem with ASOIAF is that this isn't what's happening, at least not anymore; what's happening is that the series has a ton of unresolved, almost convoluted plotlines and subplotlines that need (or should) be resolved before the series inevitably ends. A major, major criticism of the book series is that Martin has effectively written himself into a corner with many of the plotlines, which is speculated to be the reason why Winds of Winter is taking forever.

It's not like an infinite amount of worldbuilding (which, if anyone knows me, knows I'm huge into worldbuilding) and plotlines/complexity can be applied to a story with impunity; you gotta know when to cut that shit out and write with the plotlines and world you already got and established.

I prefer the books, but the series also have their merits.

A major problem with both the books and the series are the multiple plotlines. Martin did a lot of world building in his books and worldbuilding is generally considered something good. However, if you do lot of world building, sooner or later, you reach a point where you need to focus more on moving the story forward and can't keep building as much.

I my opinion, SoIaF hit that point, but Martin continued world building to the detriment of the books. Even if he starts moving forward at a fast phase now, every plot thread moves one at a time, meaning things will move slowly anyway. There's also the question if Martin even can resolve all threads in a satisfying way at all.

The series omit introducing a lot of the plot threads and are also tying a lot of them together or flat out closing them, thus allowing the story to move forward faster. The problem is that this is not done very skillfully. Typically, what happens in the books are at least believable consequences of peoples desires, actions and circumstances. In the series, not so much. Rather, what happens feels like it happens because the director decided it has to happen.

There's also the risk that both the books and the series have a good chance of crashing and burning.

It's not too unlikely that Martin will never finish the books and they have to be finished by someone else, like the Wheel of Time series. This is not necessarily a disaster, but the books are already taking a lot of time as it is. It's also likely that Martin will not be able to resolve the dangling threads in a satisfying way at all.

The series is kind of losing itself as it goes further and further away from the railing of the books. What is supposed to be multiple faction conspiring with and against each other is turning into what more and more resembles the hero(es) vs the antagonists. What we may get is something that technically has the characters and world from the books, but otherwise is something entirely else.

It's a pity, because when SoIaF is good, it's really good.

I read the first book a while ago so my memory of it is a bit fuzzy, I remember liking it though. Haven't seen the show so I can't really say much about it.

JoelMB gets it