I think GRRM’s fault is that he ain’t shit as a writer. He’s really creative and thought of a cool universe, but he can’t really write it well. Why do you think it has taken soo long for a new book to drop? It’s because dude doesn’t have a clue where this story is going. He can hardly keep all the characters (and their appearance) straight, to say it isn’t convoluted is laughable to me. You like it, that’s cool, I do too, but I’m not going to sit here and act like GRRM is anywhere close to being a great writer.
You say you know the show has limitations, but then you complain about LF storyline being cut, which to me is contradictory. It’s not remotely realistic to expect that LF would get a really in-depth storyline in the show. He’s a supporting character. Can you imagine the outrage if the show had LF and Sansa chilling at the Vale doing nothing except everyday shit like eating and talking, that certainly makes for exciting TV, no? With that said, LF writing has been trash since S2 imo. At one time he had really clever, insightful things to say, but around like S3 everything he said turned into some lame Machiavellian line like “gold buys silence for a while, a bolt through the heart buys it forever”. IDK, I haven’t been impressed with the character for a while now.
Ultimately though I just disagree with almost all of what you say, and I think you are someone who will refuse to like the show regardless of how good it is, simply because they didn’t follow your precious books. From my perspective, S1 is one of the best seasons of TV ever made, the seasons in between are ok, and then S6 returned the series to greatness (even though they didnt have the books to guide them).
since the show is merely using elements of the books to further the story and doesn’t necessarily hinge on GRRM writing anything new, it’s understandable that the characters start using waypoints more often to warp in and out of locations.
mind you, the level grinding was worth it.
look at how Arya is OP AF right now, she just finished off a bunch of Frey’s with Poisona.
that wolf summon would be pretty handy soon…
GRRM is okay as a writer. Not amazing, but competent.
His actual problem is that he’s gotten too popular for editors to have any real sway over his output. Happens to a lot of authors whose work blows up huge.
I agree, he’s not bad or anything, but he’s not the god some people make him out to be. Some people would have you believe that the show turned to shit “without GRRM’s guidance”, but I think they’ve actually been doing some of their best work recently (and this is coming from someone who has been pretty critical of the show at times).
I think GRRM has two issues, one is creative, and the other is technical:
Too much shit to clean up in the story and he can’t possibly keep the continuity in his head.
He’s using old tech when a modern computer would easily help him keep continuity much easier.
He comes up with some solutions to a problem in the plot, but to check out how it would grow against the rest of the plot, he needs to check continuity with his original ideas and things he’s already planned for every other character.
He’s always prepared to prune or outright chop out a plot and start fresh. This is why I love his story.
But that makes his writing process take decades.
I’m still fucking waiting for Winter over here since 2011.
Glad I wasn’t waiting since the last millennium.
Just check out /r/asoiaf, the theories fans come up with shows how desperate they are. Gasping for Winter. Starving for ice.
I said it’s understanable to cut LF storyline (and others), but the problem being that they did nothing with him. It’s not about being faithful to the books, it’s about the plot and dialouge being bad and nonsensical on their own. And the vale arc in the books is amazing. Considering you think it’s ‘‘doing shit like eating and talking’’ (who knew talking is important in a character driven book) we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I guess I just expect different things from the show.
The only one destined for the throne is the one who has the power to take it.
P.S. Finding Theon is the perfect counterbalance to the seriousness of Game of Thrones. I sincerely hope such a parody will one day materialize. I could definitely see a mixture of The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights filled with Game of Thrones references making my day!
I think you are misunderstanding my post. I actually agree with you, after storm of swords, GRRM lost his way. SOIAF is a classic example of scope creep and feature bloat in projects that go way over budget and behind schedule. In a corporation, a solid product owner or a program manager would put his foot down and would make hard decisions about what features to cut or what resources to add in order to hit the deadline. Now I don’t know much about the book industry, but I imagine the editor fills the role of product owner/program manager/whatever. George’s problem is that he is a gardener. He started off with a few characters, they went off and went on interesting meandering adventures, which led to more characters and more sub quests and storylines. Dance with Dragons and Feast for Crows was originally supposed to be a SINGLE BOOK. Instead he released two books which were MEH and could honestly have been cut down with no significant loss. That being said, I did enjoy both books because I think GRRM is a lyrical master and I enjoy his world building.
If I were the editor, I would’ve sat George down and said: “Listen you fat fuck, I enjoy reading your shit, but no one gives a fuck about the goddamn sea people in shit island, no one gives a shit about sand people, no one wants to read an entire book about brienne wandering around looking for the stark sisters, and no one wants to read about dany being clueless about how to govern a city and fucking girls and guys left and right. Fuck your feast for crows and combine it with Dance with Dragons and get the ball moving! You’re fat and gonna die of a heart attack soon!”
Ideally what GRRM should have done was finish the story with a fixed set of POV, then if he really wanted to, release spin off books with additional POVs. Instead, he is now doing spin off short story books UGH instead of finishing the main plotline.
The show OTOH has the opposite problem. All the plot points are now just feeling completely contrived. In the books, the deaths had meaning and long reaching consequences and were themselves consequences of previous decisions. Red Wedding was the perfect storm. Now on the show Cersei blows up all her enemies, it was cool and all, and it really just felt like its because the actors wanted to pursue their movie careers and it was just a quick way to end all the side quests. So while the production value is still high and makes it entertaining, the writing feels very contrived and rushed at times and it takes away from the enjoyment.
am i crazy for feeling sympathy for him still? the mind-fucking he has gone through so far is insane. Literally everyone has fucked with him so far… his father loses a war when he’s 9 and he gets handed over as a hostage to keep baron in check… when he finally returns to his father he is just shit on for things he had no control over till he agrees to betray the starks… then the whole reek thing with ramsey, it’s no surprise theon has a nasty case of PTSD
