Bran is really fascinating at the beginning of story IMO. He has the best monologues in the series.
Admitely, he becomes more boring (though not as boring as in the show) in th latest few books. He's super important for the series though, Martin considers him one of the top 5 characters (despite that Sansa who is not in top 5 has more POV chapters).
I like book Bran. I think he'll end up doing far more and being far more important in the books. From a TV point of view, they probably only needed him to help confirm Jon's parentage otherwise they might well have done Rickon with him.
Book conjecture is quite wild about him. One crazy theory which I like is that he will do more time travel and he is actually Bran the Builder that builds the Wall. Probably not though.
Anyway, I agree with your views about his POV chapters and look forward to reading more about him as I feel his book story will end up being different to his TV story.
I am not talking about "pace it do it better" stuff, but about changes to the actual story.
We can see there are a lot of differences between the books and tv series up to the point where they caught up. Stuff like:
Sam never brought Gilly with him south to the citadel in the books
Lady Stoneheart was written out of the show
Aegon Targaryen (son of Elia Martell and Rhaegar) was written out of the show
Robb Stark's wife is probably still alive and has probably sired his child
Ser Barristan Selmy is still alive and well in the books
No sight of any Night King in the books yet
Missandei is 10 years old in the books and obviously has no romance with Grey Worm
Jaime and Bronn never hung out in the books and Bronn hasn't been seen since he refused to fight the mountain on Tyrion's behalf
Jaime never went to Dorne either in the books
Jaime and Cersei's relationship in the books is not the rubberband one of the show - Jaime distinctly loathes Cersei at last checkpoint for her crimes and for sleeping with other men.
Sansa never married Ramsay Bolton in the books. That was her childhood friend Jeyne Poole impersonating Arya Stark.
So what do we think that the writers of the show have changed in seasons 7 & 8 that will come out differently in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring?
He will still not know how to fix the mess from the 5 year gap. He'll add a bunch more pointless characters, 10000000 more plot lines to try and fix 1 and after 7 books we'll have a far more convoluted mess than we have at the minute. It will be dragged to 10 books. We're not getting an ending.
If I had to guess I would say
Arya will not kill the Great Other, not in a million years.
Stannis will have nothing to do with Shireen's burning.
Other than that I think we are just getting a better version of what has happened so far in the tv show.
Hold the Door my play out differently.
The Children of the Forest will not have magic grenades.
I couldn't believe Quentyn's storyline. It was a fantastically long tangent for incredible little advancement of story, if any at all.
Same with Tyrion's Adventures in the East. It's just about passing the time for him basically.
My main fear for the final two books is the same total lack of editorial oversight.
People will probably say I'm off but I think Quentyn's job was to bring Gerris to Dany. Wasn't she immediately attracted to him? He survived, Quentyn didn't. He's also probably as important a character in those chapters. I think George has plans for Gerris.
I'm in the "he won't finish it" boat. How long has it been since he wrote the last book and supposedly started writing the one he is on now? If he had the inspiration to do it, it would've been done. He was probably just happy with the show to a certain extent so said feck it and let the show take over.
Also I think he had a great vision at creating the world, but didn't have the vision of how he would end the story and I think he's never really figured out a satisfying ending.
IMO what they should've gone for as an ending is implementing a proper political system and transition away from a specific royal family lineage being heirs to the throne. Think Tyrion mentioned something like that once in the show, and that would've been kind of one ending that improves everything for the better in the end.
Which will happen sooner - United winning the league or GRRM releasing the next book?
I would bet on the former, and I'm not expecting that for another 5 years.
Put yourself in his shoes: you're 70+, you've written part of a story that's been converted into a multimillion pound show winning numerous awards, you've earned a shit load of money, the show has overtaken your books and already outlined broadly what will happen in the books you're writing/ about to write. What the feck's the point?
I bet secretly he's laughing at all the book nerds losing their shit about how the show hasn't done the book justice and all the abuse he's getting for not getting the rest of the story written. He couldn't care less. Look at him FFS, if you looked up the phrase 'lazy bastard' you'd probably get an image of him. He's just going to enjoy his money until the end of his days with no pressure from anyone, and who can blame him.
Bran is really fascinating at the beginning of story IMO. He has the best monologues in the series.
Admitely, he becomes more boring (though not as boring as in the show) in the latest few books. He's super important for the series though, Martin considers him one of the top 5 characters (despite that Sansa who is not in top 5 has more POV chapters).
To be honest I was only fecking with the frans in the tv thread, but the more they argue the more I realise it's actually true. He does absolutely feck all to change anything
Surely the books will continue to be way more interesting for him. If they continue at all that is.
The man isn't that great a writer. He created an epic world, he created so many great characters, he had the knack or working out things as he went. But ultimately, he had no finish line and that's the real reason he is never finishing the books. People can say what they want, but the truth is he knows that and is going to die without finishing them and he will take that world with him because it's better for him to pretend than let some other writer do it.
He's a great writer in the prose sense - great dialogues and exposition. But his problem is as you say - he's never had a start and end point for the series - as we've seen by what he had written down for the first draft of the books. Contrast to Rowling - who from the start knew how the books ended and was able to fill in the gaps from that.
Imo he's made the world too vast, as we see from books 4 and 5 which really should've been one book. It would've been fine if he was committed to expanding the universe, but it's been 8 years and he's spent most of that time writing random side stories instead of the actual book.
To be honest I was only fecking with the frans in the tv thread, but the more they argue the more I realise it's actually true. He does absolutely feck all to change anything
Surely the books will continue to be way more interesting for him. If they continue at all that is.
I'd like someone/the books to explain the below in more detail. This is something we're told by Bran but are we ever told this by the original 3ER? Would the Night King have even invaded Westeros had Bran not gone South of the wall? Would they have stopped at Winterfell after getting Bran? If the Night King only ever wanted Bran, why couldn't they have just sailed him away to the other continent?
Granted there's the whole "If the NightKing gets Bran, the world is finished because... something vague". But do we even know if that's accurate and if so, why was it never explained properly. Does anyone actually have a good explanation on how the world would end if the Night King got him? I may have simply forgotten.
I'd like someone/the books to explain the below in more detail. This is something we're told by Bran but are we ever told this by the original 3ER? Would the Night King have even invaded Westeros had Bran not gone South of the wall? Would they have stopped at Winterfell after getting Bran? If the Night King only ever wanted Bran, why couldn't they have just sailed him away to the other continent?
I'd like someone/the books to explain the below in more detail. This is something we're told by Bran but are we ever told this by the original 3ER? Would the Night King have even invaded Westeros had Bran not gone South of the wall? Would they have stopped at Winterfell after getting Bran? If the Night King only ever wanted Bran, why couldn't they have just sailed him away to the other continent?
Almost everything about the White Walkers is different in the books so I'm not sure how much can be taken at any sort of value from the show. They aren't even called White Walkers for a start. The Night's King seems to be someone else entirely. Coldhand's is involved somehow. Almost everything north of the wall is more complicated than just unstoppable army coming to kill everyone. Even the Wildlings are more complicated with Mance and Val. They cut that part down so much it feels almost like a different story.
I'd like someone/the books to explain the below in more detail. This is something we're told by Bran but are we ever told this by the original 3ER? Would the Night King have even invaded Westeros had Bran not gone South of the wall? Would they have stopped at Winterfell after getting Bran? If the Night King only ever wanted Bran, why couldn't they have just sailed him away to the other continent?
She deffo cocked that aspect of it up. But the general idea behind the hallows had been thought of from the outset I think and the idea behind it was sound - execution not so much.
I mean the fact we are even discussing JKR here is a sign that GRRM if he fails to finish the series in a satisfying way will not be remembered as top tier untouchable status. There will always be an asterisk by his name.
I always thought that the Quentyn thing was a waste of time but I saw a comment yesterday where someone pointed out that his death would have made the whole Jon climbing a dragon thing more dramatic.
I always thought that the Quentyn thing was a waste of time but I saw a comment yesterday where someone pointed out that his death would have made the whole Jon climbing a dragon thing more dramatic.
I mean 6 fecking chapters for that effect is a bit too much though. I was fully on board with that Quentyn thing. Thought at least one of FAegon or Quentyn Martell was a sureshot thing. Double double bluff is ridiculous
I mean 6 fecking chapters for that effect is a bit too much though. I was fully on board with that Quentyn thing. Thought at least one of FAegon or Quentyn Martell was a sureshot thing. Double double bluff is ridiculous
I like book Bran. I think he'll end up doing far more and being far more important in the books. From a TV point of view, they probably only needed him to help confirm Jon's parentage otherwise they might well have done Rickon with him.
Book conjecture is quite wild about him. One crazy theory which I like is that he will do more time travel and he is actually Bran the Builder that builds the Wall. Probably not though.
Anyway, I agree with your views about his POV chapters and look forward to reading more about him as I feel his book story will end up being different to his TV story.
I mean 6 fecking chapters for that effect is a bit too much though. I was fully on board with that Quentyn thing. Thought at least one of FAegon or Quentyn Martell was a sureshot thing. Double double bluff is ridiculous
The Quentyn chapters are part of a grander narrative, with his fate and fAegon/Tyrion advice leading to an alliance with Dorne, setting the stage for Dance of Dragons v2.0.
His death isn’t pointless at all, it’s to drive a wedge between House Martell and Dany. ADwD is basically the 2nd half of AFfC, plus set up for TWoW.
The Quentyn chapters are part of a grander narrative, with his fate and fAegon/Tyrion advice leading to an alliance with Dorne, setting the stage for Dance of Dragons v2.0.
His death isn’t pointless at all, it’s to drive a wedge between House Martell and Dany. ADwD is basically the 2nd half of AFfC, plus set up for TWoW.
