Dear Lifehacker, I’ve been a huge fan of George R R Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series ever since the first book came out in the mid ’90s. I’ve also enjoyed the HBO TV show — which is about to pass the events in the books. Like many readers, I really want to experience this story in its written form first, but the temptation to binge-watch season six will be extremely hard to resist. What should I do? Thanks, Crabby Celtigar
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Dear CC,
For casual GoT fans, the above dilemma refers to the unusual situation of HBO’s TV adaptation overtaking the source material — which is still in the process of being written. When the Game Of Thrones series was first greenlit back in 2007, it was thought that the books would be finished well before the show had a chance to catch up. At the time, more than half of the series had already been published, which gave Martin a comfortable eight-year lead to finish his saga.
Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Martin’s schedule became much, much busier after the success of the TV show: there were conventions to attend, talk shows to appear on and new work commitments such as writing scripts for the show. Plus, his insistence on only writing at home on WordStar, coupled with a difficult-to-unravel plot issue caused progress on the books to slow to a virtual standstill.
This year, the TV show is set to cover events from the yet-to-be published The Winds Of Winter and possibly beyond. This situation isn’t entirely new: since 2014, the show has been dropping potential book spoilers — some of them major — as foreshadowing for future events.
In addition to learning more about the mysterious Others, we’ve also witnessed the deaths of major characters who are still alive in the books. While it could be argued that their literary fates aren’t necessarily sealed, it’s a safe bet that none of these characters have major roles to play. (Believe it or not, many readers really thought Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai Reborn, for example. His casual dispatching on the show nixes this theory.)
If the recently released trailer for Season 6 is anything to go by, the situation is about to get a lot worse. It was basically a 90-second orgy of spoilers; from Cersei’s return to power to Bran Stark’s run-in with the so-called Night King.
So what should we book readers do? This is something I’ve been struggling with myself. On the one hand, the show has made a number of significant plot deviations from the books. At this point, it almost resembles fan fiction, complete with the “shipping” of characters into romantic (or not so romantic) relationships.
On the other hand, Game Of Thrones‘ showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have confirmed that they know how the final book ends and where all the characters end up. While some aspects of the journey will be different, both versions will arrive at the exact same place. So you need to decide which “vehicle” you’d prefer to sit in first.
If you do elect to remain pure and unsullied (ahem) for Martin’s books, we strongly recommend the liberal use of GoT anti-spoiler measures — after years of having the show’s plot spoiled by snarky book readers, viewers are going to be out for revenge.
See also: Top 10 Movies And TV Shows That Are Like Game Of Thrones | Top 10 Fantasy Writing Tips From ‘Game Of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
10 responses to “Ask LH: Should I Skip Season Six Of Game Of Thrones?”
There is 0% chance of avoiding this season TV spoilers and the following season finales before the books come out. No matter how hard you try to stay away from spoilers, they will come (just like winter… get it?). So if you want to be a social outcast for the next 10 years before the final book is released, maybe just watch the show.
Skip it because the show turned to shit and killed off the best character Stannis for no reason other than the show runners hate him not because they are surpassing the books.
There is zero chance GRRM will finish this series. The Fat Man has lied about his release dates for the decade. He sold HBO the rights to finish his series if he didn’t.
Think about that. When an author as rabidly anti-fan fiction as the Fat Man turns over the reins of his masterpiece to HBO, he’s washing his hands of it.
The coronary is coming any day now.
Big fan of both the books and the series. In my mind it doesn’t really matter which order I consume them in, I’ll still get spoilers for the other so why wait. I’ll just get to revisit the story when the book finally does come out
Just saw season 5 GOT on dvd. Yes I will watch s.6 when it comes out on dvd next year. Saw the trailer. 🙂
Stick with the tv. If the book series ever gets finished…great even better. If they had adheared to every part of every book thusfar this wouldnt be an issue.
Havnt read the books but based on season 6 trailer…the red witch is positioned to rally the men on the wall against the white walkers. Danerys gets to rise to power amongst the dothraki from slave. And tyrion goes from advisor to drowned in bucket.
At least try it on Blu Ray. It’s beautiful in HD.