Why I Won’t Be Watching Game of Thrones Anymore
It’s simple, really.
I love the books.
I read almost all of the novels before the series
started, so my emotional involvement and loyalty is to the written words. And make no mistake: I love those books. They are deeply detailed and yet always
moving, with interesting characters and some fantastic ideas and action. But I probably don’t need to tell you this
because you’ve at least followed the show, if not read the books for
yourself. You know. You understand. This is great stuff. And for four seasons, the TV show kicked ass. But along came Season Five and my dilemma
began.
They started deviating from the books, and not just a
little, not like in previous seasons.
No, they deviated a lot. That
whole Sansa arc was not in the books.
Which is fine, I suppose, but it was garbage, for the most part. I won’t get into deep detail about why it
bothered me except to offer this: they
were basically repeating her relationship with Joffrey. That’s not character development, that’s
treading water.
And then there was the skipping over of the Tyrion story
almost entirely. In the novel Dance of
Dragons, he had a long, arduous arc, a tale that detailed his attempts at
redemption for committing patricide (even if the old bastard Lannister had it
coming, and then some). Tyrion suffered;
he drank himself into a stupor, was humiliated over and over again, and found
his already lowly station in life diminished further. He fought and struggled and by the end of the
book found some sort of peace, I think.
Not on the show. He drinks some,
feels sorry for himself, and next thing you know he’s meeting the Dragon Queen
(never happened in the book). Ugh.
Which brings me to the new season. From this point on, it’s going to be all new
material, not based on the books, as far as I can tell. They’ve already caught up and now they’re
moving forward, essentially spoiling what is to come in the books. I’ve heard the “same ending, different paths”
argument, and that’s fine for most people.
Not for me. I want the
books. I want the real story. I don’t want the TV one. And I most certainly don’t want the ending of
the series spoiled for me by a television show that is supposed to be an
adaptation of the books.
Has there ever been a TV show or movie that spoils the
ending of the actual fictional work it’s based on, before the actual fictional
work is completed? I’ve racked my brains
and can’t think of one, which means we’re pretty much entering into virgin territory
here. And while I find the conundrum interesting,
I come back again to how I feel about all of it.
I want my ending by the book.
And even though everyone I know that has read the books
has given up on ever getting another installment (“The last book will come out
twenty years from now, written by someone else, if we’re lucky” they say), I
have not. It may be foolish, but I want
what Martin writes, not what Martin tells a staff of TV writers to write.
So I will wait.
Even though it is foolish. Even
though everything will still be spoiled for me, anyway (remember how readers of
the books kept the whole Red Wedding thing a secret for three years, not
spoiling a damned thing; I don’t think the favor will be returned).
I will wait.
Because I love the books.
And to everyone else: enjoy the show! Just keep your mouths shut around me, please.
