Just needed to get this out there.

[rogueslayer452]

I stopped watching Game of Thrones years ago, like I legit just don't care for it anymore. With this being the final season, with the series finale next weekend, and hearing about the kerfuffle going down and how fandom has been reacting which has been unavoidable since it's been everywhere, I just have this to say:

The show is not the books. The show was never the books. What happens on the show is not canonical to the books.

While there have been some changes made and moments that I liked in the show and while the books themselves aren't exactly perfect and do have issues of their own, the books are 5000% better than whatever the show turned out to be. So whatever has happened so far especially in the final season, and whatever happens in the series finale, just know that the books aren't going to happen the same way (and yeah, I know that GRRM has claimed that it's the same, but he's not been entirely reliable anyway with anything relating to the last two books he hasn't even finished writing yet, so, y'know, take what he says with a grain of salt).

Adaptations are tricky things. Some can turn out to be good even if they deviate a bit from the source material, while others not so good. And unfortunately while Game of Thrones might have started out decent enough with adapting the first book with the first season, it did go downhill after that. There's been many theories as to why, but I personally think that HBO/the showrunners had a completely different agenda from the start that wasn't meant to adapt A Song Of Ice And Fire as it should have been, or at least as what I believe it should have been.

Regardless, the show is almost over. What happens will happen, and we'll just have to hope that GRRM will get on to finishing the last two books so we can see what actually occurs in the end.

And even then, the fanbase for ASOIAF has been having their own fan theories and speculations for the series marinating for so long due to the long delay between the book releases, that I'm sure that even what happens in the final two books won't please everybody and it obviously won't stop them from keeping their particular headcanons. Same with the show, I'm sure. Because that's what fandom does, that's what fandom has always done when they don't agree with canon. So even if you're disappointed or upset or just plain hate everything, just know that you're not alone and that fandom will always thrive with making fanworks and content to fill that void even if GRRM hates it.

Comments

[nemophilist.livejournal.com]

Amen. I gave up on that show in season 3. I was beyond let down. I freaking started an LJ comm before the show and everything. And now I won't watch it. Love the books though! Honestly, how can anyone call the writing good after the 'bad pussy' line?????

[kikimay]

I'm currently filled with hatred for the showrunners, lol.

But really, I just need to know one thing: GRRM said that the ending will be fundamentally faithful to his plan for the major characters. Henceforth this is where we are going anyway, right?

It doesn't matter. Even the most painful piece of narrative can still be appreciated if IT MAKES SENSE and if it's carefully constructed. This was none of it. This was messy, sloppy, sensationalistic writing.

[malicat.livejournal.com]

I stopped watching after season 3 when I knew they wouldn't do Lady Stoneheart (I was so excited for this storyline,it's one of my faves in the books) and when they replaced my girl Arianne with some white dude. I mean,I was already disappointed with season 3 and there was all the unnecessary rape and violence (and yes,some of it IS in the books but they added so much stuff just for shock value) but this was really the final straw for me. Reading what has happened since then and especially in the final season now (I read the spoiler leaks and they have been true so I assume what I read for the finale is also accurate),I have ZERO regrets. What a colossal dumsterfire this has become o_O I had my problems with book 4 and 5 - the first half of ADWD made me lose my will to live lol - but the narrative at least made mostly sense? It was all the meandering and people pointlessly walking from A to B for like 100 pages (or staying in one fucking place over 4 books *glares at Dany*) that bothered me but other than that I still enjoyed it. That said,I have honestly given up hope that we will ever get those final 2 books? Which would really suck,I want something different than what they did on the show. Like,at this point it's not even abou the story being finished for me (especially since I have forgotten almost everything anyway ^^),I just want a DIFFERENT ending than what the show did!

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

The counterstance I'm taking now is that yes, books>shows in general, but everything the show's done isn't anything GRRM wouldn't have wanted as endgame. They've just taken a lot of narrative shortcuts to get there.

Ofc, this is in light of having stumbled on what's very likely the actual ending of the show. Which, if we assume the ending is what GRRM was planning for in the series, well. A shitty ending is still a shitty ending, no matter how long it took you to get there.

That, and I honestly think the man's tired of the books. I think he'd rather go off and keep working on Wild Cards/the prehistory stuff, cause he's got too many threads going on to wrap it up in two books satisfactorily, so the show may actually be the only canon we have if his health gives.

[silverusagi]

Count me as one of the ones who HATED it. Mainly because I thought Dany had grown and learned things. I guess not. I wouldn't have been happy, really, with a slow descent into full up tyranny, but if it MADE SENSE that at least would have been something. These last two seasons have been at a breakneck pace, and this was the epitome of that. It came out of nowhere. But I guess because she's "mad" it doesn't have to make sense. Cool. I still need to make a post about it, but I'll probably do it with comments off, because I just can't with all the people who loved it, think it's 100% excellent, and who will feel obligated to stop and argue with me about it. Really, I know fandom is discussion, but there's really no discussion to be had when one of you thinks the show has jumped the shark and one of you thinks it's a masterpiece.