Game of Thrones- Show vs. Books

There's always been a bit of tension between Game of Thrones and the books the show is based on. George R.R. Martin is not, by his own admission, a fast writer, and as the HBO production overtakes his story there has been a lot written about how the two stories may diverge. And diverge they are- Martin has recently released a sample chapter about characters that are not even on the show, and is on record as saying that his story will be substantially different.

The thing that really got me thinking was the news that seasons seven and eight of the show will be shorter than the usual ten episodes. This has many people wondering how the producers are going to wrap up with so many story elements still needing to play out? The implication is that HBO will cut Martin's story even more, to fit it all in to two shorter seasons. The other thing that came to mind is the reading Martin did at Balticon over Memorial day weekend- it was an Aeron Damphair chapter but was all about Euron Greyjoy, who has just been introduced on the show. Euron is apparently going to be a big deal in the endgame of this series, judging from the reading- you can find a transcript here- and this again begs the question. How much of this story are they going to cut?

In addition to upping Euron's profile considerably, the reading also gives new life to a rather bizarre fan theory- the eldritch apocalypse theory- which basically states that Euron is going to turn the upcoming naval battle with the Redwyne fleet into a mass blood sacrifice- giving up both his men and his enemies'- in order to achieve some great power. You can read all about the theory here and it's very compelling. I actually kind of like it and hope it happens more or less the way the author describes- but what a gamechanger it will be, if true! And I can't see the show producers going that way- I mean there's only a few episodes left in this season and then two more shortened seasons- how is that going to work?

But then again if Poor Quentyn's theory is right how will HBO handle that? Will they have to include the Euron storyline in some form? Given that they have just introduced Euron on the show, they must be planning on doing something with his arc- so time will tell. And it's of course very possible that the eldritch apocalypse theory is wrong.

Even if this isn't an issue there still seems to be a lot of story to tell yet- presumably the Wall has to come down, Daenerys has to arrive in Westeros with her army, Jon has to deal with the Boltons- but the show has been on the move. They're ahead of the books now- the Three eyed Crow is dead, Arya has spurned the Faceless Men, the Vale has entered the war- Martin has not gotten to any of this yet, and while he probably will in the next book, we know that his take is going to be slower moving. So if HBO is speeding things up with the endgame in sight, every episode from here on out could be potentially huge. Who knows what we'll see? And with episode ten "The Winds of Winter", I wonder if we'll see the Wall come down at the end of this season?

You can read more about the Balticon reading and my general thoughts on that in my post from last week.

Poor Quentyn has a lot of great info and you can find the eldritch apocalypse theory there.

For more information on Euron and what may happen (it supports the eldritch apocalypse theory nicely) check out this reddit forum. VERY interesting.

And of course if you don't want spoilers, don't go ANYWHERE near these sites!