“The show will start to spoil the books. Once, this terrified me, and while I’d still rather first find out about the ultimate fate of these characters through the books, the medium I started in, I know it will be impossible to avoid finding out the major plot points of the end of this show. Everyone will be talking about it. I’d rather it be “spoiled” for me by watching the show than by avoiding the show because of book loyalty and seeing Facebook spoilers.” – Jonathan Raeder
SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers from the latest episode of Game of Thrones, but nothing from future books.
Pop culture has seen its fair share of divisions between fans, but none so entrenched in the current day and age as book readers versus show watchers of Game of Thrones. Of course, both readers and watchers take in the show, but readers have knowledge of most major events and character deaths. Readers are known to say things such as, “That didn’t happen in the books,” or “In the books, it was like this,” or “Just wait, this is going to be good.”
I should know; I’m a book reader. We’re the ones who set up cameras to film our friends’ reactions to Ned’s death and the Red Wedding. We’re the ones who dropped cryptic clues about Joffrey choking and told you to pay attention. We’re the ones who anticipate our friends’ hilarious reactions more than anything happening in the show. We’re never surprised; we haven’t learned anything new about the series since the most recent book was published in 2011.
Yet something happened in season four, episode four, “Oathbreaker,” that radically changed this dynamic. In the show, a White Walker carries off the last of Craster’s newborn sons into the deep reaches of the Land of Always Winter. At this point I was confused. The books only suggest Craster sacrifices his babies to the White Walkers, but we never actually read about one taking a kid away. Already, I’m wary but intrigued.
Suddenly, we’re at a giant ice castle? And there are 13 White Walker leaders and one has a crown of horns? And then he touches the baby and turns it into a White Walker?
I remember shouting some expletives and looking at my friends, some of whom are book readers and some show watchers. We all had the same confused expression. This was new, finally, for all of us.
The implications of this reveal are important to the story, but even more so for the relationship between the show and the books. The unfinished nature of the books has loomed over this show from the beginning, but many predicted the show wouldn’t last that long, anyway. Yet against all odds, it’s remained staggeringly popular.
George R. R. Martin is not finished writing the sixth book yet, and there still remains a seventh. Summer 2015 is an optimistic guess for the release of the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, especially when you look at the gap between the fourth and fifth books — 2005 and 2011 releases, respectively. Even if Martin finishes the book in 2015, in time for the show, how is he going to possibly finish the last book before 2019?
Martin has told the showrunners of Game of Thrones the remaining major plot points, and this reveal makes it likely they will continue to drop in relevant information when necessary. They will have to continue cutting out subplots and characters, but in exchange they will be able to emphasize which characters and stories will stay relevant in the long run. They can’t just stop the show for years and wait for Martin.
They’re going to catch up. The story probably will be told first in the form of Game of Thrones, before the books even get to them. The show will start to spoil the books. Once, this terrified me, and while I’d still rather first find out about the ultimate fate of these characters through the books, the medium I started in, I know it will be impossible to avoid finding out the major plot points of the end of this show. Everyone will be talking about it. I’d rather it be “spoiled” for me by watching the show than by avoiding the show because of book loyalty and seeing Facebook spoilers.
Yet I predict Martin hasn’t told them everything. The showrunners are going to have to change things to fit with actors’ schedules and aging and network desires, so it’s quite possible the ending of the show will be rather different than the books. Game of Thrones and Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire will truly become two different entities. That might be the best solution. We can enjoy the ending of one story and then prepare ourselves for a mostly different ending years down the line. We can still be surprised.
So congrats, television audiences. Soon it’ll be us readers hiding from spoilers and being just as shocked as you are. I can’t say this is ideal, but I’m just so desperate for new information about this series (and I can imagine those who started the series when A Game of Thrones was published in 1996 are even more anxious) that I don’t mind finding out from the show.
