A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Bosh]

There are some good indicators out there that Winds of Winter will be released in 2014.
A good friend of George R.R. Martin has said (most probably by accident) that George had one new episode almost finished.
He has also cleared up his schedule for the next coming months.
There is more.

So let's go with the 2014 release for Winds of Winter, and then a 2017 release for Dream of Spring (same 3 year gap)
Then we have:
2014: Season 4: Book 3b / Book 6 released
2015: Season 5: Book 4/5
2016: Season 6: Book 6
2017: Season 7: Book 7 / Book 7 released

If HBO decides to split Book 4/5 somehow into 2 seasons (2015 book 4a/5a, 2016 book 4b/5b) then we're certainly safe. It's also possible that book 6 needs 2 seasons, or book 4/5/6 need 3 seasons in total.

If the rumors are true, and Winds is indeed released in 2014 and Martin can manage the release the last book in 2017, then we're looking at a photo finish between book and series. (And of course Martin can then already spill the beans to HBO while writing, so that the last season is in line with the book)

I absolutely certainly hope to finish the books for the series.
I doubt that it'll be possible to not spoil myself while waiting for the books while the series are already finished....

Really really doubt they can cram two whole books into one Season, no matter how much they cut. I think it'll go more like this:
Season 4: finish Book 3, do a bit of Books 4/5 for some of the plot threads that are running out of Book 3 content.
Season 5: finish Book 4, get to about the fighting pits scene in Book 5 with some fairly large deviations from book plotlines in some cases.
Season 6: finish book 5, do enough of book 6 to resolve the stuff being set up at the end of book 5.
Season 7: finish book 6 and either start in on book 7 or stop there.
Season 8: finish it up.

The showrunners have said they want 8 seasons if possible and I think the above is the set-up that makes the most sense in that light, especially since:

Spoiler:

they didn't merge Yunkai and Mereen into one city, the fact that we're going to have a campaign against Mereen and then only start a little bit of the Bunny Ears stuff leads me to think that they're not trying to compress book 4/5 massively enough to get it all into one season, as if they were planning that they'd want to start in on the Bunny Ears ASAP in order to plot through it but instead they're keeping Danny's campaign against Mereen.

[Dinner]

The first ful trailer for season 4.

[DinoDoc]

[Ming]

Great stuff

[Dinner]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/03/06/big_boi_s_game_of_thrones_song_mother_of_dragons_stream_it_here_audio.html

Rapping about Game of Thrones?

[Dinner]

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2014/03/game-of-thrones-season-4-first-four-episode-descriptions-released.html

HBO just released episode descriptions of the first four episodes of the new season.

[Dinner]

New season 4 trailer.

[Guynemer]

Braavos!

[DinoDoc]

Braavos!

Wrong network.

[regexcellent]

I'm hoping this season they actually portray Stannis as the awesome badass that he is, instead of morally bankrupt. I think David and David really hate him or something. Stannis for King of Westeros. Stannis the Mannis.

It would seem he is going to Braavos, probably so he has something to do before showing up and saving the day. Maybe he will treat with the Iron Bank.

[Guynemer]

Spoilers for the non-book-readers:

Spoiler:

Well, they have already casted that banker of adventure guy, so I assume that is exactly what is happening.

They could rehab Stannis' character with that one line about saving the realm so he can become king, as opposed to becoming king in order to save the realm. He'll probably get a lot more popular after this season.

The main problem with his character on the show is that he is not almost exclusively filtered through Davos' perspective the way he is until he shows up at The Wall. The fact that book readers see Stannis through this incredibly honorable, noble guy who is utterly devoted to Stannis and his cause definitely influences how we react to him.

[Dinner]

I don't like the idea of a King Stannis and he'd have problems with the people as his religion is wrong. He's still a bad ass but one with negatives.

[Dinner]

Only 14 days to go, people, before the season 4 premier. Here is the recap of season 3.

http://youtu.be/38hnsgqf8O0

[Nikolai]

This is so good.

[rah]

Classic