The final season of Game of Thrones is almost upon us, and it is worth remembering that this show exists in a very unusual state. For many years now the show has had to move away from the novels on which it was based, that being George RR. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series, of which Game of Thrones was only the name of the first book.

From the end of around Season 4, Game of Thrones had to begin moving ahead of the book, something that no one anticipated when HBO first commissioned the Game of Thrones TV show. Fans of the books have been somewhat critical of the show in how it has since then deviated from the main story. However, it seems an impossible task for showrunners Benioff and Weiss to try and finish Martin’s story for him and wrap up every little storyline. Instead, they decided to focus on the main characters that would play out the main plots of the story. We also know that Benioff and Weiss are working towards an endgame described roughly to them by George Martin many years ago when they first began.

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The problem with that is the way George Martin works as a writer, he is what he describes as a gardener. He starts with an end game in mind and as he is writing ends up going in directions even he never intended as his mood takes him. This is probably one of the main reason why it has taken Martin now over six years between the release of the last book A Dance With Dragons and the next book which will be called The Winds of Winter. As yet, we know only that Martin continues to work on ‘Winds‘ and we have no idea of a potential release date.

Obviously, all this means that the show is going to reveal Martin’s basic outline for the end long before Martin himself can do so. But does that mean the show will effectively spoil the books? Maybe not, due to Martin’s style we have literally no idea where some of his storylines are going and the book world of ASOIAF is FAR more complex than the world of Game of Thrones TV show. Speaking with EW recently Martin talked about his feelings as the show nears its end and he spoke about that ending.

“I haven’t read the [final-season] scripts and haven’t been able to visit the set because I’ve been working on Winds. I know some of the things. But there’s a lot of minor-character [arcs] they’ll be coming up with on their own. And, of course, they passed me several years ago. There may be important discrepancies.”

Well, for anyone who has read the books you will know this is probably an underplayed point by Martin here. There are a ton of characters and plots within these books that the show never had time to deal with. While purists may wish they had just filmed the books, keeping a cast and crew on one project for the years this would require is simply not possible, added to the fact that even now the shows young stars like Maise Williams are far, far older than they are supposed to be within the books. A great example of this is The Night King pictured above, that character does not actually appear at all in the book’s other than a reference to a person called The Night’s King from hundreds of years ago who was the infamous 13th commander of the Night’s Watch.

So fans are well aware that there will be probably quite big discrepancies between the show ending and the book ending. However, the show’s ending will still be that which Martin described all those years ago and as such, the major points will probably be quite similar. Yet, at the same time, there could be character dead in the show who survives the books and vice versa. About spoiling the books, Game of Thrones co-showrunner David Benioff said.

“Now that the show is ahead of the books, it seems the show could ruin the books for people. So one thing we’ve talked to George about is that we’re not going to tell people what the differences are, so when those books come out people can experience them fresh.”

I can’t think of any other example where a story was begun, adapted and then finished before the initial source was. So this will be a fairly unique experience, and that’s IF Martin ever finishes the books. Many fans worry Martin has allowed the plot to get out of hand and become unwieldy and that’s why he is struggling to finish the next book. Even after that Martin has a 7th book lined up in A Dream of Spring, which he hasn’t even started yet. It remains a possibility that the show may well end up being the only end to this series that exists. Though, us fans all hope that Martin will resolve all the issues and finish the story properly….. eventually.

What do you think of Martin’s comments, any book fans here genuinely worried the show will spoil too many surprises for the books? Sound off in the usual place below.

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SOURCE: EW

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