So I just finished the first season of game of thrones as i also read books so i had a thought should i read it from here or continue the show because i researched and it says that first season is entirely faithful to the book ; 2,3 season is faithful but minor changes; 3,4 season had some major changes and 5,6 changes the direction of the story but till now the story is good and the last two seasons 7,8 is entirely new stuff from writer's notes so what's your thought.
And I really like the show as i am big fan of fantasy especially dark and grimdark.
by Saannji
3 Comments
Read the books, or better listen to the audiobooks narrated by Roy Dotrice. Or both. Then go back to the show. There’s a few episodes later in the series that are truly fantastic, but as a whole, the show pales in comparison to the books. Finally, acknowledge that the book series will likely never be completed, or if it is, the story will have been corrupted by the existence of the show.
Read The Expanse series.
Mostly agree, but I think seasons 3 & 4 did not have that major changes. seasons 5 and 6 already start going downhill in quality. 5 is partly based on books but a lot of storylines are cut, but 6 already starts with an original story. Although there are some scenes in season 6 that have similar parallel scenes from the book , they are still very different, and like 90% is original new story.
Overall, books are much better even for the early seasons (though early seasons are great!), but for books 4&5 especially, since they tried to squeeze them both into season 5, and cut like 80% of plot.
I’ll preface this by saying I love fantasy, read a lot over the decades and when I read the first GoT novel twenty some odd years ago I loved it. Blew me away.
Seeing not just a faithful adaptation but good fantasy on TV was awesome. The first couple of seasons had me gripped. They did such an amazing job of adapting the books. The music, the visuals, they’d gotten some of the best actors around, I thought it was just perfect. Never even skipped the intro.
I tell you all of this because I want you to know just how much I loved it. However, I thought the last two seasons were complete dogshit. Characters I loved started acting out of character. Plot threads were wrapped up in the blink of an eye. Motivation went out the window. Everything they did was in service of wrapping up as quickly as possible.
I rewatch series periodically. I’ve rewatched Breaking Bad a number of times, Sopranos, Deadwood, all sorts of favourite shows, and am in the middle of bingeing The Expanse yet again.
I have never rewatched Game of Thrones and have never been tempted to.
Everyone is different but I don’t think it’s worth watching. On one side of the scales is some of the best TV you’ll see. On the other side is not only dog shit, but what they filmed actively made the good stuff worse.