Pajiba

First I was upset when they moved the premiere date back to spring. Then I was frustrated when those sparse trailers were released.

Now I have satisfaction. Thomas McCarthy will get this train rolling in the right direction, and Peter Dinklage will ravage scenery with dwarfian glee.

I don't even mind that everyone in the office can see my hard weiner. Totally worth it.

And yes, Courtney from Accouting, that IS all me.

Fuck HBO for making me look forward to Spring.
I fucking hate Spring.
This thing should be kicked-off in the dead of Winter.
'Cuz, like, Winter is Coming, bitches.

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...which actually makes sense from a Spring starting-point...

Fuck HBO for being all logical, and shit.

Finish the fucking series, George!

If I may echo the sentiments already expressed above (because if we keep saying it maybe it'll happen) FINISH THE SERIES, GEORGE.

I keep having to buy these books over and over because I force everyone I know to read them by loaning out my copies... which I never get back :)

I'm re-reading A Game of Thrones now in preparation for the show and LOVE seeing these clips and finally, the extended trailer. Magnificent.

Kballs: Thomas McCarthy directed the original version of the pilot, but he has actually been replaced as the director for that episode. It was mostly re-shot (largely because two key roles were re-cast) - I believe that he had a schedule conflict.

In any case, they seem to have nailed the tone, and this is going to ROCK.

I'm with Scully --- dammit I have to wait until after work to view the trailers! SO SO SO looking forward to this series.
I need to hit Half Price Books to get yet another copy of Game of Thrones because whoever I lent my last copy to, did not return it!
Ok, clicking away from this post just to stop torturing myself.

But... am sending link to the Mr so he can torture himself...

It's Ok, Kballs. I've been banned from reading his blog, friends and family can't take the screaming and tears.

My understanding was that the fourth book was actually going to be much longer but he decided to 'tell all of the story for some of the characters rather than part of the story for allof them' which made me think, "Sooooooo book five should come right along since a lot of it comes from the stuff you took out of book four."

Five years later we're still waiting. I've had marriages that didn't last that long.

Not trying to throw a bucket of cold water, but given that this is HBO, what are the chances there's more than 1 season of this show? Cause it looks expensive as hell and expensive isn't how HBO likes its shows.

Looks cool, but needs more Polly Walker. Specifically it needs Atia of the Julii because EVERYTHING needs more Atia.

needs more Polly Walker

Oh, yeah. Polly.
She would have been good as Catelyn.

@Kballs & SupieSonic

Read this: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

And then kindly go fuck yourselves.

SupieSonic, that's not just your understanding, he actually wrote that at the end of Feast For Crows. He says that he decided to split the book in two and that "Dance With Dragons" should be out soon since it was already "half finished".

I think he's struggling to finish for many reasons. One is expectations, but the other is the fact that both "Feast" and "Dance" are sort of transitionary books. There was a very clear plot arc, the War of the Five Kingdoms, that consumed much of Books 1-3. That's pretty much resolved now, so Martin has to re-shuffle the pieces and get them into place for the next "big" arc, whatever that may be (likely dealing with the Others and Dany's return to Westeros, etc.).

Yaaaaaaaaay!

Thing is Samuel theres an implied duty for an author who markets a book as a Series to complete said Series.
Now it's not a formal contract, we're no more entitled to the book than he is entitled to us not bitching about him and his inability to publish within a reasonable time frame, but how many people would have bought the first book if it had said on the front 'Book 1 in a series I have no intention of completing'?

And that rant by Neil Gaiman was just so precious. 'Sometimes an Author just needs time to create Art'. He's lucky he works in a field where it's not easy to be gazumped by other creators. If Microsoft was still working on Windows XP now, you wouldn't see people defending their release schedule and saying 'But Bill Gates doesn't work for you!?!' like Gaiman does about Martin.
You create your art for your fans, or your basement. If you have chosen to publish rather than storing it in the damp, you can't get precious when your fans expect the end to the story they've invested in.

And what Rook says.

And also, you know what Gaiman? I don't feel like working every single goddamn morning when I get up at a ridiculous hour and commute a long distance to work. I do it because I have to.

If you're lucky enough that you have already earned enough to just take a break, dawdle along for a few years, fucking hip hip hooray! but it's a bit rich to start bitching about how "All my fans just can't wait for my next book"

You know what, you privileged sacks of crap? Some of us have real problems. Shut the hell up and get back to work.

Hell yeah.
Tell 'em how the game is played, Ender.

(see what I did there?)

SupieSonic, I do the same thing with my books, lend them out and never see them again.
Also, The Hound and The Mountain!
Can. Not. Wait.

grace b these books are not for the squeamish or faint of heart. Sorry you have to miss out.

The link to the shot by shot trailer analysis is fantastic. The only think I love more then nerding out spectacularly, is when done in the company of 5,000 other feverish fans.

Oh, the geek rants on here are just adorable. And I totally mean it though it might sound like sarcasm.

I haven't been too bothered at waiting for the next book since I didn't even get around to reading the others until this year. Now I'm wishing I had HBO, though. I haven't wished that in a long time.

Speaking of lube,

Any of y'all as can fuck yourselves (you adroit motherfuckers, you)... have you tried that K-Y his/her stuff? Does it really do like in the commercials, with the mind-blowing, and whatnot?

I get a lot of compliments on the neatness of my hand-writing, and I've been thinkin' lately that I haven't really shown a proper amount of appreciation to my left hand; for that, and for the occasional date-night to which it acquiesces; when it's "in the mood," as it were.
So I was thinkin', maybe... some o' that there fancy-schmancy lube might be a nice token...

Why do these fantasy series always have long hair on their male characters? It's a minor thing that just kind of stems from my own personal conception of the book, but for some reason I pictured at least a FEW of the main male characters to have a short haircut. I pictured Ned to have a haircut about the same as Chakotay from Voyager. Short, but not severely so. It would have helped set it apart from the LotR connotations most people get from looking at that trailer. I mean, if you watched it without sound, would you know it's not for something like that?

And besides...Let's be honest, the long hair look isn't the most warrior-esque look in the world. Doesn't really contribute to a warrior-king who is supposed to look Hard and Angular like winter. Compare Boromir to Alec Trevelyan or Sean Miller. Boromir looks downright scuzzy compared with those two.

Well, the Dothraki honor long hair on men, as it signifies strong worriers. The only time their hair is cut is when they lose a battle. Maybe some part of that tradition spread over Westeros?

@Rykker: Polly Walker would have been a better Cersei than the one they got now. Lena Headey? By the gods! The only thing she can do is look pretty. And she's not even a natural blonde. Also, she looks older than her twin(!) brother in the series.

Than again, Polly Walker is too old for the role, too.

Yes! I'm reading this series right now and had no idea it was being made into a series until about two weeks ago. Peter Dinklage! Sean Bean! Hooray!

Gaiman's an ass: It is b/c of the readers that Martin has the time and funds to hie himself off to coventions every other month. Not to mention hocking SoIaF trinkets and calendars on his website. If Martin dies before completing the series it would be a huge smashing disappoitment for modern fantasy fiction.

Rykker, Commercials never lie so it must be pretty awesome. But remember: lube doesn't always equal romance. Make sure to pick up some flowers too. And maybe light a candle or something :-)

Re: people who think that authors owe them something: that's ridiculous and self-absorbed.

Microsoft doesn't owe you a new version of Windows.

Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan do not owe you another Batman movie.

Microsoft will certainly make more versions of Windows because a) it's a corporation and not a person, and b) for-profit corporations exist to make profits, and that means selling goods and services.

Bale and Nolan will very probably make another movie because they're already planning for one. But if they don't make the movie, ok. That's their right. They have their own lives to live and their own priorities.

George R.R. Martin has written four novels and a handful of short stories set in the Song of Ice and Fire series. If he never publishes another word of the story, so be it. That will of course change my experience and enjoyment of the series, but that's it.

There's no contract - stated or implied - here. That's patently absurd. People create things for a variety of reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with your expectations of their future activity. When someone writes a book they aren't agreeing to work on that intellectual property forever if one person somewhere wants more, nor for that matter if every living person on Earth wants more. When someone writes a book, they're simply offering a story. If you like it, great! If you don't like it, don't buy it. If there's more to the story later, great! If it doesn't come, get on with your life and stop thinking it's all about you.

Maybe the writer isn't sure what to do with the characters. Maybe the plot wasn't working. Maybe other stuff came up. Get over it.

George R.R. Martin is a person, not a corporation, and the purpose of his existence is not to make a profit by creating what you want to read. The purpose of his life is in fact up to him to decide.

Now, I'll admit it's frustrating when someone promises you something you want, then doesn't deliver. The easy solution is not to read blogs by writers like GRRM who are prone to this problem.

And seriously, leave this entitlement nonsense behind.

I really hope they leave all the pedophilia (Khal Drogo and Danyrys/ Littlefinger and Caitlyn Jr.) and women hating (Cersei, the dornish women, the Red Lady) in the television series. It totally gave me a boner in the books.

Fat PedoBear 4 Lyfe!

For anyone complaining about 5 year wait on books, go check out Blizzard Entertainment and the glacial pace they have for releasing games.

Starcraft: 1998. Starcraft 2: 2010
Diablo: 1997. Diablo 2: 2000. Diablo 3: 2011???

And, Fredo, I wasn't annoyed about Starcraft 2 Part 1 taking more than ten years to develop, since it was a sequel. If they take five years to release Starcraft 2 Part 2 though and another eight to produce Starcraft 2 Part 3, while constantly telling us it was coming out 'this summer', then yes, it would piss me off.

The same as if I bought parts 1-4 of a 'Build yourself a desk chair' kit, sure there's no legal obligation to release parts 5-8, maybe you're rich enough already, maybe the 'inspiration' has left you, but it's hardly entitled to be pissed off that I have half a chair and two desk legs. Even if they're a really nice half a chair and two desk legs.

No, nothing like LOTR, other than the superficial, i.e. psuedo-Medieval setting, some magic.

But where LOTR is about grand 'Evil' vs noble 'Good', and is by turns Epic, Mythic, and other Capitalised words GRRM's work is about people, politics and war. Where LOTR is about themes and style and mythology played out around characters who care about those things, GRRM's work is about realistic reactions from his characters, inconsistency, strength, weakness and above all: human and often limited motives. Also, surprise, unpredictability in the plot, and often crushing disappointment.

Ender, obviously we're only talking about series here. Standalone novels don't provoke this kind of frustration since there's no expectation from the reader that the story will continue. With a series, the reader forms the hopes (and often expectations) that the story will continue. My point is that these hopes are fine, but the expectations are founded on undeserved feelings of entitlement.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a story you enjoy to continue. But you should separate your desires to be entertained from any actual obligation on the part of the creators involved.

If someone writes a book and calls it Book 1 of the Chronicles of Many Many Many Books I Have Yet To Write And May Never Complete, then caveat lector. You have only yourself to blame for getting worked up over an incomplete series.

***

psy, good point. I wonder if they'll have the guts to cast an unattractive actress as Brienne.

in preparation for this show, i have read the four books over the last year. i must say i enjoyed them though they are hardly on a level with more sophisticated speculative fiction such as stuff by john crowley or ursula k. leguin. just saying.

i too think its total bullshit that grrm will not finish the series. if the show is successful, i think it would be fun to see the writers finish the series before it comes out in print. maybe grrm can write the novelizations? he might find that a bit easier to accomplish.

also, if the show is not picked up for a second season, i would be disappointed (since it looks like it's going to be good) but the end of that first book wouldn't be a bad place to stop.

"My point is that these hopes are fine, but the expectations are founded on undeserved feelings of entitlement

Nope, they're founded on the fact that the front cover says "Book 1 of X Series", you can argue that it's fine for authors to mislead, that no one has an obligation to do anything unless it's a legal obligation, or whatever, but you're still wrong.