Skip to main content

a song of ice and fire - When to start watching HBO's Game of Thrones when reading the books?


I've started reading George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series, and I intend to watch HBO's television series based on it at some point. I wonder about two things:



  • Should I start watching the series before having finished all the books?

  • If so, which chapters should I have read? What is a good starting point?


The point is obviously avoiding spoilers.



Answer



The 100% guaranteed way to ensure the show doesn't spoil anything from the books is to read them all first. That should go without saying, and that's the path I recommend. But if you insist on jumping into the show while you're still reading, here's a rough guide.



There's a pretty strong correlation between the first two books and the first two seasons. Season One, in particular, is almost a word-for-word adaptation in many parts. You could probably start watching those immediately after reading the respective books.


Season 3 is where things get tricky. Individual storylines differ in pacing. For example, Bran's Storm of Swords storyline is completely finished by the end of Season 3, while Jon Snow's only ends up about 1/3 completed. Things get even murkier in Season 4, when several characters start to make significant inroads to their Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons storylines.


I'd recommend at least reading all the way through Storm of Swords before tacking Season Three, since Bran and Jaime's entire arc is in Season Three. In addition, episode one reveals something crucial about the character Arstan Whitebeard that is a mystery throughout the book.


But I strongly recommend reading all the books before starting Season Three. Season Three immediately reveals the fate of a major character whose fate is a mystery for two whole books.



Theon



But I definitely, definitely recommend reading all the books before Season Four. Dany, Bran, Brienne, and the spoilered character above all have parts of their Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons storylines in that season.


EDIT: One thing I should add is that the show often makes things explicit which, in the books, are only hinted at or revealed over time. This happens as early as the first two seasons, in which much of ambiguity behind characters like Littlefinger and Margaery Tyrell are stripped away. They aren't spoilers, per se, but it could diminish your enjoyment in reading the books.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more