Game of Thrones - Season 5

Courtesy of HBO

So...we've come to the end of another season if Game of Thrones.  There have been laughs and there have been tears and lots and lots of killing.

For those of us who were not book readers (which I would classify myself since I read the first book years ago and did not continue the series) we have finally reached the end of where those people whom we partake the show with can say "well that's not how it was in the books".  Now, I know there are claims that Martin will have the next book out before next season...but if what I have been told is true there are parts of these story line's in the show that take place outside or beyond where the books left those characters so...some of Martin's work has already been done for him (or hopefully with him and the showrunners).

I was asked by someone who is hasn't watched any of season 5 yet (she's catching up, slowly) what I thought of the season five finale and to summarize I said, "I'm intrigued by there Martin has put some of these characters.  There's a lot to be said for taking known characters this far into the overall story and continuing to change their direction."

It goes against everything I know and have learned as a writer but I feel confident in this thought: Martin has no idea how this is going to end and he never did.  Which, when you think about the enormity of the universe he created; even without the television show, having no true ending is pretty insane.

But maybe he had one originally and then as the story developed and characters became more entwined it got muddied and he had to change course leaving himself rudderless.

Courtesy of HBO

Ok, now...from this point forward there are going to be overall season five spoilers so if you're not caught up yet you've been warned.

One thing became clear throughout season five - people should give up on any non-main characters showing up at this point, even ones they expected to.  So much of the story has been altered to maintain the core group of still-living characters.

Things like: Sansa being at Winterfell when in fact it was her childhood friend, propped up by the Lanisters and Boltons to pretend to be Arya.  Jorah Mormont getting grey scale...how's that going to play out.  Plus, he touched the damn queen!  Stannis, that wretch of a human, I was so happy to see him die; especially after he allowed his own daughter to be set aflame...all in the name of his pointless and impossible to win rebellion.

Courtesy of HBO

As we now wait the long darkness until March 2016 when presumably season six will premiere on HBO we are left wanting; but we are left wondering what will really happen and those people waiting for the sixth book; will what you read shape or have been shaped by the upcoming shows?

It's an interesting idea to wonder if Martin; who has already allowed large swathes of his original story to be altered, omitted or otherwise ignored for the sake of shaping 1100+ pages or backstabbing, murder, war, rape and pillaging into ten hours of television, will be influenced with his ongoing story by where the characters have been driven in the show.  It seems like it would be confusing trying to mash it all together.  Especially when characters are in places they've never been in the book (Sansa, Jorah) or are dead when they aren't in the book (Myrcella).

And whereas this bothered me but not the book reader I watch the show with, where the fuck was Brandon this season?  His story completely does not exist - never once does he appear on screen.  The kid is going to be twenty years old by the time he appears on screen again.  Additionally, and having not read the books I am unfamiliar with how often the White Walkers and their movement towards humanity is noted/discussed, but the fact that since season one we've had this thrust at us, the fact that they haven't even reached the wall by the end of season five is like...get those fucking guys some GPS already!

I leave you with this...sorry ladies; he dead.

Now we all sit, twiddling our thumbs waiting to see what next will happen in the lands of Essos and Westeros...but at least it's worth it!

Tb