Game of Thrones vs A Song of Ice and Fire: Where Are We?
By Ani Bundel
As Game of Thrones rolls through filming the final episode of the season, and leaks from the sets grind to a halt, it’s a good moment to take stock. Where are we, exactly, in the grand scheme of things?
Six months ago, we thought we were very close to the finish line. With the producers seemingly married to “seven gods, seven kingdoms, seven books, seven seasons,” we had to be pretty close to the end, since there were only 20 hours of the show to go. But since HBO announced over the summer that Game of Thrones would extend to an eighth season (at least), it feels like we have more breathing room. We’re still on the back half of the plot, but most likely with an extra five-ten hours to go.
So let’s ask the question: where are we, in terms of covering the same ground as the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Yes, yes, as everyone knows, we’re technically out of books. Moreover, we’re six weeks away from Christmas, and we’ve heard nothing about a Winds of Winter release date, which suggests we won’t be hearing anything until January, at best. But some Winds of Winter chapters are out there, and furthermore, we know that we’ve already crossed into some of them last season. So how far have we gone? What’s left that we know of?
Joeltronics has been mapping how the show adapts the book series for a couple of years now. He marks which episodes have adapted which chapters and plots it all on an easy-to-read chart. I’ve referred to his chart before (see the first three seasons mapped above), and noted that it made this lovely straight line (with the exception of Bran, who has been consistently ahead of everyone else) up until the end of Season 4, where it began this slow explosion into “CONFETTI!” Now, with Season 6 approaching, he’s updated things so we can see the overlay. As the show and books diverge, this is a less than accurate exercise, but I find it fascinating.
This is the version of the map as of the end of Season 5, which adapted A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. The “CONFETTI!” is thrown far and wide once you leave the green Storm of Swords section. Perhaps you say that’s because the show mushed those books together (remember, the events of Feast and Dance happened simultaneously)? Well, the chart gives you that option as well.
As you can see, the “CONFETTI!” section is slightly more controlled, but not really. If one were to do a line plot, one could see the median here is a little more straight and in line with the original chart. Let’s look at close ups of Season 5, both versions.
Note that the “Reek” chapters (pink) are totally out of place, no matter how you slice it, though falling earlier in the combined version makes the median line of the axis slightly cleaner. Also, as the note on the left points out, this chart simply lines up the known Winds of Winter chapter coverage next to each other, even though we have zero idea of their actual sequencing.
But what’s really striking on both versions of the chart is all the white space between what has been covered. It’s slightly more obvious in the combined version on the bottom, but it’s glaring either way. Lots of the books got left out last year. Lots. Some of it was deliberate—Tyrion’s storyline was condensed, and much of his travels with the Griffs simply axed. Note that the titles of those chapters are also whited out, to keep it spoiler free. You can turn them on, but I didn’t in this exercise, partly because those chapters aren’t coming back, so they don’t matter for the show.
CAUTION: SEASON 6 SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Other stuff, like all the Quentyn Martell material, was never on the the docket to begin with. But then there are the Jaime chapters, which were wholesale replaced by sending him to Dorne in Season 5 (also, note that the chart treats the show as covering certain Dorne chapters, like “The Queensguard.”) As we know from filming SPOILERS, Season 6 plans on adapting Jaime’s original plot. This will amount to doubling back, even as the rest of the show goes forward into unknown territory. Even if we enter the next season with no chapter guide for the order of Winds of Winter, it looks certain that the CONFETTI! will only spread farther and wider.
Head over to the chart yourself and play with it. It’s a lot of fun.