Small Council: So The Winds of Winter isn’t coming out before Season 6. What now?

About a week ago, George R.R. Martin announced that The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, would not be published in time for the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6. The reactions were swift and varied. Now that some time has passed, what do we think? Will this effect how or whether we watch the show? Is there blame to be doled out, and if so, where? Do the Unsullied among us even care? The Small Council is in session.

DAN: I think the announcement was unfortunate but unsurprising. There was a five-year gap between A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows, and then a six-year gap between Feast and A Dance of Dragons. If the pattern continues, The Winds of Winter will come out soon but not immediately. I’m content to wait a while longer.

As for whether this means that book-readers will be spoiled by watching the show…well, yes, that’s inevitable, at least to some extent. Martin admitted as much on his Not a Blog, but also took care to note that the show has diverged so widely from the books that “the ‘spoilers’ you may encounter in season six may not be spoilers at all.” Check out his list of characters who may play big parts in The Winds of Winter but who have been cut from the show. It’s extensive.

Honestly, even if The Winds of Winter came out tomorrow, I’m not sure it would help people predict what’s coming in Season 6. Yes, cast members like Natalie Dormer have said that, even if the paths they take are different, the books and the show will end up in the same place. “A to B, they go off in slightly different tangents, but B is still B,” she said. But if Season 5 taught us anything, it’s that those tangents are anything but slight. In fiction, the journey often matters more than the destination, and it’s starting to look like the book and show versions of the characters will go on different journeys.

In other words, I think A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones will be very different beasts by the time they’re complete, so I’m not worried that the one will spoil the other. In fact, I wouldn’t be opposed to the showrunners just throwing out Martin’s template and ending the series on their own terms. I’d prefer that to a clumsy attempt to jam Martin’s ideas into a framework that’s increasingly unable to support them. And then, years down the road, after Martin is done with the series, another network can make A Song of Ice and Fire, and we can see a version that hews closer to Martin’s vision.

In a perfect world, anyway.

KATIE: As an Unsullied viewer, I’m not at all fussed about Martin’s publication dates. I understand why readers would be upset, but I’ve never sympathized with those who are vicious about it. Yes, it’s disappointing to wait on something that you’re looking forward to, but personally I never snapped when we were waiting on J.K. Rowling, so I don’t expect I would react any differently if I read the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Writing is no small feat, especially when you’re writing something as vast and complex as ASOIAF. Heck, no matter what you’re writing, it takes a toll, and I’m sure Martin wants The Winds of Winter done more than anyone else does.

It’s been suggested for awhile now that the show would surpass the books, but oftentimes you have to view one story as two separate entities when they’re delivered in different media. That mentality is problematic here, since the show has the potential to spoil the story for those who read it, but as Martin has said, the spoilers may not be all that spoiler-y. Although it doesn’t matter to me personally, I do hope for the sake of his readers that that’s true.

RICHARD: I’ve gotta tell ya, since every book series and show is finite, I’m pretty happy with the idea of having two different versions of Martin’s masterpiece coming down the pipe. It’s like those old kid’s books where the ending differed depending on which version of the storyline you picked (are those still around?). I trust Benioff and Weiss as caretakers of Martin’s vision at this point. It’s a grand experiment. Nothing could be worse than forcing Martin to finish any of his books before he can craft them in their grand sprawl the way he wants to.

I say hooray for Game of Thrones as it plows into uncharted territory, and I say hooray for Martin as he fights the good fight. And I believe that no one wants Winds of Winter competed more than Martin does. It’s all ended up in what’s amounting to be a fascinating double-serving of a great fictional world, and rather than wring my hands, I am happy to embrace it.

RAZOR: I’ve already given my thoughts on the delay of Winds, but I’ll reiterate what I said: I have foolishly and anxiously anticipated an announcement from George R.R. Martin concerning a release date for the long-awaited sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, for a long time. For far too long, I have enjoyed knowing what was going to happen on each season of Game of Thrones (with the exception of some scenes in Season 5), and for the most part, the show had yet to spoil the books. In my naivete, I had kept the faith that Martin would gift us with a new book before Season 6 debuted, so that I could continue to enjoy not actually being spoiled by the show. I was wrong.

Accurate depiction of  my feelings after that announcement:

CAMERON: The show and the books have always been different-but-related entities, so the question of how much this affects you personally depends a lot on your relationship to both. I’ve long since accepted the fact that, even if the show hits the same basic plot points as the books, it will never do so in the exact same way as the books, so I’m going to enjoy Season 6 mostly in peace. As a creative person myself, I’m also deeply sympathetic to Martin’s writing plights. It can be really tough sometimes to convey exactly what’s inside your head, and when what’s inside your head is a world of your own making, with characters of your own devising and interwoven plots cobbled together into some sort of coherent structure…I’m grateful that we have talented writers like Martin in our time, and I’m content with feeling a sort of “anxious patience” as we continue to wait for the sixth book.

Basically, I’m not surprised, and I’m super-chill about it. [insert sunglasses emoji]

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