D&D Defense

Published May 25, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

I can’t believe no one gets it! This show was not designed to tell the entire story. Part of the joy of watching Game of Thrones in the beginning was how it made me hunger for more information. This eventually led me to read the books and before too long I stayed just a little behind….full disclosure, I still haven’t read a Dance With Dragons and probably still won’t until I finish rereading the rest (I”m getting close). While reading you notice several subtle nuances and several rather large omissions and changes. For instance, when I first read “Asha” I wondered why they”d change her name, amongst numerous other questions.

The answer to most of those changes is the medium in which it is displayed. You see, other than time spent, this story took zero to very little money, relatively, to write. George R.R. Martin is one man, with one imagination, that created an intricate, precise, yet vast world by simply putting pen to paper. One man! One imagination!

When you tell a story, you know, one of your good ones from Spring Break ’99. How annoying is it when one of your buddies repeatedly chimes in interrupting your thought and ruining punchlines and climaxes? Now imagine D&D taking on this task with SO many details, and SO many variables. Be it actors, budget, contracts, ratings, whatever the obstacle, they were there.

For six seasons (in what seems to be most people”s opinions) they absolutely nailed it! We ignored the absence of Daeron Blackfyre, figuring not to be significant to the stories end. We we”re ok with not much of Euron Greyjoy, assuming much the same.

So here we are, Jon Snow is dead and the source material has run out. Nicolas Coster-Waldau apparently has a contract that states he”ll appear in every episode, Lena Heady and whatever Bronn”s real name is can’t stand to be in the same country with each other. They inadvertently either introduced storylines or characters too late. Never mentioned dragonbinder or horn of winter. Now GRR tells them the wall falls, and Dany ends up with only one dragon and actually does become “Queen of the Ashes”. Yada, yada, yada… Eight years into this project. Eight years, as artists and actors, who yearn to expand their horizons and do something different, who are now expected to kind of come together and finish a story in two years, that the aforementioned one man, with one imagination hasn’t fully been able to put into words in those eight years. Not only that, but to also act those words out on camera. Not only that! To also please millions and millions of people in doing so with only a Winds of Winter CliffsNotes pamphlet as your guide! You never ace the test if you don’t read the book, although you may get lucky and pass.

You can’t just jump in and bogart someone else”s story and finish it anymore entertaining than it would have been from the source. You can’t tell another man”s story. You are, even as a television watcher, bound to be disappointed. So Arya kills the Knight King, Bran is King because of stories, the Cousin of Dragons killed the Mother of Dragons, ahem Dragon, and it all seemed to happen waaayyy too fast and I get it, but it all boils down to lack of tools to do George R.R. Martin”s job for him. We still don’t know how GRR gets all these characters to these spots. If D&D were able to go off on their own endings and theories I’m sure they would”ve given us something just as compelling as we”ve all come up with on our own. One man, or one woman with one imagination.

Disclaimer: This is in no way to say that D&D would write a better story than GRR.

Paul E.

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Gene Lyons says:

May 29, 2019 at 11:40 pm

Massive projects like the Marvel Cinematic Universe have shown us that screenwriters can take another artist’s characters and give them new stories and fitting endings. I think that’s part of why people are so frustrated. Then again, the entire MCU is just 48 hours of film. Game of Thrones is more than THREE DAYS LONG.

- Kenny P says:
  
  May 30, 2019 at 6:59 pm
  
  What people are missing, is that this is most definitely the route GRRM is taking. this is the main ending to his books.
  
  Btw Dragonbinder/Horn Of Winter is essentially a Prop Euron uses to persuade the iron born that he should be the king. It’s not actually going to work. It is not real essentially, you heard it here first.
  
  Bran is the king that GRRM always wanted. It fell a little flat in the show because the time he spent north of the wall is one of the rare things that didn’t translate well to TV. Arya is the other major protagonist.
  
  If you break it down into the concept only, 2 people, jon & dany growing up and by all means appear to be the people we have watched blossom into leaders. When, the reality is neither were meant to lead, both wartime leaders, just like king Bob. The real story has and always will be Arya & Bran & Sansa. All 3 were kids, growing up despite everything working against them.
  
  In truth, we should have questioned Dany from the very beginning. All she ever wanted was the Iron Throne that was Rightfully Hers. Doesn’t that sound crazy and entitled?