"'Game of Thrones' showrunner explains why Bran is not..." Topic

…in season 5.

"A couple months ago actor Kristian Nairn (Hodor) let it slip to a reporter that he and Thrones co-star Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) had the upcoming season off. Writer and executive producer David Benioff, who is the showrunner on the acclaimed fantasy series along with Dan Weiss, tells EW exclusively that there are a couple key reasons for the move, and both are about crafting a strong season that fits within the show's seven-year narrative plan.

"Ideally that wouldn't have gotten out and it's unfortunate it did," Benioff said. "The fact is, even though we're making changes to the books and adapting as necessary, we're trying to keep the various storylines the same as the books and trying to keep them roughly [chronologically] parallel. And last year we caught up to the end of Bran's storyline [in George R.R. Martin's most recent A Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Dance with Dragons]. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he's way ahead of where the other characters are."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

He will not be in Season 5 because he has the most boring story arc. That is no mean accomplishment.

Luckily, unlike Bran, the War of the Iron Islands Succession was started late in the book series, so it could be eliminated as BORING with few qualms.

Book 5 is not so much a cushion as they are leading us to believe. Tyrion's journey and suffering is boring, Quentyn Martel's arc even more boring, and all Jon does is fail at command, much like Danaerys is failing at ruling.

What about the revenge of the daughters of the Martel?
Kaleese is not again on the move?
And what about the boy-King?

Amicalement
Armand

Book Five was a snoozer for me as well. It seemed like Martin decided to open new plot lines without closing or greatly advancing old ones. Suddenly everyone has a secret plan/treaty to marry Dany. Meanwhile Dany marries the least interesting character in the books while lusting after the second least. The Dragons get locked up and hacked off. Cersei walks through the town naked. It's been a real let down for me.

Obviously he was well into Book 5 BEFORE he got hooked up with HBO.
Obviously he thought no one in their right mind would want to film it, so he could wander off into as many pointless diversions as he wanted. >cough< Robert Jordan >cough<
SUDDENLY he is dealing with the Private Sector who, as Dan Ackroyd observed in Ghostbusters, expect results.
For the books, he is out on a limb. On many limbs. He can only saw off so many limbs to be current with the books.

Armand, most of the 7 Sand Snakes get locked up for suspicious behavior. One is in Oldtown, studying at the Citadel, in the book, but no one has been cast in her role. Arianna Martel, legitimate, is much more interesting, but pointless. Also uncast. From what I have seen on line, the Sand Snakes will be going off into unwritten territory. Expect no one to solve your puzzlement with Book Spoilers. We are as much in the dark as you will be.

Khalessi will try with total failure to rule whatever city she is currently occupying. A metaphor for "nation building", if you wish.
King Tommen is nothing but a pawn.

In my opinion, Martin and the books will go off on their own tangents.
Both will finish with the same people in charge, and the same main characters killed.
Much else will be different.
In my opinion, Martin will come out with Book 6 at the same time as Season 5 ends. Just like Season 1/Book 5.
HBO will end the series in Season 7, and Martin will come out with Book 7 four years later.

There is also a lot of scuttlebutt on the Rumor Sites about stories he has written for various anthologies. These are the "Dunk and Egg" stories. They are indeed canon, but not in the 5 GoT books.
They take place 100 or so years previous, and contain characters in the background. Like the 3 Eyed Raven. He is Brynden Rivers, a very important character from the novellas. Like Bran, he will not be in Season 5.

The Blackfyre Rebellion is very important, but not in the series at all.
This puts Martin in a quandary. Dare he include as major plot elements what HBO had not even bothered to mention?
Can he use (Fake?) Aegon the Pretender?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Not to mention the rumors that Tyrion is a Targaryean. ("You are no son of mine!")
That makes him and Dany half brother and half sister.

I felt that the Sand Snakes were an unnecessary diversion, they were there and gone. In fact much of the Dorne Storyline comes off as filler.

Many thanks for your guidance my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

All I remember of the Dorne storyline was idly turning pages until the chapter ended and perhaps the story returned to a character I was actually interested in. GRRM should stop the writing, leave it all to HBO as they seem to understand the concept of delivery.

For those considering plunging into the books don't let a few grumpy comments through you off. While Feast is hardly the best book of the serias (Martin was thrown off a bit by having to split the narative at the insistence of editors), its still a far better book than most current fantasy fare. It goes off into Joseph Campbell "hero's journey" territory while delving into the unique aspects of Dorne politics. It suffers from being only half the story as Jon, the wall etc. are cut out and put into the first half of Dance with Dragons (the story lines reunite and improve in Dance).

In any case the material is far superior to the off book drival inserted by HBO from time to time. That HBO has managed to make the Bran story line dull while it sparkles in the books serves as speicfic example.

The lesson of the latter books is not so much that some of our favorite characters have flaws but that the world has problems born of ignorance, prejudice and just plain stupidty that even the wisest well intentioned "hero" cannot solve in a chapter or two.

Sophmoric HBO will have, in any case, a field day with Dorne and is looser moral code. Shy worry about nuance when you can show naked sand snakes??

TomT

You must have read a different Book 5 than I did. Had books 4 and 5 been the first of the series I never would have read all five books. The bad thing for me is that I don't care for the HBO series so I guess that I'll just have to figure that, since I doubt that Martin will actually finish the series I'm going to have to call an end to GoT here. Actually even if he does, after Books 4&5 I doubt that I'll go another book. Just my opinion, if you like it fine.

He will not be in Season 5 because he has the most boring story arc

Really, he is the one who will end up being the Dragon King because of his ability.

Plus Hodor will be the one to finally kill the Mountain.