"So did Games of Thrones Just reveal a huge Book Spoller?" Topic

"Game of Thrones has been getting ahead of the books by George R.R. Martin for a while now. But it's also been diverging from the books in significant ways. So when we see an event that's not in the books, it's hard to tell if it's a spoiler for Winds of Winter, or another sidetrack. Except we just got one big hint.

Spoilers ahead, for both the books and the TV show up to now…

In Sunday's episode, Stannis Baratheon takes the insane decision to burn his only child, Shireen, alive, as a sacrifice to the Red God. This could be another event like Sansa marrying Ramsay Bolton, or Brienne fighting the Hound — the show taking a huge liberty and inventing events that clearly won't happen in George R.R. Martin's book series.

Except that in the special "making of" featurette, Inside Game of Thrones, producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff say that Martin himself told them that Stannis would sacrifice Shireen. Says Benioff, "When George first told us about this [development], it was one of those moments where I remember looking at Dan. It was just like, ‘Oh, that's just so horrible, and so good in a story sense.' Because it all comes together. From the beginning, from the very first time we saw Stannis and Melisandre, they were burning people alive on the beaches of Dragonstone, and it's really all come to this. There's been so much talk about king's blood, and the power of king's blood, and it all leads, ultimately, fatally, to Shireen's sacrifice."…"
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Armand

Armand, congratulations – that snippet you've found contains the line that defines this series (both book and HBO) – "just so horrible and so good in a story sense". So much of it is deeply grim but we are caught on the hook of wanting to know. And it does illustrate the somewhat twisted minds at work.

Reading and watching this does make me wonder if there are any new books written on the lines of "good heroes go out and kill monsters led by the vile necromancer" or am I living absolutely in a rise tinted d&d past?

Goonfighter,

I get where you're coming from. I'm tired of hearing that this remake is better than the original because it's "dark". Sometimes "dark" is better but sometimes it isn't. It's what I still like about the original Star Trek series, the future could be a better place. There is the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Jack Sparrow may be a rogue but he's a relatively harmless one and he seems to win in the end.

Yup, that's it Jowady. It does not have to be so relentless. The first 30 mins of Saving Private Ryan HAD to be relentless to be true to its source. Some fantasy books could be a bit too much the cheery rogue spinning a dagger on his thumb whilst picking a pocket and the kindly old wizard prepares an "incredible spell of hand waving escape", so yes GRRM did pick the right idea of subverting the genre – I didn't expect Ned Stark to get it and many others didn't either. Though I will say that as I read the book, the gamer in me was adjusting his ST death and not liking the odds.

But but but – I really don't see the need to pile innocent death on top of another. Except – I'm still watching…..

There do seem to be more than a few hints that Shireen`s death is something that occurs in `The Winds of Winter` but in a slightly different context from the series.
Guess we`ll know for sure when the book finally comes out, hopefully BEFORE season six airs!

I never had any doubt that Stannis was going to burn her so it spoiled nothing for me. I haven't ever felt he would be a good ruler, especially as long as he has the crazy religious fanatic telling him what to do.