I actually have a tremendous amount of respect for D & D. I don't take their writing for granted at all. I think they've done a wonderful job and I think they could've chosen 1000 other writers and none would have done as good a job as them. There are many many examples like Arya and Tywin, plus they've enhanced many things from the book. They've made 1000s upon 1000s of decisions, some big, but many small that have made the show what it is. They have cut out silly stuff like talking ravens, singing fools, glamouring, and other such things that just wouldn't have fit. So yes, I am very content with what we've been given, and I guess it's part of the reason why I'm wondering: am I underestimating these guys too much?Needle wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2017 3:48 pmNow that the show is sort of seperating itself from the books (we can only wait for TWOW to confirm or deny this) obviously the characters are going to be a bit weaker, and the focus is mainly going to be on the visual stuff. It's honestly bound to happen, since they don't have GRRM's genius writing to rely on. But is season 7 going to be terrible? Absolutely not. I have my own critiques on the show, and some of the adaptation choices they made make me a bit mad, but that still gets weighed down by other things I find praiseworthy. People choose to focus only on the bad things, they forget that the show does have some incredible moments. Some of which we didn't even get in the books (Arya and Tywin, Robert and Cersei's private scenes, hell, they even made Gendry a much more important character on the show IMO).
Truth is, no matter how much of a good writer the screenwriter is, book to movie/tv adaptations are never perfect. Always keep in mind that it could've been so much worse.
Say a magical genie gives me a coin and gives me a chance to toss it. If it lands on one side the show will change into something 100% better, but if it lands on the opposite side, we would get the ASOIAF equivalent of Shyamalan's Avatar adaptation, I would throw the coin away and never look back. We should be more content with what we have. As long as we agree that the book-canon is always more reliable than the show-canon, I don't see any reason to hate the show.
And I have to disagree with you on the white walkers thing. Nearly every period drama focuses solely on politics, but GoT and ASOIAF have magic and legendary creatures in it, so it's kinda obvious the story will turn into fighting beasts rather than rebelling against an evil queen. Not to mention many conflicts in the story emerge because of realistic human acts. Betrayal, dishonesty, manipulation, selfishness, these are all real human issues we still have today. Cersei, and the majority of the world, ignoring the white walker threat is another example how selfish and pessimistic people can be. Jon, The Watch, the wildlings, they all tell the truth, they're all warning everybody, but instead of listening to them, the rest of the lords keep themselves busy in pointless things such as politics. GRRM uses many of his realistic ideologies in the books. Wars lead to casualties and pain, the brave and honest hero doesn't always win, and the selfish meddling of the rich only hurts the poor.
In fact I'm willing to bet that the threat of the white walkers is only going to make politics a much more discussed topic, especially in season 7. Jon will need to ally with Dany, and there's going to be the whole Euron and Cersei thing going on. Politics are an important factor to the story, it won't disappear.
BTW I like the magic in ASOIAF, I just don't like the White Walkers. And I group the "realistic human acts" you mention in the same category as politics so that's what I mean when I say politics.