Game of Thrones has sadly almost come to an end on HBO and Sky Atlantic after a wonderful eight seasons.
Fans have loved and poured over every single episode for tiny clues and hints on what the ending might possibly be.
For the past seven seasons, they have had George R R Martin’s original books as a guide to help them navigate the – at times – complicated world the likes of Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) live in. But Martin’s last book has been significantly delayed meaning the HBO series is flying solo.
But should it? Why should the television series be allowed to ruin the book for fans of the novel series?
To put it bluntly, I don’t really think it should be allowed to do that.
In 1991, Martin began his epic series which he lovingly named, A Song of Ice and Fire, and it would contain seven full-length novels.
A Game of Thrones was released in 1996, and marked the beginning of one of the world’s greatest and most loved stories.
Since then, he published A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005) and A Dance with Dragons (2011). There are still two novels of the series (The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring), yet to be released, which will bring his story to a close.
The TV series, produced by HBO, has largely followed his novels, adapting a couple of things here and there.
Famously as well, show bosses David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said they had been told the finale by Martin in case anything happened to him.
So obviously, there’s a lot of trust between the teams and they are keen on working together as a group.
However, does that mean Benioff and Weiss had the liberty to finish the show before Martin finished his books?
Martin has clearly dedicated a lot of his life to Game of Thrones. While he seems happy with the way the HBO show has gone, it’s no doubt “his baby”.
But more often than not, a small proportion of viewers have read the books, and more tragically, some don’t even know who Martin is.
It doesn’t seem massively fair to Martin for his series to be spoiled when season eight concludes in May.
Furthermore, for those who do love his novels, the whole ending will be out there, if they do follow the author’s original plan, which seems likely.
Over the past week, it emerged Martin doesn’t actually want to see the show end with season eight, believing the show had more legs.
He told Rolling Stone: “I wish we had a few more seasons. But I understand. [Benioff and Weiss] are gonna go on to do other things, and I’m sure some of the actors were signed up for like seven or eight years, and they would like to go on and take other roles.
“All of that is fair. I’m not angry or anything like that, but there’s a little wistfulness in me.”
In the same interview, Martin explained he had an “emotional reaction” to certain elements of the show being changed from his books.
The author said: “I mean, would I prefer they do it exactly the way I did it? Sure. But I’ve been on the other side of it, too. I’ve adapted work by other people, and I didn’t do it exactly the way they did it, so…
“Some of the deviation, of course, is because I’ve been so slow with these books. I really should’ve finished this thing four years ago – and if I had, maybe it would be telling a different story here.”
What’s more, Martin hasn’t watched any of season eight and will be surprised to see what happens himself.
On the other hand, perhaps the show could inform Martin’s conclusion.
Sure, we all want to know who will sit on the Iron Throne – if it even exists by the end – but we all would want more of the television series, especially if it meant Martin’s work was throughly excavated.
Game of Thrones continues Sunday on HBO in the USA and the following day on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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