Game of Thrones from the perspective of a book fan

Married life presents a lot of small problems that we have to acclimatise too. Giving each other space, the sharing of house hold chores and competing for the affections of our dog are the big ones in our house. The start of season 6 of HBO's Game of thrones however, provided a new divide that I wasn't anticipating. My Wife and I are both huge fans of George R. Martins series of books. After watching the first episode of the show we both made a start on the original novel and had finished it before the second episode aired. I think the majority of us can agree that books are fantastically written in the first person perspective which gives you a better insight into individual characters motivations than the TV show. I personally found this a compliment to the show and found myself more likely to sympathise with some of the more morally ambiguous characters than friends who hadn't read the book.

The show has been reasonably adapted from the book with the vast majority of the show's changes being of benefit to the format. In fact some of the changes actually improved on the book (the mountains' epic duel with Brienne of Tarth springs to mind ). For the most part though, we enjoyed looking forward to certain milestones from the book that we knew were approaching in the TV show. We marvelled at the battle of black water which moved big battle sequences in TV shows forward ( a trend which continued in future seasons), dreaded the arrival of the red wedding and rejoiced at the eventual end of the hated boy king Joffrey. So far so good. The problem for us reared its head at the conclusion of season 5.

This was one of the more controversial seasons for us. We both agreed that the liberties taken here were a step in the wrong direction. Bronn seemed to have been shoe-horned back into the story for some reason and he and Jamie ventured off on an Journey to Dorne that is far removed from the books. Barristan Selmy was killed off in a rather bland battle with some absolute nobodies ( in the book he is largely regarded as the greatest swordsmen in the world ) . He is still alive and playing an important role in the novels. I am sure there are many other small changes that fans of the book will call out as being essential to the flow of the story that were changed but i can still understand why it had to be done. The books are sprawling and complicated in their machinations and politics and there was no way 10 hours of televsion could keep up with every detail. With that in mind, Game of Thornes was still light years ahead of anything else on TV and I loved it. The hardholme Episode was Chilling and gave the viewers the first real glimpse of what will follow.The wife however decided to stop here....

We both believe the books are the superior version of the story and contain a far more nuanced version of the tale, as is usually the case when adapting something of this scale. However, where I was able to see the two mediums as separate entities, she wanted to read George Martins definite version of the story before having her expectations of it changed by the TV show. I share her sentiment here to a certain extent but at the current speed George is writing the books, it is likely the show will conclude before we even see the 6th book. This has lead to me having to watch season 6 and the start of season 7 when she is out of the house! Winter has arrived my friends!

The problem we have is this,I am going to say something that I am sure many will find controversial now.......I believe season 6 is the best series of the show so far. I was initially against the idea of Jon Snow's revival but in retrospect believe it has improved the show. It was both a clever way to remove his vows to the Nights watch in an honourable way and allowed supporters of the Stark clan a brief moment of victory after seasons of watching them die off one by one. The battle of the bastards was probably the greatest hour of television I have ever seen. The budget used for this must be on par with Hollywood as I have rarely seen the scale of war portrayed this well even on the big screen. It was also an episode of substance as we saw the death of young Rickon. We saw Sansa finally coming into her own and taking power back after years of oppression under various horrible suitors and most importantly, we saw a turn of the tide for the "good guys" in the show. I think that we can all agree that Westoros is a fairly bleak place. It is cruel and uncompromising. The strong take what they want and the honourable are punished for their unwillingness to make sacrifices of character. The execution of Eddard Stark way back in series one showed us what kind of story this was going to be. It is this sense of all consuming bleakness that gives these moments of retribution the gravity they deserve. It raises the show above the mediocrity of other shows where the good guys always win and the bad guys all wear black and cackle as they reveal their schemes. In fact, I would argue that characters like Joffrey, Ramsey and Walder Frey are a much more frightening personification of evil than the typical villain. They are greedy, entitled and hateful but most importantly, they are successful. They are playing the game better than anyone else and show that you can succeed in life by questionable means

Season 6 also started to give us some payoff on questions that have been lingering since the show began. Jon's parentage was finally revealed, Bran finally seems like he has a larger part to play in the story and we saw the heartbreaking truth of Hodors condition. All reveals that we have not yet seen in the books. And this brings me to my point. We don't yet know if any of these events are actually canon. We do know that the writers of the show have been told how the story ultimately ends but the route they take to get there has to be based on the the best way to show the broad stokes of the story to the viewer. I now find myself worrying that events wont actually evolve this way or that after reading the events from other characters perspectives that I may view things in an entirely different way. The wife is still adamant that she wont watch the show and has ignored all mentions of the show on social media. In a way am envious of the discoveries she still has to come and how her view of these events will be remembered differently to mine due to the source. Ultimately though, I would be kidding myself if i said I could have waited- the urge to see how all of this is going to play out is many years in the making.

So, do I feel like Season 6 was the pinnacle simply because it was new and I didn't know what was going to happen? I think this is probably true. I think it also helps me to understand why the show is so popular with people who have not picked the books up at all. As fun as it is to smugly grin as people discussed there theories in the office after early episodes ( most believed Rob would raid kings landing and live happily ever after ), I know enjoy being part of the conversation. I love both Mediums and still maintain my stance that they can be appreciated separately.

My biggest worry however though is what i am going to obsess about once this is all over??

What are your thoughts on the show/book dilemma? Let me know in the comments below