Replotting Game of Thrones
Spoilers!
Like almost everyone, I was disappointed by the finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Most fans blame the show-runners for ruining a classic series. But if you actually read all five of the published books in George R.R. Martin’s saga, a radically different theory presents itself. Namely: The show was great for exactly as long as the source material was great. The first book, A Game of Thrones, gave us the first great season. The second book, A Clash of Kings, gave us the second great season. The third book, A Storm of Swords, was so awesome that it filled two more great seasons.
After that, HBO’s show-runners had little to to work with. Why? Part of the problem, granted, is that Martin failed to finish the series in time. It’s a seven-book series, but we’re still infamously waiting for volume 6.
Still, even if he’d finished the series, the show-runners would probably still have lacked decent source material. Why? Frankly, because volumes 4 and 5 were poorly plotted - and there’s little reason to think volumes 6 or 7 would be much better. In the last two published volumes, Martin’s plot lines go in circles, he forgets beloved characters, and adds piles of tangential characters. Given how bad A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons were, it’s hard to believe that the final two books would have been much better even if they were completed in time.
Could I have done any better? Sentence-by-sentence, no. But as a plot consultant, absolutely. If you brought me in to save the book series, I would have kept books 1-3 as canon, but re-done the rest of the series from scratch. And here is how my revision would have gone…
1. A Feast for Crows should have lived up to its name. In my rewrite, a horrific winter descends on the North while Stark loyalists fight Baratheons fight Wildlings fight Boltons fight Greyjoys, leading to mass famine and swarms of refugees fleeing south. Meanwhile, Dany fights for control of Slaver's Bay, and Cercei struggles for control with the religious fanatics. The book ends with Boltons treacherously attacking the Night's Watch, inadvertently allowing the Others to break through the Wall.
Major deaths: Stannis, Davos, Melisandre, Ramsey Bolton, Rickon, all the Night's Watch except Jon and Sam, all the named Wildlings, Jorah, all of Dany's slaver enemies.
2. In A Dance with Dragons, the horrible winter continues south, along with swarms of refugees. The Night King (yes, I know he’s only in the show, but that’s a mistake!) takes over the North and besieges Moat Cailin. Cercei kills off her enemies in the Sept Massacre and sends Jaime to reinforce Moat Cailin with technical help from Sam Tarly. It looks like it's going to work, but Dany (with Tyrion as her Hand) sneak attacks King's Landing with her dragons at the worst possible time, leading to general collapse of the Lannister's resistance. The book ends as the Others swarm Riverrun and take the Twins.
Major deaths: All of Cercei's local enemies, Jaime, Cercei, Tommen, all the Tullies, all the Freys.
3. In The Winds of Winter, Dany desperately tries to fight the Night King with her dragons and allies as the devastation of the North gets repeated everywhere North of Dorne. Littlefinger (who has long-since married Sansa and killed Robert Arryn to become Lord of the Vale) lures the Night King to the Eyrie after obtaining ancient lore to bind the Night King to his will. (His diabolical plan all along!) Meanwhile, all the remaining named characters rally to Dany, fortified by Sam's technical help. One dragon gets turned undead; the Night King uses him to destroy the Eyrie, killing Littlefinger and Sansa. Arya, who has infiltrated the Eyrie to rescue her sister, escapes with Sansa’s baby. As the book ends, King's Landing falls, and the survivors desperately retreat to Dorne.
Major deaths: Littlefinger, Sansa, Tyrion (who desperately tries to repeat his victory at Blackwater Bay), Sam, Varys.
4. In A Dream of Spring, the survivors fortify Dornish defenses. Winter abates, and much of the Night King's army slowly rots into extinction. The Night King tries breaking the impasse with his undead dragon, but fails due to Bran’s Three-Eyed Raven powers. This opens the way for a multi-pronged counterattack. Half the remaining beloved characters die on five different fronts. In the end, they force the Night King back beyond the Wall, and prepare for the next Winter. This time, when a Stark says "Winter is coming," all Westeros believes him.
Major deaths: Half the remaining beloved characters, but probably sparing Dany and Jon to give a little hope for the future. The bastard and the exile marry and share the Iron Throne, while Arya serves as Regent for Sansa’s baby in the North.
In the HBO adaptation, each of these book deserves a full ten episodes. Maybe two full seasons for The Winds of Winter. Cutting story-telling for special effects is a rotten trade-off. And never skimp on polishing the dialogue, which is the glory of the first four seasons!
One last thing: The Night King shouldn't just talk; he should be a cool Satanic figure who bluntly points out the wickedness of Man and uses it to rationalize human extinction: “But for the treachery, pride, and pettiness of the Living, none of this carnage would have come to pass.”
P.S. I highly recommend the graphic novelization of Game of Thrones, but even more highly recommend the graphic novelization of the Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas. One random awesome page:
Related Reading
Bastards, Immigrants, and Misanthropes
Game of Thrones and the Common-Sense Case for Pacifism
A Pacifist History of Westeros
WOW.
also, first!
Bret Devereaux's thoughts on GoT are interesting, e.g. here:
https://acoup.blog/2019/06/04/new-acquisitions-how-it-wasnt-game-of-thrones-and-the-middle-ages-part-ii/
The show worked as a slow meditation/thriller on power politics. I'm not sure if turning it into an Avengers movie about defeating Ice Thanos really plays to its strengths, but it's possible that it still would have been better than what we got.
Part of what made the later seasons bad was that the intriguing "power politics" component of the show became worse and worse written. Blowing up the Sept (which Bryan keeps in his version) is an exemplar of this tendency. It's basically insane as an act of medieval power politics, it's something a 10-year-old would come up with: "Put all my enemies in a building that happens to be the holiest place in our kingdom's primary religion, blow it up, KABOOM, no more enemies. I, a childless widow with no particular talents or qualities besides ruthlessness, win politics forever with the help of my two remaining political allies, Amoral Mad Scientist and Crippled Incest Brother."