Will Season 6 of Game of Thrones spoil the books? (Macall B. Polay/HBO)
Game of Thrones is at a point where the show has never ventured before. For the first time, the HBO show has moved beyond the A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Will watching the new season spoil the books for you? Should you wait to even watch this new season until the books are released?
Here’s what you need to know.
Don’t Wait to Watch Season 6 Until After ‘Winds of Winter’ Is Released
I guess plan for a Summer Winds of Winter Release unless there’s another unforseen delay #GameOfThrones
Some fans are thinking about waiting to watch season six until after the much-anticipated Winds of Winter is released. But this isn’t a good idea. Back in January, George R. R. Martin admitted that he wasn’t going to finish The Winds of Winter before the show premiered its new season. And beyond that, he wasn’t even sure when he was going to finish the next book in the series. Fans have already been waiting five years for the book. On his blog, Martin wrote:
…No one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, ‘I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER’ on or before the last day of 2015.
But the book’s not done.
He said he had written hundreds of pages, but still had a long way to go. In fact, he admitted that he still had a long way to go and was no longer working with a deadline in mind.
In his blog post, Martin wrote that he always has a much tougher time writing when he’s under a deadline and that was a big problem with The Winds of Winter. He’s no longer setting a deadline for himself, in hopes that will ease his writing problems.
I am going back to my stance from last March, before all this. It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it.”
On a Reddit thread, one fan pointed to where Martin started talking about how he was going back and making revisions and feeling unhappy about his previous decisions for the book. Because of the complexity of his books, these revisions could cause a big delay in the book’s release. In addition, even without a deadline, he will likely still feel the same kind of deadline pressure.
What all this means is that there’s no end in sight when it comes to when The Winds of Winter will be released. You’re likely better off just watching the new season on HBO. Not to mention, spoilers are everywhere and it’s hard to avoid them. Would you have been able to avoid hearing about Jon Snow?
The Show and the Series Are Going to Diverge
Not only will you have to wait a long time to read the next book in the series, but the show and the book series are diverging. In other words, what you see on the show might not spoil the book at all. Fans who have read the books already know there are some big differences between the two. But it looks like those differences are going to get even bigger. On his blog, Martin wrote:
So when you ask me, ‘will the show spoil the books,’ all I can do is say, ‘yes and no,’ and mumble once again about the butterfly effect…
After that, he added that some spoilers from season 6 won’t be spoilers at all, because the series and the books have diverged and will continue to diverge as time goes on. Martin even mentioned on his blog that some characters who died in the TV series may not die in the books. In fact, there will be a huge plot twist in the books that viewers won’t see because the character it involves already died in the show.
