The Game of Thrones season 4 finale brought several surprises and lacked an even bigger surprise for non-book readers. So what’s ahead?
The Game of Thrones show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss spoke to various outlets over the weekend, and answered burning questions about the season finale. In an interview with THR, D.B. Weiss spoke about how the season 4 finale differed from those that came before.
“Our final episodes have often been clean-up… primarily concerned with addressing the aftermath of the momentous events of the episode before,” Weiss said. “This isn’t one of those. The finale of the fourth season is more blow-up than clean-up.”
The writers also admitted that, while they’ve enjoyed deviating from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, the goal is to always get to the same destination.
“The books are the reason we’re doing this, they’re our road map, and they provide many or most of our destinations,” said Weiss. “But there are many ways to get to each destination, and some are more appropriate for our show than others.”
Added co-showrunner David Benioff, “We have to make a show that succeeds on its own terms, and sometimes that means veering away from the books. Some people will be upset by that. Some people will like it. Obviously we hope for more of the latter, but if we ever write a scene (or avoid writing a scene) because we’re afraid of pissing someone off, we’re sunk. As for season five, we’re still figuring out how we can afford everything we want to do. There are a few sequences that are absolutely terrifying from a production standpoint.”
“He’s at the nadir here. He’s lost everything,” Martin explained. “He’s going to be smuggled somewhere to safety, but what the hell is he gonna do there? He’s lost his position in House Lannister, he’s lost his position in court, he’s lost all of his gold — which is the one thing that’s kind of sustained him throughout his life.”
Martin discusses Shae, and the changes in her character in Game of Thrones. In the show, “Shae is much more sincere in her affections for Tyrion,” he says. This is almost contradictory, but with the Shae in the TV series, you can tell she actually has real feelings for Tyrion — she challenges him, she defies him.”
Martin’s original vision of Shae was rather less sympathetic; he describes her “as a manipulative camp-follower prostitute who doesn’t give a shit about Tyrion.” Though there are similarities between the two incarnations, Martin admits that “they’re also very different characters, and I think that’s going to lead to very different resonances playing out in the TV show than in the books.”
David Benioff made a similar observation while speaking with THR. “For us the tragedy [of Shae and Tyrion] is watching these two people trying to kill each other when they love one another,” he said. “If only Tyrion had taken Shae up on her offer at the end of season two, they could be living a wonderful life in exile right now.”
Game of Thrones season 5 will air in early 2015 on HBO.
Additional reporting by Michal Schick