Me too.

Which is why I'm thrilled the show has been so amazing so far. This is going to blow the thing wide open.

Now the only draw back is Martin, himself. Even if each book gets 2 seasons from here on out, I'm not sure he'll write fast enough to finish. It'll be interesting to see how HBO handles that.

Will they end it themselves? Create new stories and spin wheels until the books are done? Go on hiatus until new books are done?

But that's all way in the future. For now, S3 looks like it's shaping up to be everything I hoped it would.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not too worried about the show catching the books, with 2 seasons per book, that gives 6 years until the show reaches the end of DwD. WoW will be done by then, so that's 8 years. Will the show still exist in 8 years? The actors will be too old.

Actor age is certainly a concern. Especially the kids. But they could always recast. Or (I'd prefer) just adjust the storytelling so that it spans more years than the books.

But, you question is a good one. Will the show still exist in 8 years? And if it doesn't, how will HBO end it? Will they give it an ending, or just let it stop where the material stops?

I'm more concerned with massive fan blowback from RW and LS. There's going to be a lot of melting down at the end of the season.

Feast won't get two seasons. Most likely, Feast and Dance with Dragons will span two seasons with Dance getting a majority of the time. Plus you have the concurrent storylines during those two books.

Do you think LS will be in this season? I assumed that would be season 4.

That is, if you mean what I think you mean by 'LS'

Well, CS becomes LS at the same time as RW, or at least the initial event that leads to LS's eventual appearance.

In fact, that might be a hell of a way to end the season. Imagine that as a cliffhanger. LS rising out of the water.

Those books are each so long that I would be shocked if we didn't end up with at least 3 seasons combined between the two.

Unless they start going with longer seasons, say 16 eps instead of 12.

It isn't shown in the book until the epilogue. One of the things that made it so stunning and memorable was the "timespan" that occurred between the two events, where the reader assumes she's gone. If she was back shortly after the RW, I don't know if it would have the same effect.

It would be an incredible last scene for a season, though.

I could see Tywin allowing that rather than letting it be known throughout the kingdom that his beloved wife was raped by the mad king.

Honor and name and being feared and all of that...

I'd forgotten it was the very end of the book. I knew a few days passed, to explain her appearance, but for some reason I was thinking it was a few chapters, not half the book.

My thinking was RW would happen similar to the events of Baelor - i.e. not ending the season with it - then you'd have an entire finale episode, with her being the final scene, but maybe that would be too soon.

This all raises the big question of how they'll handle RW. I don't think you'd want to end the season with that. You need at least another episode, or I think you risk a portion of the audience tuning out for good.

I so wish I'd never read these books now. It would be so cool to be able to look forward to the show not knowing what's going to happen. :(

The youtube reaction videos after the RW episode are going to be epic, if the videos after Ned's death are any indication.

I just refreshed myself on the plot a bit and a couple good endings to Season 3 would be Arya finding the ship and giving over the coin or Dany's dragon attack. Season 4 will obviously end with Tyrion doing what he has to do after his escape.

Especially given the fact that they built Robb's character so much. Everyone says how ASoS is their favorite book of the series, but I was ****ing depressed for days after the RW. That book left a bad taste in my mouth.