George R.R. Martin Paranoia

I don’t even watch Game of Thrones, and I’ve only read one of the books, but that apparently doesn’t insulate me from George R.R. Martin paranoia. I had an episode just the other day.

It was related to that article about the Belgian teacher who was threating unruly students to reveal details from the book that hadn’t come out yet in the show if they didn’t screw up. That was funny and all, but it got me thinking.

I mean, I’ve heard that one of George R.R. Martin’s key approaches to avoid predictability in the books was to figure out who he couldn’t possibly kill…and then kill them. As such, isn’t there a danger that the HBO series could become a little predictable since it follows books that are already out there? I know it isn’t exact, but it’s pretty close.

That’s when I had my George R.R. Martin paranoid moment.

I wondered if George has been thinking of this all along…and has a special secret clause in his contract. The show will follow the books, follow the books, follow the books, and then BAM! Massive deviation! Perhaps something like The Red Wedding but the total opposite side gets slaughtered instead.

The book readers who’ve been so smug about knowing what is coming next will be totally taken by surprise…just like George’s technique regarding character lives when he was originally writing the book. They’d be totally unprepared…and George loves that kind of thing.

I could totally see him doing something like that. I don’t know if he would, but it’d be funny as hell if he did.