# GOT pilot episode.



## Crowfield (May 5, 2021)

I suppose GOT was inspired by LOTR. Sort of. Anyway from what I see online the pilot for GOT is not viewable anywhere accessible.
I did find out that GRR Martin was standing in the background in a cameo scene.
His costume doesn't look very well designed, or up to a high standard to me.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 5, 2021)

"Inspired", yes; no writer of fantasy since the 1950's -- certainly the 1960's -- could avoid being influenced by its creator.

Looking at it another way, you could say he was _arguing _with Tolkien, in a tradition going back at least to Stephen Donaldson, who made -- IMO -- a rather poor one, through Tad Williams, who -- IMO again -- made a couple of rather better ones, and continuing to this day. Whether Martin is making a good one is, of course, up to individual judgement.

I suppose mine is fairly well illustrated by this, which I imagine you're familiar with (I hid it under a spoiler label, the first time I posted it, but as it's appeared "unveiled" at least a couple of times since, I guess I'll just give a language warning, this time):


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## Crowfield (May 6, 2021)

"We don't need the back story on every f'ing tree branch."
Tolkien and Martin both have depth galore, its the way to attract the multitude by making it seem real. Tolkien tore up a chapter of LOTR because the moon was out of phase to the calendar year and therefore the plot could not have unfolded as pictured. I like that it was too much work to finish Silmarillion to make everything mesh with the published books. Slavery to detail makes it all real.

I love your great video, a real gas.

For fantasy I would write down LOTR and GOT and draw a line under them both. Nothing in the next level below. There's some others that I like just as well, but they still are not as good, regardless how much I like them. If I can't separate what I like from what I think is great, then I would have less intelligence than ego. 

I consider GOT an eleven on a scale of one to ten, same for LOTR. I like LOTR better of the two. 

I do see a Sci Fi 10, Gene Wolfe's New Sun tetralogy. Just reading the first 6 or 7 pages of that series' first book, I knew I had found something worthy.


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## Erestor Arcamen (May 6, 2021)

Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive is up there for me with LOTR. It's planned to be a 10 book series with four out right now. And what I like about him is outside of Stormlight, there are other series and books like Mistborn in the same universe. Mistborn starts out as YA Fantasy but gets more mature as the series goes on. He's probably my favorite author after Tolkien, and personally, I hold them both in the same regard as both are excellent world builders. 

I can definitely see why GRRM is up there for some people as well but it'd be nice if he'd actually finish what he started.


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## Olorgando (May 6, 2021)

Erestor Arcamen said:


> I can definitely see why GRRM is up there for some people as well but it'd be nice if he'd actually finish what he started.


Another thing GRRM seems to have in common with JRRT - though the latter's incomplete rate was much higher.


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## Erestor Arcamen (May 6, 2021)

Olorgando said:


> Another thing GRRM seems to have in common with JRRT - though the latter's incomplete rate was much higher.


You're right and with modern technology, I'm sure that pushes for people to know about and pressure authors for information on when their books are coming out. Other than writing a letter, there was no way for fans to really say "Hey J, when's that new book coming out?" back in JRRT's day.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 6, 2021)

He got a whole _lot _of letters of that kind. 😁


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## Olorgando (May 6, 2021)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> He got a whole _lot _of letters of that kind. 😁


For RoTK, yes. Though most were from GA&U, IIRC. Main delay reason were those confounded appendices, for which JRRT had - par for the course - much too *much* material.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (May 6, 2021)

True -- but he was getting begging letters from Hobbit readers too, even in the 30's.


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## Olorgando (May 6, 2021)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> True -- but he was getting begging letters from Hobbit readers too, even in the 30's.


Also true. But if I got the GRRM situation right, the GOT TV producers had to make their own ending, 'cause GRRM hadn't written the respective last novel yet - and still has not, to date. That tops even JRRT. 😂


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## Erestor Arcamen (May 6, 2021)

Correct, he's been promising the last book for several years and it's been 10 since the last book came out. I read the first three and couldn't get through the fourth as I didn't find his writing all that great and easy to follow. I see no point in reading them or trying to read them anymore because this next book that he's been promising isn't even the last, he has one more planned for after that to finish the series. 

He's 72, not to say he's going to kick it anytime soon but if it's taking this long to write one book, chances are he'll never finish the series. Some people think he doesn't know how to finish since he made the books so complex. Another rumor is that after seeing the reaction fans had to the show ending, the plans he had for his book's ending are now gone as so many people hated it. Plus, he has a lot of side projects going on and it's frustrating to people who have been waiting for his book to come out and he's out doing whatever else he's doing. I really don't care either way if he ever finishes, I've found other authors and series to fill the gap.


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## Crowfield (May 8, 2021)

I would hate to have been the studio underling whose job it was to bring Martin his costume with blue hat and gold beads. You cannot hit a senior mega celebrity, even in self defense, so as a young flunkie I would have been prepared to run away quickly, depending on his reaction. After the pilot, the production values greatly improved!


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