Todays Double News: Game of Thrones, secrets and revelations

Two bits of news today, both concerning everybody's favorite sexy, bloody, epic HBO fantasy series called Game of Thrones:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154367/game_of_thrones_stopt_na_7_of_8_seizoenen

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/154335/derde_trailer_games_of_thrones_seizoen_4

All good things must come to an end, even Game of Thrones, like it or not. Setting a limit is probably for the best, considering milking it out indefinitely can only lead to a downfall in terms of quality. That said, with no more than four seasons remaining, there's still quite a lot of ground to cover. As the latest trailer reveals, the next season will already deal with a fair amount of chapters from the fourth book (and therefore also the fifth book, as those two coincide storywise). This sadly means a lot of material from the books will be excised for reasons of time, and that's a damn shame considering the many wonderful minor plot lines A Song of Ice and Fire that make up the rich realms of the Seven Kingdoms. Now that the show is rapidly catching up with the books, this also means that for a change the series might soon actually start to spoil the books by omitting story that ultimately proves omittable, even though we haven't yet come to believe that from reading the novels. That seems inescapable. Even though Martin insists he won't let the series overtake his work, fact is with a maximum of eight seasons the date is set: we can expect the ending four years from now. However, Martin still needs to finish two books, and from his track record we can assume he will need quite a while longer to complete those. Unless we're closer to the ending than anticipiated and the last two novels will turn out a fair bit thinner than their predecessors, which I'm hoping is not the case. I would prefer already knowing the end of the books from the show, but still staying able to get a rewarding reading experience thanks to everything the series doesn't tackle. If Benioff and Weiss get their way, at least it will safeguard the series from unneccessary milking and most likely the ever dreaded cancellation too. I was kinda hoping the show would have to resort to a break somewhere down the line because the story had yet to be finished, at which point a spin-off/prequel series of sorts would temporarily takes its place. There's plenty of material to cover after all: Robert's Rebellion, the Targaryen conquest, Dunk and Egg, etc. It seems that won't happen now, thanks to the showrunners' creative integrity. You don't see that every day in TV. Who knows, HBO execs might still overrule them. I doubt they care much about the notion of milking a show this successful out for every cent they can get out of it. And otherwise they can still do a spin-off later on. Wouldn't be the only contemporary hit series to do so, just look at Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.

In the meantime, the new trailer continues to whet our appettite for Season 4 even more. The battle for Meereen and the unexpected shot of Braavos - I thought the latter would be kept for the Fifth Season - let us know we can expect quite some exotic new locales, while the intrigue between the many characters remains as strong and compelling as ever. And if this isn't enough marketing material, there's the Vanity Fair photoshoot, which is... something else entirely. All the actors dressed as their characters looking uncomfortably cheerful while standing at a beautiful rocky coastline: why do these fashion photoshoots always utilize such an odd look that seems woefully out of touch with the series or films they cover? Judging from the semi-hilarious behind-the-scenes video, the cast proves a bit uneasy over the photoshoot themselves. As long as the characters refrain from engaging in overly concordial behavior in the series, I don't mind. After all, we want to see them stabbing each other in the back and screwing everybody over, not happily holding hands!

Valar Morghulis: all series must die. But not today.

Hodor!