(April 24, 2016 at 12:05 pm)Clueless Morgan Wrote:(April 23, 2016 at 10:38 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Whether you like or not, the show has taken an authority because there are people who haven't and won't read the books. I agree that the books, in my mind, will always be canon. But if some majorly important plot difference takes place between the two mediums (like who is the ruler at the end), then there will be a debate. Whether or not the debate is settled in your head makes no difference. The debate will take place, and I, for one can see good arguments on both sides.
in terms of the original idea and the story, I say the books are canon but I do think there is such a thing as book canon and show canon. Just because something happens one way in the books doesn't mean it could or should happen that way in the show - characters are different, plots are a little different and you simply can't force them to be the same.
Someone brought up Harry Potter and that's a similar situation (with the obvious difference that the books were complete before the movies were). There is book canon and movie canon and it just so happens in that series that they could closely concide - but there are differences. Some differences are necessary (limiting lengths of speeches that deliver exposition), some were a lot of fun (the shrunken head in the Azkaban movie, the flight through London in the Phoenix movie...), some are unnecessary (moving the book 7 scene between Snape and Voldemort to the boathouse), some are bad/stupid (moving Harry and Voldemort's final battle to the courtyard).
(oh sorry, is my nerd showing?)
People will argue about book canon versus show canon until they're blue in the face but they are two different things - and I still say that ultimately the books will always be canon over the show simply because they came first and they are the original idea of the author.
It is okay (and fun!) to have the argument tho
I'd agree with you if this wasn't a strange case. Here we have the show, finishing well before the books. If the books finish at all. We might run into a Wheel of Time scenario. How can the books, being written so very far in the future after the shows have aired and not suspect that they may have some influence in the final written word? I don't think it's possible for a writer to see his creation written out one way, then fully produced in a series for TV format and not be influenced by that.
When the written is first, it's always the cannon. The show is the adaptation. When the book starts first but the show finishes first... I'm not sure what that is! I think the "cannon" becomes a bastard, a blend. I think George might like his cannon bastardized.
"I'm thick." - Me
