Yep this is the gist of it for me also.

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http://personal-spectrum.com/

This kinda cements my viewpoint that a lot of the book reader's are just whiners and don't have anything of real substance to complain about.

Those all are differences between the books and the tv show yes... but I'm struggling to see how any of those changes will have a negative impact on the series as a whole and how many of them weren't just changes for minor reasons. IE: who cares if Dany's handmaiden dies in the desert or she betrays her?... both endings for her character are fine imo.

Go back and read the first two books. They've left out or altered massive chunks of Dany's story, and have now minimized her character's impact in the series as a whole. Major plot points are now missing, and will affect major plot points later in the series. But she's hot, so that's all that matters, right?

I'm not even that picky. I had no real beef with them leaving out the Reeds, even though they are pretty major characters in my opinion and are fairly important to some plot points with Bran's story, I could see how leaving them out wouldn't do any detremental harm to the series. The same can't be said for what they've done to Dany's story. I was ok with the changes made to Robb's story, again, not too terribly integral to the plot, same with playing up the homosexual relationship between Loras Tyrell and Renly Baratheon. It was only vaguely hinted at in the books, but completely overt in the show. None of those changes ruined the plot at all. Dany's story is now in tatters, and it's going to take some more convoluted changes to resolve it all.

Whiners my arse...

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Rzzzzz...

I was just giving examples. Not all of them bear the same weight.
Obviously, the handmaiden bit is less important, but without getting into spoilers from later books, her relationship with Xaro is irreparably destroyed in the show and the governing body of a major city is now dead. Those two concepts have major repercussions on later events.
For the most part, when making changes, they have been able to bring things back around. I hope they can find a way to do it with her story as well.

Anyway, I really wish you would stop whining about how book readers notice differences and discuss them.

Oh come on, you can never have too much tits in the show

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"Are we rockin' and rollin' or what?!''

-- Seattle coach Pete Carroll, celebrating with his coaches after the Seahawks pulled off a trade with the Jets, netting running back Leon Washington on Saturday, via Seahawks.com

Case in point.

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Rzzzzz...

George Martin, who made up the entire story, has approved every single change, and probably even decided some, most, if not all of them. We all like the books better. That's the way that works.

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Tanzania¹²

I love the books. I love the show too but not to the level of the books. There's so much in the books, so many important charachters, so many story lines, that it would have been virtually impossible to incorporate it all into the show, but overall i think they're doing a good job.

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I agree that they are doing a great job. But I also enjoy talking about it and the differences. Ways I think it would have been better, ways it improved on the books. Stuff like that.

For the record, grrm does not have approval rights to anything in the show. They could change it in any way they want to and there isn't anything he could do about it, other than complain. Luckily, the show runners have a good working relationship with the author.
He has said in the past that he approves of the changes, and in some cases prefers them, but I highly doubt he is happy with every change. I am sure he understands them, but likely prefers his own version of several things.

Notable changes he has mentioned liking, off the top of my head:
Ned sending Yoren to the statue of Baelor when he sees Arya there. I liked this as well. Ned's last heroic act.
The confrontation between Bronn and Sandor in the tavern. Bad day for Bronn if that had come to blows.
Robert and Cersei discussing their marriage. I actually didn't like this one. It helps Robert look like a dick, when in truth, he was just an irresponsible drunkard.

On a separate, but related note, do any of you collect any of the merchandise based on the book or show?

I want to collect some of the merch but I haven't seen much that really caught my interest. Mugs and patches and stuff. I like the idea of collecting the weapons, but I can't really justify spending that kind of money, what with all this back child support that I never plan on paying.

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Tanzania¹²

Although, looking now, some of those Dark Sword metal miniatures look pretty cool.

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Tanzania¹²

Dammit. Just bought em. Damn you LF!!!

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Tanzania¹²

Lol. Those minis are interesting. I've never bought any of them. I have spent...quite a lot on other stuff from the series though. I have a few of the swords and I also have all if the coins that have been made for the books.

They're a project, it looks like, but I know a couple ladies that are good at that sort of thing so maybe I'll put em to work.

Which swords do you have?

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Tanzania¹²

Lol ZD I love how in your 3 posts in a row you go from being curious to buying them, to thinking a couple look cool, to buying them. I might have to look into some now

I bought the original stainless steel Longclaw when it first came out. #234/2500
Then, about a year later, they announced that they were planning a special Damascus steel edition of it in a limited run of 100. I freaked out a bit because I was worried I wouldn't be able to afford it before it sold out. I was lucky enough to get one. #33/100
I bought Needle as well. It's tiny, but it's pointy end would definitely do the job it was intended for. #1638/2500
I knew a Damascus version of Ice would be released, so I ignored the stainless steel version and got the Damascus steel version. #163/250
I plan on getting Robert's hammer and the night's watch dagger set, but I am in no real hurry.
I will be ordering the Stark shield as well.

That's a bad ass collection man!

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Tanzania¹²

Haha I know man I got a problem. When it comes to Star Wars & Seahawks stuff especially. I guess you can add GoT to the list.

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Tanzania¹²

Seeing as the debate has died down I'd just like to make a quick comment about the Reeds. They will be in the story, HBO just decided to push their introduction back from the end of the 2nd season to the beginning of the 3rd (likely because they didn't want to focus on getting actors and actresses in a crunched amount of time when they could just wait a few months and make sure the intro was done right)

Extended trailer. Now with a whopping 20 secs of added footage.