The Sword and Laser discussion

I read somewhere that since the show is out pacing the books so much that now the show is no longer an adaptation of the books, but the books might just be adaptations of the show. I'm not sure if I agree, but if Martin adapts aspects of his books based on the show, which is the adaptation? I know people want to look at them as two separate entities in similar universes, but I can't wrap my mind around that. When a book is adapted into a movie things are different, not because they are different entities in the same universe, but because of the necessity of adaptation for medium. Is it that much of a stretch to say the future books are adaptations of the show, especially given the current pace of Martin's writing means the show will be done long before the books are all done? Even if they are different, will they be as different from each other as the novelization of Star Wars? Have they switched places as to which is the primary source and which is the adaptation? In the long run it doesn't matter much, enjoy whichever or both however you want, but has the egg supplanted the chicken?

Look at the recent series the Magicians and the books. A barely passing resemblance. And the series is great, maybe better than the books!

You should probably mark this with Game of Thrones. I didn't know which show you were talking about until you got to "Martin", because some of this could apply to numerous series, such as The Walking Dead and The Expanse.

In Martin's case, he's already said that he is changing things in ASoIaF to align with Game of Thrones, and Kirkman loves the fact they added Daryl to Walking Dead, which has subsequently influenced the comic book.

I don't think it matters, because in both of these cases it appears to be a conversation that's going on.

Various Marvel comics have changed to reflect the movies, primarily because the movies were seen by a much larger audience.

In novels there's Jurassic Park, where Crichton's second novel was a sequel to the movie rather than his original book, which was probably really confusing to anyone who hadn't seen the movie. My memory says there are similar occurrences, but it's not throwing out any examples besides JP.

As far as which is the adaptation I think no matter what happens going forward the TV show stays the adaptation because the original ideas and characters were Martin's. I'm sure there will be many arguments over which is better and which is canon, especially with the TV show going into new areas but I think the TV show stays the adaptation.

Trike wrote: "In novels there's Jurassic Park, where Crichton's second novel was a sequel to the movie rather than his original book, which was probably really confusing to anyone who hadn't seen the movie. My memory says there are similar occurrences, but it's not throwing out any examples besides JP. "

Hmmm. Maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey to some extent? The book and movie were developed in parallel, but the book's sequel incorporated some details from the movie.