An Ending

May 20, 2019

The last night, the last show.   After eight epic seasons, HBO’s GAME OF THRONES series has come to an end.

It is hard to believe it is over, if truth be told.   The years have gone past in the blink of an eye.  Can it really have been more than a decade since my manager Vince Gerardis set up a meeting at the Palm in LA, and I sat down for the first time with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for a lunch that lasted well past dinner?  I asked them if they knew who Jon Snow’s mother was.   Fortunately, they did.

That was how it started.  It ended last night.

I had no clue, that afternoon at the Palm, that I was about to embark on a journey that would change my life.   I had optioned books and stories for television and film before.  Some had even been made   There was no way to know that this one was going to be different, that this pilot would not only be shot,  but would go on to become the most successful show in the history of HBO, win a record number of Emmy Awards, become the most popular (and most pirated) show in the world, and transform a group of talented but largely unknown actors into major celebrities and stars.   Even less did I imagine that I would somehow become a celebrity as well… and if truth be told, I’m still not sure how that happened.

It has been a wild ride, to say the least.

I want to thank people, but there are so many.   There were forty-two cast members at the season eight premiere in New York City, and that wasn’t even all of them.   And the crew, though less visible than the cast, were no less important.  We had some amazing people working on this show, as all those Emmys bear witness.   David & Dan assembled a championship team.   The directors were incredible as well.   I should start naming names, but then I’d miss someone, there were so many.   But I do need to mention David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Bryan Cogman (the third head of the dragon, as I said in the recent VANITY FAIR piece about him), and of course the great team at HBO, headed by Richard Plepler.   Any other network, and GAME OF THRONES would not have been what it became.  Most other networks, this series never gets made at all.

I could go on and on… and have, as I’ve been writing this post in my head… but there’s really too much to say.   Parting is such sweet sorrow, the Bard wrote.  In the weeks and months to come, I may post about some of my favorite moments from the making of this show… now and again, when I am feeling nostalgic… but just now, there are so many memories, and no time to do them all justice.

Let me say this much — last night was an ending, but it was also a beginning.   Nobody is retiring any time soon.   David and Dan are going on to STAR WARS and other projects beyond that.   Amazon scooped up Bryan Cogman, and put him to work on developing shows of his own, as well as helping out on their big Tolkien project.   Our brilliant cast has scattered to the four winds, but you’ll be seeing a lot of them in the years to come, in all manner of television shows and movies.   Our directors are keeping busy as well.   I suspect that you have not seen the last of Westeros on your television sets either, but I guess that all depends on how some of these successor shows turn out.

And me?  I’m still here, and I’m still busy.    As a producer, I’ve got five shows in development at HBO (some having nothing whatsoever to do with the world of Westeros), two at Hulu, one on the History Channel.   I’m involved with a number of feature projects, some based upon my own stories and books, some on material created by others.   There are these short films I am hoping to make, adaptations of classic stories by one of the most brilliant, quirky, and original writers our genre has ever produced.   I’ve consulted on a video game out of Japan.   And then there’s Meow Wolf…

And I’m writing.   Winter is coming, I told you, long ago… and so it is.   THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done.  I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself… but I will finish it, and then will come A DREAM OF SPRING.

How will it all end? I hear people asking.   The same ending as the show?  Different?

Well… yes.  And no.  And yes.   And no.   And yes.   And no.   And yes.

I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget.   They had six hours for this final season.   I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them.   And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one.   There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet.   And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…

Book or show, which will be the “real” ending?   It’s a silly question.   How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?

How about this?  I’ll write it.   You read it.  Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.

以下机翻，见谅

结束

2019年5月20日

昨晚，最后一场秀。在八个史诗季节之后，HBO的“游戏之战”系列已经结束。

如果真相被告知，很难相信它已经结束了。这些年已经眨眼间过去了。自从我的经理Vince Gerardis在洛杉矶Palm举行会议以来我真的已经十多年了，我第一次和David Benioff以及D.B.坐下来了。 Weiss吃了一顿午饭，吃完了晚餐？我问他们是否知道Jon Snow的母亲是谁。幸运的是，他们做到了。

这就是它的开始。它昨晚结束了。

那天下午在Palm，我不知道我即将开始一段改变我生活的旅程。我之前选择过电视和电影的书籍和故事。有些人甚至已经被制造了没有办法知道这个将会有所不同，这个飞行员不仅会被击中，而且会成为HBO历史上最成功的一个，赢得创纪录的数字艾美奖颁奖典礼成为世界上最受欢迎（也是最受盗版）的表演，并将一群才华横溢但却鲜为人知的演员转变为主要的名人和明星。更少的我想象我会以某种方式成为名人......如果真相被告知，我仍然不确定那是怎么回事。

至少可以说，这是一次疯狂的旅程。

我要感谢别人，但有这么多。在纽约市的第八季首播中有四十二名演员，甚至不是全部。船员虽然不如演员表现得那么重要，但同样重要。我们有一些很棒的人在这个节目上工作，因为所有那些艾美奖都有见证。大卫和丹组建了一支冠军队。导演也很不可思议。我应该开始命名，但后来我会想念某人，有这么多人。但我确实需要提到David Benioff，Dan Weiss，Bryan Cogman（龙的第三任主管，正如我在最近关于他的VANITY FAIR文章中所说的那样），当然还有由Richard Plepler领导的HBO的伟大团队。任何其他网络，以及THRONES的游戏都不会成为它。大多数其他网络，这个系列根本就没有制作过。

我可以继续......而且，因为我一直在写这篇文章...但是真的有太多话要说了。巴德写道，分手是如此甜蜜的悲伤。在接下来的几个星期和几个月里，我可能会发布一些关于这个节目制作的最喜欢的时刻......不管怎样，当我感到怀旧的时候......但就在此，有很多回忆，没有时间去做一切正义。

让我这么说 - 昨晚是结局，但这也是一个开始。任何人都不会很快退休。 David和Dan正在接受STAR WARS和其他项目。亚马逊收起了布莱恩·科格曼（Bryan Cogman），并让他参与开发他自己的节目，以及帮助他们的大托尔金项目。我们精彩的演员已分散到四个风中，但在未来的几年里，你会在各种电视节目和电影中看到很多。我们的董事也很忙。我怀疑你还没有在电视机上看过最后一个维斯特洛，但我猜这一切都取决于其中一些继任者的演出结果如何。

我呢？我还在这里，我还在忙。作为制作人，我在HBO开发了五个节目（有些与Westeros的世界毫无关系），两个在Hulu，一个在历史频道。我参与了许多功能项目，一些基于我自己的故事和书籍，一些基于他人创建的材料。我希望制作这些短片，由我们的流派制作过的最杰出，最古怪和最原始的作家之一改编经典故事。我咨询了日本以外的视频游戏。还有喵狼......

我正在写作。很久以前，我告诉过你，冬天来了......等等。我知道，冬天的风很晚，但它会完成。我不会说什么时候，我之前已经尝试过，只是为了烧掉你们所有人，并且我自己也是如此......但我会完成它，然后会来到春天的梦想。

它将如何结束？我听到有人问。与节目相同的结局？不同？

嗯，是的。 不。是的。 不。是的。 不。是的。

我在与大卫和丹不同的媒介工作，永远不会忘记。他们最后一个赛季有六个小时。我希望我的最后两本书在我完成之前会填充3000篇手稿页...如果需要更多的页面，章节和场景，我会添加它们。当然蝴蝶效应也会起作用;那些跟随这个不是博客的人会知道我从第一季开始就一直在谈论这个问题。有些角色根本没有在屏幕上出现，有些人在节目中死亡但仍然生活在书中...所以如果没有别的，读者会知道Jeyne Poole，Stoneheart，Penny和她的猪发生了什么， Skahaz Shavepate，Arianne Martell，Darkstar，Victarion Greyjoy，Ser Garlan the Gallant，Aegon VI，以及无数其他角色，无论大小，观众都没有机会见面。是的，会有独角兽... ......

预订或展示，这将是“真正的”结局？这是一个愚蠢的问题。斯嘉丽奥哈拉有多少个孩子？

这个怎么样？我会写的。你看了。然后每个人都可以自己构思，并在互联网上争论。

PS:UP一句话总结   我写书你会看的，对吧？