Game of Thrones season 5 is looking really good, if you believe in things like trailers, or whether past results can predict future success. I normally do. But I also believe in other principles. Call me old-fashioned, but if I’m watching a television series based on a book series, I want the show to stick pretty closely to the book(s)—at least until the end, when it can do whatever it wants. That’s been pretty much fine with Game of Thrones up until now, but it isn’t the case with Game of Thrones season 5. And that’s why I won’t be watching. At least I sure hope I won’t.

Game of Thrones Season 5 Premiere Date: When I Turn My TV Off

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The advent of Game of Thrones season 5 means the end of Game of Thrones as we know it, the end of the HBO series as an adaptation based on A Song of Ice and Fire. It will instead metamorphose into a series inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, with many close links between them. And yea, it’ll spoil the books. That can’t be helped. That’s not the problem.

The problem with Game of Thrones season 5 is the increasing number of changes to the books. The series creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, cut Lady Stoneheart because they didn’t like her and didn’t think she was realistic. They cut Coldhands because they didn’t think he was important. And that was just in season 4! Man, it gets worse in season 5.

Game of Thrones season 5 spoilers follow. Or non-spoilers, to be specific. So, so many important characters have been cut from GoT season 5. Arianne Martell, the heiress to Dorne, is gone, amalgamated into the Sand Snakes. A whole bunch of Greyjoys are gone, because how can a ten hour show include all the shenanigans on the Iron Islands? It can’t. Most importantly of all, Griff and Young Griff seem to be gone. If you don’t know who those characters are already, don’t read that link. Do not click it with your clicks. But if you do… you know the magnitude of that change.

If Griff and Young Griff are in Game of Thrones season 5, there may be some hope for it after all. Winter is Coming has wrangled up a wacky theory to convince themselves the critically important characters are in the season after all. I’m not convinced. It seems crazy that Benioff and Weiss could stray so far from the tree, but come on, they cut Coldhands. They are merciless and arbitrary. What won’t they do?

All this could have been avoided if HBO simply gave Game of Thrones twelve episodes a season instead of ten. Or if George R. R. Martin wrote faster. Alas, here we are. Game of Thrones season 5, I won’t be watching you.

Of course, I say that now.