By Julie Miller, Vanity Fair
Courtesy of Keith Bernstein/HBO
As much as we never wanted to remember our lives before Game of Thrones, our favorite gratuitous-sex-and-violence-fueled fantasy series (and the inspiration behind the world's finest $30,000 replica throne), we may have to. But in the most thrilling, most potentially rape-and-pillaging-lite way possible. In a recent interview with IGN, Game of Thrones visionary George R. R. Martin--who wrote the epic novels on which the HBO series is based--revealed that he has written a set of novellas that could serve as G.O.T. prequels. And he's been toying with the idea of adapting those into another television series.
Well, I have been writing for a number of years a series of novellas set in the same world, the world of Westeros, but a hundred years earlier, about two characters called Dunk and Egg. And I published three of those novellas, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight, and I have in mind about nine or ten more novellas about the adventures of Dunk and Egg. . . .
So we have been playing with the idea of doing those as prequels. They would be prequels, in a sense, they're a hundred years earlier but in the same world. They're somewhat lighter in tone than the main series, a little more adventurous. But my fans love them and I love the two characters too, and it all ties into Westeros history. So maybe that will be what we'll do.
To celebrate, we draw our swords and lead a battle-chant of "Dunk and Egg." And then we destroy an approaching vessel with an exploding ship full of wildfire and, in the long-burning glow of its wreckage, consider what a "lighter" Game of Thrones spin-off would even entail. Fewer scenes in which children are paralyzed? Fewer assassination attempts on paralyzed children? Less incestuous sex? Less sex, incestuous and otherwise? Fewer iterations of starving/rioting/raping? Less shocking violence? Less dialogue like "Any man dies with a clean sword, I'll rape his f***ing corpse!" Please let us know your thoughts on, and interpretations of, a "lighter" prequel series in the space below. In the meantime, we will enthusiastically make due with Game of Thrones Original, whose third season premieres on March 31, and whose branded Game of Throne beer premieres this spring.