But look at my original post - D&D are looking for ways to get the same end result will less screentime, especially less "climatic battle, million-dollars-for-two-minutes" screentime.
I dunno. The characters aren't getting the fate GRRM intended for them at all anymore. Ser Barristan, dies like a pimp in an alley. In the books he is in charge of deffending Mereen against a massive attack at the moment.
One less huge battle for HBO to pay for and saves the screentime to build up to it. Instead, Meeren is held together by Tyrion and Barristan dies in a small scale skirmish. If you can't see the value of cutting out a major pitched battle for the sake of time and cost, then I think you are missing the point.
Stannis looks to be winning the Winterfell battle, and Shireen is at the wall. No chance Shireen's fate is to be burned by her own father.
If Stannis goes out in one stand, it's one battle for HBO to pay to film. If it's a prolonged campaign, we're talking about multiple scenes over multiple episodes, eating into screentime and killing the budget. If, instead, the show produces reasons his army quickly fails (the desertion of his army after the sacrifice), it lets the entire exchange happen quickly and with the same result.
And who else is at the wall with Shireen? Melisandre and a dead Jon Snow? The power of Kings blood...
Manse Rayder is alive and well and working undercover at Winterfell. Add the ripple effects of all that into the mix, and the show has zero chance of ending the way the books will.
Yes, and Jorah and Tyrion worked for the Golden Company and saw f!Aegon try to lead his effort for the Iron Throne. Dead Plotlines abound - again, screentime. Every second the writers spend dealing with something, there are four other scenes or plotlines from the books that must be discarded. Manse playing a spy that could be served by any other random NPC is a waste of screentime. Better to remove his character in a way that shows more interaction on the core set to characters (namely Stannis and Jon).
Balon was the second king to die in the books. On the show he just won the War of Five Kings.
Again, economy of screentime. What does the show gain by paying attention to the Iron Islands? How does that move the main plot forward? As far as the show watchers are concerned, Roose has blocked their attempts and Balon has lost - accomplishing nearly the same end result with much less screentime.
The show runners are doing their own thing now. Plain and simple.
I'm not saying they aren't... but they task at hand is to fit 600+ pages of dialogue, scenes, plotlines and POV CHARACTER INTERNAL THOUGHTS into 400 minutes of cinema. That's not even a minute a page for some dialogues that have ten or so lines on a single pages, dozens in a single chapter. The scale just don't add up - you have to cut or rework 75% of the material. And you can't do that by not doing things (drastically) different.
But D&D do so while knowing the end game. So while things may not play out the same way or as satisfactory, they are moving it in the direction GRR is, just with an eye on making things work as easily as possible within the constraints they have.
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