A Game of Thrones discussion

Not that I know of, but I could be wrong. Most of the violence and sex is integral to the plot, so I doubt it'd be any good censored anyway.

Cencorship of books is bad. If the content of a book is not to your liking or live up to your moral standrds then just dont read it instead.

A "fan"made cencored pdf version would also violate copyright.

Lila wrote: "Not that I know of, but I could be wrong. Most of the violence and sex is integral to the plot, so I doubt it'd be any good censored anyway." Thanks for your reply, that helps me with regards to whether a censored edition would still deliver the same story...

I don't think that the sex or violence is really that extreme anyway.

Benkitching13 wrote: "Lila wrote: "Not that I know of, but I could be wrong. Most of the violence and sex is integral to the plot, so I doubt it'd be any good censored anyway." Thanks for your reply, that helps me with ..."

To give you an idea about what I mean, literally the entire plot kicks off with an incestuous couple trying to murder a child. I'm not sure how that could rewritten or censored to be anything other than what it is and still deliver a quality story.

The television series is a lot more graphic

Annika wrote: "I don't think that the sex or violence is really that extreme anyway."

Violence has a huge impact on the story, I don't see how that's arguable, unless you hadn't read all the books. As for sex, I think it mostly shows character development. Unless you analyze characters on a Freudian level, it may seem to be useless, but often times it's more obvious; showing the drastic relationships of the Lannisters, for example.

The whole plot begins, continues and ends with violence and sex. But if you are an adult, it won't really bother you, becouse it's not graphic. But if you want a censored version of the books, I guess you can read the back covers.

That's what I meant; it's not that graphic.

The books are much less graphic than the show. There's a lot of gratuitous sex in the show, and like Lila said, in the books it's relevant to the plot. I always feel like reading about these things is a lot different than actually seeing them on the screen, as well. Just give them a try, and if you don't like it, don't read it. And once you start, you might not feel the need for censorship. I can honestly tell you that I enjoyed every second, line, word of this series and wouldn't have wanted any of it cut.

P.S. It's a gritty story. A good story, but gritty.

I haven't heard of any censored or abridged version of the series. Like many others have said, it'd be near impossible to cut these elements out of the book and still have a story (or at least, a cohesive one). Martin's world is dark and gritty, as are his characters. Westeros is a violent world, and its people are forged from that violence. Perhaps some of the sex could be removed (but certainly not all, because of spoilers), but the violence, integral as it is, couldn't be.

In any case, there are very few sex scenes in the books, although admittedly a couple of them are gratuitous and could probably be ignored, particularly later on.

There's a lot of violence, but I don't remember it being particularly graphic, at least relative to other books. I mean, it might give nightmares to a six-year-old, but any teenager will have seen far, far worse things on TV than are written in the books.

Poul wrote: "Cencorship of books is bad. If the content of a book is not to your liking or live up to your moral standrds then just dont read it instead.

A "fan"made cencored pdf version would also violate cop..."
I cannot agree to this more. If a book is objectionable to you in any way, you are free to stay away from it, but I cringe at the thought of amateurs butchering a book to fit their moral standards. There are other fantasy novels you can read with less questionable content. Cutting the violence, sex and other possibly disturbing material would leave you with half a book that doesn't make sense. Just to name some examples that probably wouldn't make the cut, but are essential to one story or another:

(view spoiler)[- Incestuous twins
- Paedophilia (remember Dany hardly has breasts yet when she's married off to Drogo)
- Craster's wives, incest, domestic violence and ritual infanticide
- The Red Wedding
- Everything about the Unsullied
- Everything about the Bastard of Bolton, particularly involving Theon
- Qyburn's experiments on that bard (hide spoiler)]

And that's just off the top of my head, it's been too long to remember everything.

I'm not saying it's too much - I probably would have enjoyed the books just as much if I had read them as a teenager as I did reading them after that - but if you're already asking for a censored version withouth having read part of the original, I can only say it's probably a bad idea to start reading them altogether. These are not books you should read without an open mind.

[BenKitchen13: Given that your nickname includes "13" in it I'm going to assume you're 13 or around that age, if this is not the case, disregard this whole message.]

I beleive the worry of the original poster is not one of open-mindedness or moral conflict, but that it may be too "strong" or "raw" for a young teenager. It of course depends on your upbringing and the culture you're exposed to. Regarding what I assume are the biggest worries (violence, incest and other questionable behavior)

If you're a (more or less average) western kid you've probably seen movies that have much more violence in them (can't really think of any recent examples, but most of Hollywood's action movies fall in this category). And while reading can make strong images in your head, you should be able to skim through those scenes if they are too much. Also, the violence you'll find is simmilar to that found in historical books, movies or documentaries, except maybe more "cynnically" written, if that makes any sense.

The sex scenes themselves are barely graphical (if I remember correctly), nothing your sex-ed class didn't cover (if you had one). Mostly harmless, and thankfully no rape (mentioned, but no detailed descriptions).

Of course, the morally ambiguous or simply deplorable behaviour might offend you, but again, the kind of thing you'd read in a history book.

As said before, the books would be quite different if censored. I'd recommend either reading them as they are, wait a couple of years 'till it might not be as shocking, or start to read them, if at some point something is too much, chances are something as shocking will happen again, so stop reading, set them aside and pick them up in a couple of years.

TL;DR: Try them out, if you can't handle it, get to them in a couple of years or maybe never, but don't ruin a possibly great read by reading a cropped version.

I don't think the sex is that bad. I mean you know they are doing it but it's not as graphic sad seeing it in the tv show. As for the violence, it's war. people die and that is what made the story. it's a war for power! I think the book series would be ruined if they censured it.

Might be a good idea if disjointed, confusing novellas are your thing.