Winter Is Coming: Game Of Thrones Author Takes ‘Triple Play’ ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin received three separate challenges for the ALS ice bucket challenge, so he stepped up in what he calls a triple play. Martin took two buckets of ice to the head, followed by a plunge into a swimming pool, interspersing the entire event with lines from the Game of Thrones books and TV series.
“Winter is coming” is the family motto of House Stark, from which family come many of the main characters in Game of Thrones, and it’s an apt way to open a challenge that involves being deluged with ice water. Martin prepares himself with these words as he takes the plunge:
He also closes with “what is dead may never die,” words that are said in Game of Thrones to honor the Drowned God worshiped by the citizens of the Iron Islands.
The Game of Thrones author takes some flak in the Youtube comments and on Twitter about the quality of the video, and more importantly, about the delay in getting the rest of the books out, but we don’t hear the ALS Association complaining. Donations with grainy vertical videos fund as much research as hi-def ones.
The funding is going well, too, it seems: an ALS press release today announced that the foundation has received over $62 million in donations, compared to closer to $2 million in the same period last year. They also note that 1.2 million new donors have contributed. That’s a lot of ice water.
As for the other complaints, Salon reported last month that George R. R. Martin is actually stepping back from his work on the HBO Game of Thrones television series for the upcoming season to focus on finishing the next book instead.
Fans hope fervently that this means the sixth book in the series (side note: the book series is A Song of Ice and Fire, with A Game of Thrones as the first book while the entire television series is titled A Game of Thrones) will be out sooner rather than later.
As for the show, there’s not so much hurry, since the recently-ended fourth season was still drawing on material from the third book (Slate has an awesome infographic that details which books and chapters each season and even episode draws on), but those who are readers of the books are anxious for the next one.
Reader beware, though: As Inquisitr recently reported, the Game of Thrones creator has hinted at a much-increased body count in the upcoming books.
[Photo: Twitter]
