My 2 Cents: Game of Thrones

 

Jodi and I tend to trail behind popular culture by about five years. I could go on about that, and maybe someday I will, but just trust that it’s the truth as a lead-in to this post. About five years after most of the rest of the world, we finished watching Game of Thrones on Monday night. Before I dive into the point of this post, I want to make a few things clear:

1. I have read the books. Jodi has not. I will say that when I started reading the first book, I was near a point of giving up on the fantasy genre. I had read a few of the Robert Jordan “Wheel of Time” books with great frustration. I found Jordan’s writing derivative, he had a penchant for long blocks of retelling of previous books, and each book felt like a level of a video game – you know, beat the boss to advance to the next level and the next boss.  I will admit that I didn’t really feel much better about Game of Thrones until reaching the conclusion of the first book and the beheading of Ned Stark. In the fantasy genre, main characters never die, and it had felt like Ned Stark was going to be the lynchpin of the series. With his death, it changed the tone. This truly was a “Game of Thrones” where you either “Win or you die.” By the conclusion of the books that are written, I was starting to worry about a couple things:
• Much like professional wrestling fans in the late 1990s, I found myself looking toward the aisle instead of watching the action in the ring to try and see what surprise was coming next. The problem with that is that there is a law diminishing returns with such booking. Sooner or later because you don’t care about what’s in front of you, you stop caring about what happens to anyone. The surprise from behind the curtain will never then live up to expectation.
•  I was becoming convinced that it was unlikely with such a grand scope that the conclusion of this series was going to be wholly satisfactory. Its charm was its immensity and once all these characters and plots collided, I worried we might find that the pieces didn’t really all fit together.
2.  I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing the gripes most people had with the conclusion of the show. Mostly I’m fine with it (see above, I suspected it wouldn’t all fit perfectly together). Was the last season rushed? Yes. Why did Daenerys go mad? Not entirely sure – grief, lust for power, just in the Targaryen blood. All of the above? Was Bran the right pick as king? I don’t know, probably as good a choice as anyone. The lesson was that wanting power is evil.

Since this is a writing blog, I wanted highlight things I’ve considered about this series.

Character Development

The strength of Game of Thrones is development of numerous complex characters. Jamie Lannister pushes a child out of a window to hide his affair with his twin sister, yet by midway through the series you want to root for him. Tyrion Lannister is a quick-witted drunken dwarf, who also happens to be idealistic and a romantic. Brienne of Tarth is a hulking brute who is so guarded because of the cruelty she’s faced her entire life. Theon Greyjoy has confused loyalties, does terrible things in hopes to win his father’s approval, endures torture and emasculation, and struggles to find redemption. These are only a few of the characters we meet, love, and lose along the way.

The lesson for a writer is that almost no one is perfectly good or completely evil. Crafting character isn’t just about providing physical details and dialogue. It’s creating nuances in personality, building sympathy and/or contempt, and developing all these traits through plot. 

The World

Like Tolkien before him, George R.R. Martin creates an elaborate world with a rich history that plays a major role in the events taking place on the pages and screen. From the Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros to the building of the great wall in the North to many other major and minor events that are detailed in the books and hinted at in show. For example, “The Rains of Castamere” is a song about the slaughter of House Reyne by Tywin Lannister. It’s a grim tale and one that highlights Tywin’s cunning and ruthlessness. The band begins to play this song after the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey, which Catelyn Stark recognizes and immediately knows that she and her son, Robb, are in trouble.

I admire fantasy writers who can develop such rich and poignant history. The trick is to do it without losing the forward motion of the story you’re telling. I can’t claim that I have that ability, but if I ever write a fantasy story, it’s something I’ll have to consider.

The Magic Balancing Act

Okay, the dragons are cool. The magic that brought them back sort of vague, but they serve a purpose in the story. Melisandre seems to have some magic, but her abilities seem to wax and wane at times. She serves the Lord of Light but births a shadow of death. Sort of confusing. The faceless men – still not sure I get that. Bran is the Three-Eyed Raven, which I guess means he can see the past and the present and maybe the future. Maybe he’ll live a long time if he lives in the roots of a tree. And, boy, the Night King wants him dead, even though it seems like the Night King could have done just that since the last Three-Eyed Raven was north of the wall for a long time with minimal protection and wrapped up in the roots of a tree. The reality is that Bran’s ability is a way to fill in gaps to the reader/viewer. It’s a plot device, so you must accept some head scratching parts. The Night King – so I like the story of everyone coming together to defeat this guy – but isn’t it really the story of beating Sauron or insert every other totally evil wizard in the fantasy realm. It made for great theater, but the character itself is flat, his motivation kind of narrow, and then there’s only one way that he can lose, and he allows himself to be fooled into exposing that weakness (himself). You know, like Sauron tied himself to a ring that could be destroyed. The Night King just needs to stay five miles from the battle, and his side wins. The more I think about the end of the series, I sometimes wonder if the entire Night King scenario just didn’t quite fit into this otherwise political story.

I guess what I am saying is that magic is something that is part of fantasy, but it’s often a tricky thing, and I am not sure it’s a strength for George R.R. Martin. Oftentimes writers use magic to get out of corners. Can’t beat a villain, develop a magic scheme that makes it possible. The problem is that magic often also blows holes in plotlines. I mean, if Gandalf can call the eagles, why don’t they just fly the damn eagles to Mordor and drop the ring in Mount Doom? Well, it’d be a shitty story if they did, for one thing. The other is that writers should brush lightly but precisely when it comes to magic.

Well, that’s what I have to say. Let me know your thoughts on Game of Thrones, and thanks for reading.