Hey guys! It's finally time, winter is coming! Oh and ...
****SPOILER WARNING****
At this point I am only going to write about the television
show as this is a film and media blog and I haven’t read the books yet. One of
my 2015 goals is to read all the books in preparation for George R.R.
Martin’s 6th book The Winds of
Winter. (Odds are, he may actually be done by the time I am haha). On that
note though, I do have a couple of friends who have read the books, and one in
particular is like the Game of Thrones historian fanatic so I know quite a lot
for someone who hasn’t delved in yet.
I laugh a little as I write this because when I started
watching the show, I was only going to watch one episode… you know, just to see what it’s like… I did NOT
want to be a bandwagon fan and moreover I was only watching it because I heard
of certain characters and was interested in them.
Welp, 4 binge-sessions later I finished season four and can’t
stop thinking about it. It’s been the most enveloping story for me in a long
while. It’s like
watching a spider create her web, so intricate and complex, an instrument of
both beauty and death.
Like anything else there are things I love and things I don't. I like ending posts on a positive note if possible so first I’ll go
into what I don’t love about the show so that I can end on what I do.
What I don’t love…
Yes, I'm a prude for saying
this and I don't care. I hate how HBO, well, HBOifies everything. What made me hesitate to
watch GOT in the first place was HBO’s inexplicable need to make everything
over-the-top and excessive. Now HBO isn’t the only offender, Showtime and Starz
and many other premium channels also get a kick out of their ability to show everything, but I think I am not the
only one who wishes things were a little more veiled.
The sex and violence in GOT is completely unnecessary. Not
that things don’t happen in the books, but from what I’ve heard a lot of the
gratuitous scenes and especially the sexual content have been twisted and
magnified in the process of book-to-screen adaptation. HBO feels like people
won’t watch if there isn’t something shocking or sexually stimulating every
five minutes, but I can assure you the plot and dialogue of GOT are so
intriguing that adding all this feels like someone just threw a full garbage
can all over a sumptuous feast table. It isn't enough to make me stop watching, I can omit all the parts I don't like from my viewing if I want, but it leaves me sometimes with a disappointing taste in my mouth.
For example... Did we need to see Gregor crush Prince Oberyn’s head,
watching his eyeballs get pushed in until his skull tore apart? NO. I think
simply the aftermath or a sound effect would have been just as effective. Alfred
Hitchcock was a master because he knew the art of subtlety. Often seeing mere pieces
of an image is enough to leave a haunting impression forever.
 |
| Brienne and Jamie. For them, I fangirl. |
Why do we
feel like we need a deluge of sex, nudity, and shocking imagery to keep people
interested, as if you were trying to pitch this to a 13-year old boy? As a society we really take pride in leaving nothing to the imagination like it's an expression of freedom,
yet here we are exhausted and numbed because we’ve seen it all.
On that note, I also know that there are some scenes,
characters, and circumstances in the show that are different from the books that really did not need to
be changed. I can understand their need to change a few things because things
on screen do not flow or make sense in the same way they do in prose. I am huge
advocate for NOT being a purist because of those reasons, however when you do
stupid things that don’t have a purpose, that’s where I draw the line. Sometimes it changes the entire makeup of a character or situation, and that is unacceptable.
Okay, thus ends my segment on what I don’t love. Now, onto the
good stuff!
What I love…
 |
| Jon Snow, as epic as he looks. |
I adore the story and world of Game of Thrones, more
formally known as the series A Song of Ice and Fire. As a lover of all things
Tolkien, I am instantly attracted to the complex worlds, cultures, languages,
and characters. George R.R. Martin is a pronounced Tolkien fan and said one of
his inspirations for ASOIAF was my favorite story of all time, The Lord of the
Rings. Here's what Martin had to say here in his Rolling Stone interview
earlier this year:
“As I read Return of the King, I didn't want it to be over.
That last book blew my mind, particularly the scouring of the Shire. I didn't
like that when I was in high school. The story's over, and they destroyed the
ring — but he didn't write "and now they lived happily ever after."
Instead, they went home and home was all fucked up. The evil guys had burned
down some of the woods; a fascist-like tyranny had taken over. That seemed
anticlimactic to me. Frodo didn't live happily ever after or marry a nice girl
hobbit. He was permanently wounded; he was damaged. As a 13 year old, I
couldn't grasp that. Now, every time I re-read The Lord of the Rings — which I
do, every few years — I appreciate the brilliance of the scouring of the Shire.
That's part of what lifts the book from all its imitators. There was a real
cost to Tolkien's world. There's a tremendous sadness at the end of Lord of the
Rings, and it has a power. I think that's partly why people are still reading
and re-reading these books.”
 |
| Bran Stark, the hope. |
In other interviews Martin mentions that The Scouring of the
Shire was one of the biggest inspirations for the series. This notion that life
isn’t a fairy tale, but that heroes and goodness are always among us. Like
Martin, The Return of the King was the book that blew my mind too first reading
Tolkien. Martin’s series is incredibly harsh, but I think that’s what makes the
heroes stand out more. The light of the hopeful characters, though they are
few, is like a lamp held up in a window.
Though I can definitely see Martin’s love for Tolkien in his
story, it isn’t quite as high-fantasy or magical as most in the same
genre. The magic and mystery are definitely there but the brutality of the
story makes it more historical in essence. Personally, it reminds me very
much of the Old Testament, particularly the book of Judges which is full of
carnality and the wickedness of man as it marks one of the darkest times in
Israel’s history. Just like Westeros, during the time of the Judges there was
no king and it was a select few trying their best to hold the land
together at a time when people treated life as a free-for-all. The time of the
Judges spans throughout the OT and includes memorable characters like Samson,
Delilah, Gideon, and one of the most interesting females in the Bible, Deborah.
The time of the Judges was also a time where men were fighting over gods and
idols very much like in Martin’s world, and the honorable men (like Ned Stark)
were ignored or killed off.
 |
| I adore this image of Arya and Ned. Daddy's girl is an understatement. |
Though Martin's tale is indeed dark and full of terrors, there is also a bond that entraps both reader and viewer and that is the Stark family. The children of two of the last honorable people in Westeros begin together and then are separated over distance and time. The bond and love that unites them is the driving force of the story. I love what Martin said in the Rolling Stone interview about Ned Stark's death and why it had to happen:
"I knew right from the beginning that Ned wasn't going to
survive. For one thing, many of the stars are his children, and you'd have to
remove daddy for them to come into their own. That was part of it: I wanted to
remove the certainty. There are moments in motion pictures or in books where
the death of a character has enormous impact, not only because you miss the
character and you identified with the character, but also because the remaining
characters are now in serious trouble."
I cannot wait to start reading the books and even moreso to
find out what Martin is going to do in his last two books.
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| Martin is one of the few male writers to have created truly exceptional and diverse female characters. |
Technically, the show is proficient in ways
so many others only dream of. It has an intense cinematic look and feel and it's probably a good thing that there
are only 10 episodes a season because if there were more HBO would go bankrupt.
And on that note, I love that the seasons are only 10 episodes making this
deeply involved and complex world easy to digest for non-bookreaders. Though I
haven’t read the books, I feel like I have in many ways just by how gloriously exquisite
and detailed the show is with everything from the costumes to the food to the
landscapes. I feel like I’ve been to Westeros even though I haven’t left my
couch, (or really my computer desk). Additionally, the score of
each season is breathtaking. And that opening theme? You know you’ve made a
masterpiece when people actually look forward to the opening credits. It’s a
knockout!
But my favorite part of the show has got to be the cast. I
can’t say enough about them. They are so unique, ranging in a wide variety of
ages, races, and appearance. Their casting director deserves an Emmy just for
that. This wasn’t a happenstance cast but one chosen very purposefully and
specifically to suit their characters. I don’t feel that any of them are acting
while watching the show, but rather that I am indeed watching events unfolding
in real time. I see a lot of funny memes and articles about how weird it is to see
GOT actors in real life, and that’s mostly because they are so good at being
their characters you forget even the idea that they could possibly be anyone else.
I would not recommend Game of Thrones to everyone, particularly to those who are sensitive to graphic material. It's quite brutal. However, as a story I couldn't recommend it enough. I've never felt so emotionally torn, intrigued, disgusted, entranced, and even afraid all at once. No one really knows what "Martin the Mastermind" is up to or what is in store, but I hope that he will at least give a few of his wonderful characters a fate that ends in redemptive hope. Even so, valar morghulis!
And if you want to watch the coolest opening sequence ever, here you go! What is really neat is that every season they show (or don't show) new places on the map based on what's happening where in the story. Also next to each actor's name is their house sigil (symbol) of the character they play. It's the little details that matter. Love it!
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