thread: 2011-06-19 : Previously on Game of Thrones
On 2011-06-25, Valamir wrote:
I really like both the books and the show. I rather don't get the criticism. One of the things I really like was that the story is one of the more real stories I've read, where real = most like actual history and the way events really happen; as opposed to the contrived "gotta make it interesting" manufactured plot of most intentional stories.
I guess in RPG speak this is my old sim background rearing its head. There are times I want to shout "fuck story now and addressing premise, give me something believable"
None of these characters are people that I can totally root for without reservation. Even the best of them have flaws that make me want to give them a good smack. And none of the villains are so reprehensible that you can't find something to sympathize with or respect, even if, in the main, you want to kill them slowly with a dull spoon. They're all very believable characters.
Unlike the current rash of YA fiction the stories don't take kids and thrust them into unrealistic positions of sudden responsibility where they get to make meaningful decisions...they're all overshadowed by the adults who have power and have no intention of turning it over to a child...whether Joffrey or Rob Stark.
I found the "nothing happens" aspect of the first book to be its most compelling feature. The first book is about establishing the status quo and the extraordinary lengths everybody...even rivals...would go to to maintain it. Even the Lannisters in their quest for power had no real desire to overthrow the king. Everybody was out for just a little bit of something and were being very careful not to tip the apple cart completely over.
It was only the oh so noble and oh so foolish Ned Stark who, with his inability to play the game (or even see it) ran around like a bull in a china shop pushing things past the tipping point.
The book did a great job of illustrating the mad despirate scramble to ensure that "nothing happened"...it was a brilliant case study in Balance of Power politics with Ned Stark's death taking the place of Arch Duke Ferdinand.
I think its the very realness of it that's made it so hard for him to actually wrap it up. The story is so driven by "what would happen next" that...just like history...its threatening to continue on forever with no actual end. I don't think he actually has a vision of where the story needs to go or how he's going to wrap it up. I suspect he's just going to keep writing it like it were history until things fall into a convenient place to stop.
Its definitely a slow cooker meal, not a microwave dinner...but that's why I like it. It feels like it could be an actual history of a real people and a real place.
