August 1st, 2014
In which I give up on what I’m sure is really awesome fantasy nerd culture.
But I still want to see Battle of the Five Armies.
That is, if I ever get around to seeing Desolation of Smaug.
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A lot of the depth apparently doesn’t make it into the TV series, but for the most part I found myself in agreement. When asked what the show was about by my father, I replied “It’s about scheming schemers and their schemes.”
A few of the characters have understandable motivations–trying to maintain some terrible secret, or flat-out revenge at a loved one having been murdered by a rival family, but so many of the characters seem motivated by habit more than anything else. Of course, that could make for a great story by itself–Lord Jack Vincennes of Westeros (“Why did you want to be king?” / “I don’t remember”), but they don’t seem interested in that direction.
Apparently the books are better at this than the show, but there’s also a startlingly small amount of time spent on what these characters day jobs are–again, they seem to exist primarily to scheme against one another. Which is all well and good, but it would also be nice to get an occasional glimpse into their homelands, the protection of which should be of major concern: For centuries (or millenia, whatever), the Lords of House Whomever have held back the mountain raiders from pushing too far into the Valley of the Breadbasket, keeping Westeros well-fed. They’ve never gotten along with House Fancypants, whose coastal lands and merchant fleet line their coffers with gold. We get House Whomever and Fancypants and their hate each other, but the relationship is never fleshed out.
Still, the show’s got Peter Dinklage, so it’s got that going for it, which is nice.
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I read each of the first three books in about a week, and I’m not a hard-core reader — they were just awesome page-turners.
The next two books took a bit longer because they weren’t as good.
Overall, however, I’m more in your camp than Matt’s — the series suffers from Martin’s nihilism. Unlike Tolkien, it is unclear if Martin really believes in good and evil.
I won’t watch the series because I don’t need more T&A in my life, although Emilia Clarke and Rose Leslie are kind of hot.
“You know nothing, Jon Snow!”
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The most daunting mountain in the history of fantasy fiction? Brother, if you think Game of Thrones is bad, check out the Wheel of Time.
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Haven’t read the books, but I have enjoyed watching the show…especially the performances by Dinklage, Dance, and the guy who played Joffrey – have all been amazing.
Totally agree that there is an element of nihilism to the story, which in my opinion pops up more in moments of dialogue than anything else (for example, the Red Wedding was more of a tragedy in the classical sense as Rob ‘s hubris got the best of him…but there are many instances when characters wax philosophically about the meaninglessness of life). However, but I don’t see it the nihilism as all consuming as of yet and suspect that the story will end with some semblance of good defeating evil .
I have found it to be the edgy and hip opinion to hate on GOT now, though, and I am not saying JVL is trying to be hip or edgy (been a big fan of JVL and the blogs, galley slaves and this one, for over a deacade), but it is what it is.
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The worst part of this is now we will not have the Last penned essay “Why the Lannisters are the good guys.” Also, I don’t think Martin is a nihilist. He believes with St. Paul that the divide between good and evil runs down the heart of every man. How you could be bored in the first book eludes me.
The idea that the series is not the best fantasy television show of all time is simply unsupportable.
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I have about a six hour attention span for storytelling. I made it through nine hours of Lord of the Rings, but that’s close to the exception that proves the rule.
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If by “soap opera” you mean “character-driven story,” then yes, it’s a soap opera. Many of the characters are genuinely interesting, and that is what gets people invested in the story.
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Don’t worry JVL — we’ll get through Smaug. I think we’re more than halfway there, and we have all week. Also, it’s totally hip to fall asleep on the couch at 9:12, marauding orcs notwithstanding. And edgy, when we realize the lunch boxes are only half-packed. Seems a long way from when we staked out the movie theater in Kauai on our honeymoon for The Two Towers…
SkinsFanPG August 1, 2014 at 2:09 pm
GoT- Dallas and Dynasty with dragons and titties. This is why it has a substantial female fanbase- it takes the standard soap opera formula and adds dragons and breasts to trick men into watching. It is not a good show. Not even close to a good show. It’s kind of a joke.