Friday, July 14, 2017

Game of Thrones



               This is an odd post.  Well, first of all, it’s a post.  That’s weird enough from me these days.  Second, I’m pre-writing this, to copy and paste in my blog.  It will still be largely unedited, but not perfectly so.
               As you probably know, I’m a Game of Thrones fan.  I like the show.  Full Disclosure:  I’ve only read the first book.  I hate waiting for new seasons of shows, but I despise waiting for new books.  He has his reasons, but George R.R. Martin takes a long time to write, and I don’t want to get invested in books that I’ll have to wait years to read.  Also, the books and the episodes are different enough in plot, storyline, names, dates, ages, ranges, timelines, datelines, ley lines, and probably everything else.  They’re similar enough to only be confusing.
               This isn’t going to be an entirely popular post.  Then again, I doubt mine really are all that often.  Being a fan turns me off from everyone who doesn’t like the show.  Everything else about the post will turn me off from the fans.  Shrug.  I write these things for me. 
               So, I’m watching the episodes again, in anticipation of another season.  I’ll finish late, which means I’ll watch the episodes late.  That’s me.  I’m so far behind, I’m reading news from four months ago.  Why should television be any different?
               As I was saying, I was watching the episodes again, and I’ve got a complaint.  I have the same complaint about the first book as well.  The first book seemed like it was written in search of a story.  George R.R. Martin wrote television episodes for other shows in the past – maybe that’s the reason for it.  The first book was written like a TV series.  Generic (and less generic) plot hooks are left dangling left and right, some never to be brought up again.  Overdramatic scenes are overdramatic, simply for the sake of drama.  People grow, which is the nature of people.  These characters flesh out more than they grow.
               I’m learning to appreciate character deaths more, but many of these character deaths serve little purpose, except as plot contrivances to create season highs and lows. 
               Y’know, I don’t mind all that to a point.  It’s just that Game of Thrones takes it up to level fourteen so much that it’s become a trope by itself.  I’m writing this post after seeing yet another, “I Promise” on the screen that you know will end unfulfilled, as the character saying it, or the characters they’re saying it to, die tragically.  Wouldn’t be such a big thing, but this character was instantly developed, over the course of twenty minutes, to be a tragic death.
               I admit, the show has a lot to live up to.  It has to constantly upgrade tensions, outrages, action scenes, and special effects.  Its worst enemy is itself, but the highs come too often, too fast, with too little story behind them.
               Speaking of story, I also dislike the digression into backstory as often as it does.  Sometimes it works well, too often it is inserted clumsily, leading to clunky exposition.  Sometimes, when a character is angry and chomping at the bit, answering yes or no is more appropriate than extolling about the time your father taught you a lesson about taking a spear to court.  Blah blah blah.
               None of this makes the show unwatchable, in my opinion.  It’s enough to make ones eyes roll pretty hard though.
- Jim

             My prediction for the series now is that Petyr Baelish either is, or becomes a follower of The Great Other.