Game of Thrones Revisited

 

I originally blogged about this. Chris' Blog: Game of Thrones (formula57l.blogspot.com).  That was in December 2012, meaning I had only seen season 2, and season 3 hadn’t even come out yet.  Since that time all 8 seasons have aired.  These were based on books written by George R. R. Martin, basically the Beatles’ producer with an extra R, a beard, and a few pounds (visually, no one will confuse the two).  Not sure if GRRM has any interest in the Beatles. 

A few years ago, they had a Game of Thrones Exhibition in Manhattan, NYC.  Among many other intriguing exhibits was a replica of the Iron Throne, which I sat in and had my picture taken.  

Books.  A Game of Thrones (#1) (1996), A Clash of Kings (#2) (1998); A Storm of Swords (#3) (2000), A Feast For Crows (#4) (2005), and A Dance With Dragons (#5) (2011).  Book #6, The Winds of Winter, is STILL not out yet. 

Series (HBO).  Season 1 (2011), Season 2 (2012), Season 3 (2013), Season 4 (2014), Season 5 (2015), Season 6 (2016), Season 7 (2017), and Season 8 (2019).  Given that Martin has still not finished book 6, seasons 6, 7 and 8 had to be done without the benefit of the actual books, though the story is that Martin gave them enough basics on his intentions for them to craft three full seasons of material.  My subjective impression is that now that the full series has actually aired, Martin’s incentive to finish the books is highly attenuated.  As it was, when seasons 1 through 5 were airing, it seems half the viewing audience had actually read the books and had some idea what was going to happen, the other half NOT reading the books and saying, “SHH!!! Don’t tell me!”  Whether it was because these are people who don’t read things without pictures – unless they’re actually paid to do so for work – or whether they simply didn’t want the whole thing spoiled, I couldn’t say.  I count myself among the many who actually DO read fiction as a recreational activity.

I read all 5 books and watched all 8 seasons when they were originally broadcast on HBO.   After Season 5, even the book readers like myself no longer had the benefit of source material, so everyone was left wondering what was going to happen next.

Probably the #1 distinguishing feature of GOT is the vulnerability of major characters to swift dispatch.  With Star Trek, the original series, the running joke is that if an away team goes down to a planet with major characters and some new guy in a red shirt we’ve never seen before, guess who’s going to get killed?  Hint, it won’t be Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, etc.  At least the Next Generation actually killed off Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) fairly early on.   Martin wanted to keep us in suspense:  NO character was safe, even the most beloved ones such as Brann Stark, Khal Lego, or Frodo.  Who knows, even Tony Stark might get killed if his “iron suit” proved vulnerable to poison or the Dothraki.

PLOT HOLE.  I’m re-watching the series again, and finished Season 1.  I’m picking up a few things I missed the first time around.  The 800 pound gorilla here is the Baratheon kids.  We haven’t seen younger siblings Tommen or Myrcella yet, but eldest child, and the heir to the throne, Joffrey, is certainly here. 

The King is Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), of the Baratheon clan, whose “animal” is the stag.  His younger brothers are Stannis and Renly.  Stannis shows up in Season 2, but we’ve already seen Renly (Gethen Anthony).  The Queen is Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), of the Lannister clan, insanely rich but also nasty and cynical.  All the Baratheons have black hair and blue eyes, while all the Lannisters – with the curious exception of Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) - have blonde hair.  That includes Cersei, her twin brother Jaime (Nicolai Coster-Waldau), and practically all the others.  The head of the Lannister family is Tywin (Charles Dance), though what’s left of his blonde hair is now grey.

As noted in my earlier blog, the good guys are the Starks, the family furthest north, whose animal is the wolf.  The kids actually do come across and adopt wolves as pets – again, didn’t see any stags with the Baratheons, lions with the Lannisters, bears with Ser Jorah Mormont or his father, the commander of the Night’s Watch, and we certainly won’t hold our breaths waiting to see any “krakens” with the Greyjoys when they finally show up in Season 2, aside from hapless Theon. 

As the story starts, the prior Hand (executive officer) of Robert Baratheon has died mysteriously, of poisoning.  It turns out he was investigating this bizarre business of Robert’s kids with Cersei all having blonde hair.  As Robert trusts his old war buddy Ned Stark (Sean Bean, also Boromir in “Lord of the Rings”) to tell him “NO” every now and then, he asks Ned to take over as Hand.  Doing so, Ned picks up where John Arryn left off, likewise discovering the truth.  He even confronts Cersei about this, who remarkably admits she has been sleeping with Jaime and that Robert was always too drunk to properly impregnate her, she “finished him off by other means”, presumably orally – which we all know doesn’t result in pregnancy.   And yet it’s left to Arryn and Ned Stark to realize something is going on.

Robert wasn’t particularly stupid.  Not only would he suspect something when Joffrey bumped out with blonde hair, certainly he should have suspected something when Tommen and Myrcella did too – and all his own offspring by various whores and side chicks had black hair – as did Stannis and Renly, his brothers. 

Then there’s this business of failing to “get the job done” with Cersei.  He knows he needs an heir.  And while Lyanna Stark was his first choice as bride, and Rhaegar Targaryen was Cersei’s crush, they both ended up together.  Boo hoo.  If there’s one thing the royalty knows, is that they have little or no choice in who they wind up married to – thus a fairly lax standard in allowing extramarital affairs.  The stupid thing is, Robert’s tendency to whore around behind Cersei’s back – while Cersei was enjoying her brother’s intimacy – was not mutually exclusive with actually spending some sober time making sure Cersei was well and truly pregnant with his own offspring inside her.  And if he was only achieving happy ending down her throat, should he really be surprised when Joffrey didn’t wind up with black hair? 

Among the various different characters we meet in season 1, my favorites are Tyrion – who “drinks and knows things” – and Varys (Conleth Hill), the eunuch.   He spars off with Peytr Baelish (Aidan Gillen), aka Littlefinger, who runs the brothels in King’s Landing, the capital.  Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) is also fairly compelling.  We haven’t even seen Arya’s transformation, or Brann’s, nor have we met Brienne of Tarth.  Plot holes big or small, the show has a remarkable cast of characters, and the casting was practically flawless.   Those of us who have seen it already can check them all out on Netflix (albeit only on DVD, sorry) and those who haven’t should finally get with the program and see for themselves what the fuss is all about….