Three Reasons Why Game of Thrones is Overrated

Game of Thrones is Overrated
Game of Thrones is Overrated

Everyone’s jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon these days. It’s a geek’s dream come true because we finally have a serious attempt at transforming a well known fantasy series into a watchable TV show. Most shows end up doing a horrible job like the terrible “Legend of the Seeker” based on the Sword of Truth books. This is a trend. TV shows usually end up mauling the source material. So when geeks see a classy production closely following the Song of Ice and Fire book series, they go overboard praising it. And they’re right to do so. HBO makes awesome shows and it’s clear they’ve done Game of Thrones with a lot of love and respect for the source material.

Unfortunately none of that can make up for the shortcomings of the series itself. Warning: I’m not shy of giving away lots of spoilers, so read this at your own risk and peril. So here’s why the entire story line of Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) sucks hard.

Good Guys ALWAYS Lose

I keep hearing how this series is a “breath of fresh air” where Martin isn’t afraid to kill off his main characters and that in “real life”, the good guys don’t always win etc etc. This is true. In real life, the bad guys win some and the good guys win some. Except that in Martin’s world, the good guys never win. Character after character bites the dust without gaining a victory. Ned, Robb, Catelyn, Bran…they all get shitty deals. All of them without exception betrayed. Even our darling Arya gets royally screwed.

And the baddies? While some shit happens to them, they’re essentially self goals. Joffrey gets his comeuppance not at the hands of any hero, but from within his own side. Cersei self destructs. Tywin gets it in the gut from his own son. In other words, revenge is tragically missing from the entire Game of Thrones series. All the good guys (and wolves too!) die horrible and humiliating deaths and the bad guys essentially slip down some stairs and break their neck. Like I said in “real life”, both goodies and baddies will have victories. But Martin is just a sadist.

I get the feeling that whenever Martin feels like his plot is losing its way or is in danger of being resolved, he just sits down and thinks “Hmm..this can’t happen. Let’s kill someone!” In other words, he uses the death of his characters as a substitute for plot development and for sheer shock value hoping that others will laud him for being “gritty” and “real”.

No New Engaging Characters

I wouldn’t mind Martin polishing off his characters if he comes up with new ones at the same rate with which they exit the stage. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gives us lame creatures like Davos who no one really cares for. And then he kills him too! So who the hell is left? Brienne?

So while the initial books were riveting for the sole reason that tragedy and betrayal abound, Martin pays the price for his carelessness by not having a plot to carry the story forward. No wonder he took five years to come out with “Dance with Dragons” and openly admitted that he was working on other stuff in the meantime. He didn’t know what to do with the story! He’d killed off or crippled every single person of interest to us on Westeros so what more was left?

Moral of the story: Don’t be so casual with your main characters. We were emotionally invested in them and you chose a single big payoff by disposing of them at the cost of future story lines. Congratulations. You now have colorless remains. I haven’t even bothered to pick up Dance with Dragons because I saw nothing in the previous book to interest me further. My wife started reading it, and gave up halfway. Too boring. Did anyone expect differently? When your main characters are missing it’s like trying to squeeze water out of a rock.

It’s not Real Fantasy

At the most, we can say that the series has a passing acquaintance with magic elements. A couple of dragon scenes and veiled references to “walkers” do not a fantasy make. I initially picked this up because I was told it was one of the best fantasy writings ever. The truth however is that it’s basically fictional history. The fantasy elements are kept down to a minimum or are even non existent. I felt pretty cheated.

So much potential. All wasted by lazy storytelling. The solution to the current hysteria is to have more good fantasy novels converted into TV series with the same attention to detail and production quality that HBO is showing the with Song of Ice and Fire series. Only then will we get a sense of perspective and finally stop mooning over Game of Thrones simply because it’s all we have to look forward to at the moment.

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172 thoughts on “Three Reasons Why Game of Thrones is Overrated”

  1. The first three books were good, but in some ways the show was better. Yes, blasphemy, but for example the Shae character was a caricature in the novels, but someone a bit more three dimensional in the show.

    Books 4 and 5 were a disaster. The show in seasons 5 and 6 had to go it alone and so much of what they did was shallow and superficial, but still better than what was in the books. If they had been faithful to the source material people would have stopped watching.

    Martin created a fascinating world, but he lost his way years ago.

    Reply

    • In reply to Disappointed reader

      Yes exactly my thoughts! The last 2 books were terrible, but in the eyes of the people who constantly complain about the show not being accurate or changing stuff, Martin can do no wrong and it’s just…. not true.

      Reply

  2. Sex sells. This is all that is there to say about this show. I cannot take any praise on it seriously when it’s just, what I prefer to call it, “legal pornography”.
    I’m glad I have never bothered with these series when they first came out. There are many other series that have a great storytelling instead of relying on simply pushing a few sex scenes for dumb masses to devour, and claiming for it to be something ‘revolutionary’.

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  3. Never heard of or read the books. My wife and I tried twice to get into this phenomenon to see what it is all about. Well we’ve never made it past episode 2. This weakly acted, lowbrow, soft porn tv show just makes both her and I nod off to sleep. And that theme music PLEASE, it’s like an endless train ride through the prairies. That’s now 4 hours of our lives wasted. Never again.

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    • In reply to CarlC

      I first heard of this thing about December 2015. As far as I know, it’s not appealing if you’re more about story lines simple action.

      Reply

  4. I’ve tried with GOT a few times, just can’t seem to get into it. Blood and Sand that’s a different story. That show was so engaging. It had a lot of sex and violence but I always felt it was there as part of the story rather than purely for shock value. A lot of shows have a lot of sex and violence just for shock value I think. I’m not a prude. I just enjoy a good yarn. If I want sex and violence I’ll just watch Pornhub and snuff.
    Salem, great show. Gets the balance right.
    Stan against Evil, great show.
    Ash Vs Evil Dead, great show.
    Westworld, great show.
    Taboo, great show.
    Vikings, great show.
    Black Sails, great show.
    Gotham (season 3 onwards) great show.
    Game of thrones……Pile of shit.
    I think people tell themselves it’s awesome so they don’t have to come to terms with the fact that just paid to watch a dog have a shit.

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