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.
Visit the wiki for the books. Frankly the lore behind GoT is better then the story we are getting.
A poor attempt to get traffic. Loser
You kind of missed the point. There is no such a thing as good or bad guys in Game Of Thrones or the books. Same can be said of real life. Everyone is a shade of gray, some darker, some lighter, the shade changes with time back and forth.
Well Said. I could not agree more with this article.
Too bad you left out the fourth and perhaps more powerful reason of them all: The Rabid, over-zealous fans.
These people can not grasp the concept of someone not liking this story not even if you gracefully explain the facts as you did here and THAT alone makes me like it even less.
I get it, people. You do like it. We don’t. You don’t have to get all worked up over that fact. Not wen we have actual reasons not to love that…thing.
In reply to Liko Natera
The point is, that usually you judge the entire series bases on the show alone. I don’t deny anyone the right to dislike or like anything, that would be ridiculous. But the article here, like many of your arguments, are not a matter of point of view, but are just plain wrong.
1. Davos is not dead (at least it was never explicitly stated). This statement is probably based on the book’s plot element, which is a *rumour* that he has been executed in White Harbour (in book 4 I guess). Later on in book 5 it is revealed, that he is actually very much alive. I’m sorry if I spoiled anything, but it was just a false statement and I had to correct it.
2. Good guys do usually lose – for now. But the plot is not concluded yet, and you might still be surprised how it ends for the bad guys. And the fact, that the good ones are screwed by others, while the bad ones mainly by themselves, is actually on purpose. This is to show, that evil often passes a border, when it starts to destroy itself, a point where family starts to matter less and less. Plus, Joffrey certainly didn’t die on his own, and Tywin is killed by Tyrion, so… not entirely “falling off stairs and breaking the neck. And if their deaths are not satisfying, well, in real life the bad guys very rarely get an ending that is satisfying to anyone.
3. If you think, that the plot is thin and simple, then again, you probably never read the books. It is a complex, intelligent story with shit loads of side events and minor characters, that it’s a true masterwork by GRRM that he even manages to keep track of all these. I’m not asking anyone to appreciate and like it, but trying to infer that it is simple and thin is just false. It’s not.
And to sum up… if you rebel and stop reading after book 4 (which is admittedly the weakest so far) just because GRRM dropped the ball once, then you are not a very patient reader ;)
I’ve watched HBO GoT, all the way to Season 4 Episode 5. I don’t read the novels.
The plot holes are ridiculous, for example:
Winter is coming… not for years (why bother mentioning it, then?).
White Walkers are attacking… still nowhere in sight (even after 3 seasons).
Great chief Drogol commanding 100k barbarians… died of mere infection (not from might or magic).
Stannis’ 100k soldiers are completely crushed overnight… without any magic involved (defeated, the surviving soldiers don’t even think to run or retreat to regroup later).
The Wall is guarded for thousand years… by unwilling criminals and bastards who are forced to celibate too (they will have already escaped since day 1).
And many more.
So I don’t think that HBO GoT is very good.
I think Martin got too caught up in his own world and his own rules of what he thinks he should do. I watched the first three seasons over a period of a month or two. At that rate, things move at a decent pace, but when it takes years… can’t be bothered to care. Not much happens in an season. A few really pivotal events, but mostly lots of the same and some build up here and there. Right now, look how many episodes it took to get to Tyrion’s trial/fight to the death…. Most of them. Too many in my opinion.
And yes, he kills the good guys, let’s the bad guys live way too long, makes bad guys turn a corner or a bit of one probably so he can shove it in your face now that you are starting to like them…. he has stated that he wants the reader to be scared to turn the page (meaning he wants you to fear what could happen to your characters or in the story). That might work for a bit but after a while it is contrived and feels like the sole purpose is to troll the reader. Like this character? Dead. Hate this character? Give them more power. But he does plot armor a few characters at least for a while. Cersei, Tyrion, Jaime… still not enough bad has happened to them. Tyrion is a pretty good guy though so at least there’s some balance. Snow too. He’s not really had truly horrible things happen to him.
I was really looking forward to this season, having not read the books because I don’t wish to invest energy in a story that will take a decade for him to finish. Can’t be bothered with that nonsense. But so far, I’m losing interest and will likely not bother with next season knowing what I know about upcoming books. Seems like only a few key events will transpire. I’ll wait the extra year for the DVDs since I kind of don’t care much right now about the story at all.
In reply to Ariel
Lucky u did not pick up to read the book as I did. I am reading well skipping most pages in book 5. Its so bad! I got bored and fed up remembering whose who and what their relationship to the characters. Martin should have concluded the story in book 4, he could have spared my agony! Whatta waste of time and effort in reading book5.
I can practially feel the pain of the very few people that are fans of these books.
A boring book is a boring book, and if people are good, bad or half-good, half bad does not make up for that.
A good book sucks you in from page one and keeps you there. A book that makes you feel like taking a break from it, is not….
Zorbla has been insulted, die now you must at the hands of Wrath the Mystical Dragon Egg!
Hey, I liked Legend of the Seaker. In fact Liked it better than GoT.
Sounds like somebody needs more happy in their fantasy. Poor guy.
:(
http://youtu.be/Bxauqa7rJgI