I just watched season 4 Episode 9 “The
Watchers on the Wall,” and if you are a fan of the series you know
that usually the 9th episode of any given season is the
one where somebody you really care about gets slaughtered (usually in
the most terrible way imaginable). Until now, I’ve taken great pleasure in
those moments because I’ve read the first three books, and I’ve
been watching the show with the knowledge of what’s going to
happen. It’s fun because I’ve been watching it with my wife, and
my foreknowledge allows me to eagerly await her shocked reaction
(although I’ve refrained from video taping her in secret and posting it to YouTube because I want to stay married...although it is
funny when other people do that).
I learn a lot from my wife’s reaction
to the show. She’s a very no-nonsense person and it’s good for a
writer to know a person like that since it keeps you on track. I
know from experience that if my wife starts to lose interest in
something, then the majority of the population is going to start
losing interest as well. Contrary to popular misconception--you are NOT all-powerful as a writer. You need to obey some rules or people won't read your work.
The main death in 4:9 (spoiler again)
is Jon Snow’s Wildling girlfriend Ygritte. They have a
mini-reunion as her group of marauders attacks Castle Black. She has
Snow dead to rights but finds she doesn't have the heart to fill him full of arrows. He notices her
and smiles at her, just as she takes a fatal arrow herself giving them just enough time to embrace for two seconds before she expires.
During this scene, my wife didn’t
look at me with the emotion she’d showed when Ned Stark or Robb
Stark were killed. This time she just gave me a kind of exasperated
look and said, “so I guess nobody gets a chance at happiness in
this series.”
I thought that comment summed up the
series nicely and was in line with my own thinking on the matter.
When I was reading the books, I got to approximately the point where
the show is at now, and then lost patience. My biggest problem with
Martin’s work is that there doesn’t seem to be a redeeming
quality for which you endure all the agony of watching your favorite
characters suffer and die. Martin seems to be a one trick pony and the
trick is this: get your readers to like a character—kill that
character. If you do this kind of thing as a writer, your readers
will have patience with it for a while because they expect there to
be some kind of grand payoff. But if you go to the well too often,
you risk loosing your audience. It happened with me and I sense that
it’s happening with my wife as well.
If Martin were a bit more talented, he'd have known that he was on the verge of losing people and Ygritte represented a great way to win them back. She's not a major character, but she's big enough that allowing her a moment of joy would have gone a long way towards regaining the trust of the audience. They'd think, "ahh...so she's the reason we watched everyone die...so we'd appreciate this!" In contrast, killing her lacks the punch because of her fringe status. Personally, I much prefer the "throwing a bone" quality of sparing Ygritte and at least offering the chance of some kind of future for her and Jon Snow, than just slaughtering her for the sake of sending Snow off on a suicidal mission. Martin's choice in this instance lacks finesse--in fact, it's very sloppy and manipulative writing (and the response is a flat emotional reaction...which is what you don't want). This choice is also what has lead to this unflattering and very accurate cartoon representation of Martin (it's a play on a speech Tyrion Lannister gave in a previous episode):
I know what’s going to happen in the
last episode of this season and it should be a fairly good finale. I
expect I’ll watch a couple episodes of season 5 in the hope that
Martin does eventually make the decision to have some point to all
the chaos he causes. But really, I doubt that’s going to be the
case. Still, it’s easier to watch the show than it is to read the
books—because frankly the actual writing is pretty pedestrian.
It’s great to have a fantasy series
that is realized with such great acting and production quality that it captivates such
a wide audience. It’s just too bad that of all the great works out
there, HBO had to choose Game of Thrones when there are really far
better stories that deserve more exposure.
But then again, I haven’t read the
rest of the series, so maybe it redeems itself. Those of you who
have read the books, feel free to tell me so if that’s the case
(spoilers don’t bother me—I go along for the ride and surprises
are just cheap tricks as far as I’m concerned). Also, feel free to leave me some polite suggestions as to how I'm steering things wrong in my own series which starts with this book. Hey...I shouldn't dish it out if I can't take it right?
I dont want to throw out any spoilers...nor complete speculation on my part. But Jon could never have been with her. That's not how this story ends. I think he is too important and at the time, he couldnt break his vows either. So to keep her alive would not have put them together. As much as I would have loved to see it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Martin takes too much and never gives enough back. Originally the last book was rumored to be called "A Time For Wolves." That's how it was listed. Now that last book has been changed to "A Dream of Spring" which makes me feel like the retribution wont be there. Just hoping he lives to finish the story.
Jesse and I are apparently veterans of Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time series! I have read the 5 books that are out, each the length of War and Peace, and I have come up with a new trope for the writing world: PENCaCMAI---Publisher Editing No Cash Cow Marketable As Is. (Still working on the phrasing, but lately Tor has clearly moved to this MO. And they're not making any friends.)
ReplyDeleteI've heard rumors that Martin may just finish the series as a few more seasons of screenplays. Would that be a bad thing? In many ways, no. The TV series is showing growth in some of the characters you don't see in the book; it's cut some characters but fleshed out others (Robb Stark's wife comes to mind). It's finally trimmed what I've called "sexposition": that condition that means you can't fast forward through the sex scenes because those indulging have lines that advance the plot.
Since Walter and Jesse haven't read all the books, let me try to do a spoiler-free response. Ultimately (or "so far") GoT (both books and serial) is largely about good people making bad (really, *really* bad) decisions and bad (really, *really* bad) people being extremely clever on both the micro and the epic scale. That said, some characters who seem shallow and self-serving (Jamie Lannister comes to mind) ultimately develop not only breadth but soul. Slight spoiler: Tyrion, Daenerys, and Arya remain awesome in both incarnations---in fact, their stories constitute the chief draw of the series at this point. And if you've hated the series till now, get those DVDs and fast forward through till you find any scene featuring Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna, the Matriarch of House Tyrell. She's aged wonderfully, never trying to hold onto her edgy ingénue image, her lines cut like scythes through ripe wheat, and her delivery is so utterly in-character droll (not sure whether to credit writer, director, or Rigg herself for this) you will laugh till your sides ache.
I mention this last only to get to a point both gentlemen above have mentioned: the good guys all die and the bad guys get to rule the world (paraphrasing). A very conscious choice has been made with Olenna Tyrell and her granddaughter Margaery (Joffrey-will-someone-kill-this-guy-off-and-put-all-of-us-out-of-his-misery's new fiancée) and it will lead to the first of many comeuppances. Do not abandon hope (unless it's hope that A Song of Ice and Fire will reach a literary endpoint before the turn of the next century).
Nice discussion! I'll probably continue to watch the series even though it has reached the point where I couldn't deal with the books anymore. I guess I'll have a fuller picture of the whole series when I've seen the whole story (then again, at this point the whole story hasn't been written yet...so Martin might just disappoint everyone :) ).
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this assessment. Having said that I was glad when Ygritte got erased because she was annoying LOL
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