Winter is coming.
Those are the arc words and the house slogan of Stark, one of the leading nations warring ceaselessly with each other in George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, of which the first book is called A Game of Thrones. However, I feel like this motto, used in the series to foretell of a long and difficult time where resources will be scarce and all will be unhappy, is all-too-relevant to the premiere of the series on HBO, the first episode of which came out on April 17. Winter is coming, indeed. And for fans of the series, there are hard times ahead.
 A Lannister always pays his debts. Jaime's got a lot of writers to visit... |
As usual, whenever a popular series of books or other media is adapted or the TV screen, certain changes must be made. I expected this. I did not expect the writers of the HBO series to assume so categorically that its viewers would be so stupid as to mentally use the massive breasts exposed every ten minutes or so as plugs to fill the holes in the plot. |
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Martin’s original series was very complex, and no true antagonist or protagonist could truly be established, even by the end of the first novel. However, the HBO series makes it very clear to its viewers that the Lannisters, another warring nation who have had an old-as-time rivalry with the Starks, are the bad guys. Their personalities have been changed from angry, sad, or content to “malicious cunning,” and all subtlety has been sucked out of the interactions between humans.
That being said, the show is visually very complex. Although the sweeping landscapes and elaborate hairpieces were somewhat ruined for me because I saw the preview of the show–where we see the sets being filmed and we hear all the actors saying incredibly obvious and stupid lines of drivel (It’s so amazing…They’re just creating this whole other world!) many of the sets are beautiful and breathtaking. The title sequence is particularly inventive, with an original score that made me think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” And for all their changes, the writers don’t stray too far from Martin’s original plot–there were no scenes that I felt I had unfairly missed. However, a decent amount of similarity between the series and the novel was not enough to make up for what I felt to be a blunting of many character’s personalities, an over usage of shock tactics (or should I say shock tits?) and unnecessary graphic violence and profanity, and a simplification of many of the complex plotlines that made the book so intricate and enthralling in the first place.  Winter is here. If you’ve never read any of the books, go ahead and see it. I’ll say truthfully that Game of Thrones isn’t much different from other HBO series: there are lots of dramatic scenes, tons of sex and nudity, and the occasional witty comment. If you’re a fan of the book, I’d recommend staying away, else you might feel a need to take the black just to escape from Sersei’s wig , Khal Drogo’s eye-and-body-liner, and just Catelyn in general. I mean…ugh. |
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Wow!! This was so good!!! You were so spot on when you were talking about how all the subtleties have been sucked out. So right! The one thing you didn’t mention that really made me angry was the wedding scene!!! it was awful, because it took all of the niceness out of Drogo and made him purely savage.