The Beauty of Knowing (7): Game of Thrones, the first killer? I think not
Have you ever been awake a whole day? Like, twenty four hours straight? I have! It has been for a quite of other reasons but the main factor: Serials! Yes, you can call me one of those guys who associate themselves with the modern trend of English-serial watchers and I say why not? Coming to the twenty-four hour gig, it has happened four times because of these four things: Arrow, Prison break, Game of Thrones and House of Cards. After college and returning to my room, as if it were a pattern, every single time I could have been found watching from 8 pm to 8am, a few minutes give or take.
In college one of the best things that ever happen to us is the cultural fest in either IIT or NIT. It was in my second year that I went to NIT’s and it was there that I had a whole new world opened to me. Quizzes were usually conducted in the night (another time I did a 24 hour straight) and I went and sat as one among the few on-lookers out of my curiosity. First of all, everything that they were talking about seemed somehow to be English and yet not quite so! But in all the various rounds I saw that there were recurring questions on something about the seven kingdoms. To my satisfaction there were many of them like me staring blankly. But those of them who knew were like, “What! How could you not know this?” After I returned to my college I googled it all and got from my seniors (only a few of them had watched it) all the episodes, wanting to know what was so special about it. Among my whole set and my friends-circle outside college, I was the first to watch it. And there is a reason why what was so rare to know about just around three years ago now seems to be on everyone’s lips. Because it is Game of Thrones!
As I started watching (it was the first season that I watched through the night), it was like a bunch of guys talking here and there. No exitement, nothing. Serenity, yet capturing. Then suddenly Bran climbs the wall, something happens and out of nowhere the first episode is over! I am left open mouthed. Surely more than forty five minutes could not have flown past by. But it had! Then the whole thing kept going on one episode after the other. It was great, but then the ninth episode happens and I am like, “Wait, you must be kidding, right?” But they were not. This not-kidding stuff kept happening and re-happening. The seasons kept bettering its predecessors till the sixth season (in my humble opinion).
Before moving to the seventh season: What makes Game of thrones synonymous to death! It’s because death happens anywhere, everywhere and all the time! No one is safe! But is this killing new? I disagree! Even Ned Stark will! He knows what happened to Boromir (Sean Bean played those two awesome characters)! But it’s not Lord of the Rings that I am comparing GoT’s killing to, though a few happen there also! It’s the good old Harry I am talking about! Seriously, those of you who have watched (also read, if you will) both HP and GoT will definitely agree that death is a thing in both these things! This is how I diffrentiate them: In GoT, along with characters whole story lines are lost and that makes it a whole lot more surprising like, “What the heck!”; while in HP, though you may not raise your eyebrows, you sure will have a pang, like “Oh my God!”
In no way think that I am trying to find fault with GoT or something (at least the first six episodes), who can! The man’s imagination! It’s a plot-driven story and it never leaves you wanting. There is always an element of the unknown which is neither overwhelming nor mundane. Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Emilie Clark, Maisie Williams, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner all have became everyday names. And you can keep stacking up other names as well, because a lot of people die and each has had their prespective. I don’t know the names of those who played Bronn, Olena, Sam and so on (the list never ends), and they have their own wonderful times. But out of all my most favourite is the King Slayer Jamie. Even the name of the guy who played him I didn’t know till I googled it and after googling it I decided Jamie is good enough for me!
Now to the seventh season. The whole thing about this magic saga is that it gives us so many perspectives and far too many twists. But all this is good till it happens on it’s due course. A character has made himself in the environments he has been cast in and he has returned some responses. But all of a sudden you say GoT is going to end in another two seasons. It generates expectation allright, but as I kept watching the seventh season I could not dismiss the fact that twenty five percent of the whole saga seems to be an epilogue. The characters have stopped experimenting and exploring and all sorts of story-lines are being interwoven. Here is the problem in all this: Since most characters have been rather one-dimensionally shown (in a superb way of course), when they interact there is no way but to extend the perspectives to the extreme to give those awesome one-liners! Characters seem to have become projective shadows to attain the end of ephimeral exitement. Even those of the fans of GoT (so am I) who think I am a foolish fool cannot deny that all sense of logic has flown out of the window in the seventh season! I have never been one of those who loved, read and created fan-theories, but it doesn’t take a genius to find that there seems to be so many things amiss. What else can you expect when you try to lock a river into a bottle-neck! It has all boiled down to this: Either I predict the twists or you out-smart me. GoT used to be much more than this! To answer all the unanswered questions GRR will have to go out of his way and thread the gaping holes in his novel.
Of all the episodes of the seventh season, that which I loved was the one in which a power-pack team went beyond the wall to hunt for one walking-dead! The beautiful conversations that sprung up. Now, that is what I am talking about: Vintage Game of Thrones! Anyway, the fact always remains: Thank you GRR for letting us into your beautiful imagination!
