Game of Thrones used to make me cynical in response to the hopeless idealism that's taken cinema, television, and literature by storm. I loved the introduction to the genre of fantasy that felt more realistic than fantastical. I enjoyed seeing issues of morality on a rainbow of a color pallet instead of zebra stripes. I was thrilled to see glorious men do inglorious things, and for inglorious men to find glory. I was riveted by character development, story progression, and climax.
But now Game of Thrones has made me cynical, not of idealists and optimists, but of Game of Thrones. This HBO drama, always trying to raise the stakes, has come too close to the sun, and alienated the most passionate fans of the series and of the ASoIaF universe. Such fans that know the house names better than the names of their cousins; that know the geography of Westeros and Essos better than the geography of real world America and Europe are losing interest in what was supposed to be a visual retelling. Fans that defend the Stark chivalry and spit upon Bolton betrayal... are reeling at the show's betrayal to George R.R. Martin's cause. Each season of Game of Thrones up to this point we've taken for granted and we've assumed that they stood on their own merit and not purely the success of the book series.
But this season, the show ha had to ride down the hill without Martin's training wheels and find its way in the world without Martin's compass... and the results have been catastrophic. Moreover, the results were fatal, to a vibrant and promising series. This series with doom on the horizon that always makes us optimistic to see what will happen has doomed itself, and we're getting bored of hearing about it. Many shows are a lot of things. Some are slow, some are violent, some are gratuitous, some use too many C words and F words. But none of them, with the budget and the cable protection of Game of Thrones under HBO and the source material from GRRM want for quality so much that they need to rely on cheap cliffhangers and trite twists and turns. Character development sits in prison; story progression fell on its sword; climax died screaming, honey ask me, I should know.
So why exactly is this season worth quitting the show? Well, season 5 has revealed several things about the men that brought the books to the small screen, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
1. It's revealed that they won't slow down the pace of Game of Thrones for anything, not even for the source material to catch up. There are several arguments that someone could use to defend this. For one, the actors are growing up, such as Maisie Williams, at a noticeable rate, and their child character won't line up age-wise any more. Additionally, if they slow the show down, they could reduce their profits. Lastly, some would say that slowing the show down doesn't matter, because the show has become its own this season.
a) The child actors are growing up, yes, but the stories have already been bent to make them more adult-oriented. You can't pull the child card when Arya Stark has been transformed into someone that will stab Meryn Trant, who has been transformed into a pedophile to justify cruelty, in the eye and prolong his suffering out of enjoyment and sadistic glee.
b) Maybe if the story gets slowed down it would weed out the ones that only watch for cheap satisfaction instead of development and payoff, which in and of itself would be a good thing, but I can express the economics in such an equation:
more seasons = more episodes
episodes x viewership = moneys
viewership = directly proportionate to quality
higher quality = higher viewership
consistent quality = consistent viewership
consistent high quality = consistent high viewership
therefore,
more seasons x consistent high quality = more consistently high profits
c) Yes, the show has become its own entity, but that's not inherently a good thing. If the show still wanted to follow the books faithfully, the adaptation would be slowed down by that, to include all the depth and complexity as detailed in the books. And in adding content, the lifespan of Game of Thrones would be prolonged.
2. It's revealed that they will abandon the structured source material the first chance they get. Given that the show could have slowed down to provide more time for the next book to come out, it logically follows that since they didn't slow it down, it's because they didn't want to. And since they didn't want to, that logically means that they want to be able to write their own story and not be hindered by the preexisting one. The show wants to branch off and enjoy full control.
3. It's revealed that as a separate entity, the show is illogical at best, and, at worst, hellbent on tearing down Martin's creation.
One example where logic was absent : Jaime goes to Dorne to make his sister happy again. Firstly, why should he want to make her happy? Before he was on the path to righteousness and, just to put the record straight, Cersei is basically Satan. Therefore, Jaime has to abandon his quest for absolution to make an evil woman happy. So his character is butchered and his story line descends into mush to do something that makes no sense, like go to Dorne undercover to kidnap his daught--niece. Then, when he gets there, he is caught in a fight to the death and encounters gold hand-ex machina. Just so we're clear, we have an illogical character with illogical intentions, topped of by a typical TV trope. Are we talking about the gritty realistic Game of Thrones we've come to know? But wait... he goes to kidnap his daughter, but OH NO! He gets in a fight with the Sand Snakes, some illogically overly angry girls that are Oberyn's daughters that follow their illogically overly angry mother and never question her logic (something they should have done). Additionally, they don't understand the rules of trials by combat and they don't realize that their dad was just a hothead and got the head smashing he deserved (but not the one he needed). And have I mentioned that they're angry all the time for no really good logical reason? This time, they fight, and Bronn, a proven fighter, takes on two Sand Snakes, like we'd imagine he could, while Jaime fights the other, but before he can win, Doran's guards stop the fun. Right, so now our illogical character with illogical intentions is saved not once but twice when he should have been killed. You know, you'd think that if Game of Thrones would bend the rules to save a character, it would be a well-liked character that isn't duplicitous, smug, and untrue, like any one of the Starks. But yeah, nah. Then, Prince Doran, despite being attacked in his own home by a stranger, spares Jaime. Then Bronn is about to die of poison from the snakes, but is given fun boobs that save his life. But I don't have a problem with that, 'cause Bronn is awesome. And Jaime wants Myrcella to go with him back to King's Landing, so Doran lets that happen too. Then, Prince Doran makes his crazy and overly angry sister-in-law apologize and he buys her bullshit for some reason. Fool me once... Then they all say goodbye and crazy overly angry lady makes out with Myrcella, all kinky like, and it turns out to be poison. Fool me twice... Lastly, in Jaime's Dorne adventure he is encouraged twice that it's okay to sleep with your crazy crazy sister. We don't choose who we have sex with...
Thanks for your time. The End.
