GOT: Game of Thrones

I don’t know if you’re a fan of Game of Thrones but I am sure am.  The author, George R. R. Martin has experience in writing for television, so the novels are outstanding in regards to plot.  The timing and pace are something new to the genre of Fantasy.  For this very reason, HBO picked up the story and has made it into a series.

Expensive doesn’t even begin to describe the production on this series. I think they have three different foreign locations on which  they are shooting:  Ireland, Scotland, and Morocco.*  Add to this complication of filming in climes both freezing cold, nominally warm and downright desert.  Finally throw in zombies AND dragons and you are beginning to get the idea of just how complicated and expensive filming a series like this must be.

Nonetheless, HBO under the guidance of co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, have pulled off the near impossible.  They remain true to the extremely involved plot of the books, the highly dimensional characters, to produce a show that will simply knock you off your feet.

You don’t have to be a fantasy genre fan to watch this show.  It’s got plenty of sex, plenty of violence and plenty of great dialog to warrant anyone watching who claims to adore drama.  Personally my two favorite characters are Arya and Tyrion**.  Arya is the lost and tough little girl in the process of becoming a deadly warrior and femme fatale.  She’s a girl after my own heart.  Tyrion is the perpetual outsider completely disregarded because of his diminutive stature.  His mind is as sharp as a knife and it cuts through all the bullshit of everyone else.  If you like great characters with a lot of depth in a very complicated plot, this IS the story for you.

The final episode of season 1 is complete and I am practically quivering with anticipation for Season 2.

SPOILER ALERT:  Do not read any further if you are just now catching up on Season 1.

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I waited the entire season to get to the funeral pyre of the Khal to see the dragons born.  She, the Khaleesi, naked and beautiful with her baby dragons was the personification of power and beauty and justice in the final scene.  I have to say, like any fangirl, for me, it was friggin awesome.  The dragons which could have been completely overdone were tastefully executed, small yet detailed.  They were perfect for the scene and only hint, as is appropriate, for what is to come.

I have tried to anticipate what Mr. Martin intended in his books, however have failed to be accurate in my predictions.  In my entire life I can honestly say there were few authors who have surprised me with the machinations of a plot.  I am always able to predict where they will go. That has not been the case with Mr. Martin’s books and thus my own love for them.

However, I am willing to predict now before the last few books come out and before HBO even commits to finishing this epic series, that the end result will be John Snow as King of the North.  He will wed the Queen of the South, Daenerys Targaryen, and they will gather all of the people of the seven kingdoms, the people following Daenerys, her dragons, and even the wildlings of the north to fight against the army of the northern undead.  Beyond that I cannot even begin to imagine what the author has in store.  I only know that I am thrilled with the series, and a definite new subscriber to HBO in the meantime.

Notes:

*Morocco was changed to Malta,  I believe, it’s complicated, so look it up

**Although I must admit the role of Daenerys appeals to me as well.  She is Mother Nature personified in all her mercy and all her wrath.  The final scene of Season 1 was sexy and awe-inspiring at the same time. What woman wouldn’t want to play the goddess as the source of all power, the root of all creation and destruction?!  That is the kind of role a woman should almost be willing to kill for….it tears up the screen.