Some Thoughts on "A Game of Thrones"

WARNING: This may contain spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So I finally finished reading George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. I have to admit that I was at first hesitant to read it, fearing another Twlight-like hype which would turn out to be utterly disappointing. And because HBO created TV series based on Martin's works, I told myself that I'd watch the series first and if I liked it, I would read the book, too.

And because I was instantly a fan of the series after watching the pilot episode, I saw myself fishing for a free e-book. (I cannot buy more books at present given that I still have MANY I have yet to read and storage is becoming a problem.) My wish was granted and every time I'm free, I read. I find it an easy read, compared to other fantasy genre books I grew up with. Aside from that, one difference is that Martin's books has sex in it, but not as graphic as to be labelled as pornographic. (The only fantasy book where I encountered sex would probably be Thomas the Covenant by Donaldson.)

Game of Thrones Season 1 is happily faithful to the original. I could easily recall the scenes in the series while reading the book. No wonder the first season has gained a lot of fans, fans who probably first read the book before watching the series. But the one thing that the book has advantage over the series is that in the book, we see that the novel as a whole is composed of stories from different characters' point of view. As such, we are invited to each character's thoughts and feelings. The fears of a young widow who had briefly enjoyed a blissful marriage with a powerful lord, the feeling of belonging to nowhere from a young bastard, the contempt of a man who has to live with physical deformity, etc. It is hard not to like many characters for in one way or the other we can relate to them through their hardships. Another brilliance I see in Martin's work is that each character has a certain dynamism to him/ her that it will leave you guessing how far a character will retain his/ her admirable traits. 

And with the number of characters, it is indeed hard to see who really is the main hero, if ever there is a main hero at all. Yours truly has read but one of the five books so I do not have the authority to comment about the book yet. But based on the title of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, I will have to guess that at least two of my favorite characters are central to the whole story: Jon Snow (Ice) and Daenerys Targaryen (Fire). (Of course I might be mistaken. And yes, I fight every urge to google anything about GoT because as advised by my friends who were already established fans even before I watched the series, the internet is full of spoilers. So I try to avoid them like the plague.)

Moreover, these two characters started out as underdogs. Snow is the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, often ridiculed by people and given the cold shoulder by Catelyn Tully, the legitimate wife of Lord Eddard. Dany, on the other hand, was first portrayed as meek and wholly obedient to her vicious brother Viserys but gradually transforms into a strong woman as she experiences many difficulties. In addition, the desires of both remain to be fulfilled. Among the principal characters, these two have the most ambitious desires. Snow dreams of holding his father's sword Ice one day, but he has five half-siblings before him. Dany dreams of reclaiming the Iron Throne which she thinks should be hers by right, as a Targaryen. How can she do it when her husband has passed away and her army is but just a group of a few weak people and her dragons still weak and small? She has to survive through the ordeals first and patently wait for the day her dragons become powerful enough to fight her battles.

Other characters of interest are Arya Stark, daughter of Eddard and Catelyn, half-sibling to Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister, a dwarfish man who fights with his wits. A tomboy, she is very different from her elder sister Sansa who always tries to be prim and proper. At the end of the book and the series, she witnesses her father being beheaded in public and is carried off by a familiar friend who will take her to Winterfell. I eagerly anticipate her reunion with her pet wolf Nymeria. (Yes I firmly believe their parting is temporary.) Tyrion, always ridiculed because of his deformity, is born to the scheming and power-hungry House Lannister. Despite this, he seems to be the only Lannister who is thoughtful of others. For that, it makes one wonder whose side he really is on.

There's a whole lot more to be written about Martin's works and I expect myself to read the other books as well. (I just hope he doesn't kill off my favorite characters. I fear he has a tendency to decide that a supposedly major character must die, as what he did to Eddard Stark. And watching the series, I was kinda hoping that something divine and supernatural would intervene but then off his head gets chopped and for a moment I felt as though I lost all my strength, like Sansa and Arya. This made me believe that anybody can get killed, that this is an unusual work where honorably good men die.) As of writing, I am already on episode 5 of the TV series' season 2. Season 2 is very different in that suddenly empowered female characters are emerging one by one.