First I must say that my literary soul is crushed and it will bother me to the end of my days that I didn’t get to experience the unspoiled shock of not only the Red Wedding but all of ASOIAF. My own fault but nothing I can do now. Finally digested last night’s Game of Thrones episode and I am a mixed bag of emotions. I’ve chosen to ignore everything I know about writing literature/fantasy and just enjoy Game of Thrones and the directions it takes. This series is so unique in that it goes against everything you know and is right about literature/fiction/fantasy but the characters/story is so good that you can’t let it go. It’s not what I would do, and if I did I would do it differently (ie:Red Wedding), but it is what it is so you gotta lose your ego and accept somebody else’s vision. It was still great, the suspense throughout the episode was killing me. Brutal knowing what was about to go down yet all you could was watch. I was pleasantly surprised that they included scenes with Grey Wind trying to get out, the Dire Wolves have been far too absent throughout the series. I’m not gonna get into what I would have done differently b/c I could go on for days haha and it’s not fair to the TV show. It’s not easy adapting books to the screen and it’s disrespectful to just ignore their work and act like my own is the only good way. The way it was done was fantastically brutal and did justice to the event I think. I wonder if they will show the 1 thing that stuck with me for a long time after I read about the RW, Grey Winds head sewn on Robb’s body. That little detail really bothered me, would be tough to see on screen. I will say I did not like how they killed Lady Talysa, going after shock value by building up her pregnancy and stabbing her in the belly. Just uncomfortable and not needed, it’s lazy writing to appeal to the lowest common denominator. No major complaints with anything else, I just would have done it a bit differently. My major complaints are more directed at GRRM for the direction he has taken these amazing characters/story.

 I spoiled myself after Season 2 with ‘A Wiki of Ice and Fire’ because I just couldn’t wait to see what happened to Joffery, I needed to know how he died. After being completely underwhelmed by it I said oh well and spoiled the rest. I was still planning on reading the books until the Red Wedding. But I realized I had just ruined the surprise/suspense of 1 of the biggest twists ever and my enthusiasm was killed seeing how all the good characters got screwed and the bad characters get let off the hook. And on the rare occasion a bad character gets his it’s usually via someone you don’t want to see dishing it out. Because of that there are a lot of twists/surprises in the story, which are awesome and what you want with books/shows like this. But having looked ahead, they are coming at a great cost. I realize I am making critiques without having read the books but I am up to date on all the events/character developments. The story has suffered and good characters have lost a ton of steam doing basically nothing.

The thing that pisses me off the most about this is that he is doing it on purpose. And not to try and tell a good story, but b/c he hates clichés and wants to be unpredictable or something. Well unpredictable doesn’t always = good. Sometimes the challenge is to take the obvious thing and see if you can make it exciting. You can still shock people with twists & turns but in my opinion he has gone about it in a way that disrespects the reader. As a writer you have a certain responsibility to the reader, a trust that they will invest time/emotions/energy in your characters/story if you do everything you can to tell a good story. But GRRM is trying to go against the grain of telling a good story. In fact, it seems his goal is to take all the good out of this story instead of actually telling a good story. Any shred of hope is usually smothered. The point of investing in a story is so that you can see Good overcome but he is going out of his way to ‘break the rules’ so to speak. You gotta be a dark soul to take pride in writing story/characters like this. And he has said he envisions a bittersweet ending. Given everything he has done to this story I could never trust him with my investment to bring it to a satisfying conclusion. I have my ideas but I’ve stopped wasting my time b/c I can only think on a level of telling a good story, I can’t fathom some of the decisions he makes. And thinking of good endings will only piss me off when I see him go for a shock value, cliché-killing ending. Hope he remembers that unpredictable does not always = good.

That’s another unique thing about this series. I am so impressed and grateful GRRM created this amazing world with all this history & characters yet I am also so disgusted with him and what he has done with it all. It’s still awesome in spite of my criticisms but I think different interpretations by different people could be better. Not just me, lots of people are just as invested in this world and have come up with great stuff. I mean that as no disrespect to GRRM but as a compliment to the amazing world he created.

I have a similar feeling right now as I did when I spoiled the RW for myself, now what? Basically nobody left to root for and most of the characters are geographically separated doing nothing important. And then there’s the trust issue, why invest when GRRM builds up good characters to take them down. There’s no way I can just stop watching, too invested now. But my enthusiasm is way down b/c I know the direction its heading and the style its being written. I’ll be following very closely to see how he ends it b/c that will go a long way towards justifying some of the decisions he has made. There are ways to bring this to a conclusion that I think would satisfy most fans but again that’s going on the assumption he wants to finish this story the right way. He hasn’t written any of the earlier stuff like that so I can’t see him starting this late, ending will probably be shocking but underwhelming.

I’m sure people will ignore this or deem it irrelevant when they hear I haven’t read the books but I don’t need to read them to figure out the story. If the story was good I’d read them but given how it’s gone I know I’d be pissed off if I had. It does kinda feel silly thinking I could tell GRRM how to write best for the world he created but that’s the thing about fantasy. Once you put it out there, it’s not just yours anymore. Not if you want any kind of success from it. If your creation has people’s imaginations going wild with ideas, you have something special. Fans want whatever they invest in to be the best it possibly can be and that’s why you get the harsh reactions when things don’t live up to expectations. I have a creative mind so when something captures it I can’t help myself from trying to contribute. Game of Thrones has captured it hard which sucks b/c of how it’s written and all the conflicting emotions it brings out.

In a way I’m glad for this version of GoT, it has been a great lesson for me but I’d never do it again. If somebody else creates a world this kick ass and makes the same ‘against the grain’ decisions just to fuck with people, I’m out. Once is more than enough for me