Everything has to have a beginning. Even our universe has one though we are still figuring out how the mega event happened - at least in this dimension - to have a deeper understanding of the world we live in. Is it going to be a short primer on Astrophysics? Nay.
4 years ago, my tryst with the famed and acclaimed Game of Thrones began when I watched the first few minutes of Season 1 Episode 1 where the almost immortal and dreaded White Walkers were shown and the epic theme music erupts like a fountain with the Da Vinci-esque settings announcing the cast. Like millions, I was not only glued to my seat but also hooked to it like the fisherman baiting a piscine with his fish hook. The arduous and fascinating journey commenced not only for the characters but also for me.
7 kingdoms. Plenty of kings, lords, knights and bastards. Magicians here and there. And the dazzling Dragons. GoT is indeed a perfect recipe for a very complex story from the mastermind GRRM. Though I have not yet read the books, I could still see shades of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings kind of feel when it came to sketching out the extensive characters, several kingdoms and new languages to such an attention to detail. I was completely amazed and stunned by the spectacular level of intricacy he had given to each and every person, place and thing.
Shredding the veil to pieces, GoT is nothing but a multi-layered and extremely complicated chess game where every individual tries to gain the upper hand by employing strategies and tactics to subvert their opposition - either single-handedly or by an alliance or by collusion to have a title shot at the Iron Throne using mostly (99.9999999%!) treacherous and deceitful means to satisfy and fulfill their objectives. But,one thing is rest assured. This is one chess tournament where Viswanathan Anand cannot even think to salvage a draw! The outright winner is.....No no no..It's neither Dany nor Snow but GRRM himself. More specifically, the victor ludorum has got to be the ultra bad GRRM present inside GRRM who is responsible for the wide spread butcheries and the rampant Butterfly effect prevalent in the GoT universe! Getting down to the brass tacks, it's like the Good GRRM tries to check mate the bad GRRM but the latter always has an ace up his sleeve to disturb the rhythm of the game.
Drugs. Booze. Incest. Rape. Nudity in all permutations and combinations - Frontal, Full-Frontal and Dorsal. Kids. Men. Girls. Ladies. Women. Not even old women and old men were spared when it came to explicitly bare their bodies onscreen. Likewise, only animal sex has not been shown in the series! Gays, Lesbians. What not! GoT is nothing short of free porn packaged with wars, conflicts and political schemings at the highest level!! Jokes apart. GoT is a classic example which can be shown as an useful learning tool to people to see the negative effects for themselves when a state or a country falls into a steep decadence of no return and how a society stinks to high heaven when lawlessness & power blind those who are in authority fixated only to their craving to holding on to their position instead of improving the lives of the people. I am not here to preach or lecture a moral lesson but the fact is that the majority people are usually like how the rulers are. When the head is not proper, you simply cannot complain about the tail!
As a kid, I had a strong inclination to beat Draco Malfoy black and blue whenever I used to devour HP. The same kind of feeling, if not magnified x100 times, I experienced when Joffrey strutted around the scenes like a prick and manhandled everything in sight. I felt the intense emotion to give him a tight hard slap that he would never forget in his life to blow off my steam. Luckily or unluckily for him, he was poisoned!
As we are on the topic of poisoning, I am not sure what GRRM has with marriages. He is so obsessed with not giving us a proper wedding. It's either Red Wedding or Purple Wedding. The entire internet broke out into an unanimous frenzied tizzy when the only decent people on the show till then - The Starks were brutally murdered. I am waiting for the day when an episode would be titled "Happy Wedding" and an actual happy wedding takes place with no killings!
Speaking of killings, none of the characters are spared - be it major or minor. Death wickedly smiles, laughs and patiently waits to embrace them at every step and turn the characters take. It seems like the sword of Damocles hangs above each and every one of them. Such is the extent of the deepest level of political subterfuge which has came out from the genius stables of GRRM. It was a really good thing that he wanted to be a writer. He would have given the cops a run for their money had he been a master criminal with such brains!
Mentioning of master criminal, I am silently reminded of Sidney Sheldon. SS was not a fantasy writer but a fantastic weaver of fiction. When you analyze his writings, you could see a distinct pattern that will emerge from all of his books -Women are the protagonists. However, they are treated very cruelly and badly by men and the society. They are used as sex objects and ultimately become mentally and emotionally strong to rule the world! The pattern sounds familiar?? In GoT also, we find that the leading players are all women who were savagely toyed around by vicious and cold-blooded men as ragged doormats - be it the good Dany or the ruthless and merciless Cersei or the case hardened Stark kids. The chief hero of this epic saga could have been anyone amidst the many likes of machiavellian Little Finger, extremely logical and cool-headed Tyrion, King Slayer Jaime and our very beloved Jon Snow but GRRM focusses particularly on Cersei and Dany to sit on the coveted prize. However, it was really nauseatingly sickening and gut-churning moment for me when I had to watch Cersei (Yeah! She is extremely vile and bad) to take up the Walk of Atonement that literally lasted for eternity! with the Sept shouting 'Shame, Shame' with a tinkling of the bell. I was completely shell-shocked that the directors had given so much extra screen time for the scene to prolong to such an extent before Cersei was draped in her clothes when the same time could have been reserved for showcasing the dragons.
GRRM gives the magical touch by introducing the inhuman White Walkers and the fearsome Dragons as early as Season 1 to give us a sense of foreboding that the White Walkers would walk with their army of wights any time and also a strong bonding with the dragons who can decimate the wights with their fires. 'A Song of Ice and Fire' is indeed an apt title for the epic fantasy series that has really exploded like an active volcano ever since GoT had its first release in 2011. Conflicts, Violence, Cruelty, Barbarism, Revenge, Torture, Betrayal, Sex, Mind Games, Sorcery, Loyalty, Love, Friendship, Finding your Inner Strength - GRRM neatly packed a humdinger of a story that left everyone in tears and the whole social media to buzz like a busy bee for the next one year debating whether Snow was alive or dead when Jon Snow was snowed by his own brethren at the Night Watch when Season 5 ended on a dramatic note. Theories and speculations were travelling at a speed faster than light that would have left even Einstein scratching his head for the answer that was on the mental lips of the utterly shocked audience. Season 6 review is for another blog. So, I am not going to touch upon it now.
With mega serial scripts like "Kolangal" and "Metti Oli" running for more than 1000 days, GoT is that prized picture perfect product by GRRM for any Indian Soap director to run the show not only for 1000 days but also for generations together without a break! I sincerely hope that GRRM doesn't sell his rights to any Indian mega serial producer but simply HODORS them!!
Disclaimer
This blog is just my personal observation on the highly popular TV series GoT and its revered creator. All the opinions and perspectives are solely mine and mine alone with absolutely no intention whatsoever to defame anyone in anyway or any manner.
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