While a "book reader," I can't claim the hipster credibility of having read George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books "before they were cool." I had heard of the series, but I didn't delve into it until I began hearing how good the television show was.
I did purchase the first of the books before watching the first season of the show (which had finished by the time I decided to watch it) but I lent the book to a friend, as I was still working on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel (which has recently gotten its own adaptation, though a more modest BBC one - whose first episode I saw but have been unable to find a way to watch more.)
I watched the first season, but then I barreled through the other books, finishing, if I recall correctly, the fifth book before season two premiered (the only time I really slowed down was book four, which, to be frank, at least at the time felt really dull - I never cared much for the Dorne plot, and it looks like the showrunners didn't either.)
The thing is, the Song of Ice and Fire books are incredibly dense with backstory. Martin has gone to Tolkienesque lengths to give just about every town or castle a history, and that has provided myriad fan theories ample evidence to argue their cases.
As an example, the most popular fan theory that I'm not even going to bother marking as a spoiler, is the so-called "R+L=J" theory. Which is to say that Jon Snow is not actually Ned Stark's bastard son, but is instead the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and could potentially be the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rather than Daenerys. (Of course, as he is a member of the Night's Watch it's kind of moot, and Jon still might be a bastard, technically speaking. Wait a second, does that mean that Jon Snow should really be Jon Waters, if he's Rhaegar's bastard son?)
Martin clearly has a lot of hidden stories going on in the subtext of his novels, but it's also always interesting to see how a series evolves when it is written over the course of several decades. Take Stannis for example - while he's mentioned in the first book and first season, we never see him. We only know that he's the rightful Baratheon heir that Ned thinks should take the throne rather than Joffrey. But our introduction to him in book two, and particularly his adherence to the Lord of Light religion and Melisandre's influence, really fills out that part of the story (and of course muddies the waters on just who really should be in charge.)
Anyway, there's a ton of stuff that I missed simply trying to keep up with the text-level plot. But now that I'm far more familiar with that (having read the series and also watched the show - which certainly has some differences but tends to stay on the same course) I can dedicate my attention more fully to these subtext questions.
And I've been happy to discover that Martin has laid a lot of groundwork for future developments even in the very first few chapters. Daenerys' first introduction (and man is it weird to remember how naive and innocent she was, and how much she was dominated by her brother) sees her listening to the Red Priests stoking their fires for the night, and Ilyrio invoking the Lord of Light as a blessing. The faith of R'hollor in Westeros is seen as basically a small cult, but it does seem to be pretty mainstream in the Free Cities (though hopefully they do less person-burning.)
It's also within the very first Eddard chapter that we get some of the groundwork laid for R+L=J. We know that Howland Reed is the only person other than Ned to have survived the battle between Ned and the Kingsguard who were guarding Lyanna. She apparently died of a fever, which could have been complications from childbirth. Also, why would multiple members of the Kingsguard be guarding the "captive" of the crown prince during a massive war? The presence of an heir seems really the best way to explain it.
Anyway, another few notable things come up. One big thing is just how young everyone is. Eddard in the books is a mere thirty-five, but was played by a 52-year-old Sean Bean. And of course, the effect of this is far greater when it comes to the children. Daenerys is in her early teens, it seems, while Robb and Jon are I believe fifteen - compare that with their actors, who were all about 24 or 25 when the show began.
Of course, this was definitely for the best. It's easier to read about a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl being married off to some guy she's never met than to see it. And it's not as if that scene in the first episode of Game of Thrones was easy to watch either.
If I spot anything else notable enough to write a whole blog post about... I'll write a whole blog post about it. Anyway, it'll tide me over until Season/Book Six (whichever comes first.)
No comments:
Post a Comment