I do a lot of writing, I think I tackle many subjects but I may not be as broad a writer as I am a thinker though. I think about everything I see, and it’s all the time I am awake. I examine everything I encounter, never dismissing a detail if I have noticed it. Sounds tiring? It is!
What I think about a lot, but I hardly ever tackle in words, is TV and Movies. I’m such a fan of a clever screen writer, somebody who captures something and makes you think differently about things. In this piece I’m going to have a go at finding out why, and this is just my opinion, Game of Thrones worked so well, but House of Dragons is a disaster….
GAME OF THRONES
Explores north south relations, pride, nationalism, patriotism, looking at how harsh conditions breed harsh and unwelcoming peoples, whereas states that have wealth are more likely to accept difference. This is just observation, but it works, and it filters down through the structures of each region, becoming a mantra for the citizens to believe in and absorb as part of their cultural identity. “We do not sew” say the Iron born, this is because they steal and pirate, and that is because their lands have no greenery and no livestock, I suppose they could fish. “Winter is coming”, from the northerners, a harsh people from a harsh land where life is difficult and men are men, storage is important to them, their mantra is a warning to themselves to never be complacent. The Lannisters are the gentry, they believe themselves noble and honourable, they are neither of these things of course, they are capricious and entitled brats of our story, just like most nobility. They say that “they always pay their debts”. Lannisters are representative of the sort of old-money people that treat their privilege as a burden, and want others to see it that way too.
The people from the north of the wall depict a meld of Scottish and Viking, they are hard and hardy, warriors, they seek no comfort and revel in their harshness as if it were a competition. The Dothraki play the Mongols, unflinching in their savagery, favouring violence and weeding their own numbers of weakness with it. The Unsullied are the Persian Immortals, ambition and rebellion removed with the loss their manhood making them more focussed. The Golden Army are the USA, they win when they have the advantage in numbers or equipment, otherwise they are blowhards. In the southern lands we find what seem to be older more decadent civilisations that are surrounded by abundant resources with a king that is chooses compromises for a continued peaceful relation. In the far east, on a separate landmass, we have those that established great city states based on slavery and plutocracy.
GOT has interesting characters that have their own stories, and each is based on some harsh reality of being from where they hail, part of a tribal group that the writer borrows from the myths and truths of the history of humanity and what has been believed through enlightenment and ignorance. Some are stoic, like the northern peoples, some hedonistic, like those that come from the lands where the sun shines and grapes grow, some are bitter at years of being serfs, some lack compassion, some lack humility, some are brats, but all are at the very least interesting.
it has shocks, just when you think you can predict what will happen, you’re wrong, and I loved that. Film and TV, and books to an even greater extent, have this wonderful effect called the paradox of fictional emotion where they reach us in an emotional sense even though we know what we are watching or reading is a fabrication. The tremendous injustices weaved into this series, engaging the emotions of the viewer, illicit our ire and our sorrow.
HOUSE OF DRAGONS
It lacks wisdom in the dialogue but it seems to be trying to emulate a Shakespearean play in that we find all the troubles of a dynastic squabble, backstabbing family members plotting in dark rooms. Each scene seems to be a dialogue between two characters proposing an action that never really materialises. It lacks intriguing characters with depth, the main family are hardly diverse in anything other than the colour of their skin. The wokeness in it seems forced, like an attempt to correct the possible ethnic suggestions of GOT and prevent the same criticisms from being levelled. This is where it really suffers, in the fix, where writers have steered away from the sort of injustices that pull at our emotions. When you don’t feel anything for a character, like sympathy or hatred, then you won’t engage with the material.
It lacks side shows, in GOT there was a lot going on, many sub plots that sometimes seem unrelated to the main theme, each left the viewer wanting more than was revealed. HOD reveals everything through words more than intrigue, it leaves little to the imagination and treats the audience like it cannot follow or surmise, it just over explains all things. it has no shocks, I can almost predict what is about to happen because I feel like this story has been told over and over again, and that means a lack of originality, a safe ground methodology to it’s writing. Main characters are preserved rather than replaced, I feel we are going to be with them until the end, whereas GOT was not afraid to murder them off. What is true is that we do not love or loath them, they’re not even intriguing, I don’t know who’s side I am on….
This was a TV show review, not my usual but it was a bit of fun…
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