Game of Thrones Review!

Alright! Today I'm reviewing Game of Thrones, the highly popular fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin and adapted for TV by HBO that follows the successionship crisis in Westeros when King Robert dies and his cihldhood friend Ned Stark, Hand of the King, questions who should sit on the Iron Throne. What follows is a wild and subversive tale of drama, romance, revelations, action, and development in the most popular fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings. 

This is going to be a review of the first book and the first season of the HBO show - the local library didn't have A Clash of Kings, so subsequent reviews have been delayed. 

As a book, I found A Game of Thrones to be highly engaging. Right off the bat it's a lot of information and character names - luckily, I lived through the 2010s and the basic dynamics of the Houses Lannister, Stark, and Targaryen were ingrained into my mind through the general pop culture psyche. The book subsequently wasn't too difficult to understand aside from all the different Aegon Targaryens the Seven Kingdoms has cycled through, and I found the shifting character POVs to be very well done. 

The plot, while not completely original, certainly feels different enough from other mainstream fantasy to stand out. The inspiration of real-world history and technology with European folklore combines very favorably to flesh out the world and make it into something understandable, which Martin does beautifully through his detailed-but-not-overbearing style of writing. 

As a general rule, the chapters with Jon Snow, Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya, and Ned Stark were the most interesting and robust; reading them, I found the pages moving on their own accord. The others depended heavily on their relation to the plot or the appearances of other, more interesting, characters, but all of it builds seamlessly to a high-stakes finale that splinters the kingdom.

That's my biggest complaint with the book, actually - it ends at a relatively uninteresting point. The king dies, there's a succession crisis, one battle occurs, and the rest is wrapped up so quickly that it feels like the book is missing an entire second half... which it kind of is. As the first in a series, Game of Thrones functions beautifully, connecting you to the world and characters and making you eager to read what happens next; as a standalone story, the ending is vague, unfullfilling, and happens completely off-screen (as it were). I see why it was popular enough to merit so many sequels and spin-offs, and all the key ingredients of successful worldbuilding are there; however, it builds to deconstruct itself, and at the end, nothing is left. 

The HBO series, meanwhile, does a few things well, a few things worse, and improves a few characters thanks the gift of foresight. Larger roles are given to Theon Greyjoy and Orla, major characters in later novels that are completely static in the first novel, although sometimes this works to the series' disadvantage - Tyrion deciding to take the prostitue with him in the book is a completely autonomous decision that's one of his more memorable moments, while in the show the suggestion comes from the prostitute. 

The general complaint I have about the story remains the same - it exists only to deconstruct itself, and the final battle is underwhelming - but the show takes full advantage of the visual/auditory medium and crafts one of the greatest television soundtracks of all time. The powerful and weighty visuals of the intro combined with Ramin Djawadi's stirring orchestral soundtrack combine for the most epic TV intro of all time. The importance of Djawadi's work really cannot be overstated here, the music is what sticks in your head and keeps you coming back after the credits roll. The music connects you to the characters, locations, and the world of Westeros - while it's not as expansive as, say, Avatar or The Lord of the Ring's iconic themes, it is equally as majestic and beautiful. 

That's the real strength of HBO's Game of Thrones - it is truly epic. It's one of the most expensive television shows of all time, and that level of detail shows in the production design. It's also lucky enough to predate the sickening CGI cleanliness of the 2010s, having more in common with Gladiator than copycats like Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time. The sets are huge and elaborate, the lands are interesting and diverse, and the costumes all look brilliant. Many of the castles are perfectly adapted, and the first glimpse at the Wall is truly terrifying. While the Iron Throne isn't as impressive as the book's description, the hedgehog chair has its own level of notoriety and has become iconic in its own right. 

Not everything is adapted as perfectly as I would have liked, and I was especially disappointed by the visuals on the top of the Wall, the infinite stretch of the Dothraki grasslands, and the characterization of Samuel, who is much more crass in the show. But for an epic series based on a medieval fantasy? Only three misses is really impressive, especially when everything else was adapted perfectly (especially the sound design for the shadows and the opening prologue). 

I was really impressed by how the show was able to adapt so many internal character monologues as well - a lot of the dialogue is ripped straight from the book, and the actors do a terrific job portraying their characters innermost desires. I especially loved the moment when Sansa Stark considers pushing Joffrey off the castle wall; it's a small but defiant moment that is entirely internalized in the book, so to see it done so coherently in live action was very well done. 

On that note one of the greatest strengths of HBO's Game of Thrones was the casting. While the children are drastically aged up, the performances are very strong: Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Emilia Clarke, Richard Madden, Sophie Turner, and Jack Gleeson all steal the show in their roles, with the adults Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Sean Bean, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, and Aidan Gillen expertly round out the cast. Everyone is exactly how you imagine them, and the characters are all beautifully portrayed. 

The show is also gritty and violent, although I was never overwhelmed by the violence. The most gnarly scene in the book is adapted very digestibly (the golden crown), although various horse deaths and tongue rippings are given far more detail than was necessary (that is, to say, none). None of the violence detracts from the show, but rather aids in the characterization of Westeros as a medievally-accurate world. 

But there is a massive elephant in the room that must be addressed. Sometimes a piece of media can become so perverse in its sexual content that it supercedes any positive quality that might otherwise exist; Game of Thrones is the prime example of this. 

Listen, the book has more than a few sexual references sprinkled in and the characters are very brazen about paying for prostitutes, but all in all I counted six sex scenes in the novel, one of which is absolutely essential for the plot and the others of which involve Daenerys. Where the book and show differentiate is in the age of its characters: In the book, Daenerys is 13, and the consummation of her marriage to Khal Drogo is genuinely disgusting (Like, I actually had to put down the book and go outside before picking it up again). The sex is never glorified or read for the fun of it, it is always miserable or displays some sort of important character growth/acclimation. 

Baseline, I could confidently recommend the book to an older colleague, but with the warning that if they see the chapter is a Daenerys POV, just know that something freaky is going to happen. 

The show is... decidedly more sexual. In fact, it is so much more sexual that it can only be described as pornographic. Unnecessary sex scenes, lengthy sex scenes, explicit sex scenes, expositional sex scenes, full-on lesbian erotica, homosexual erotica, several instances of rape, all manner of sex is included. 

One scene in particular has the character Littlefinger monologuing about his past friendship with Catelyn Stark while also instructing two of his brothel workers on how to pleasure each other - it's the most lengthy and superfluous sex scene in the show, and all during a piece of character backstory that is absolutely essential to understanding his motivations. It's no wonder that Game of Thrones caused a critic to coin the term, "sexposition," because there is an absolutely ludicrous amount of sex that has no reason to be in the show at all. 

It genuinely shocks me that this was the most popular televison show of the 2010s and a cultural touchstone; I would be embarrassed to admit I watched it without uttering in the same breath, "But it has an exploitative amount of nudity and I don't agree at all with the sexual content."

Overall, I give Game of Thrones a 6/10. "No matter how good the production design and actors are, the pervasive sexual content casts a shadow over the series that makes it impossible to fully enjoy."