Admittedly, I’m late to the game (no pun intended) as usual. However, I have spent the past week catching up on characters, events and enough storyline to prepare myself for tonight’s epic war. In the process of my own writing and having just completed Stephen R Donaldson’s novel, The Last Dark, I have been craving to enter another world of fantasy to maintain my creative spark. Having heard about this phenomenon, I finally took the plunge.
In truth, I started Game of Thrones from the first episode of this current 4th season. There were several tense moments such as the slitting of a man’s throat that turned me off. However, last week’s gruesome encounter enthralled me more because of the reactions of fans on the issue of the macabre. In doing my usual obsessive research, I discovered a related horrific thread called The Red Wedding (aka The Rains of Castamere). In order to understand all the circumstances leading up to The Red Wedding as well as last week’s scenario, I had to quickly gain knowledge of the history and significance of virtually the entire world. No easy tasks this is as there are so many names, characters, places, events to familiarize oneself that I had endeavored this entire past week to view various clips in the background in learning of everyone both within the novel, TV series and people playing them to get a better idea of what’s going on.
Fast forward to tonight’s episode and I had a slight idea of what would happen just on reading the entries from Wikipedia. However, nothing prepared me except for the last second of the epic battle that occurred, which felt somewhat fulfilling and getting more of my creative juices flowing for my own work.
As I re-read entries from Wikipedia, watch clips and just become part of this whole pop culture epidemic, the main thing that comes to mind is “where is this all leading?” From my understanding, there are two novels left with a great deal of characters and plot lines left unanswered. Naturally, the largest issue is the notion of this Iron Throne and who will take it.
As a writer of the fantasy genre, my take is of the following; I feel as though one of the theses that occurred early on was uttered by Robert Baratheon when he mentioned how the kingdom had no purpose and that petty politics and bickering existed. In fact, you could argue that the series thus far has been just a glimpse of the whole picture of what he had seen as the major issue that has split the kingdom.
With each character, you wonder what their destiny will be and of course their link to the throne. People have talked online about which character should be the one that rightfully or deservedly sits on the throne. What people might not consider is that because of each character’s inherent flaws, none truly deserve nor can claim the rightful ownership of that duty. There is no single character that is perfect who can unite the kingdoms under a single banner; and perhaps this is a major underpinning point if we accept that George RR Martin is writing this as a part allegory for our world.
Any single character who claims the throne in their present state will cause conflict because they cannot balance things due to their flaws. Yet their flaws also bring them strengths because they are able to balance things with others. Hence, my prediction is that there will be no single heir but that the kingdom will learn to rule in a split manner where each group can hold their own segment and see fit within their culture how to uphold order throughout the lands.
But against what you may ask? While there is internal strife within the kingdoms, there are larger enemies elsewhere such as the Other/Wight Walkers, whose purpose has yet to be seen. Then there has been mentioned the Iron Bank, reminding us of the modern World Bank and other banking institutions. Then there is something hinted through Littlefinger, “his friends” which do not serve out of emotion but practicality. My interpretation for that is the Iron Bank being one of the major forces acting as a type of shadow government. Looking at our own history, we can see how bankers (like the Rothchilds) had supplied coin to both factions but remaining the true winner. I don’t know and don’t think that they are aligned with the Wight Walkers but it’s difficult at this point to see where their true allegiance beyond book keeping lie.
At any rate, I don’t know where the direction certainly will be going but I do think that we may eventually see a uniting of the different groups. Part of what would happen is cleansing bad blood (ala the Godfather) in order to progress forward.