Swords, incest, blood and babes

A few years ago, picking up ‘A Game of Thrones’ started a love affair that kept me up through the deep hours of midnight, and ended 5000 pages and 4 books later. I was swept away into the world of Westeros George R. R. Martin created and was entangled in the intricate plots and characters that the story is lived through.

A Game of Thrones is the first book in the epic fantasy series that is A Song of Ice and Fire, which follows the struggle for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, set against a backdrop of political conspiracy, warring Houses and incest. The death of the King’s Hand (the Prime Minister) triggers a cascade of events that would usher the end of the peaceful era, and threaten House Baratheon’s place on the Iron Throne. Across the Narrow Sea, the last two remaining bloodline from the deposed House Targaryen are now of age and plot to return to the Seven Kingdoms with vengeance to seize the throne they believe to be rightfully theirs.

A Song of Ice and Fire is no doubt one of the most captivating epic fantasy series of our generation: it weaves a colourful cast of characters, a complex, mind-boggling plot that never cease to conjure up new surprises, and a highly sophisticated world and its equally intricate politics, altogether in a trademark dark realism: people die in this story and the fact that you are a main character does not spare your head at crucial moments. It was one of those books that is good enough to make you feel as if reality (a.k.a. moments spent not reading the book) is an aching dream and the real world is whenever you get back to reading the book.

So it is to some disappointment initially when I heard that A Game of Thrones would be made into a TV series. Where is the honour of being translated into the silver screen in an epic 400- million dollar trilogy that was bestowed to the reigning fantasy book of the last generation? I won’t be able to witness the glory of Winterfell and King’s Landing and watch the battles unfold in Dolby Surround Sound and 3D? Damn that was disappointing.

However, during the build-up to the release of the first episode, I realized that being made into a TV series may actually do the books better justice than a film trilogy. To think of it, the first book itself (A Game of Thrones) is as thick as all three Lord of the Rings put together. Hollywood cut out a substantial amount of content to fit LOTR into a trilogy. To fit the whole of the Song of Ice and Fire series (7 books, with the last 3 on its way) into a trilogy would require cuts so deep it makes austerity Britain seem generous! How about one movie per book, ala Harry Potter? With the staggering cast of protagonists and ultra-complex politics in A Song of Ice and Fire, to make a movie out of just one of the book would abridge the story into such simplicity it loses its essence. Unless of course each movie is a 6-hour long epic film, which I wouldn’t not mind sitting through, although I am not sure if the rest of the people who have yet to read the books share my sentiment. Anyway the TV series would be made by HBO, who churned out TV greats like The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire and the wire.

After watching the first two episodes of Game of Thrones, I am of opinion that the TV series is set for an epic win.

The CGI and set is good enough to transport the audience into a believable fantasy world, and is stunning to behold. The castles, the medieval stone rooms, the busy, muddy courtyard, all brought to life in an opulent and detailed set. The CGI panorama of King’s Landing is stunning as well. It all feels like a movie!

Most of the characters were done to satisfaction. Sean Bean plays a wonderful Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, while Mark Addy excels as King Baratheon, a bashful and merry spirit trapped beneath the responsibilities of governing a kingdom. Lena Headey graces the screen as the cold-hearted, darkly ambitious Queen Cersei Lannister and Emilia Clarke bares all and yet retains a helplessness and innocence as Daenerys Targaryen, who would be interesting to watch as she grows to fulfil her destiny. Harry Lloyd is absolutely irritating as Viserys Targaryen, the naïvely ambitious older brother of Daenerys, which is how the character is supposed to be as par the novel.

The TV series do fall short on the character development section. But what could we expect, the TV show is already condensing so much content into ten 1-hour episodes. Some part may be a bit hasty, but generally, the show’s pace is all right. Its already an achievement for the show to circumvent with some success what could be considered the sole flaw of the book, more of a necessity rather than a flaw in writing: the first 50 pages are a bit of a drag, because there are so many characters to introduce, nothing much happens! But it’s essential in order to populate the stage with such a large cast and to lay the ground for such an elaborate plot.

While fans of the book watch with glee as each of George R. R. Martin’s creations are brought to life in the TV show, those who have not read the books might struggle to keep up with who’s who in the enormous cast of characters. Show, not tell, goes the adage for good scriptwriting, but it is a dilemma when you have such a vast number of protagonists. Short of flashing character labels upon the introduction of each character, I really can’t think of a way to familiarize the characters to a new audience effectively. The filmmakers of Game of Thrones wisely picked artistic integrity by opting to reveal characters by slowly trickling down the identities as the story unfolds.

Importantly the TV version stayed faithful to the books. Story and characters are all as they are in the book (at least till now). The more adult themes of the story- the incest and the sex -are undiluted. HBO has its experience with sex and nudity in Rome and its great to see that they did not shy away from it in Game of Thrones. Some reviewers complain about the excessive nudity in the show. However I think its great that those scenes were done with no punches held, not just because I’m a guy, but because it is the way the book was written and they are pivotal to the characterization and plot. The example of The Golden Compass, where the religious theme is watered down to cater to US audience, testifies that compromising the central elements of a story in the name of political correctness or mass appeal results in a film that is but a lame shadow of its source book. It now remains to see if HBO would stay true to the goriness of key events in the book. In the two episodes shown so far, the amount of blood spilled seems promising.

A Game of Thrones is a captivating read for its spectacular world, character and politics. HBO seems to have got it right, and hopefully, as Game of Thrones unfold, it would captivate its audience as the book does. It’s a high call for a series of books written by an author hailed as ‘the American Tolkien’, but if Peter Jackson could do it, those guys at HBO (Benioff and Weiss) better do it as well!