This analysis argues that George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, while a beloved fantasy work, is fundamentally defined by its subversion of traditional fantasy tropes, particularly those established by J.R.R. Tolkien, leading to narrative complexities and difficulties in achieving a satisfying conclusion.
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one of my oldtime favorite fantasy books
is George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones
I have read the whole song of Ice and
Fire book series two times I love the
first five seasons of the show right up
to the moment they killed off the real
main character I even made Westeros into
a map for Heroes of Might and Magic 3 so
whatever criticism of it I may give in
this video it comes from a place of love
a place of deep affection for George RR Martin's
Martin's
work the Lord of the Rings is rightfully
the most popular fantasy book series but
for many people including Me A Song of
Ice and Fire was for a long time
something of a comparable close second
maybe even an equal an American
counterpart to the works of the
Englishman JRR
tolkin when it comes to sheer volume at
least it already surpassed tolkien's
writings of several Main books which are
planned George RR Martin has finished
five plus several books exploring the
fictional universe or telling stories
set in it and the whole text has grown
to a total of over 7,000 Pages he
published the first book A Game of
Thrones in 1996 followed after two years
by a Clash of Kings in
1998 keeping a good Pace he released A
Storm of Swords in
2000 then he starts to slow down the
fourth book A Feast for Crows took five
years and was released in 2005 the fifth
book A Dance with Dragons took 6 years
released in 2011 and now for 13 years
George has been trying to finish the
Winds of Winter the sixth book in 2023
he said I'm 12 years late on this damn
novel and I'm struggling with it I have
like 1,100 Pages written but I still
have hundreds more pages to go it a big
mother of a book for whatever reason
maybe I should have started writing
smaller books when I began this but it's
tough since he published A Dance with
Dragons a whole TV show based on his
book started ran eight seasons and
finished with WID spread dislike for the
way it ended but at least Game of
Thrones has managed to bring its story
to a conclusion a clumsy and unpopular
conclusion with an almost universally
reviled finale maybe that's the real
reason why George can't finish his sixth
book the ending he had originally
planned is too close to the unpopular
show ending and so perhaps he's now
somewhere frantically trying to rewrite
it in 2022 he said that he finds himself
moving further and further away from the
television series though some events
from the show will occur in his
forthcoming novel much will be quite
different as he wrote in his blog he has
admitted that he struggles to make
progress on the book I've been
struggling with it for a few years years
he said in an interview The Winds of
Winter is not so much a novel as a dozen
novels each with a different protagonist
each having a different cast of
supporting players and antagonists and
allies and lovers around them and all of
these weaving together in an extremely
complex fashion so it's very very
challenging he says that is not
surprising first of all why did he have
to name it the Winds of Winter over the
first five books he established a naming
convention for the series a something X
something A Game of Thrones a Clash of
Kings A Storm of Swords A Feast for
Crows A Dance with Dragons The Winds of
Winter for whatever reason and the plant
a dream of spring he's breaking his own
naming convention with the Winds of
Winter and this kind of subverting of
expectations is something he does
frequently throughout the books for
example Ned Stark is set up in the
beginning of the story as a man who is
honest and honorable and disgusted by
the political Intrigue going on in
King's Landing but in the course of the
story circumstances make him break his
principles as he engages in a rather
amateurish attempt to bribe the gold
cloaks his honest disposition is his
most defining trait so in George RR
Martin's story this is the trait he'll
have to break there are countless
examples of that kind of subversion of
an ideal a central part of the knight's
watch is their oath of celibacy but
because Oaths cannot be taken seriously
in georg's fictional Universe there is
right next to Castle black a place
called moles town which centers around a
sprawling underground brole where
Brothers of the knight's watch go to
break their Oaths every now and again I
am also reminded of the time when on the
eve of the Red Wedding Caitlyn is
suspicious of Walder fry and anxious to
eat of his bread and salt because that
would Grant her and Rob the status of
guests and not even Walder fry would
dare to violate the sacred laws of
hospitality and what follows is of
course the Red Wedding in A Song of Ice
and Fire Oaths exist to be
broken compare this just for a moment to
Lord of the Rings in tolkien's Universe
A promise is sacred and words more often
than not have a predictive power over
reality thanks to character's generally truthful
truthful
disposition characters are bound by
their words and when an oath is broken
it is an offense of such gravity that
the oath Breakers remain bound to Middle
Earth as ghosts unable to depart into
the Afterlife unless they find a way to
see their oath
fulfilled when Aragorn in the movie in
his speech at the black gate speaks of a
day when we forsake our friends and
break all bonds of Fellowship he's
talking about the day when Middle Earth
turns into a world like Westeros okay
George are our Martin subverted
oathkeeper in each other's word what's
next how about family ties in Lord of
the Rings Family Ties Are sacred it is
deeply endearing the way Hobbits put a
lot of importance into family kinship
Boromir and faramir's relationship to
denior stays strong despite Deni Thor's
attitude towards faramir just imagine
what it would look like if the family
existed in Westeros and the one time
Family Ties are broken in The Lord of
the Rings when smago murders his brother
Diego the story punishes him for it with
centuries of Torment A's love for her
sister aowin inspires him to do great
deeds and stays entirely wholesome
compare that with how brother treats
sister in A Song of Ice and Fire viseris
abuses danerys Jamie and Cersei have an
incestuous relationship while Cersei
actively hates tyon the barathan
brothers fight each other to the death
actually we have a pretty good idea of
what it would look like if faramir and
denior existed in Westeros and we know
it from the way Balon groy treats Theon
upon his return to the iron Islands
Theon acts like faramir honoring his
family ties since you are robbed of your
other male heirs pretty much says Theon
I will do what I can in their stead and
go invade the north Theon chooses his
family his Blood Ties over his ties of
Friendship with Rob Stark and George RR
Martin's story subsequently punishes him
for it the story punishes him through
prolonged torment not unlike that of
smeagle tolkien's story turns smeagle
into Gollum for breaking Family Ties
while in George's story Theon is turned
into reek for keeping
his I know that the point is obvious by
now that George R Martin subverts
everything set up by tolken but we just
have to mention religion in tolkin
Universe religion is simply true it
corresponds one to one with reality and
atheists do not exist though there are
many who are unfamiliar with the lore of
the Deeds of the Valar but nobody who is
learned doubts the divine order of
things of course there are those who
openly oppose u iluvatar in The Lord of
the Rings movies when the Nazgul Advance
on the hobbits the chorus in the
soundtrack that is playing in the
maker in a vicious Rebellion against eru
uat are not in denial of his existence
this would be the equivalent of not the
Earth's atheists but the Earth's
satanists meanwhile in Westeros the
faith of the seven seems to be there
only to subvert and mock our conception
of organized
Christianity of course the high septon
is a corrupt drunk and of course the
story does everything to rob the main
religious institution of the Seven
Kingdoms of any sense of actual
Divinity next is beuty beauty beauty is
associated with virtue not only in
reality but in The Lord of the Rings as
well but in Game of Thrones you have
characters like Cersei Joffrey and
viseris people with an attractive
exterior hiding a vicious personality
while ugly people like Tyrion and
Brienne are often virtuous in addition
to that beauty such as that of
melisandra is often revealed to be
glamour hiding a hideous physique
underneath but one of the most obvious
examples of The Lord of the Rings being
subverted is the portrayal of the king
compare King Robert barathan fat
slovenly given over to VIIs to King
theodan of Rohan both of them struggle
to rule and both receive a man of Great
Character to help them Robert brings Ned
Stark South to be his hand and Gandalf
takes over the role of the chief adviser
from grima wormtown gandel's guidance
helps Theoden to become a great king but
in Game of Thrones the notion that a
king can be great seems to not exist and
Robert Baratheon gives himself even more
to hunting whing and drinking after Ned
takes over his
hand and it's not like you can accuse
Ned Stark of giving imprudent counsel
instead it just seems that in tolkin
Universe the king who is well advised
can become a great leader while in
Georgia's Universe being well advised
exacerbates the king's negative trait
but that's not enough we have to subvert
the king in Exile also picture Aragorn
the ranger learned in lore and tongues
courteous of speech Noble of character
who dedicates Decades of his life to
thankless service in defense of the
borders of the Shire his equivalent in
Westeros is of course the beggar King
viseris cowardly delusional abusive
sociopath viseris whose existence seems
to be born out of George RR Martin's
desire to counter the character of
Aragorn to subvert tolkin Noble King in Exile
Exile
Trope but the worst subversion happens
in the Game of Thrones show in season
six after Ramsey Bolton loses the battle
of the bastards he's tied up and locked
in a dungeon with his dogs who end up
eating him
alive this one crosses a line a good dog
will starve before it eats its owner you
can mock religion you can create a
universe where people break over all the
time you can paint Kings as obese
drunken degenerates fine but to
undermine the ideal of a dog's loyalty
to its master that goes too far so this
is the horrible disenchanted and
nihilistic Universe George RR Martin has
created and yet despite being explicitly
nihilistic he can't escape an enchanted
worldview every now and again the story
of Game of Thrones develops a plot Arc
that gives the world a sense of
Enchantment only to be cut down and
subverted later on the Mind jumps again
to Ned Stark who was being set up from
the beginning as a sort of protagonist
of the story except that at the very
last moment George chooses not to tell
that story and Ned Stark is
beheaded of course the biggest Trope in
writing is the expectation that every
story must provide closure and George RR
Martin just can't help himself he must
subvert sensing the satisfaction his
readership is about to get from the
closure provided by a concluded story
arc he jumps in at the last minute to
take it away this of course is part of
the unique appeal of a Game of
Thrones but what on Earth could Inspire
George to write a story like that we all
write and speak in recombinations of
phrases and ideas we have heard before
and it is in this recombination that new
works and ideas are created the most
noble work of fiction will draw from the
most noble sources
which the author recombines in a
creative way tolkin sources were the
Bible and Germanic and Finnish Mythology
stories that were with us for Millennia
and have proven their value by staying
in our Collective memory for so long
George RR Martin's sources seem to be an
egalitarian American reading of English
medieval history with a focus on how
terrible and unjust at all was and two
his experience with the Vietnam War
which made him think that all old war is
bad and never worth it many people have
remarked upon the fact that in his heart
George is a 1970s hippie given these
sources for inspiration I'm beginning to
see the Viewpoint that George RR Martin
simply has no understanding of the
medieval European interpretation of
Concepts such as chivalry honor trust
piety and virtue Concepts that used to
carry real meaning for medieval
Europeans are disenchanted and bereft of
me meaning in A Song of Ice and Fire
such as a conception of Knighthood where
any KN can make another night Knighthood
which in medieval Europe was a sacred
Brotherhood with religious connotations
which you had to train for from your
Early Childhood was bestowed upon a new
Knight by his senior in the feudal
hierarchy not by a peer a knight usually
owned land to support himself Esquires
and several men at Arms the shallow
modern conception of Knighthood in A
Song of Ice and Fire leads to ridiculous
situations where the Knight Beric dond
Darian dubs all his Outlaw followers as
knights in the fourth book taking all
meaning out of the
title see if I was a bit less of a
complete full-hearted American Patriot I
would be almost tempted to say that the
story of Game of Thrones is like that
because George RR Martin is an American
and as such carries American values
within him the United States is not just
an uncultured Nation it is an anti antic
cultural Nation culture has been defined
by Nature as Unity of style but in
America you are encouraged to be an
individual unlike the others a disunity
of style an absence of culture is
encouraged and promulgated by American
institutions at home and abroad
America's influence upon the rest of the
world is like an asset corroding local
cultures wherever it spreads that is
what I would have been almost tempted to
say were I not an American Patriot
unfortunately for George RR Martin
mainstream American values which
personally I broadly agree with do not
conform to an overarching narrative that
is fit for a fantasy setting the
overarching narrative that you can build
from American values by taking
inspiration from our national mythology
would be something like a story about
the global spread of Liberty and
equality before the law for example if
Daenerys or the High Sparrow or King
Stannis conquered everything abdicated
power like George Washington did and
instituted a medieval variant of a
global liberal democracy now that would
be a complete story with a clear start
and end point which has a clear
narrative Direction and a moral lesson
in the end that is maybe why people
think that A Song of Ice and Fire might
be some kind of post-apocalyptic science
fiction because sci-fi is such a
typically American
genre in the last episode of the show
they even talk about setting up a
democracy the proper ending of an
American an inspired Story Only to
dismiss it because of course that would
break the fantasy setting for several
reasons a no Lord would give up his
Noble status and ancestral privileges
willingly B the average feudal peasant
is illiterate and barely politically
conscious and C there is no
communication technology to maintain a
common space where Wester white National
political discourse can take place
unless of course you somehow learn to
mass-produce Glass candles from Old Town
or selectively breed green seers to
communicate through the wewood net but
no at the end of the show the idea of a
democracy is laughed at and discarded by
the assembled Council of main characters
that is held in the end and as a viewer
you're not meant to agree with them
you're not meant to watch the scene and
say truly democracy is stupid matters of
State should not be left to a popularity
contest we need a based Monarch to put
things to rights no you are meant to
view the character present as
unenlightened and the conclusion of the
show as an unfortunate product of its
time as backwards and illegitimate even
from the audience's point of view at the
very end Game of Thrones condemns and
dismisses itself it does not believe in
its own values and why would you it was
born out of a vengeful urge to subvert
and the way it ends is a direct
consequence of that the same problem is
encountered by George RR Martin when
writing the books his Grand project is
fundamentally self-contradicting and the
main reason he cannot finish his work
aside from the show reducing his
motivation is that he cannot find a way
to resolve the story in a way that is
both satisfying yet subversive the
reality is nearly all complaints people
raised against the ending of the TV show
would also most probably apply to the
books yes the execution was awful but
that wasn't the only problem the fact
that ARA kills the Knight King is an
excellent example of this everything in
the way the story was structured from
the setup to the backstory to the teases
of the azorah high myth pointed towards
John Snow being the one to kill him that
was the only emotionally satisfying
resolution and of course that was the
resolution that could not take place in
George R Martin's story ever a slave to
his desire to subvert he had to replace
it with something else but to finish a
book series of such Epic Proportions
there must be something Beyond subversion
subversion
George's writing style by the way
doesn't help either he has described
himself as a gardener writer back when A
Dance with Dragons just came out he said
I think there are two types of writers
The Architects and the gardeners The
Architects plan everything ahead of time
like an architect building at home they
have the whole thing designed and
blueprinted out before they even nail
the first board up the gardeners dig a
hole drop in a seed and water it they
kind of know what the seed is they know
if they planted a fantasy seed or a
mystery seed or whatever but as the
plant comes up and they water it they
don't know how many branches it's going
to have they find out as it grows I'm
much more a gardener than an architect
not only is George A gardener he seems
to be a gardener who doesn't know the
borders of his own garden struggling
with its scope compare this to how Sam's
gamji gets tempted by the power of the
ring in the
books already the ring tempted him
knowing at his will and reason wild
fantasies arose in his mind and he saw
some wise the strong hero of the age
striding with a flaming sword across the
darkened land and armies flocking to his
coal as he marched to the overthrow of
badur and then all the clouds rolled
away and the white sun Shone and at his
command the veil of gorgoroth became a
garden of flowers and trees and brought
forth fruit he had only to put on the
ring and claim it for his own and all
this could be in that hour of trial it
was the love of his master that helped
him most to hold him firm but also deep
down in him lived still unconquered his
plain Hobbit sense he knew in the core
of his heart that he was not large
enough to Bear such a burden even if
such Visions were not a mere cheat to
betray him the one small garden of a
free Gardener was all his need and due
not a garden swollen to a realm his own
hands to use not the hands of others to
command Sam resists because he is
content to have his one Garden small but
well tended and he knows where its
boundaries should end but does George RR
Martin know where to set the boundaries
of his garden enthralled by the
Temptation to create an all-encompassing
fictional Universe all inspiring through
its sheer size he plants seeds and moves
on instead of tending one place to full
fruition and so the story trudges on
with no end inside so far it has over
3,000 named characters with a myriad of
individual story arcs and every new
chapter that is released adds yet
another handful of new characters sets
up a couple more
subplots even if George wanted to It
seems impossible to tie together all of
that mess into one cohesive narrative
where at the end of book Seven you can
say that's it the story has a satisfying
conclusion with all plot points resolved
in The Lord of the Rings that was
possible and every plot Arc does get its
resolution the ring is destroyed froos
tra is cured when he departs into the
West Sam marries Rosie and becomes mayor
of the Shire Aragorn becomes king
marries Arwin and has an heir Gandalf's
task his Grand strategy game against
Sauron is done he wins and goes back
into the West with Frodo Mary becomes
master of Buckland Pippen becomes thing
of the Shire and a representative of the
king just as the tkks were in the old
days faramir becomes Prince of eelan and
marries Awin Legolas and gimy depart
into the West together every plotline no
matter how minor gets a fully satisfying
conclusion Bill the pony if you were
wondering is reunited with Sam in the
end and Carries him as he accompanies
Frodo to the gray Havens even the Good
Pony Bill gets his plot resolved minor
political questions get settled in the
end merkwood for example is partitioned
between borings the Woodland realm and
lloran while easterlings and haradrim
are subjugated in subsequent campaigns
by King elsar so it's not like tolken
ignored any character arcs or left any
details unattended in order to finish
his work nor can it be said that
tolkien's story is less detailed in
general compared to Game of Thrones like
George claimed in 2014 when he said in
an interview ruling is hard
this was maybe my answer to tolkin whom
as much as I admire him I do quibble
with Lord of the Rings had a very
medieval philosophy that if the King was
a good man the land would Prosper we
look at real history and it's not that
simple tolkin can say that Aragorn
became king and reigned for a 100 years
and he was wise and good but tolkin
doesn't ask the question what was
Aragorn's tax policy did he maintain a
standing army what did he do in times of
flood and famine
well George he probably did what a good
and wise king would do in such
situations also I don't think George
gets to ask questions on Aragorn's tax
policy or economics in general if he
can't answer them himself this could be
a long video of its own but the Song of
Ice and Fire books are full of economic
inconsistencies and George RR Martin's
limited knowledge of economic principles
leads to characters such as Littlefinger
making economic judgments that are
questionable at best I don't understand
why George had to trouble himself with
economics at all he's a writer and no
one expects his fantasy Universe to
include a realistic simulation of a
fictional economic system tolkien's
wisdom in choosing to mostly avoid the
topic of microeconomics seems more and
more evident but the whole notion that
George RR Martin can ask nerdy questions
about Aragorn's tax policy is silly the
idea that tolken was just vibing whereas
George was going into meticulous detail
is contradicted by the fact that
thousands of pages of Tolan lore all
hang together perfectly in clockwork
timing whereas Martin somehow wrote over
5,000 pages of a story without knowing
how it would end and what his themes
were actually what are the overarching
themes in A Song of Ice and Fire other
than of course the true morality doesn't
exist and the people are generally
horrible the only theme that is present
throughout the books seems to be the
vague notion that war is bad okay George
but you don't show that peace is good
either peace time for Martin is filled
with murder incest pushing children out
of towers inequality unearned privilege
slavery and oppression is it any
surprise then that one of the most
satisfying parts of a Game of Thrones is
the a plotline of the first book
describing the collapse of the political
formula keeping the peace under the
barathan monarchy this was legitimately
some of the best fantasy writing ever
brought to paper from the moment King
Robert goes out hunting and returns
mortally wounded it to when open War
breaks out and the host of The River
Lords is smashed under the walls of
river run those parts are what made me
fall in love with A Song of Ice and Fire
in the first place there are about a
dozen other moments like that strewn
throughout the books George seems to do
his best work when it comes to giving
the reader a vivid impression of system
collapse the absolutely best most
dramatic moments of A Song of Ice and
Fire can all be described as that the
collapse of the barathan regime the red
wedding and the collapse and Chaos in
Rob Stark's Camp the collapse of the
great kalazar after Kal Drogo is
incapacitated the collapse of the
slavers regime in slavers Bay including
the gripping description of the
collapsing reign of the butcher Tyrant of
of
aapor the collapse of Taiwan Lannister's
regime after his and his brother's
deaths the battle of the Blackwater and
the looming collapse of King's Landing
notice how the rescue of King's Landing
happens either almost or entirely off
screen in just a couple of paragraphs
and teron is only told afterwards about
how renley appeared on the battlefield
like a ghost of the late King robbert
wearing his
armor the Battle of marine and the
impending collapse of the slavers Camp
George has devoted hundreds of pages so
far to this still ongoing battle he
seems to Relish in describing the
manifestations of collapse plaguing The
Siege Camp the disorganization the poor
command structure the turncoat
mercenaries or how the leaders are old
vicious men who Inspire anything but
desire to follow them into
battle aside from these descriptions of
collapse there are some 4,000 more pages
filled with attempts to tie together a
story to tie it together without
introducing an unrealistic ur's eyes
Grand narrative that would force the
characters to adhere willingly or not to
some overarching plan in fact men who
believe in Divine prophecy and all
encompassing Grand narratives are
discredited by the story
littlefinger's obsession with red-haired
women stemming from his belief in a
piece of prophetic rme is unmasked as
his or perhaps the author's barely
disguised fetish melisandre's attempts
to manifest aor a high in King Stannis
are destroyed at the Blackwater but
without adhering to one narrative that
moves all characters Great and Small a
complete conclusion for his story with
this many moving pieces just seems
implausible in fact the the only theme
that seems to be consistently present
throughout Martin's books is that
expectations and existing tropes tolkin
tropes must be subverted and that is of
course because his work is and always
was first and foremost a response to
tolken George RR Martin is writing in
another man's genre when tolkin
published The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings he established modern fantasy as
we know it that's completely fine it
doesn't mean that you can't write an
original fantasy story but in George's
case he himself seems to Define his
fictional Universe by how it is
different from Middle Earth he keeps
drawing comparisons to it in interviews
for example in 2014 he said the war that
tolken wrote about was a war for the
fate of civilization and the future of
humanity and that's become the template
I'm not sure that it's a good template
though the Tolkien model LED generations
of fantasy writers to produce these
endless series of dark Lords and their
evil minions who are all very ugly and
wear black clothes but the vast majority
of Wars throughout history are not like
that okay George let's see your
alternative a world that is built on the
attempt to prove tolken wrong we have a
look at Westeros and it seems like he
took a setup from Tolen tried to subvert
its archetypes and made a mockery of it
it is a world without clear delineations
between good and evil a world where
every every expectation and Trope set up
by tolkin is subverted a world where you
can't finish a story in a satisfying way
because that would mean giving into the
tropes and stereotypes of tolanes
fantasy the reason Lord of the Rings has
a conclusion for each of its story arcs
down to build the pony is because there
is a grand narrative Arc moving the
history of Middle Earth readers of the
silmarilian know that tolkien's whole
universe exists by design of eru
iluvatar and follows the Great plan
declared in the music of the inor this
is the master Trope the father Trope to
all those others subverted by George or
our Martin the Trope guiding not only
the Lord of the Rings but every great
story starting with our Bible so far the
story of a song of F and fire does not
adhere to one grand narrative in fact
you can much easier argue the opposite
at the end of A Dance with Dragons the
state of the plot is a gigantic
constellation of lose knots in possible
to tie up through Gardener writing such
a story can be tied up only by design by
making the chaotic Universe of A Song of
Ice and Fire Bend to a grand plan
ordained from outside by the author who
would be taking on the role of God but
by taking on the rule of God whose will
is bending the universe to one scheme
George RR Martin must bow to the master
Trope after spending five books trying
to subvert all others his Rebellion
against tolkin must come to an end if
he's to finish his magnum opus he must
somehow align the current cacophony of
characters to a common tune he has to
introduce God whose omnipotent hand
guides all according to one infinite
plan but how to do so without ruining
the World building George can't just say
that actually the faith of the seven was
real all along he can't do that because
the notion that the official religion is
nothing but belief and Superstition is
too prominent already the readers won't
understand no indeed there is only one
way to tie all knots together only one
way to resolve all story arcs in a
conclusive manner only one constant plot
device that has been in the story from
the very beginning and drives something
like a grand narrative throughout A Song
of Ice and Fire no it's not the
targaryan restoration the reader May
sympathize with danys but if she were to
reclaim her grandfather's throne in
King's Landing the whole story would
just be reset to the beginning with
targaryens ruling over the continent
again the wheel would be the opposite of
broken it would have been mended and
would continue to roll on as if Robert's
Rebellion had never happened I suppose
this would be a fitting way to end a
story the main point of which seems to
be to undermine and subvert tolken
tropes to say that everything is
actually pointless conflict is bad and
it's all just Petty squabbles of
carbon-based life forms among the dirt
of their home planet it would be as
fitting a way to finish the books as
just giving up and not finishing them at
all and Rob the readers of satisfaction
one final time but there actually is a
better way a way to give meaning to the
story to tie its many strands together
with a common narrative Arc It Is by
using the plot device that has been
lurking at the edges of the known world
since the very first chapter of a Game
of Thrones the only way to Give A Song
of Ice and Fire is satisfying conclusion
is to have the others
win yes with the victory of the white
walkers suddenly everything makes sense
and fits perfectly together one the main
plot Arc gets resolved for the first
five books the main plot which The Story
begins with has been nothing but a
nervous wait for the others to finally
reach the wall it would be so silly if
all that buildup was wasted like in the
show where the others breach the wall
and get defeated as soon as they
encounter the first maj human
Fortress Two George RR Martin gets to
subvert expectations one more time
everybody expects the story to have a
happy ending imagine the satisfaction on
his face when he gets to pull off
something like the net Stark execution
but for the whole book series three if
George had slowly killed off every named
character from the TV show the final two
seasons would not only have worked
better but they would have been probably
the best versions of the themselves
imaginable because the entire concept of
Game of Thrones was that the fictional
world is living harsh and realistic
unforgiving and that the comfort of plot
armor does not exist four most
importantly if the others win the story
gets meaning and the meaning is that if
you behave like the characters and
society as a whole do in A Song of Ice
and Fire then God or the narrative if
you prefer will send White Walkers as punishment
punishment
five it's simply a fact that George does
his best work when writing about system
collapse just imagine how well written
how tragic how Vivid the description of
a final total collapse of westerosi
society would be six there is that rule
in The Lord of the Rings universe and
perhaps in reality as well that evil
cannot create but only corrupt and
subvert that which good has created
Martin would escape this rule his story
would no longer be just a subversion of
tolkien's tropes but would now stand
firmly on its own it would have its own
message about Humanity's corruption and its
its
consequences seven even the children of
the forest gain their meaning in the
show they create the first white walkers
but are otherwise just victims of human
aggression who Harbor vague feelings of
ethnic resentment they are like some
kind of subverted version of tolkin
elves that which Galadriel foresees the
elves will become once the power of the
three rings will depart from Middle
Earth and they will diminish into a
rustic fol of Dell and Cave dwindling
slowly to forget and be forgotten
gradually disappearing from human
Ken instead the children of the forest
could be the instruments of God perhaps
somewhat echoing tolan's elves whose
fate is tied to that of Arda and to the
will of eru
iluvatar When the Children of the forest
create the others in the show it could
be framed as them doing the all Maker's
bidding by creating the Divine
punishment like the Deluge in the
Bible so if the white walkers win then
must everyone die no I wouldn't go so
far a proper ending would be one of
reconciliation one where earing Humanity
redeems itself through repentance for
example like this first the oil maker
reveals himself through bran perhaps as
some form of Overlord of the wewood net
and appoints bran as his represent itive
and adopted son blood Raven was supposed
to be this originally but circumstances
dictated that it is bran now because he
is not stuck Beyond the Wall grown into
a tree meanwhile the white walkers do
not care for the petty intrigues of the
venerable great houses of westos their
steady Advance is like a tide that
cannot be turned back the last great
hope of Westeros is Daenerys Azor a high
reborn returning with three fire
breathing dragons to rescue her home the
prophecies spoke of a prince that was
promised but it's actually a princess in
yet another subversion of sexist
expectations she falls not from a blade
of a white walker but to Palace Intrigue
stabbed perhaps by Jon Snow like in the
show truly the corruption and
selfishness of the Lords of Westeros
knows no bounds now picture a battle the
second Field of Fire where the Marshall
forces of the Lords of rock and reach
attempt to stem the undead onslaught AED
by the last surviving Dragon Chained and
bound to the ground so as to be
controllable and used as a gigantic
flamethrower its heavy chains prevent
its escape from the cold claws of the undead
undead
whites picture the P of King's Landing
when Queen Cersei thinks she can wipe
out the White Walker leadership all at
once by learing them into King's Landing
and then igniting all the wildf fire
hidden under the city but the others
learn of the scheme perhaps being able
to Eaves drop on Mer's Plans by having
access to the listening abilities of the
werewords wood of the red keep King's
Landing that den of corruption and
villainy burns for nothing all great
houses of Westeros fall one by one as
the second long night descends upon the
world as a final plot Arc in the story
bran leads those who would listen to him
to a refuge revealed to him in a green
dream by the O maker the arbor that
southern island off the coast of Oldtown
Harbert on the fittingly named Arbor the
repentant remnants of humanity survived
the long night their hearts and Faith
sustained by a dream of
spring anyway I hope that as soon as I
upload this video George RR Martin just
happens to make an announcement that he
overcame his writing difficulties that
he finished the Winds of Winter and that
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