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George Rr Martin - Blog Posts
I think the thing that’s really striking about the got books as opposed to the show is the way Martin never shies away from how physically damaged everyone is left. In the show Tyrion gets a badass scar but in the books he looses half his nose, Briennes teeth are broken and a chunk of her face is literally bitten out. Theon looks like an old man, his body is completely wrecked -
But they’re still not beyond hope. Their stories don’t finish with the horrible things that happen to them, their scars and deformities, they go on, and it’s not pretty and tragic and romantic like a story
And that’s the whole point.
Every single book in the series makes a point about how violence and war is romanticised in literature and history and Martin makes his character a living testament to the reality of war, the ugliness, the trauma, and that depth is just another thing that got glossed over in the show where people stay pretty and everything that made the books special is watered down.
Let your characters be ugly. Let them get hurt. Let them be scarred, and watch them get up anyway.
Just saw a tik tok that said George R. R Martin claims Jamie Lannister could beat Aragorn in a sword duel. First of all Aragorn is Dunedain higher race of men and he has the Narsil sword that injured Sauron, Jamie can’t compete where he doesn’t compare. Second of all Boromir in his past life as Ned Stark was Jamie’s fear so…. George better put some respect on Tolkien coming from an author who can’t finish his pro incest story. All in all this comical author has some nerve making these comical proposals
Disclaimer I didn’t even bother reading this but No He Does Not
Sketch
Queen Visenya Targaryen
If Martin had finished the books earlier I think we’d all have a different opinion on different plot points, but because he waited so long we’ve just built things up in our heads for years now so that nothing he writes can live up to what we want. He’s essentially screwed himself on so many levels.
i feel like when/if twow comes out(when he’s not distracting himself) it’ll divide so many ppl who made theories thinking its canon and if anything contradicts this in a book that’s been cooking for more than a decade(not to mention grrm kinda went everywhere in his world building and characters) , the fandom is just going to go nuclear
It’s interesting looking at the series’ original outline and then comparing it to what the series eventually morphed into. There’s a huge difference between how Arya in book one is written versus how someone like Sansa, Daeneryes, Jamie, or Tyrion are written in later books. Arya in GOT initially comes across as the stereotypical girl-dresses-as-boy/girl-wishes-she-was-boy trope that we see waaaay too often in fiction, especially fantasy fiction (it was everywhere in the 80′s and 90′s to the point where anything feminine in fantasy was seen as unfemminist somehow). I’m so glad the series matured and the characters with it so that we got the complex and rich story that we have with complex and well rounded characters, the types you don’t always see in fantasy.
When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same.
Its honestly sad that antis can’t understand that this line is Sansa’s character. They spend so much time debating the specifics of how spoiled, bratty, bitchy, selfish, and treasonous she is, when the reality of her character is so completely different.
She’s a young girl who, even after all these tragedies have happened to her, can look out upon a garden and be taken away by how completely beautiful it is. Despite how profoundly depressing her life has been for years at this point, despite seeing her family murdered in front of her, she instantly jumps to see how the snow has made a wonderland outside her door.
And then she thinks I do not belong here
She sees all of this beauty around her, and doesn’t think she belongs; she doesn’t think she deserves something so perfect. A far cry from the narcissistic and power hungry bitch that her antis paint her to be, she can’t even include herself in the good she sees outside.
Yet she stepped out all the same
That line says everything you need to know about Sansa. She thinks she doesn’t belong with beautiful things anymore; that she is too damaged, traumatized, or wrong to fit in with a world of whites and greys and blacks. But she steps out all the same. She so desperately wants to be a part of this world, to be a part of the beauty she sees in it. Her snow castle is her part of making something beautiful, of just being a part of the wonder she sees.
It’s just amazing to me that you could read this chapter and miss so much of Sansa’s nature. The raw innocence in which she approaches the failed Godswood is so indicative of her character, and its a shame antis can’t see it.
I think they know exactly what they’re doing. They know Martin’s endgame plans more than we do. Sure their writing has some flaws (every writer has flaws), but considering all the great scenes and characters this show has given us, I’m willing to suspend some of my disbelief for a fantasy series.
is the title of this episode “WE’RE ALL DUMB AS SHIT AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE’RE DOING” or is that just how we’re calling D&D now
Post-Holiday Weekend Henley:
Labor Day has passed. Summer is over. Winter is coming. I give you:
Starks in Henleys.
Game of Thrones...It's All in the Details
I'm currently 200 pages into the third book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords and up to date on every episode aired thus far. Which at this point means I've read over 2000 pages of George's writing and consumed hours of televison.
As such, I would like, for your pleasure sweet Internet Nerd brethren, to make a list of the best minor details in the world of Game of Thrones.
5) Devastatingly detailed descriptions of clothing. Sometimes I wonder if Lord Mormont is wearing boiled leathers and his black mail hauberk in his solar. And then George RR Martin tells me that HE IS! Good. That's just good sense. And, oh no, Littlefinger is NOT wearing an amethyst velvet doublet and cloth of gold embroidered cloak on the streets of Kings Landing! WHAT A FOOL! We get much less of this in the show, and I miss it. Like when you see Loras Tyrell, he has flowers on his armor, but it is no where near as splendid as I'd dreamed.
Pictured: Fashion!
4) MAPS! If a book has maps on the first pages, I know I'm in for a good read. If the map has a detailed key? Even better. With all the talk of battles and castles all over the seven kingdoms, I'd be absolutely lost without a reference of Riverrun to Harrenhal, to Moat Cailin to Bear Island, to Dorne and out to Braavos and beyond.
3) Varys is a eunuch, and you'd better not forget it. It's too late to start taking a tally of it now that I am thousands of pages and tens of hours of television in, but seriously, I have it grasped pretty firmly that Varys is a eunuch. If we were to play a drinking game to Game of Thrones, we would drink every time they mention that Varys the Spider is lacking his "manhood" "stones" "working parts" or any other weird euphemism the people of the Red Keep deem necessary because for not having any, THEY TALK ABOUT HIS JUNK ALL THE TIME. And for how much they talk about it, they never address what I think we all want to know the most which is how the hell does he "make water"?!?!
"I really need to make water."
2) Saying "make water" in place of literally any other way to describe that bodily function. If we're being honest, the use of "making water" is actually one of the very few things that irks me about the world of Game of Thrones. There are so many words I use other than this particular turn of phrase, and yet it is the only one he ever uses. And, as a friend recently pointed out, doesn't the use of "make water" implicitly convict them of not knowing the difference between water and URINE? And for how inconsequential "peeing" or "pissing" or "relieving my bladder" (see what I did there George?) is in my life, somehow for these characters "making water" not only comes up a lot, but also ignites series of important events all the freaking time.
1) The Fossoways! Up to this point, my list has been parts of the books/series that are really things. Small, yes, but quite important things (here's looking at you, maps!). The Fossoways are less so. But that makes no never mind to me because I need you to know that I LOVE THE FOSSOWAYS! I love that there are Red Apple and Green Apple Fossoways. I love that when you introduce a member of that family you have to clarify from which color apple this Fossoway comes. And then to consider that the Stark sigil is a direwolf, Baratheon's have a crowned stag, the Lannister lions, Greyjoy's golden kraken, but the Fossoways? APPLES! Oh, those? They're just apples! Well, are they red or green apples? BOTH! HA HA! THEY ARE BOTH! Who needs fear when you have formidable fruit for foes? I want to know the Fossoway words so I can have them tattooed on my shoulder blades under the red and green apple Fossoway banners.
PS - OH MY GOD. I was googling images for this post and found out the Fossoway words are "A Taste of Glory". I repeat OH MY GOD! TATTOO ME NOW.
