Game of Thrones (or more appropriately, the soft-core version of “Lord of the Rings”) has made a huge splash in cultural media. From memes to vines (spoilers on that one), Game of Thrones has taken the world by storm nearly 18 years after its conception in 1996 . The television program has matured from reenacting a book series that few had heard of into an ever changing and plot evolving organism. Don’t get me wrong, the series had a following before “HBO” and “Peter Dinklage” were uttered in the same breath , but it can be argued that it only started to garner attention after the first season hit viewers like a tidal wave.
That being said, Game of Thrones would be no where without its author. George R.R. Martin has taken an integral role in the writing process for the currently running television series, and has taken many liberties in changing events in the translation from print to screen. The adaptation has improved many of the flaws of the books, however, my one complaint is that Martin’s obsession with unnecessary sex scenes has become absurd. To illustrate, there is a recorded 8 minutes and 30 seconds of sexual content in the third season alone, according to the Huffington Post’s purely scientific article. As testament, the character Oberyn Martell was introduced in the fourth season premiere last Sunday by placing him in a brothel. Despite all the miscellaneous genitalia to juggle, Martin still finds time write new material for the series and even previewed some in a one chapter excerpt from the next title “The Winds of Winter.” Tough life being a successful writer.
Having his own unique style of character development, (character development defined: the act of killing off a character before they have developed) Martin has had a hand in molding readers from adoring fans into tear-stained zombies. One can only speculate at this point, but if the trend continues, Martin may eventually have an army of angry Faceless Man-fans on his hands that will stop at nothing to see him brought to justice for his heinous character genocide. His mass-murderous tendencies are only one in a laundry list of that make the “Song of Ice and Fire” series so alluring. His ability to create a vast and intricate world rank with that of Tolkien and Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series. In particular, his attention to the creation of vibrant and varied ethnicities and cultures puts him over the top in his fantasy renditions.
Fortunately for us, Martin’s perceived perv-playing-out-his-own-fantasies and ruthless-and-indifferent-god-of-Westeros personas do not detract enough from the simple fact that he has created something special with his words and ideas. His contributions to the fantasy-fiction genre have created a world-wide phenomenon that warrants more hyphens than this reporter can handle anymore. One can only hope that he never sells out and changes his sadistic ways, and keeps the creative frenzy going.
