A to Z Challenge 2015: A - A Song of Ice and Fire/A Game of Thrones

Happy April 1st, all you amazing A to Z Challangers! Today is the official beginning of the 2015 April A to Z Blogging Challenge, so welcome, welcome one and all!

As I revealed in my theme reveal, I'm switching it up a bit from the themes I have used in the past, and just focusing on great stories.

I like to focus more on visiting new blogs and meeting new bloggers than I do on my own posts, so I'll be keeping mine short and sweet, and just sharing a few details about some of my favorite stories that correspond with the letter of the day. So here we are, today's 2015 April A to Z Blogging Challenge story for the letter A:

A Song of Ice and Fire/A Game of Thrones

Technically, the name of the whole series is A Song of Ice and Fire. A Game of Thrones is the name of the first volume in the series, but Game of Thrones is also the title of the TV adaptation, so I've included it in the title of this post to avoid any confusion.

I love this story, obviously, but these challenge posts are the place to really go off about why, so I'll just include the plot synopsis from Wikipedia:

The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world in which seasons last for years on end. Centuries before the events of the first novel (see backstory), the Seven Kingdoms on the continent Westeros had been united under the Targaryen dynasty. As A Game of Thrones begins, it has been 15 years since the feudal lords led by Robert Baratheon killed the last Targaryen ruler and made Robert king.

The principal story chronicles a power struggle for the Iron Throne of Westeros after King Robert's death in A Game of Thrones. Robert's son Joffrey immediately claims the throne with the support of his mother's family, House Lannister. When Lord Eddard Stark, King Robert's "Hand" (chief advisor) discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the offspring of incest by siblings Jaime and Cersei Lannister, Eddard is executed for treason and Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly lay separate claims to the throne. Several regions of Westeros attempt self-rule: Eddard Stark's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Balon Greyjoy re-establishes an independent Kingdom in his region, the Iron Islands. This so-called 'War of the Five Kings' is in full progress by the middle of the second book, A Clash of Kings.

The second story takes place on the northern border of Westeros, where an eight-thousand-year-old wall of ice defends Westeros from the Others. The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch protect the realm of Westeros (land of the seven kingdoms), whereas the "Free Folk" or "wildlings" are humans living north of the Wall. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through Jon Snow, who is introduced as the bastard son of Eddard Stark,[5] and who joins the Watch, rising quickly through the ranks. In the third volume, A Storm of Swords, this story becomes entangled with the civil war.

The third story is set on an eastern continent named Essos, and follows Daenerys Targaryen, isolated from the others until A Dance with Dragons. On Essos, Daenerys rises from a pauper sold into marriage, to a powerful and intelligent ruler. Her rise is aided by the birth of three dragons from eggs given to her as wedding gifts: used initially as symbols, and later as weapons.

Author: George R.R. Martin

And for the TV Show, here is the summary from IMDB:

Several noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros.

Creators: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Stars: Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke

That's it! Hopefully the rest of these won't be so long. Be sure to visit my A to Z Challenge 2015 Assistants: Sylvie from Life from An Optimist's Point of View, and Carrie-Anne Brownian/Ursula Hartlein from Welcome to My Magick Theatre, and then I'm off to visit all the blogs!

Game of Thrones Season II

My DVR broke recently, and I was pretty ticked when I thought we'd lost all our recordings from season one, but that was silly, because they're all available on demand. I've been slowly rewatching them, trying to get acclimated to Westeros and Essos again, as we prepare for the exciting second season of the HBO series that probably should have been called A Song of Ice and Fire.

I mean sure, Game of Thrones is a cool title, and the theme of political power is a strong one in the story, and has dominated the first five books, but I get the feeling that the deeper theme, the one of darkness versus light, and "good" versus "evil" will come full circle in the final two volumes.

I certainly hope HBO will air the entire story, assuming Martin finishes the books before Maisie Williams turns 30. Anyway, here are the things I'm looking forward to most in season two:

Characters:

Melisandre: The Red Priestess of R'hllor, who hails from Asshai in the far east, is not a very sympathetic character in the books, because we all assume her prophecies are false, or at least that she is wrong about Stannis, Azor Ahai, and the Prince that was Promised, but she's a fascinating character nonetheless, and I'm looking forward to her being portrayed by the lovely Carice Van Houten:

Davos Seaworth: The Onion Knight, former smuggler, and eventual Hand of the King (in exile), Davos is a character whose arc is pretty interesting. Arguments can probably be made that he gets too many chapters in the books, and his story is of course still unresolved, but I'm fascinated to see what they do with him on the show. Especially at Storm's End for Melisandre's shadowy climax.

Brienne of Tarth: I would have said Stannis, but I'm not sure I like the look of Stephen Dillane, so I'm going with Gwendoline Christie, as the Maid of the Sapphire Isle. Brienne is a fascinating character in the books, and although her story is much more compelling in the third and fourth volumes than in the second, I get the feeling that HBO will not be sticking directly to the plot as separated in the novels.

Settings:

The Fist of the First Men: The most memorable setting north of the wall, some momentous things occur here in the story, but I'm especially interested to see how HBO's production design team portray this landscape.

Dragonstone: Stannis' seat, this volcanic island at the mouth of Blackwater Bay used to be the seat of House Targaryen, and then passed to House Baratheon after Robert's rebellion, but I'm especially curious to see how it will look in the new season.

Vaes Tolorro: City of Bones, in Dothraki, this ruins, in the midst of the red waste, ends up saving Daenerys and her Khalasar from starvation and ruination. While the walls are cracked and crumbling, they find solace within the city center.

A Song of Ice and Fire

This series could have been called A Song of Onions, Turnips, and the Human Nipple. I'm only kidding, but Martin did seem a bit obsessed with certain things.

Anyway, I just finished A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in this series, on Friday. I'm not really going to review the series, because, for one thing, I don't do reviews, and for another, the scope of this story is just too grand to be analyzed by me, especially when I'm not yet done absorbing everything the tale has to say.

I will talk about some writing mechanics type things that Martin does well. I won't talk about any possible weaknesses, although these books can be very frustrating at times. Mostly I want to talk about what it's like to take nearly a year to read a series, and then be nowhere closer to any kind of conclusion than you were before. This feeling is why I usually don't begin a series until it's all been published, but when I heard about HBO doing the show, I knew I'd be left with no choice.

The nice thing is, now I'll be able to read other books. It's not like I haven't read any other books while I was reading Martin, but each of the books in this series is at least 800 pages long, so there was a certain time commitment necessary to get through them all.

Anyway, this post will end up going on far too long if I try to talk about everything that comes to mind ... maybe I should turn it into a series. No, that time would be better spent on my own novel. But I do want to cover what I think is Martin's greatest strength.

There are no heroes and no villains. Just like in real life, people do not go around thinking "I'm a good guy," or "I'm a bad guy." They just don't. Some people do the right thing, because they were raised that way, or because they enjoy it, or for any number of reasons, but people don't go to war, or on missions, because they want to be a hero. Some people have less than worthwhile motives and goals, but they don't set out to be evil, just for evil's sake. They generally believe what they are doing is right, or that at least the ends justify the means.

Martin is the master are both creating and portraying both sides of the spectrum. There are absolutely no heroes and no villains in this story. The characters you begin by absolutely hating, eventually come around to earn at least some sympathy. The characters you were at first convinced were full of nothing but honor or innocence, or both, reveal their humanity soon enough.

There is one particular section, I believe it was the fourth book, in which I was so over having to read chapters from this one character's point of view, because this character was essentially reprehensible, and yet. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.

Have you ever experienced something like that? Obviously if this would have happened earlier in the story, I probably would have given up on it, but I think the way that Martin built the plot (or lack thereof, depending on your opinion), up to the point where even reading the POV of characters you essentially hated was still fascinating. I basically have no idea how he made it work.

Wow. So this probably makes very little sense to any of you. Has anyone read these books? Seen the show? Even if you've read them, can you make any sense of my spoiler avoiding ramblings?

How bout those Kansas City Chiefs?