Game of Thrones, Best Show Ever

When it came to Game of Thrones, I used to be like Clive James:

“Like anybody both adult and sane, I had no intention of watching “Game of Thrones,” even though the whole world was already talking about it.”

I used to think Game of Thrones was based on a video game. And since I never liked anything onscreen that was based on a video game (not even Lara Croft, which starred Angeline Jolie), I never bothered about Game of Thrones either. Until I ended up watching one episode for lack of anything else on TV. And boy, have I been hooked ever since. And understand why it’s as popular as Star Trek.

First off, it’s not based on a video game. It’s based on a series of books, though I’ve never read them. Set in medieval times, it has swords, cunning, betrayals, even dragons, and as the title suggests, power plays. To top it off, it has awesome dialogs and even better characters, played by actors who play the part perfectly.

There’s Queen Cersei Lannister, the femme fatale who is a “beautiful expression of arbitrary terror”. And her son, the boy king Joffrey, a “character with a terrifying range of virulent psychopathy”. There was Ned Stark, “a good, thoughtful man with a sense of justice”, whose getting killed off came as a shock. Now, of course, the series kills of major characters all the time: it repeatedly violates the seemingly obvious rule of entertainment:

“Show business usually depends on fulfilling our wishes.”

And yet the show remains insanely popular! Is that because the show mirrors life, as James says:

“Everyone in the show is dispensable, as in the real world.”

Or perhaps as the Queen said:

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”

The suave but sinister Lord Baelish once tells the Queen, “Knowledge is power”, to which she responds, “Power is power”. And yet, most characters on the series, including the Queen, rarely wield raw power indiscriminately. Those who do learn why not to the hard way: use of power has consequences, and one thing leads to another, including the shifting of alliances. All of which is what keeps the story going in highly unpredictable yet entertaining ways.

The show has violence and torture, as well as sophisticated maneuvering and verbal jousting. Even characters like Tywin Lannister can be admired. After all:

“Tywin is wise from his mistakes, ruthless in his realism, an armed prophet after Machiavelli’s own heart.”

And finally there’s Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf, who most of us can relate to:

“His big head is the symbol of his comprehension, and his little body the symbol of his incapacity to act upon it. Tyrion Lannister is us, bright enough to see the world’s evil but not strong enough to change it.”