WHY GAME OF THRONES IS SO UNIQUE.
I am a nerd who loves to read books. My favorite genres are fiction, fantasy, adventure and crime/mystery. Over the years, I have read a lot of books of different age groups along those genres. When I was younger, Famous Five and The Five Findouters by Enid Blyton were some of my favorites. As I got older, I got into Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and then the Percy Jackson and the greek mythology books. The older I got, the more gruesome the murders and trickier the plots. I have read many crime/drama/mystery/fiction books that violate the reader's inner peace and throw them into turmoil. Authors that write characters that demand empathy from their readers. I remember reading the Harry Potter books (I have read each book 10 times) and thinking how complex the relationship between Voldemort and Harry is. I also remember hating Umbridge who was just a bitch that needed to be avada kedavara-d out of Hogwarts.
In my 12 odd years of being a reader, never have I ever come across a series like Game of Thrones (Actually, A Song Of Ice and Fire). George R.R. Martin is an absolute genius because of his incredible design of characters. There is no Harry to cheer for. You read the books and you see the show and like I have explained, you find characters you relate to or find yourself liking because of their humor, wit and sass. But those characters are not heroes. They have their own faults, they commit mistakes and they are inherently selfish. At the same time, there is no Umbridge or Voldemort to hate either. Yes, there are characters that are shown to act more viciously and cruelly than others but never ever without reason. They all have plausible explanations for their so called 'villainous' behavior. They might not be acceptable to everyone who thinks they are self-righteous but they are motives nonetheless. Take Joffrey for example. He is synonymous for being hated and being the one true villain in the series. But take a closer look at his story and somehow then his actions seem less cruel and more understandable. Joffrey is born out of incest (hello, genetic defects) and put on a throne that he knows is not rightfully his. Born in a family with adults who are far from normal, this boy has never had someone who cares for him without selfish reasons and act as a role model. He is essentially an epitome of a spoilt rich brat who is acting out for attention. You try being the king of the seven kingdoms. Yeah. I didn't think so.
The characters are so cleverly written that the lines we all draw between heroes and villains are blurred out. So much so that the reader is distressed and trying to latch onto every sign of heroism or villainism (I am making up this word). It is not a pleasant feeling to not know whom to hate or dislike and whom to celebrate. After all, don't we all do this in real life too? Societies are structured around the fact that some people will be revered and others will be hated for whatever the reason. What happens when the lines are fuzzy and you cannot make out whether a character is a hero or a villain. Tyrion is awesome but he is cunning, sly and has his own schemes against his father. Arya is amazing but she has murdered 3 people (a serial killer by 21st century definition). Jaime is awesome but he killed the king and raped his sister. I could go on forever. Such is the problem with every character on game of thrones. Nobody is inherently good or inherently bad. There are no heroes and no villains. There is no black and no white. There is just a million shades of grey.
