- Bran Stark - Jill Nagel
What is it about fantasy that makes otherwise open-minded people roll their eyes? No other genre evokes such a negative response (except for maybe science fiction, and even that’s debatable).
Fantasy has had its share of mainstream success—Harry Potter took over children’s literature and the movie box office, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films brought Tolkien fans out of the woodwork, and horror tinged vampire fantasy currently has a spectrum of successful franchises (Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood)—but for many, the knee-jerk reaction is to scoff at anything resembling the fantastical. Why is the dreaded F word so reviled? Does it remind us too much of infantile games of knights and princesses and slaying dragons? Did a childhood of Sunday morning television filled with Hercules and Xena (admit it, you watched them) warp our perception of the genre in its entirety? From cheesy paperback covers to endless stereotypes, fantasy fiction has a big PR problem. HBO is trying to change that with Game of Thrones.
HBO is taking a risk bringing George RR Martin’s epic fantasy series to the small screen. Yes, Martin’s books come with a built in (and ravenous) fan-base, but it will take more than that to become a success. The show must draw in new viewers and to do that it needs to break through the fantasy stigma. The premiere took in 4.2 million viewers over 3 airings and second episode seems to be holding steady (a surprise on Easter weekend). It has been compared to other tent-pole HBO productions like The Sopranos, and The Wire, and has had a slew of positive reviews. HBO hopesGame of Thrones will build its following week-by-week, but if good ratings and positive reviews can’t ease the fears of the fantasy-phobic, what can?
Showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, have stressed the show’s intrigue, politics, sex, and violence to appeal to a wider audience. Like any good story, the focus is on characters and conflicts. Game of Thrones is often toted as ‘fantasy for people who don’t like fantasy’. It is not a sword and sorcery story, with magic wizards casting spells (though there are many many swords) but a character drama wrapped in the trappings of a make-believe world.
At the same time, it’s impossible to deny the fantasy aspects of the show. They exist and play a key role in the development of the series. The very first scene introduces us to the White-walkers, a race of mythical beings held back by a 700ft wall of ice. The young Targaryen princess is given fossilized dragon eggs as a wedding present, a call-back to a time when winged beasts ruled the sky. No, it’s not the lack of fantasy that should intrigue new viewers, but the way the supernatural is handled. In Game of Thrones, the characters are just as sceptical as the audience and that sets it apart. Let’s take a closer look.
Eddard ‘Ned’ Stark
In this ensemble cast, Ned Stark (played exceptionally well by Sean Bean) is the closest we have to a protagonist. He’s honourable and just. He loves his family, but is torn between his home and his duty to his king (and best friend). Eddard is the morality of the show and the first character the audience turns to for guidance, and he isn’t having any of this fantasy stuff. After Ned beheads a deserter( as one does in the North) His ten year old son, Bran, asks him, “It is true he saw the white-walkers?” Ned response with, “The white-walkers have been gone for thousands of years,” and implies that the deserter’s words are no more than the ramblings of a madman. The main character of the series questions the existence of these creatures and it gives the audience someone to identify with.
Benjen Stark
If one person should believe in the perils beyond the wall it’s Benjen Stark (Joseph Mawle), First Ranger of the Night’s Watch. His job is to protect the realm from things that go bump in the night, yet, when Eddard accounts missing rangers with wildling raiders, Ben does little to correct him. Instead, he jokes saying, “Direwolves south of the wall, talk of the walkers, and my brother might be the next hand of then king, winter is coming.” It is clear he has an inkling of something more sinister but not enough to force the point.
Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion Lannister (played by The Station Agent’s Peter Dinklage) is the queen’s dwarf brother (dwarf in the medical sense not the magical bearded miner sense) and is already a fan favourite in the television show as well as the book series. Tyrion is hard drinking, wisecracking, whoring, debaucherer, and one of the most well read characters in the series. He spends his free time reading—keeping his mind sharp as a blade. He travels to the 700ft wall to marvel at its construction and “piss off the edge of the world”. When Jon Snow (Eddard’s bastard son, played by Kit Harrington) Tyrion smirks as says, “Ah yes, [The Night’s Watch protects] against grumpkins and snarks and all the other monsters your wet-nurse warned you about. You’re a smart boy, you don’t believe that nonsense.”
The characters who dismiss the fantastical in Game of Thronesare intelligent, educated adults. They believe the fantastical white-walkers and living dragons are merely stories told to children. Fantasy has no substance and no self respecting person would believe in it. The characters agree with the sceptics in the audience. There is a common ground that can help viewers acclimatize to a genre they’re not particularly comfortable with. The opening scene of the series tells us that Ned, Benjen, and Tyrion are wrong. The white-walkers do exists. There is magic beyond the wall. And maybe, just maybe, fantasy can be more than children’s stories.
