Some Misconceptions Regarding a Song of Ice and Fire

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for those who have not watched the HBO series, Game of Thrones.

I'd like to address two misconceptions regarding Game of Thrones and the connected book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and share what I deduce from those misconceptions.

The first misconception I'd like to address is that George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series will someday be completed. George probably isn't going to finish his series of books because he already received what he was after: a successful business franchise. That's all it ever was for him, it seems. He isn't interested in contributing to the anthology American mythology. He just wanted to write a series of paperback fantasy novels that would sell. His themes are meant to incite intrigue to keep the reader reading. Did he write the series for posterity? Perhaps a little, but I don't think that was his main objective. I'm open to him correcting me if I am wrong. This is not meant to be a mockery of him. That's just the way novels are written these days. Novels are marketing tools first, and cultural artforms second.

Do we now live in an age when valuable stories are no longer valued beyond their monetary worth? If someone is just looking for a good story that checks all their boxes, Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire do that, I suppose. But what is the series as a contribution to American culture? Doesn't it just prove that we value monetization over all else? If so, what does that mean for us as a culture?

Another misconception is that Daenerys is good. Here comes the spoiler if you haven't finished the series. In a nutshell, she returns evil with evil. Sure, she was treated horribly in the first few seasons and books in the series, but she returned that mistreatment with vengeance on a massive scale. Contrast that with Jon Snow's actions. Many horrible things happened to him and his family, but he decided to respond with justice, which is different than revenge.

When the HBO series ended years ago, I was disappointed, but not for the same reasons as other viewers. While just about everyone else was offering their rewrites of the ending, I was telling people how happy I was with it. It was clear that most people didn't like how things ended for Daenerys. I get it. For most of the series, I loved her too. Toward the end though, she turned evil. Most GoT fans seemed to not care how evil she became, though. It seemed like they pardoned her sinister ways because they still liked her so much. After all, she was still just as beautiful even while being so evil. I think the series hit a sensitive cord there, and they hit it quite accurately. In our culture, we tend to ignore serious character flaws in people when we have an attachment to them, and when they are attractive. This just shows how vane and superficial we truly are.

The bigger question that arises here is this: Where are we headed as a culture? And to follow up on that: Do we even care where we are headed? It seems like we've exchanged identity for diversity. But, just because we strive to be a diverse culture does not mean we need to elude all identifiers. Instead of being identified by ethnicity or trends, we could identify with virtues and mores. Right now, the moral fabric of our society is made of avarice, greed, vanity, and superficiality.

So, ironically, Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire serve as potent reminders of who we are as a culture, because avarice, greed, and lust for power are what drive most of its characters. Way to go, George. You managed to capture our culture's elusive zeitgeist. I'm just disappointed by how ugly it is now that I've gotten a good look at it.

Image sourced from Kal242382 on Wikimedia Commons.