5 Reasons To Immerse Yourself in the Game of Thrones Universe
4. Heroes, Villains and Everything In-Between
Think about the people you know. How many of them are totally flawless? How many dont have even a single virtue? Chances are that most of your acquaintances fall somewhere in the middle of the Good and Evil spectrum (hopefully, somewhat more towards the good side.) Since Ive already mentioned Lord of the Rings (which is, to all extents and purposes, the giant to topple when one is talking about fantasy,) Id like to take the character of Gollum as an example. Im fairly certain that Im not alone in my appreciation of the character, and I would argue that in Tolkiens world - which contains so many purely good and evil characters - its those who reside on the line between the two extremes that are the most interesting (Boromir being another example). The Game of Thrones universe takes moral ambiguity, and amplifies it far beyond what weve seen in previous fantasy works. There is no black and white; there are only varying degrees of grey. A strength of the series is that it does not begin that way. You start, almost exclusively, taking the side of the Starks. Its easy to mistake them for the protagonists, but as events unfold your loyalties may slowly shift. Its not that the Starks suddenly act in a different or uncharacteristic way its that you gradually understand the motivations of their enemies. And so you find yourself, as a viewer, in quite an unusual situation - youre watching a conflict unfold, and youre unsure who you should root for. Normally this would only apply when youre not engaged by the characters, but in this case its the opposite youre too deeply engaged with all of them. Its not unlike watching two of your friends have an argument, and understanding both of their points of view because neither is being unreasonable. One feels that this has been the case in the majority of the struggles that humanity has been involved in throughout the ages, and its nice to see it reflected for once in a genre which is usually so reductionist. The lack of moral absolutes is a strength of GoT, and has a knock-on effect...
Laurence Gardner was born in Canterbury, England. After moving around various cities during his childhood, and spending some time travelling in Europe and America, he studied English Literature at Oxford University. Since then, he’s been living abroad, teaching English, learning a range of languages, and writing in his free time. He can currently be found in Heidelberg, working as an English Tutor and Translator and studying at the University. If you liked this article, follow him on Twitter to get automatic updates on his work.
