Now That Everyone Has Had A Chance To Watch Game Of Thrones

We’re in a strange and enchanting place, fellow fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones series.

We stand on the precipice of the new and untold, the fresh and unexpected, the tragic and unfortunate; we can’t rightly say what’s coming, and that’s just magnificent.

But just for the moment, let’s instead take a look back at what was. Naturally, this article comes with a great big —SPOILER ALERT— so you have most certainly been warned.

For as long as I’ve been a consumer of popular media, anything adapted from a series of novels has been fiercely critiqued in adapted form. Whether you take Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, or more recently The Hobbit, there have been many people who simply said, “the books did it better,” and scoffed at anyone who said differently. For as long as I’ve been a consumer of popular media, I have scoffed at those people as pretentious cynics, incapable of appreciating something that wasn’t what they had imagined on their own.

But to tell you the truth, I found myself in this group for a long time when watching Game of Thrones. See after being entranced by the first two seasons of Game of Thrones and not having the patience to wait another year, I went ahead and read all of books upon which the series is based: A Song of Ice and Fire. I realised that the nuance and careful scene-setting was absent in the TV series. Character motivation was certainly there, but you didn’t gain the level of understanding you got from reading their thoughts first-hand. The adage quite simply was that no one understands Game of Thrones because no one has read the books.

And then the end of season 5 happened and I sat there with a mix of emotions. I was sad because the scene I was expecting had finally happened, and while it had been left to your interpretation in the books, it was anything but, in the series. But I was also happy because finally, at long last, steadfast TV series viewers finally understood just how painful this series can be. They had experienced the final heartbreak that anyone who had read the books had to endure (and keep a secret) for years.

It felt great. It felt like a family reunited. And in a twisted way (now that I think about it) it warmed my heart.

Season 5 of Game of Thrones has certainly been a contentious one. It has contained a bunch of scenes that are entirely brand new, some of which I feel were completely unnecessary insofar as beating dead horses, but some others which were excellent and intriguing enough for me to not mind at all. I enjoyed it and hated it in equal measure. Let’s recount some of these in bullet point form.

• Sansa’s forced marriage to Ramsay — Or more appropriately, Theon’s reaction to off-screen marital rape. This was probably the most controversial scene of the season and has led to many outright boycotting the show. Why people are so triggered outraged over fiction, I’m not sure, but I too was upset about this scene because for most part, it seemed entirely unnecessary. Sansa was not even at Winterfell in the books, but rather still at The Eyrie. In her place was Jeyne Poole, who mind you was having an even worse time than Sansa ever did, but we hadn’t had much time with Ramsay Snow by that point in the book (he was only introduced in book five, whereas the series introduced him in season three) so we needed to know what a bastard he was. In the series, we already knew what a bastard he was so this scene was just beating a long-dead horse.
• The character assassination of Stannis — Another confusing and unnecessary scene. Let’s make something abundantly clear: Stannis is the most true-neutral character of the entire lot; he is fair, brutally so at times, and he is just. This man you are seeing in the show is not Stannis, he’s some bastardised alternate version. And while that’s fine enough, I feel the real charm of Stannis has been forever lost, now. Stannis is, by all the laws of Westeros, the rightful king. He is also a rather snarky man, to go with having a good head for war tactics. Most importantly though, Stannis is the perpetual underdog. He only begrudgingly trusts Melissandre and this is vital to understanding his character; he does not want anyone burned, and plain refuses her requests to do so. There is none of this “here’s my daughter, have fun” bullshit.
• Jaime in Dorne — Mostly just an excuse to keep Bronne in the show for another season, fan favourite that he is, Jaime’s trek to Dorne was actually a much better take on his story than what happened in the books. There he was stuck outside Riverrun, effectively laying siege to it in an attempt to recapture Blackfish, Catelyn Stark’s uncle. Remember him? In truth it was a rather boring story that was spruced up nicely and subsequently used to introduce some of the Sand Snakes to the story. So well played on this account.
• Tyrion’s journey to Meereen — Another much better version in the series, Tyrion’s story took many more twists on his way to Danaerys. He encountered more dwarves, got captured and sold into slavery (which… kind of happened), joined a circus, and basically just mucked about on his way to Meereen, and when he finally arrived he barely managed to get a word in with Danaerys before she went dragon-up. The series did it a lot better, cutting out the fluff and giving you a prolonged discussion scene between Tyrion and Danaerys that was just a treat to watch. Finally some excitement out of her storyline.

While we all wait for season six, a bold new adventure in which nobody knows what will happen, book readers and series watchers alike stand united once again. And that’s absolutely great.

But for the moment I strongly encourage everyone, if they have the time, to try out the books. Give ’em a read. Do a chapter a day, go slow, you’ll finish it up really quickly I promise you.

Why? Well what if I told you that Game of Thrones accounts for roughly half (1/2) of the entire story that is contained within A Song of Ice and Fire. You’ve not even experienced the stories of the rest of the Greyjoy family, Young Griff and his followers, the rest of the Sand Snakes, Arianne Martell, Arys Oakheart, Strong Belwas, and Lady Stoneheart. While these names might mean nothing to you right now, I promise that these names will bring vivid memories to your brain if you only give the books a chance.

While it’s true that the series and the books are very much their own entities now, it still lends a lot to the experience if you know how the other side operates. And I think that’s a vital part of consumption for a series as vast and deeply intricate as the Song of Ice and Fire series. Certainly not the most intricate, but I would argue one of the most accessible and mature.

Sales pitches for the books aside, the fifth season of Game of Thrones has been a mixed bag and I am at least glad that come season six, we’ll all be in pretty much the same basket. No more book comparisons (mostly), no more fighting about how they’re ruining a great thing, and so on. Pure and simple revelation, one hour per week. And hopefully not too many spoilers along the way.

I love this series. I love it so much I got my favourite quote tattooed on my arm along with the house sigil it represents. And I can’t wait for more, season six or sixth book, whichever comes first.

Let us know what you thought about season five of Game of Thrones in the comments below, and definitely tell us if you’re thinking of picking up the books any time soon. Already, many friends are telling me they are glad they did, so what are you waiting f– [dies]

Name: Caveshen Rajman
Location: Durban
Position: Former Managing Editor

Caveshen has published 2177 posts. Read all of Caveshen's posts.

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