SortaCreative wrote:To tell you the truth though I'm starting to feel the same way I felt about the books when I got to about this point in the story.
Frustrated.
I'm tired of having characters get killed that have some potential to really contribute to the overall plot. Ned Stark dying was a great shock and it really set things in motion for the story and managed to hit home a message that this is a world where pride, honour and duty will get you killed. The Red Wedding reaffirmed that message even though I was annoyed at being tricked twice by buying into a character that was later slaughtered.
How many times can be "bad guys" get away with "winning" (I know what's coming up) and it still be interesting. I honestly believe Joffery dying was because the character had very few places to go. He could have been slowly turned into a redeeming character but after so much shit, that little bastard be redeemed? I still loved to hate him though and I was sad that he was gone.
Oberyn Martell offered some balance to what was happening in Kings Landing, especially since Jaime (up until very soon) remains relatively stationary and passive. Martell also tied in the Rebellion and the back story of how Robert won the throne which is also really interesting. Martell also introduced another big player into the story, that being House Martell who now are represented and headed up by a frustratingly passive and slow character in Doran.
In a time in the story where Dany is no where near Westeros, Stannis is, up until right now, no where to be seen and Tyrion is in captivity there needed to be that protagonist to the Lannister antagonist. House Martell along with the Houses of the Vale are potential threats to them but they seem less of a threat after having been so inactive (House of the Vale) or just having their "main guy" slaughtered, Oberyn Martell.
To me the "wins" in seeing the "antagonists" die like Joff aren't enough of a payoff to a lot of frustration of seeing a lot of characters fall short. That's the biggest flaw in GRRM's writing and I'm interested to see how he proceeds in the next book because honestly, it's more of the same until the end of Dance and i'm not all that enthused about the following few seasons after this one concludes.
I agree with this. I have similar problems with Martin's writing. I think his intentions have been good - to create a series of fantasy novels where the good guys don't always win and that therefore feels more realistic and less contrived. But unfortunately, he's gone too far in the other direction. At this point, all the horrible shit in his world is starting to feel contrived.
If something can go right, it will inevitably go wrong. Good characters will die. People who could change things for the better will be prevented from doing so - often not by their opposition but by some random third party. The story remains unpredictable because of how large the world is and how many left turns he takes in his writing, but certain things remain utterly predictable as you progress through the story. If he sets up something nice or positive, you know it won't actually come to pass.
For example, whenever it looks like some of the Starks might be reunited, you're just waiting for something to go wrong because you know it will. No matter how likely it seems that the characters will be reunited it's just too typical of Martin's writing to throw a spanner in the works.
Plus, it really does help to have characters you can root for in stories like this, but Martin either kills off these characters (Ned, Robb), turns them into someone completely new (Catelyn, Arya), or makes them utterly pathetic and hard to care about (Tyrion when he goes East). I guess there's Dany, but I think the world unanimously thinks she's a pretty shit character.
Sometimes the world feels so absurdly dark that you wonder why everyone hasn't killed themselves already, because how could you live somewhere that fucking bleak. Oberyn's death was something that brought this home for me in the novels, because Martin couldn't even let someone cleanly defeat the Mountain in an act of well warranted revenge. The Mountain isn't a political player or key figure. He's barely a character. Someone should have been allowed to take the fucker down - I need little moments like that to keep me invested. I know he dies afterwards, but it's not the same. Plus, I'm convinced he's coming back as Cersei's fucking champion in the next book.
I love the intrigue of Game of Thrones and the politicking and the drama. Even the deaths and imprisonments, etc. But it just feels too sad sometimes. And I think Martin thinks that sad shit happening to the villains makes up for all the sad shit that happens to the heroes, but it doesn't really work that way. He should just throw the odd
happy moment into the story. The odd glimmer of hope. Otherwise the audience will have no reason to care when the white walkers invade and kill everyone in all of Westeros.
