George Martin’s Game of Thrones has become
a real phenomenon of popular culture.
It was able to reach this special status after
the classic fantasy saga of Tolkien,
The Lord of the Rings.
Of course, there are stories like Harry Potter
or Twilight, and such but these are not real,
so-called high fantasies.
These are not bringing back the ancient heroic
eposes of our culture, these are not following
the settings, the grandiosity, and the drama
of Homer’s Iliad.
In this sense, there are only these two.
The status of The Lord of the Rings is unquestionable;
however, with Game of Thrones, there are some
concerning signs both in the case of the books
and the TV-series, suggesting that a fast
fall will follow the fast rise of the story.
[SPOILER ALERT]
So, what is the hidden secret
of the huge and fast success of Game of Thrones
and why have we become so disappointed in it?
In this video, we’ll shed light on this
contradiction and will find out that reason
of the fast rise and the concerning sings
are, in fact, the same:
the moment Ser Ilyn’s sword strikes the neck of Lord Eddard Stark.
This channel is about science and philosophy, so it’s quite clear why we deal with science-fiction.
Just watch our last video.
Science fiction holds a mirror before
us to better understand what science and the
modern world based on science really are.
But fantasy?
Why should we care about legends and strange
worlds not to mention wizards and warriors?
Science fiction is about our future
but why do we care about these false images of our legendary past?
Of course, we’re not interested in magic,
it’s not a real thing.
But science is also not everything and there’s
a reason fantasy became popular in the last decades.
Becuase it also holds an important mirror
before us, only, another kind of mirror.
So, what is the secret of epic high fantasy?
And, of course, why Game of Thrones?
It’s clear that science is the most important
institution of the modern world.
At some point, we even believed that everything
should be strictly grounded on science and
this would lead us to a brave new world.
And science fiction, of course, should explore
this grandiose vision; what would arise as
problems, what would be the solutions, the
alternatives, etc.
However, in the third millennium, in this
so-called post-modern world we don’t believe
in this bright future based on science anymore.
On the contrary, we see and fear global warming, pollution, nuclear weapons, the rise of the machines...
As a consequence, classic, positive science
fiction has become dead, and dystopias and
fantasy took their places.
High fantasy, especially Tolkien’s
Lord of the Rings is perhaps the most important
and successful answer for what we’ve lost.
We lost the clear picture of what’s good
and what’s wrong; what our higher obligations are,
what self-devotion and real heroism is,
not just for ourselves but for our whole world
and civilization.
Tolkien reached back into our forgotten legendary
past, into an idealistic world to remind us,
to show us who we really are—or should be—if
we could see through the materialistic knick-knacks
of our modern era which, in this sense, are
just blurring the big picture.
Science and philosophy were born in ancient Greece.
However, for the ancient Greeks it was always
clear that the real theoretical foundation
of their civilization was Homer’s Iliad.
Why?
Because for them it was always obvious that
science, scientific knowledge, and technology
were, in fact, based on these deeper and earlier
foundations of human life and culture,
so, in no way it could be the basic foundation
of anything.
It’s a really long story why the modern,
western man thought the opposite and, as a
consequence, lost the real foundations of
his life and culture.
Nonetheless, the point is that now we’ve once again recognised the ancient wisdom of the Greeks.
Or, at least, Tolkien really did.
He found and brought back what was lost.
He, of course, used the same grandiose literary framework of the ancient eposes
which is unquestionably the best – if not the only – genre for the job.
Okay, but if Tolkien was so brilliant, and
now we can really understand his genius, then
why do we feel that something is still missing?
Why has a new grandiose epos started to outshine it?
Is there still some problem with the Lord
of the Rings?
Or, to put it in another way: why have we
started to love George Martin’s
Game of Thrones so much?
Especially us, who always missed something
in the Lord of the Rings way before the TV-adaptation
of Martin‘s book-series?
Is it because, according to today’s supposition, we love it’s explicit sexual and violent content?
No, not really.
There are numerous books, movies and series
that are way better in these regards.
This is just the surface.
We love Game of Thrones because it’s a high
epic fantasy that seems much more realistic
than the Lord of the Rings.
For instance, it has Jaime instead of Aragorn, or in the case of great small men,
it has Tyrion instead of Bilbo.
It’s complex both in the sense of the characters
and the story; it’s unpredictable, it’s
shocking, it promises so much.
To put it simply, Tolkien brought back the
mythical spirit of Homer’s Iliad, but contrary
to the ancient Greeks, we perfectly know that
it’s not quite real.
There’s no Sauron and there are no immortal elves, because there’s no absolute evil
just as there’s no absolute good.
Yes, the Lord of the Rings has so many important messages, morals, and greatness we are really
thirsty for, but we want something more, because the Lord of the Rings is still not real,
and cannot be real, because it cannot deal with the complexity and novelty of the modern world:
that the head of the hero sometimes falls into the dirt.
The genius of George Martin and the greatness of Game of Thrones are, in turn, truly manifested
in this dramatic, unpredictable moment: the beheading of Ned Stark.
It’s not only the main turning point of
the story that carpenters the stage and presents
the main promises of the story, but a powerful symbol that defines the new, post-modern philosophy
of Martin in contrast to the old concept of
Tolkien’s traditional Christian values and ethics.
At that moment, when Ser Ilyn’s sword stroke
down, everybody could feel that this story
is animated by the modern spirit; that despite
of the medieval costumes and the imaginary
world of Westeros, it’s not about the past
and it isn’t naive or illusory in any sense.
Although we were shocked beyond imagination, and felt that it was the most unpredictable
moment of any drama, it was already prepared in the first scene of the story.
The great Lord Eddard Stark didn’t believe
in the most important thing he should have
believed in: the Others who were seen by Will, the young ranger of the Night’s Watch.
So instead, he chopped of the poor lad’s head.
This is once again the real brilliance of
George Martin.
We were deceived by Lord Eddard Stark’s honesty,
chivalry, and heroism.
We thought that he lost his head because he
was betrayed, because he was the only one
who still preserved the real morals and values of the past, but that wasn’t the case at all.
In the deep dramatic sense, our glorious hero beheaded himself, because he didn’t stick
to his most important belief and he wasn’t
able to realize the real danger he should’ve faced.
He again and again said that “Winter is
coming” but didn’t believe, didn’t understand
the real meaning of his own words: the Others are here.
Instead, he blindly decapitated Will, because “A madman sees what he wants to see.”
This is the deep dramatic reason why Ned stark wasn’t just an epic hero but a lost, non-believer modern hero.
But if Martin was so smart and if we love
Game of Thrones, then,
why did we become so disappointed in it?
Why have we started to feel that something
is really missing?
Why and how did the fast fall of Game of Thrones
happen after it’s fast and glorious rise?
Because the next book has been delayed for years?
Because there were stupid mistakes after the fourth season?
No, of course, not.
Unfortunately, there are deeper reasons which we perceive in the same way as we’ve done
so with the genius of George Martin regarding the beheading of Lord Eddard Stark.
The fall of Ned wasn’t just unpredictable
and shocking but laid down the unique promises
of the story both in a dramatic and in a moral sense.
Until that point, his children, as well as
his wife, Cat, were only our secondary heroes
who provided depth for the story and widened the perspective.
However, at that point they have become our
main heroes, and it was clear that by stepping
into the shoes of their great but failed father,
they would realise the dramatic and moral
promises of the story.
That they would fight and defeat both the
inner and outer enemies of Westeros.
But this promise never happened and never
will.
This is the basic reason we feel that something is missing, perhaps we even feel betrayed by Martin.
We appreciated his genius modern turn but
waited for a classic ending according to the
basic rules of great eposes.
And what did we get instead?
Sansa was brutalised, terrorised, even raped.
Aria was lost and kidnapped over and over
again and became a cold-blooded killing-machine.
Bran’s suffering story became so slow and
pointless that at the end he became part of a tree.
But the main problem starts with the so-called Red Wedding.
Martin went all in, and repeated the same
story with Robb and Cat.
Seemingly the oldest brother stepped into
the shoes of their father.
Then he, as his father, was so narrow-minded that he beheaded one of his own men and at the end
was also betrayed and killed in a more shocking fashion than his father.
At that moment, we weren’t just shocked.
We were horrified.
From a certain perspective, Martin’s brave
all in could’ve worked, because it was even
more shocking and more unpredictable than
the beheading of Ned stark.
We simply couldn’t believe that he was so
brilliant or rather crazy at this point that
he would repeat it.
And it could’ve worked because it was the repacked version of the truly brilliant murder of Ned Stark.
However, from another angle, it was never
really going to work, and we could’ve felt that,
because it lacked originality.
There wasn’t a unique dramatic depth to
why Robb and Cat should die as it was in the
case of Ned Stark.
On the contrary, according to the promises
of the story, and the classic rules of epic
fantasy, Robb should’ve became our real hero who would defeat the enemies of his betrayed father.
Furthermore, at this point, this story line
had nothing to do with the real enemies of
Westeros, the Others.
In this sense, it became utterly unfocused.
So, the real meaning of this moment, which
is clearly a choice of George Martin, is that
the classic rules of drama and great eposes
do not apply in Game of Thrones.
In other words: the beheading of Ned Stark
is not just a brilliant, unpredictable modern
turn which lays down the dramatic and moral
premises of the story, but the new
unpredictable rule itself.
And Martin applies this rule again and again not just in the case of Ned Stark's children
but, for example, in the case of Oberyn Martell, Stannis Baratheon and Quentyn Martell.
And he’ll no doubt do it with the young Aegon Targaryen,
as he did it, in a different manner, in the case of Theon Greyjoy and Jamie Lannister.
More and more side-stories were born, one after another just for the sake of the unpredictability rule.
As a consequence, the story became more and
more unfocused and empty.
Yet, the most crucial moment was, when he
applied his rule on our real hero,
Ned Stark’s bastard son: Jon Snow.
This was the moment, when the unpredictability rule became so predictable that even Martin himself
chose to break it, and in this way,
it became way worse, because everybody knew
perfectly well, that Jon Snow would be resurrected.
How did we know it?
From enlarged and endlessly analyzed screenshots?
No, not really.
We knew it from the classical premises of
the story which, until that point, was overwritten
by Martin’s unpredictability rule.
But at that point, we’ve already knew that
Jon Snow is the real hero of Game of Thrones.
That he is the real heir of the Targaryens
and he should fight off the main threat to Westeros,
the fearsome White Walkers.
However, after Ned, Robb, Stannis, and the
others, at that point of the story, it was
only a hollow turn, which became its own sad parody.
This is the reason that Game of Thrones only feels more realistic than the Lord of the Rings,
but, at the end, it became clear that
this is, unfortunately, only the surface.
The beheading of Ned Stark is just like Marcel
Duchamp’s famous modern sculpture, the Fountain.
It’s unpredictable, it’s shocking, it
holds a mirror before the lost modern man,
but because it breaks every classical rule
of art, which gives deeper meaning, usually
both in the dramatic and moral sense, it becomes
hollow and most of all, unrepeatable.
It cannot be a positive rule of art.
More precisely, if we choose to repeat it
again and again, this process will show that
it’s nothing but an empty, post-modern twisted brilliance.
Unfortunately, the true deeper meaning we
really love, doesn’t define the story anymore.
Instead, it’s the shock, the sex, the brutality,
symbolised by Ramsey Bolton, Joffrey Baratheon
and the other numerous psychopaths of Game of Thrones.
Martin’s story is built on a brilliant turn, which has a really deep meaning for the lost modern man.
Furthermore, it’s a high epic fantasy in the footsteps of the idealistic Lord of the Rings,
and Homer’s old classics.
This is the reason that it seems so realistic
and promises so much.
We can do nothing but love it.
However, contrary to Tolkien or Homer, Martin
is a typical post-modern artist who doesn’t
believe in classic formulas, promises, meaning,
and most of all, morals.
He uses the elements of high epic fantasy
but clearly doesn’t believe in them.
If he was consistent, then he would’ve killed Jon Snow.
But he didn’t dare, because that would’ve
ended the story right away.
But, have no doubt, he’ll never finish the
promising ballad of The Song of Ice and Fire,
because in this post-modern way, no real epic fantasy can be consistently finished.
In this video, we’ve taken a closer look on the philosophical meaning of high fantasy.
We can find it's roots in the classical eposes of our ancient past,
so, it can reflect those most profound values and beliefs in dramatic form which we’ve
lost, or at least forgot, in the fast pace
and complexity of the modern world.
The main deficiency of the Lord of the Rings is that it isn’t able to deal with this
complexity and novelty; it’s too idealistic
and thus unrealistic, regarding the real problems
of the modern world.
George Martin’s Game of Thrones, in turn,
can brilliantly grab the tragedy of the modern hero,
but it’s still not able to deliver, because it, unfortunately, denies the rules,
values, and morality of the classic eposes.
It only operates with unpredictability and shocking effects but doesn’t realises it’s deeper promise.
In our next video, we’ll continue our former
topic of Artificial intelligence and try to
explore the philosophical depth of AI and it's relationship with man.
Namely, we’ll see if it’s really possible
to defy death by moving our consciousness
into artificial bodies or as we’ve seen
in Westworld into whole virtual realities,
as so many scientists claim.
