Game of Thrones, the serie

#fantasy

I read and reviewed here the first book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, masterfully written by George RR Martin, - inspired by The War of the Roses and Ivanhoe - and now, after many years, I have seen eight seasons of the series Game of Thrones. One episode after another, without being able to detach myself.

A beautiful, beautifully crafted fantasy series, that gets more spectacular with each episode, in a crescendo of battles and action, with unforgettable characters and fantastic actors. Nothing is left to chance, all narrative times are right and each scene is perfect in detail. Perhaps, if it has a flaw, it is that of becoming, episode after episode, predictable in its tragic nature.

A damned story, dark like the images almost always nocturnal, where there is no redemption or hope. A study on wickedness, betrayal and death. There is never a good that triumphs, there is no evil that should not be confronted with a worse evil, to the point that you no longer even know who to side with. And often the good is rewarded with death, with injustice.

The limitless cruelty of certain characters leads us to desire sufferings for them, which then occur punctually, by someone even more cruel than them. We are on Theon Greyjoy's side when his tormentor Ramsay Snow mutilates and plagiarizes him, and when Cersei Lannister is publicly humiliated by the High Sparrow, we want revenge for her. Except then return to hate her in subsequent episodes.

The characters are not only well-rounded, they are really real, they "exist", as much as those of J. K. Rowling exist, they have an incredible psychological subtlety. There are the good, a few, the bad, many, and the very bad, some. The bad guys, like Cersei, like Jamie Lannister, like Theon Greyjoy, still have a healthy side. In Theon it is repentance for the evil done, in Cersei the maternal love, in Jamie Lannister the emergence of a hidden core of goodness.

Essentially, Game of Thrones is a death study. In each scene someone dies a violent death. There is no glimpse that does not present a mourning, a funeral, or the pain of separation. In particular, the character of Arya Stark is linked to the idea of ​​death. From an innocent and persecuted child she turns into a murderer. She will learn to wash corpses, she will live in a house of death, the house of Black and White,s he will eliminate from herself every residue of conscience, so as to be able to aseptically kill, as does death itself, the only true God, as Jaqen H'ghar states. Death is neither bad nor good, Arya will have to learn to kill without feeling emotions, forgetting who she was, becoming “nobody”. But she will not succeed, her identity, her love for the homeland and the family will emerge again. And it will be her confidence in death that will make her the heroine capable of destroying the leader of the undead. As I said, nothing is left to chance, nothing in the structure of the plot is pure accumulation, but everything has its own function and meaning. Arya knows death to fight it. Daenerys learns from the Dothrakis about her barbaric and relentless justice.

Tyrion Lannister, played by the very good - and also handsome - Peter Dinklage, actor suffering from dwarfism, from a drinker and a manwhore turns into a brave and wise man. Sansa Stark, from a spoiled aspiring queen becomes the one who has been through the most and who has only met madmen and sadists on her path. She too will grow up, she will learn to defend herself, she will mature precisely for this.

And then there is her, Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons. With her slim physique, her long silver hair, she is beautiful, bold and stronger and stronger, bigger and bigger from episode to episode. All the scenes that concern her are extraordinary: when she comes out of her husband's pyre carrying the three newborn dragons in her arms, when she escapes from the bloody arena flying on the back of the majestic and fearsome Drogon.

None of the characters remain the same. The evil done, inflicted or suffered, makes him what he is. As Brandon Stark, the three-eyed crow says, "you are where you were meant to be." What happens is to get us where we are, to fulfill our destiny. Samwell Tarly, fat and clumsy, discovers dignity, Sansa Stark learns cunning.



Love is not the most important feeling, it is just one of many. "Love is the death of duty" says Jon. The only great love is the incestuous, tormented and cursed love between the two royal twins, Cersei and Jamie. They are two parts of the same person, light and dark, evil and the attempt at good. Jamie will eventually come back to her, he can't let her die alone, where she i, he must be too. Much more important than love are honor, friendship, loyalty, a sense of family. But also hatred, the desire for revenge.

Someone stated that the last two series lose originality and become mainstream. It may be so, but they are the ones I have liked more, which moved me the most and emotionally involved in a crescendo of pathos. What about the "battle of the bastards", the most beautiful war scene I've ever seen, in its extreme rawness? On the one hand, Jon Snow, illegitimate son of Ned Stark, commander of the Night's Watch, epitome of courage, honor, loyalty. On the other hand, Ramsey Snow, with the same bastard surname, the quintessence of evil, morally repellent. Only at the end of the series will it be discovered that Jon is not a bastard but the only true legitimate heir to the Iron Throne.

The ending, like the one in The Lord of the Rings, isn't a happy ending - and how could it be after so much pain? - It is rather a Eucharist, a positive but melancholy, sad, bitter turn. I cried, when the dragon Drogon grabbed Daenerys's body in its claws and flew away with her, with her mother, the mother of dragons, slain by the man she loved, slain by the bravest, best, most compassionate of heroes, Jon Snow. Daenerys dies a victim of her madness, of a distorted dream of justice that turns her into a bloody madwoman.

Those who talk about a happy ending are wrong. The happy ending would be the accession to the Iron Throne of Jon, aka Aegon Targaryen, the only legitimate heir; the happy ending would be his marriage to Daenerys. But this is not the case, the dragon, an intelligent and impartial creature, destroys the Iron Throne, symbol of the struggle for power, before flying away. The kingdom passes to Brandon Stark, the maimed, the paralyzed and visionary boy. There is no true justice, there is no happy ending, only a return to the status quo, a temporary pacification, just like in Tolkien.

And now, after eight matchless seasons, I feel like an orphan.