Game of Thrones - Too Cliche? Or just enough?

In a Facebook conversation about HBO's Game of Thrones, someone complained that they didn't want to see a grudge match between the Mountain and the Hound, because it was too cliche, and Game of Thrones (and Song of Fire and Ice's author, George R. R. Martin) should be above using such tropes. [I adapted this blog post from the shorter comments I made there.]

Honestly, I'll be disappointed if Game of Thrones doesn't trope-out at the end. To me that's the point - Martin created a realistic world fraught with entirely believable cruelty, duplicity, and mortal danger. The excesses and evils in Westeros and Easteros were those of our own ancestors (and in some cases contemporaries). The game in Game of Thrones is one of political manipulation and maneuvering, back stabbing and murder. What made that interesting, though, was taking that very realistic world and putting it on the path to becoming a traditional fantasy world. At the beginning there's very little 'magical' about the world - it's like an alternate history of the British Isles. But since then things have gradually simmered towards a boil - dragons, giants, wargs, witches, and ice-zombies, have all transitioned from faint legend to very real plot points, and no matter how proficient you are as a manipulator, you can't lie to an ice zombie and back-stabbing a dragon is incredibly difficult.

The self-interested pragmatists who once capitalized off the foolish heroics of morally better people are being culled by their lack of plot armor, leaving behind characters who are less motivated by advancement and material gain, and more motivated by fundamental drives - love, freedom, compassion, courage, fear, hate, rage, revenge... The characters with fewer dimensions are those who have the strength of will, the inspiring presence, to endure the challenges that have eliminated everyone else. The sense of honor and duty that killed Ned Stark in the first season will likely be Jon Snow's greatest strength in the final seasons, because unlike Ned's world, Jon's world is a world of heroes and villains, and those characters have become as 'epic' as the adversities they've faced.

Her family having been killed off...

Fiction is rough on families.

Arya Stark embarked on a lengthy training montage journey of personal discovery, in which she learned from different mentors, joined a questionable cult, trained to fight blind and overcome her fears, and learned to let go of her past, before leaving her training unfinished because she couldn't let go of her past.

Important lesson: Don't trust anyone over 30.
Or under 30, for that matter.

She returns with a singular motivation, to be Batman to avenge the destruction of her family as a badass super-assassin.

Everything is permitted, even baking, in the name of poetic justice.

The Greyjoys are on track to become swashbuckling privateers. Yara's sailing about taking ships and romancing women while plotting to avenge her father...

You know the line.

... and reclaim their family's land and property from their cruel, two-dimensionally villainous uncle...

Euron Greyjoy has the gloat down, now he just needs to work on the facial hair.

... while we're left wondering if her new bestie is really, fully dead inside, or only mostly dead.

Life is pain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Bran is doing hardcore druid magic after a timely rescue by his uncle, who just happens to be the undead, wandering hero of the North, who has dedicated his immortal life to hunting his fellow undead to protect the living.

Technically Blade isn't undead, but I think you see where I was going with this.

The Mountain has been resurrected through dark magic and alchemy to serve as the quiet, heavily armored, dome-helmeted, sadist-on-call who can murder grown men with his bare hands.

Put the dome helmet back on!!!

And of course, said monstrosity's master (donning a surprisingly out-of-genre costume) has consolidated power by annihilating countless innocent people with a glowing-green super-weapon.

I'd concede that the Wildfire under Kings Landing was a one-shot weapon,
but let's be honest: so was the first Death Star.

If information is power, and the pen is mightier than the sword, even a small library is an arsenal. Samwell Tarley has made it to the repository of all Westeros's recorded knowledge, the same place Qyrnan, who resurrected Darth Vader the Mountain, studied his art. All that stands between Samwell's spectacularly gifted mind and the secrets of life, death, and amazing cleric powers is navigating Westeros's card catalog.

The difference between Samwell Tarly and Neo is basically Ctrl+F.

John Snow, reluctant leader but true heir to the throne, has returned from his wanderings in the North, lost his star-crossed love, journeyed through the underworld, led an army of men drawn from across multiple kingdoms into battle against his evil doppelganger, and is now rallying for a last stand against a tidal wave of magical enemies bent on destroying the world of man.

And both were inspired early on by the death of Sean Bean!

Hopefully the tall, pretentious blonde and the hairy axe-enthusiast will have his back.

Who knows, maybe Brienne and Tormund will also sail off into the sunset together when the story is over.

But then, they're not the ones who really get things done, are they?

Sword-to-the-face, dog-to-the-face; it's basically the same thing.

As much as Jon Snow reminds me of Aragorn, Daenerys Targaryen reminds me of Arthur Pendragon. After languishing in obscurity because her father was a jerk, she eventually claims the title "Mother-of-Dragons," which isn't too different from "Chief-of-Dragons" (the literal translation of "Pendragon").

*Epic Music Plays*

She has the charisma, the great destiny, and the circle of devoted friends, but she also struggles to comprehend petty self-interest motivating others. Her goal of ending slavery, liberating the downtrodden, and uniting all the kingdoms isn't too different from the ideas that motivate Arthur to create Camelot's Round Table, and like Arthur, she's more comfortable fighting a war with an outside force than handling drama within her kingdom, and tends to fall back on might-makes-right when she hits an obstacle. Although, to be fair, it's not like she has one of those pesky, ill-fated love triangles to deal with.

Well... okay, but it's different.

Of course, even considering his apparent ability to charm dragons, Dany's current adviser, Tyrion, isn't exactly Merlin. Although... being the guy who asserts might doesn't make right, values wisdom and education, and modernized Lannisport's plumbing, Tyrion does seem to have the anachronistic progressiveness one would associate with T. H. White's interpretation of Merlin as the backwards-living wizard. Oh, and he was (for a time) imprisoned by the betrayal of the only woman he really loved, so there's that.

Granted, Shae doesn't measure up to Nimue or to Morgan, but I can imagine Sibel Kikilli in either role.

And finally, you have Baelish. Petyr "Little Finger" Baelish started out as the sort of greedy vice peddler and political money-manipulator you'd expect to encounter in a Noir story about organized crime, complete with the demeaning nick name. He has since risen through the social strata to become the sinister vizier/count, who has labyrinthine, ambiguously destructive plans which chiefly require marrying the princess. At this point, his character background and trajectory is basically identical to Once Upon A Time's portrayal of Jafar.

Complete with the devilishly well-trimmed facial hair.

All in all, I will actually be disappointed if Game of Thrones doesn't end with "And they all lived happily ever after - by process of elimination."





James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.