Category: Game of Thrones

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I was watching the trial by combat joust in the new Game of Thrones iteration “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and it dawned on me on how attracted human beings are to violence. People are willing to joust and people are willing to watch jousting even though there was a good chance that somebody would, at the very least, get maimed or, worse still, be killed; furthermore blood sports have a long history in humanity.

The modern world makes a show of caring more about the athletes in their games but the danger still exists (think boxing, rugby, football, hockey, Formula One). These men risk their bodies and possibly their lives to entertain us.

Some observations here:

1.The participants are largely men. There is something innate in men to show their bravery by risking their health and lives. Some men like to rumble. I knew a guy who liked to get in bar fights. He would arrange situations where he might have to defend his “honor.” His honor was broadly defined as anything that irritated him, things like tailgating on a highway or running into him in a crowded bar. I generally thought his honor wasn’t at stake and a simple apology would suffice but he felt differently. The show of physical courage is important to men.

2. A lot of people like to watch these displays of physical courage. Millions of people watch football games and boxing matches — knowing full well that these men are risking their bodies for their entertainment. Even though they would like to detach the idea of this as courage, most people in the audience for these events would largely agree with this idea of physical courage. It is important to them to know there are men capable of this type of courage.

3. These ideas are pretty much locked into our definition of courage. As this appears to have been going on for as long as humans have been in civilizations, speaks volumes of the importance of violence in civilization. I can give all kinds of rational reasons why this shouldn’t be so, that it is insanity for a man to risk his future brain for a Super Bowl ring now but I am fairly certain it will fall on deaf ears. In order to prove his courage, a man must risk his body to prove it and this is the way things have been for a very long time.

What I am trying to figure out is why society’s approach to violence is to treat it as some aberration instead of fundamental to the nature of the male of our species. So much of what humans profess to think about something has nothing to do with how we feel about it. Men want to box. People want to watch boxing. Saying that they shouldn’t box or enjoy boxing fails to deal with the reality of the situation. When someone screams fight in high school parking lot, the people rushing to the fight are not running to break up the fight but rather trying to catch the action before it ends.

I wish I had answers but I don’t. But completely quashing this very strong emotion in humans and making them wrong, doesn’t stop people from having them. It is irrational and inexplicable but despite our best efforts to reform and our continued disapproval of physical violence, it persists. Let’s face it, humans like to rumble.

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I am finding House of Dragons, the prequel to Game of Thrones, a bit of a bore.

First and foremost it is too dark. I don’t mean dark mood here, I mean too dark to see what is going on. At the beginning of every night scene, I go blind for a few seconds, kind of like when you turn out the lights and your eyes haven’t adjusted. Once I have regained my full sight, I am still left wondering who is talking and where they are and what might be going on. On the plus side, it is a wonderful depiction of night time. Seriously, even a few extra torches would help immensely.

Then there is the plot. It really is just a rehash of Game of Thrones. The only difference is there it is a new group of contenders for the throne who all have seemingly valid reasons to succeed King Viserys on the throne. The good news is that he is taking his sweet time to die. He was on his last legs from the start. But somehow, perhaps the leeches his doctor applies to his wounds, he has managed to hang on, coughing and hacking and barely being able to walk, for an incredible ten years. I wish I could say it creates tension in the show. He has to die in order for the succession battle to begin, until then everyone is waiting for him to kick the bucket. Maybe he lives so the audience can pick a contender to root for. Unfortunately, they are a nasty group of people. I can’t latch on to someone.

There are battle scenes and loveless royal marriages and doomed affairs and gruesome murders and period perfect costumes and fire breathing dragons and medieval sets and plenty of gratuitous nudity. Does this sound familiar?

The worst thing about the House of Dragons is the use of a made up language called High Valyrian. I didn’t like it in Game of Thrones but mercifully that show used it rarely. In House of Dragons it is spoken much more. But, for the life of me, why? No one speaks the language. The audience wouldn’t know the difference between High Valyrian and Chinese. It is unnecessary and adds nothing to the story. For me, in fact, it is a distraction because every time I hear it, I have to fume for a minute or two before I can read the subtitles.

A lot of work has been put into it. It is a good production but it has failed to grab me yet. I am committed to watching until the end of this season. Right now I can say that if I had my druthers I would rewatch Game of Thrones instead.