{"id":228634,"date":"2021-04-16T19:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/"},"modified":"2021-04-16T19:00:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T16:00:17","slug":"grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#Grappling with the Show&#8217;s Legacy \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2409ed0541b\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2409ed0541b\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/#%E2%80%9CNobody_talks_about_Game_of_Thrones_anymore%E2%80%9D\" >\u201cNobody talks about Game of Thrones anymore.\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/#%E2%80%9CGame_of_Thrones_lost_its_way_once_it_outpaced_George_RR_Martins_books%E2%80%9D\" >\u201cGame of Thrones lost its way once it outpaced George R.R. Martin\u2019s books.\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/#%E2%80%9CGame_of_Thrones_ended_up_becoming_precisely_the_kind_of_show_it_was_meant_to_subvert%E2%80%9D\" >\u201cGame of Thrones ended up becoming precisely the kind of show it was meant to subvert.\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/grappling-with-the-shows-legacy-film\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Gr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ling with the Show&#8217;s Legacy \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-666875 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-anniversary-700x300.jpg\" alt=\"Game of Thrones anniversary\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-anniversary.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-anniversary-360x154.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attempting to define legacy \u2013 whether of an individual, an institution, or a piece of art \u2013 can be a fraught proposition. By our very nature, human beings <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly tend to crave oversimplified narratives to help make sense of a messy and chaotic world. After all, depending on who you ask, George Lucas will either go down as the godfather of all our nerdy obsessions or the monster who trampled on our collective childhoods, superhero blockbusters ought to be considered as either the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">modern heir-apparent to Greek myth<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or an unmitigated blight upon the sanctity of art itself, and <\/span><strong><i><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a> of Thrones<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was either the greatest water cooler show of the modern era or a cautionary tale of how unwary creators can dismantle their own sterling reputation in just a final few episodes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The truth, of course, resides somewhere in the middle of these extremes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (in)famously <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ended its watch<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on May 19, 2019, its body of work was hardly cold before many of us \u2013 fans, critics, and rubbernecking onlookers alike \u2013 rushed to fill <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> with grand proclamations and hot takes about What It All Meant. Not even two years after the divisive finale aired, it remains far too soon to carve the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a>\u2019 ultimate fate in stone. A full decade removed from the very first episode, however, affords us a vital opportunity \u2013\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to relitigate a divisive concluding stretch of uneven storytelling, but to reevaluate our wide-ranging <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reactions<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the hopes of discerning how they reflect on both ourselves and the actual show.<\/span><span id=\"more-666806\"><\/span><br \/>\n<!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post --><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0run and particularly in the aftermath of its finale, a certain handful of oft-repeated explanations and theories seemed to dominate the cultural ether, all in a futile effort to summarize eight seasons\u2019 worth of peaks and valleys into little more than viral-ready soundbites. Those talking points instantly became accepted as fact. Taken at face value, none of these arguments quite managed to account for the show\u2019s label-defying complexities with any real sense of satisfaction (or even accuracy), despite <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">feeling<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> right to so many. But what if we view them as an indicator of how the show\u2019s true legacy simply refuses to be distilled into a handful of easy answers?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In that case, perhaps examining the three most pervasive popular beliefs and finding the root of the issue underneath each one can reveal more about our relationship with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and its long-term significance in our zeitgeist than anything else ever could. We\u2019ll tackle these one-by-one:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-666880 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-Dany-700x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-Dany.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-Dany-360x154.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CNobody_talks_about_Game_of_Thrones_anymore%E2%80%9D\"><\/span><strong>\u201cNobody talks about <i>Game of Thrones<\/i> anymore.\u201d<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s call this \u201cThe <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avatar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Effect.\u201d (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, not <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/SHOWBIZ\/Movies\/01\/11\/avatar.movie.blues\/index.html\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> effect<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the years since James Cameron\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">newly re-crowned box office champ<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> first took the world by storm, it\u2019s become somewhat the joke du jour to mock the glaring discrepancy between its one-time inescapable popularity versus its utter failure to nurture a lasting imprint whatsoever in our collective consciousness over a decade later. A devoted fanbase champing at the bit for any of its <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">four planned sequels<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> either faded away over time or simply <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">never existed<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the idea goes, and nowadays <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avatar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> only really seems to come up in everyday conversation when, uh, discussing how it doesn\u2019t really come up in everyday conversation.<\/span><br \/>\n<!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post_2 --><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather shockingly, the overwhelming backlash to certain aspects of the last season meant that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> eventually found itself as <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2019\/dec\/30\/game-of-thrones-best-tv-2010s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the latest poster child<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for this bizarre phenomenon \u2013 even in spite of its penchant for fueling nonstop headlines with almost every new episode in recent seasons. Is there any legitimacy to the narrative of this fall from the undisputed king of serialized television to a mere shell of itself, bowing out with a whimper? Well\u2026it\u2019s complicated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first and most obvious counterpoint to this rhetoric, ironically, is that constantly bringing up the extent to which a pop culture artifact has supposedly been \u201cforgotten\u201d can\u2019t help but undercut the entire argument. Sort of like how loudly and repeatedly insisting on having gotten over an ex in the immediate aftermath of a breakup strongly suggests the exact opposite, there\u2019s only so much mileage a disgruntled fan can wring out of the idea that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> left no tangible impact in its wake before it <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">starts to ring hollow<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Did that previous fixture in your life <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> not mean anything after all? Or is that just a denial-ridden coping mechanism to help deal with an unexpected, unwanted ending?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent empirical evidence appears to contradict such claims as well. Between Netflix\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Witcher<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Starz\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outlander<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and Amazon\u2019s highly anticipated <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Rings<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> series, this fantasy arms race of sorts may have spurred the call to go all-in on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> prequels and spin-offs<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under creator George R.R. Martin\u2019s watchful eye. As HBO expands the world of Westeros, like <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cameron has done with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avatar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it would seem harder and harder to casually dismiss such an undeniably popular property as a fad or relic of a bygone era. The question then becomes, at what point does continuing to downplay <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018 relevance feel less like a compelling argument and more like sour grapes over lingering personal dissatisfaction?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be fair, this widespread animus is well worth digging into \u2013 it\u2019s not like there aren\u2019t <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">perfectly valid critiques<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the show overall and especially the final season(s) \u2013 but it\u2019s important to remember that two things can be true at the same time: the thudding conclusion to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sucked a lot of enthusiasm out of the immediate discourse in the post-finale landscape, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand to try and definitively explain away a show\u2019s legacy without allowing space for some sorely needed perspective. At a certain point, smarter and more invested writers than I will have to reckon with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avatar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the possibility that boasting such universal appeal may have directly led to its inability to stick around in our collective memory in the long run\u2026but <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> isn\u2019t <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avatar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, no matter how much simpler and easier that would\u2019ve been for our order-seeking brains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it\u2019s all said and done, \u201cThe Iron Throne\u201d and the five controversial episodes leading up to it will undoubtedly go a long way towards defining what the masses will remember first when thinking of the show in its totality. But that\u2019s <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/pDPE4_N7Bbw?t=81\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not the end of the story<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and I suspect the upcoming years chock-full of future <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stories and retrospectives about the original will have the final say. Maybe one day the \u201cNobody talks about it anymore\u201d theory will be relegated to, amusingly enough, its own forgotten dustbin of pop culture hot-take memory.<\/span><br \/>\n<!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post_3 --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-666881 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-table-700x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-table.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-Jon-table-360x154.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CGame_of_Thrones_lost_its_way_once_it_outpaced_George_RR_Martins_books%E2%80%9D\"><\/span><strong>\u201c<i>Game of Thrones<\/i> lost its way once it outpaced George R.R. Martin\u2019s books.\u201d<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adaptations can be a double-edged sword. Hew too close to beloved source material, and creators can expect to be criticized for a lack of imagination and for neglecting to make changes necessitated by working in a different medium altogether. Stray too far, and ardent fans will suddenly be in an uproar over unforgivable treatment <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the text<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and subsequently question the point in adapting their favorite story to begin with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During much of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, showrunners <strong>David Benioff<\/strong>, <strong>D.B. Weiss<\/strong>, and their team of writers carefully navigated this tightrope with aplomb \u2013 especially considering that the book series was not complete at the time (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and still isn\u2019t<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). As is usually the case, the earlier seasons tended to be more faithful to Martin\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Song of Ice and Fire<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> books, even with several notable omissions, additions, and deviations. As the show progressed and relatively minor changes rippled outward into gradually larger ones, observant viewers recognized the two streams were diverging significantly even while sharing the same baseline DNA. <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/grrm.livejournal.com\/427713.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Martin himself<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has noted <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2019\/05\/20\/an-ending\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on many occasions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, both could exist and be enjoyed simultaneously without needing to pit one against the other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, this reasonable and nuanced outlook was promptly thrown out the window during the post-finale panic in favor of finding a quick, all-encompassing talking point: one with the heavy implication that most of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0early success was a product of little more than following Martin\u2019s guideline, as if it were as easy as plugging in the same plot points from the books and then standing aside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For disillusioned book readers, this manifested itself through the presumption that everything went south after Season 5 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">caught up with<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the events of Martin\u2019s last published novel, punctuated by the \u201cdeath\u201d of Jon Snow (<strong>Kit Harington<\/strong>). Although some could argue that this loosely fits the timeframe for when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> underwent something of an identity shift<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the idea that it\u2019s as simple a problem as running out of source material is yet another broad, catch-all diagnosis that practically wilts under scrutiny.\u00a0(For my money, the Season 4 twin killings of Pedro Pascal\u2019s Oberyn Martell and Charles Dance\u2019s Tywin Lannister, though narratively justified and impeccably realized, represented a turning point from which the show <i>and<\/i> the books never completely recovered.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You only need to look back at some of the best-written scenes throughout the series to confirm this. Martin\u2019s strict point-of-view structure constrained his books in a way Benioff and Weiss\u2019 scripts never did, and more often than not the results of this freedom were \u2013 dare I say it \u2013 a marked improvement.<\/span><br \/>\n<!-- SlashFilm_300x250_In_Post_4 --><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As early as Season 1, wholly invented scenes added texture and dimensionality to supporting roles in ways Martin only hinted at. A dialogue-only showcase involving King Robert Baratheon (<strong>Mark Addy<\/strong>), Barristan Selmy (<strong>Ian McElhinney<\/strong>), and Jaime Lannister (<strong>Nikolaj Coster-Waldau<\/strong>) begins with the three soldiers swapping world-building war stories before culminating in Jaime\u2019s haunted and spiteful recollection of the Mad King\u2019s final words, \u201c<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/q6GW03WsFgU\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burn them all<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d Another original scene, <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xpBBueLih_k?t=10\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a beautifully understated private moment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> humanizing both Robert and his estranged wife Cersei Lannister (<strong>Lena Headey<\/strong>), fills in all sorts of gaps in their troubled political marriage and the toll it took in keeping the Seven Kingdoms from falling apart. And the <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/47MazYDnmaU\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">memorable first appearance of Tywin Lannister<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> cleverly pauses the otherwise breathless pace of the season\u2019s seventh episode, giving us insight into Jaime\u2019s complicated dynamic with his father while establishing Tywin\u2019s ruthless devotion to protect their family dynasty at all costs. This doesn\u2019t even touch on later sequences such as the stand-out \u201c<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PxlIraEV8n4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chaos is a ladder<\/span><\/a>\u201c<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0monologue\/montage or the inspired choice to have Arya Stark (<strong>Maisie Williams<\/strong>) serve as Tywin\u2019s cupbearer while a captive in Harrenhal rather than Roose Bolton\u2019s (<strong>Michael McElhatton<\/strong>), as she does in the book. (That subplot also features a wonderful original t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate between Arya and Tywin that\u2019s primarily focused on, fittingly, <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/UurwW4VicoM\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the question of legacy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) Tellingly, all of these examples rely only on the broadest strokes of Martin\u2019s writings to take these scenes to the next level \u2013 meaning that Benioff and Weiss were working with <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">roughly the same insider information<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that they had when bringing the series in for a landing. The biggest variable, as it turns out, was the execution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, critics can fire back with their own litany of show-specific misfires as proof of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> veering off the tracks without Martin\u2019s steady hand at the wheel. Some massively divergent storylines <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">continue to be questioned<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to this day. Others are better off collecting figurative dust, like the tragically mishandled Iron Island and Dorne subplots, the latter of which <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the writers smartly aborted<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a series of unceremonious deaths. Worst of all had to be the wildly controversial decision to subject <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fan-favorite character<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sansa Stark (<strong>Sophie Turner<\/strong>) to the relentless villainy of Ramsay Bolton (<strong>Iwan Rheon<\/strong>), especially after she\u2019d endured so much suffering to that point already.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practically speaking, however, comparisons to the source material is only one small tool out of many at our disposal when it comes to gauging any adapted work. To dilute <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to its barest essence as an adaptation not only does a disservice to dozens of hours of quality entertainment, but it flattens and misrepresents the sheer scope and scale of storytelling that the show had to offer, flaws and all. While it\u2019s understandably tempting to do otherwise, it\u2019s safe to say that these works must be judged by their own merits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ultimate legacies of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Song of Ice and Fire<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will be decided not through their varying adherence to \u201ccanon,\u201d but by how they approached the similar-yet-distinct stories they chose to tell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-666882 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-night-king-700x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-night-king.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-night-king-360x154.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CGame_of_Thrones_ended_up_becoming_precisely_the_kind_of_show_it_was_meant_to_subvert%E2%80%9D\"><\/span><strong>\u201cGame of Thrones ended up becoming precisely the kind of show it was meant to subvert.\u201d<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of all the attempts to find a one-size-fits-all panacea for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018 unwieldy arc over the years, this last one perhaps contains the most elements of truth to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not an unfair assessment to say that the show that once beheaded the honorable Ned Stark (<strong>Sean Bean<\/strong>) for his inability <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ucB4UrhI-3w\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to play the game<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or allowed his justice-seeking son Robb (<strong>Richard Madden<\/strong>) to remain undefeated in the field of battle only to brutally <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/btzq18TkaUc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cut him down at a wedding<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> would scarcely even recognize the one which later guided the cartoonish villain Ramsay Bolton and his enemy forces into a downright <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/DVdJl2AG8S0\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Rings<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">-esque defeat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and gave Arya the triumphant victory over the Night King right when\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">all hope seemed lost<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Remember when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> used to dig deep into the minutiae of <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Di8Z7rJ9vnI?t=24\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">political intrigue and maneuvering<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and make time for conversations on <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FpL6Fwu0wkw\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the nature of power<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in between its extravagant, expectation-defying set pieces? It\u2019s a far cry from the far more mainstream, widely-appealing version in later years that prioritized action and spectacle above all else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But while many of us can at least agree on the existence of this stark (ha!) divide, even if individual preferences can lean either way, it still can\u2019t <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quite<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> do justice to the reality of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For one thing, this overlooks the inexorable fact that media built on a foundation of subversion and self-critique of its genre will, more likely than not, circle right back around to more traditional storytelling over time. With <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, this was made clear right from <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/YkaGuxi0KMc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the very first scene of the first episode<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: an unstoppable horde of ice creatures bearing down on an ignorant world too caught up in petty conflicts and backstabbing to fight the real threat. Did anyone seriously believe this wouldn\u2019t eventually result in a fairly archetypical, unambiguously good-vs-evil fantasy showdown?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This isn\u2019t exclusive to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, either. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damon Lindelof\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watchmen<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a worthy continuation of the seminal comic, even if author Alan Moore would never approve of it (remember that earlier point about how multiple things can be true at the same time?), impressively <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">engaged with the original\u2019s themes<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> regarding the harmful and corrosive influence of superheroes, but still concluded by <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">embracing its superheroic trappings<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rather than outright rejecting them. On a similar note, Eric Kripke\u2019s adaptation of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Boys<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came along at the perfect moment, taking advantage of our current superhero movie boom in order to satirize and parody the genre within an inch of its life. Yet for all its bluster, this deconstructivist story couldn\u2019t resist playing it earnestly straight at crucial moments, pulling off <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/urI8T5n9z3o\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">last-minute changes of heart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and giving evildoers <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SgAEexDFhV8\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their deserved comeuppance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stubbornly managed to sneak in a glimpse of its formerly reputation-defining shock tactics before the curtains were finally drawn. The aforementioned battle at Winterfell during \u201cThe Long Night\u201d weaponized the expectations instilled in ourselves from prior seasons. Expecting an absolute bloodbath, with major protagonists slaughtered left and right? Well, they were all spared a gruesome fate at the hands of the Army of the Dead; the only substantive death toll involved bit players who\u2019d long since outlived their usefulness. While the battle itself may have ended predictably, the very placement of the episode within the overall season was anything but. By conclusively ending the White Walker threat with three full episodes remaining, it ensured the true final conflict would revolve around what <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has always been about: human conflict, greed, politics, and despotic power-lust. And no, we can\u2019t go any further without finally acknowledging Daenerys Targaryen (<strong>Emilia Clarke<\/strong>) and her <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/flXrq9OJfOg\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">expectation-shattering, internet-breaking heel turn<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in \u201cThe Bells.\u201d But no matter where you land on the debate over whether her descent into supervillainy was properly set-up or not, it\u2019s almost weirdly refreshing to see that Benioff and Weiss still retained a spark of their prior willingness to twist the knife and make characters we\u2019ve grown to like do <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4M4Y3rYdXsU\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">morally disturbing things<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this adds up to an equally uncomfortable realization: movies and television can be just as complex, multifaceted, and contradictory as any human being. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may have started out one way and ended up in a vastly different place, but isn\u2019t that true of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">all<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> longform storytelling? In the end, Tyrion Lannister himself (<strong>Peter Dinklage<\/strong>) may have summed it up best. If you\u2019re looking for easy answers that can put <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, of all things, in a neat and tidy box, \u201c<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/IWIDp2Uyb-8\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you\u2019ve come to the wrong place<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-666883 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-iron-throne-700x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-iron-throne.jpg 700w, https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-iron-throne-360x154.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the end, one aspect links each of these three unsatisfactory attempts to define the show\u2019s legacy: they\u2019re all missing the forest for the trees. Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic bullet or elixir that can single-handedly account for an entire decade of highs and lows. The reason we can revisit the first episode of Season 1, \u201cWinter Is Coming,\u201d and contextualize it within the series\u2019 overall framework is because we now have ten years\u2019 worth of perspective. None of us are the same now as we were when we first watched how it all began. With any luck, we\u2019ll have grown even more by the time we can truly begin to grapple with the legacy of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                            <strong>Cool Posts From Around the Web:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                            <!-- \/post -->\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/game-of-thrones-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Grappling with the Show&#8217;s Legacy \u2013 \/Film&#8221; Attempting to define legacy \u2013 whether of an individual, an institution, or a piece of art \u2013 can be a fraught proposition. By our very nature, human beings generally tend to crave oversimplified narratives to help make sense of a messy and chaotic world. After all, depending on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/Game-of-Thrones-anniversary.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1522,1523,9652,1570,5157,1524,1525],"class_list":["post-228634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-adaptation","tag-drama","tag-fantasy","tag-features","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-hbo","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}