My Thoughts on The Red Wedding

Warning: spoilers in this post.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

After reading and viewing many of the thoughts on the recent Game of Thrones "Red Wedding" episode, I thought I might jot down a few of my own thoughts on the mind-boggling Stark massacre.

First off, I am a huge fan of Game of Thrones, because I love the way George R.R. Martin has a way of making me believe the story will go one way and completely steering me in a different direction. Few writers have this kind of courage and creativity. And yes, I say courage. As a writer, you have to develop these characters that become alive to you; if not, they lack the life that readers crave. Readers and viewers want to know the habits, desires, motivations, goals, physical features, and love interests of the characters in the stories. They want to know e v e r y t h i n g about that person, like a juicy piece of fruit only they (as the reader) can bite into. Writers become obsessed about these fictional people to create them, and in the process, we become attached to our characters.

So, to all the recent angry viewers who watch Game of Thrones, you ask, "Then why kill them?"

My viewpoint on the episode is, "Wow, I wish I had the kind of courage to let my characters go like that." I'm attached to my characters; it's hard to see them go. It's hard for me to shock the audience. As a writer, I find that many plots have already been written and original is becoming harder and harder to create; but George R.R. Martin does it with ease - or - at least he makes it look easy. As a viewer, I had a hunch something was going to happen to Jeyne, Robb's wife. The Starks were making choices based on emotion and too many mistakes had been made on Robb's account; but I had no idea a massacre was coming. To see a pregnant Jeyne stabbed without mercy in her abdomen, then to twist the knife deeper and slaughter Robb! But what did it in for me was listening to Catelyn's plea for her son's life and then her hopeless death...

Wow.

It took days for me to let that reality sink in. There's no coming back for Catelyn, who lost so much and will never find resolution. It takes bravery and a little bit of madness to write this way, but in a good way. Their deaths weren't meaningless or unnecessary, as we look back the pieces were heading in that direction. George succeeded in ripping the security blankets out from under us and making us unsure of what lies ahead; because as far as a storyteller, he just broke all the rules and is making them as he writes. I applaud that talent and hope to accomplish something similar in my own writing.

A recent interview on Conan,

Conan: You get us to really care about characters, love them, really think they're central to everything --- and then you kill them!

Goerge R. R. Martin: (chuckles) Yes, I do do that.

Conan: You have a way of completely surprising poeple; they think, as least this character is going to be around for a while. You have a way of surprising us.

Goerge R. R. Martin: I suppose you're right. I always like unexpected things and I always like the suspense to be real. We've all seen the movies where the hero is in trouble and he's surronded by twenty people, but you always know he's going to get away; because he is the hero. You don't really feel any fear for him. I want my readers and I want my viewers to be afraid when my characters are in danger. I want them to be afraid to turn the next page, because the character may not survive it.

Conan: You've achieved that.