FyreHaar: started watching Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones
SonicRob: fun
FyreHaar: I sort of have the same problem with GoT on telly that I do with the books
FyreHaar: have you read the books at all?
SonicRob: not a bit
FyreHaar: the first one is okay
FyreHaar: after that they go vastly downhill
FyreHaar: I finally realized why they are not good
FyreHaar: there is no heart to them
FyreHaar: no core message
FyreHaar: no theme
FyreHaar: they are just about people doing stuff with no over arching story
FyreHaar: no hero’s journey
FyreHaar: no great change
FyreHaar: well…
FyreHaar: and the characters have no consistency
FyreHaar: Martin just has them do what he wants them to do at any given moment
FyreHaar: he uses them instead of following them
FyreHaar: if that makes sense
SonicRob: well, I think people kind of like that about it
SonicRob: it’s a fantasy novel without all the Joseph Campbell plots we all know in our bones
SonicRob: so the people feel more fresh and new to us
SonicRob: we don’t know what to expect from them
SonicRob: and it makes them feel more real
FyreHaar: see, real people do have consistency and motivations
FyreHaar: to me it makes it all ring false
FyreHaar: the only character that I feel is “real” is Danaerys
FyreHaar: she is the only one on a journey
FyreHaar: I know people like that it’s dark
FyreHaar: and feels “real” and gritty
FyreHaar: but it has no purpose
SonicRob: I actually sort of empathize with that
SonicRob: My life feels pretty plotless a lot f the time
SonicRob: day to day I’m just muddling through
FyreHaar: maybe you would like them
FyreHaar: I found them graceless
FyreHaar: repetitive
FyreHaar: and Martin seems to take great joy in making you love a character only to kill them without ceremony
FyreHaar: and he does it over and over and over again
FyreHaar: I actually stopped reading in the middle of one of the books
FyreHaar: I never stop in the middle
FyreHaar: but it had become so difficult to keep reading that I just couldn’t make myself pick it up anymore
SonicRob: I’ve done that with books that are shit
SonicRob: In one of the Horus Heresy 40K books you meet a guy named Lucius who is shown to be the deadliest swordfighter in the whole of the space marines through 3 or 4 chapters of action
SonicRob: then in the next book a different writer just introduces him with “In strode Lucius, the master swordsman.”
SonicRob: I literally threw the book backwards over my shoulder in disgust
SonicRob: didn’t pick it up again for a month