He caused so much trauma. Never change.
Not to sound too much like an ‘I read the books and I knew what was coming’ merchant, but for fans of George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, there must have been a small thrill ahead of The Rains of Castamere episode being aired.
Oh yeah, spoilers. D’uh.
As anyone in the Seven Kingdoms will know, that’s better known as The Red Wedding.
As a teenager, there’s no describing the devastation, sadness and life-shattering brutality those few pages exerted and after waiting for the TV show to catch up with events in the novels, fans of the books could take some solace in the universal ‘WTF JUST HAPPENED’ reaction that unfolded.
Now they know the pain.
Well, with Season 8 about to be unlashed in 2019, George R.R Martin has given an insight into his mind that’s filled with murder, poisoning, decapitation, stabbings, an army of the dead and people having their eyeballs gouged out. Happy stuff.
During a recent interview with Gizmodo, the author said that his fondness for killing off beloved characters is actually based on the narrative that unfolded in the Lord of the Rings.
As a teenager reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic saga, it seems that Martin never recovered from the stunning blow of Gandalf’s death in the Mines of Moria because it had a huge influence on his future work.
He said: “And then Gandalf dies! I can’t explain the impact that had on me at 13. You can’t kill Gandalf. I mean, Conan didn’t die in the Conan books, you know? Tolkien just broke that rule, and I’ll love him forever for it. The minute you kill Gandalf, the suspense of everything that follows is a thousand times greater, because now anybody could die. Of course, that’s had a profound impact on my own willingness to kill characters off at the drop of a hat.”
Ned Stark, Khal Drogo, Princess Shireen (still too raw), Stannis Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, Oberyn Martell, House Bolton, House Tyrell and practically everyone at the Red Wedding… you shall not pass George R.R. Martin’s teenage trauma.
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