#A song of ice and fire kickstarter series#

Their plan is snuffed out by Doran, the only member of their family who straddles the generational divide between the Mad King and the current Baratheon-Lannister rule.

When he fails, many of his daughters want to ignite a war with the Lannisters and assassinate Tommen Baratheon. Queen Elia Martell and her children were murdered by the Lannisters when the Mad King was overthrown, and Prince Oberyn goes to King's Landing looking for revenge - specifically against Tywin Lannister and Gregor Clegane, the people directly responsible for her death. The Dornish royal family as written is also a case study in how specific acts of violence can have ripple effects through generations. That weight isnвЂ™t felt in the show, and nowhere is Benioff and Weiss' betrayal of this idea more clear than in the universally despised Dorne plot.Дornish society is written as a more gender-equitable alternative to the majority of the Seven Kingdoms - laws of succession treat men and women equally, and even highborn women are trained to fight -ВЂВ”ВЂВ” and Prince Doran serves as a counterpoint to the 'kill anyone in my way' mindset of Cersei Lannister.

Every action is colored by the generation that came before. Their deaths were probably why Ned Stark ran from power and never developed a political mind in the first place. When Sansa Stark is viciously beaten in the Red Keep as a result of her father's political ineptitude, it should feel even more brutal to those who know that her uncle and grandfather were murdered by Aerys in the same spot. When Cersei and Tyrion Lannister choose to defend King's Landing with the wild fire that once threatened to destroy it, our stomachs should clench. His atrocities (and the hands he forced) set the stage, determining the world views and priorities of every major player. The specter of Mad King Aerys hangs over every plotline in A Song of Ice and Fire. As the story goes, he wanted to burn everyone in his city to death, and he crisped a fair number of them before he was brought down. In both the books and the series, the domino effect of violence begetting violence started with the Mad King. The shift is making a complex and thoughtful story into something of a boring, pedestrian gorefest. But as we've plodded into the later seasons of Game of Thrones, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss seem to be abandoning this throughline.

#A song of ice and fire kickstarter series#

HBO's adaptation of the series maintained much of this violence critique in its earlier seasons, letting characters opine at length about the Mad King and Robert's Rebellion to provide the context viewers needed. No act of violence just happens - it is caused, and that in turn causes more. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire isn't his prose - which is often rote - it's his world building, and his ability to craft a story in which every action has consequences and carries thematic weight.