Okay I am going to start by addressing the fact that i have not been updating this blog for like more than a year, and suddenly I have the whim to write something.
The culprit for the reason of my not-writing-the-blog syndrome is because of my job which eats up every bit of my time.
I know all of you readers (all 1 of you) will be like 'Heh, this is going to be just one update and then he will do the long hiatus and be gone from the scene again'
Well, folks, I am not gonna lie to you, i really dont know if i can keep this up... but here's hoping i can...
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Well, enough about that. Now to my point, which is George R.R Martin.
For those who do not want any spoilers on the third book of the series 'Song of Ice and Fire' - The Storm of Swords or the third season of the HBO series 'Game of Thrones' please do not read on.
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Okay, I started the series with the first book - The Game of Thrones, and let me tell you, it was thrilling. I was in a course for Form 2 PBS in november in some school, and the lady who was giving the speech was going at a diabolically slow pace, I fished out the book from my bag which i had left in trunk unnoticed since May 2012.
Well let me tell you, it was thrilling, waaaaaaay better than the series (as like all adaptations, i learnt that when I read Harry Potter AFTER I watched the first two movies). I managed to read more than 300 pages in just one hour while the woman ranted on about evidence, and filing, and instruments bla bla bla...
Well, the second book kind of mellowed a little but still thrilling enough for me to finish all 70 chapters in a week. And then i came to the third book, and i was like 'Enough!'
There's gore all over the pages, and unnecessary details! and the gores were not at a balance with any form of positivity at all.
You know, for example in Harry Potter - Dumbledore died, and that was like a stupid event ever in the saga, hell, i was ready to leave the series altogether. But then Harry still got his friends and they stuck with him till the end. You know when Dumbledore died that HArry will find some solace with Hermione and Ron somehow, so that would made you feel warm and hopeful that HArry will be ok.
However, with the Storm of Swords, ALL I GOT WAS EMPTINESS!!
I mean come on, it is like the writer enjoyed writing all this cool characters who I really like and root for and then kill them off for no obvious purpose to the plotline. I mean, why the hell would i want to read about all these efforts made by a guy and have him ultimately killed off?
And then there were these unnecessary details - like in this one chapter Arya was captured by the Brave companions, and then she tried to escape, shooting into forest and through rivers, and then I had to read pages of how her horse slowed down because there were knots of vines on the jungle floor and I really thought that she would have escaped but ultimately she was captured again... Why several pages of nonsense?
And then there was these foreshadows from previous books -
At the end of book one, I read all these dramatic scenes on how Daenerys let herself burn with Khal Drogo and those dragon eggs, and then she was magically unscathed by the pyre, and then the dragons hatched and lived again. And then I thought that here is another heroine who will made an impact in the second book, but all that she was in the second and thrid book was a big 'meh'
At the end of book one, I read about how Sansa had to watch her father being decapitated and there was this scene where she had the urge to push Jofrey off the bridge, but that didnt happen so I thought she will have her say in the next book, she will get Joffrey of Cersei or Tywin somehow but all through the second and third (until as far as i got), she was only a small victim.
At the end of book two, I read about how Tyrion had managed to win the Blackwater battle by wit and bravery only to have him mutilated and disgraced in the third book.
At the end of book two, when they say that Margery was going to marry Joffrey instead of Sansa, i thought that 'Yes, she will make an ultimate bitch-off with Cersei' but nothing happen so far, her existence in the book so far was only to make way for Tyrion marrying Sansa
I mean all the character which i hoped to find some solace in them all died in the most unfortunate way - Ser Rodrik was one, Maester Luwin was another, and the one which i cannot accept the most is Catelyn Stark, believing her two sons and one daughter had tragically died, another daughter married of to what she presumed to be a monster and have another son - who was only her source of comfort - to be murdered in front of her eyes, I thought she would find some consolation with meeting her daughter who she thought to be dead and who, by the way, was just outside the castle when Catelyn saw her son being murdered. But NOOOOOOOO, the writer thought that readers would enjoy it more to have Catelyn murdered too, having her throat slit from ear to ear.
And the bad guys, or the seemingly bad guys who has developed good qualities like Tyrion or Jaime didnt give me any other surprises by doing something really unprofitable to the really bad guys, but noooooo, they just lay there quiet, i dunno when are they going to act.
God, I read as far as Robb and Catelyn's death. I couldnt go on anymore, but i dont want to leave any book unfinished. So what i did was to go into the Ice and Fire wiki on the internet to read the upcoming chapter summaries.. and nothing good is seen in the horizon, nothing that could make me feel the emptiness that i get thus far. Sure, Joffrey is going to be poisoned, but i want him to be disgraced too, i want sansa to have something to do with it, but having him dead is not that bad either. and Tywin will die, but i dont know why that didnt bring me any desire to go on.
because those are all small victories compared to what the characters we are rooting for had to endure. I hope George R.R. Martin is planning to have Arya, Sansa, Bran, Rickon and Jon to reunite in the last book and put one of them on the iron throne. And if he kill Daenerys at any point, i will just burn all these books that i bought on the series.
I have to go on reading, because i spent like 150 ringgit on the 5 books box-set.
bummer...
Memory (dedicated to dear You)
8 years ago
