Tag Archive: Game of Thrones

It takes a special kind of writing to make a development that’s been literally years in the making feel like it came out of nowhere.

At its best, Game of Thrones’ most shocking plot developments are surprising because of how completely they betray the characters’ expectations, even though they feel tragically inevitable in retrospect. By making the audience empathize with the characters, the show makes the audience share their preoccupations and assumptions about what’s happening next, and thus share their shock when it all goes horribly wrong.

It’s this approach that made the show such an effective adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books—and why the show’s last and biggest twist feels like such a misfire.

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In this week’s edition of me gainsaying io9, I’m taking a look at this piece, in which Charlie Jane Anders wonders if the second season of Game of Thrones will live up to the first. I’m going to be counter-contrarian and say that it will.

The article makes some great points, which amount to the fact that everything that made the first season hard will make the second season harder, plus they’ll need more  special effects. But I think the first point Anders raises is both wrong and the reason why I think the show will actually work.

Spoilers.

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