I don't think it's a matter of scope but rather a matter of the plot being very much obvious at this point. Everything is way too telegraphed so the SUVERTING MAH EXPECTATION the series is known for will not work without risking massive changes. Which is a fitting fate for this kind of post modern type of writing.
the show was always dumbed down and always lacked ASOIAF's greatest asset: it's unbelievable complexity and believability in world building. However this dumbing down got worse and worse until by season 5 the show essentially just became a serialized Marvel movie.
I agree, subverting expectations isn't a virtue and the novelty wears off pretty quickly. One thing I appreciate though is that he's (sometimes) self aware of how fucking edgy and stupid a lot of the books and scenes sound and uses this to his advantage.
Nah. There is literally nothing in his book to suggest that he's setting up "the Other are just misunderstood, we need to build bridges" hippy dippy bullshit. If anything, the Other are a personification of hatred, war or even a force of nature - I could make a far more convincing argument that they embody climate change (as foundationless and nonsensical as that is) than what you suggest here.
Brienne of Tarth and Asha Greyjoy are like the only female fighters worth a damn in the entire book series and Brienne is mocked or pitied by literally everyone she's ever met for being a female warrior - including Catelyn Stark who takes her into her service. The Sand Snake sisters amount to neither jack nor shit in the books iirc. I wouldn't call 2 characters, one of which is treated like a joke by everyone, a heavy prevalence.
The thing with Martin's writing in ASOIAF isn't so much that it subverts expectations, it takes an axe to certain established tropes and replaces them with a strong internal logic.
That's why I think the publisher waits for him to keel over, so they can hand the series to some other writer, who will crank out the last few books. In their eyes, an unfinished series might as well be preferable over yet another filler book or a bad ending. Depends on how the rights to the books are handled and if Martin can only prevent interference of other writers as long as he's alive or if there's some clause that prevents it after his death.
on they surface they're climate change, sure that's given, but they're also clearly intelligent beings with their own language and society. He even termed them "Others," a term used to describe dehumanized and marginalized peoples. I think there's going to be an adapt or die scenario between the Others and Westerosi, in a way similar to how humanity must adapt or die to climate change, mass migration, etc. I don't believe George would paint an entire society of intelligent beings as a purely savage force of nature, I think he wants us to think that.
There's a lot more significant female warriors you're missing out on - it's a clear theme throughout the series. The Mormonts of a Bear Island, Yghritte and the tradition of Spear Wives, many of the Targaryen women, Meera Reid, Danny Flint, Arya, Nimeria, there's an entire page on the ASOIAF wiki dedicated to warrior women because of how many there are. Most of the warrior women you mentioned were leaders/queens and not soldiers (with the exception of Joan of Arc), while the ones I've mentioned are soldiers. Also, Catelyn takes Brienne into her service largely out of pity and then necessity.
George has been writing these books since the 90s. Liberal opinion has flipped flopped a dozen times since then, so who knows what anything is supposed to represent at this point. Hell, by the time A Dream of Spring comes out, he might advocate genociding the Others because they represent white people and winter represents white people colonizing africa or some shit.
I'm talking about the books, not the show. What happens in the books is very different. My problem was with characters who are previously described as being small and nimble suddenly becoming Conan the Barbarian. This happens with Tyrion as well.
sure?
My point isn't that the Other are a personification of climate change, my point is that what you suggest makes even less sense than claiming the Other being a personification of climate change.
The term is used more akin to the "He who must not be named" stuff that I assume happens in Harry Potter, it's not so much an instance of (cultural) otherization and more of an instance of something being so evil, even just speaking its name bodes ill. Sympathetic magic is a strong aspect of many superstitions, part of the reason why Christians don't refer to God by his name for instance and why the "true name" of certain mythical creatures is such a big deal.
The Other have no language, no culture, no society, so I have absolutely no clue where you get that idea from. They are a mindless horde of monsters that kill everything in their path and there has been no hint at even the most basic notion of them being anything else. Everything in the plot so far precludes the suggestion that there is going to be some sort of mediation between the Other and the humans. This whole thing is entirely based on your notion that Martin is a hippy and nothing else, as far as I can tell.
I'll give you Ygritte, anyone else is either just mentioned in passing, part of the historic background of the setting or rather insignificant in terms of being a warrior.
the Others arent a mindless horde, they do have culture and a society.
Subverting expectations is axing tropes and replacing them with logical progression, but the problem is that it's done so poorly/consistently today that it just created a new genre of worse tropes. But even then the subverted expectation in GoT isn't as good as people make it out to be, killing Ned Stark was dumb as shit move that was retconned to be done on the spur of the moment by Geoffrey, making it's only logical sense is that a little bitch tyrant will act like a little bitch.
What is anything you just said based on? Certainly not the wiki entry, unless I skipped over the respective part.
mentions having a language which sounds like lake ice breaking.
One exception though: Brienne wins Renly's tournament and becomes part of his king's guard. Of all the female warriors, her and Asha are the strongest I'd say, even though Asha is mainly a raider, so beating up unarmed fisherfolk to steal their meager wealth isn't exactly the stuff of legends.
Indeed, the female "warriors" are even less impressive in the books.
Both in the book and the show, Littlefinger put that flea into Geoffrey's ear to advance his own petty schemes. Partially, I assume, he did so to get Ed out of the picture so he can either get into Catelyn's or Sansa's pants. Or both I dunno.
The disgrace lies entirely with the Freys though, the Lannisters come out clean as fresh snow. All that happened, was a guy known for being a dickwad, committed a rather substantial and fucked up misdeed, but since no one really respects the old fuck and his filthy family of bridge toll collectors, neither Walder Frey nor Tywin could give less of a shit. Rob was killed and his rebellion stomped out in a way that will tell everyone not to fuck with the Lannisters in no uncertain terms and it fits into the "Rains of Castamere" kind of symbolism that Tywin has been fond of in the past.
Seems to me you're reading way too much into them using weapons and extrapolating from there that this is going to go down a route that has never been hinted at even by the smallest of margins. They are cunning but that doesn't mean they have a culture.
I'm just thankful that people stopped calling the fat hack that or saying that he would surpass Tolkien and would go down in history as the greatest writer of all time. JFC.
It's just so goddamn depressing. ASOIAF is a terrific book series with only a handful of flaws here and there, and Martin doesn't seem to have any intention of even trying to finish it. The staggeringly awful Game of Thrones Seasons 6-8 are going to be the "canon" ending. I know this is going to make me sound like an asshole, but the worst part is that he has no children. So it's not like there's a son who will be able to cobble together his drafts and publish them, the way Tolkien's son did with the Silmarillion. Once he drops dead (which is probably any day now, since he's an obese man in his 70s), that's it. A great story, almost 30 years in the making, gone. And all we have to fill in the blanks is a rushed, shitty job by two hacks who had their eyes on the next Star Wars trilogy (which thank God they won't get).
The thing about women warriors is that it's hard to differentiate between women who fought in the field with weapons and women who were camp followers/support staff. Both would qualify as warriors in my estimation, just like there are many soldiers in the world today who never fire a weapon in their entire period of service.
Big words for a guy who can't even finish his own story ...
