The new season of Game of Thrones is coming, to the delight of millions of fans worldwide. The series changed a lot of what we call television (HBO, the cable channel responsible for producing the show, said in its advertisement that it was not TV, but HBO – now this finally made sense). With more freedom to create programs and movies, just because it is cable television, HBO is able not only to create content that open broadcast would be afraid to risk, with all the most controversial issues on the planet, but also has the flexibility of not show your show at the scheduled time, if you think you have better days to do the same (yes, it happened in 2013).
And it is in this context that Game of Thrones emerged, based on the book The Ice and Fire Chronicles of the American writer George RR Martin, which was released in 1996. Game of Thrones, name of the first book, it seemed that it would never become a program of TV. With a fictional world that has dragons and zombies, violence and sexuality, the cost would be too great if the series failed. However, it has not only become one of the most successful programs in television history, but it has effectively changed what we expect from a television series.
And what aspects gave the show its unique character? Very well developed characters and violence towards these main characters. Very different from other programs, even if successful, the characters in Game of Thrones have incredible coherence, never taking an action that does not make sense to their story. More importantly, the series maintains an unstable violence that does not allow us to know which character will live or die – and it does not matter whether it is good or bad, main or secondary. In a current world where we perceive reality with this certain instability, the series fell like a glove.
Much of the success of the series is also due to a great word of mouth. After the episode The Red Wedding, in season three, several fans, shocked by what they saw on the screen, could not hide their excitement. This has led many to watch the show from the beginning to have the same experience. Youtube videos, showing the reaction of the fans when they see the main characters of the dying show, show the importance and the innovation of this work. So much that after Game of Thrones, other serials, like The Walking Dead, tried to copy the violence, but without never being able to replicate the care in the development of the personages, that has the author of the book to thank.
Now in the seventh season, though, a lot will change. To begin with, the early episodes were inspired by Martin’s books. However, as the writer needs a great deal of time to write his works, the show has reached its final books. Even so, the author was always with the show’s creative team, approving their decisions. However, the writer seems to have given up writing the next few titles of his most famous series after the end of season six revealed many secrets that Martin wanted to leave for later. So, the series now sails unknown waters.
Anyway, the series promises to please much in this seventh season. If at the beginning of the show there was enough development in the characters, now they are about to fight each other in a battle that promises to enter into the history of television. Knowing Game of Thrones, we can guess that winter is just beginning.
(article translated from the original version in portuguese, by Google Translate)