TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Entertainment: Confessions of a Game of Thrones Addict

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Entertainment: Confessions of a Game of Thrones Addict

I'm getting ready for Season 5 of Game of Thrones, which starts on April 12, 2015.

I must admit that I'm a Game of Thrones addict. My son had introduced me to the books years ago, and I approached the reading with caution. I generally prefer literary fiction to commercial. I later realized that the writer, George R. R. Martin, created interesting characters and situations. In fact, the books are skillfully done.

The movie series is even more entertaining since one just sits back and watches --- you don't have to read and muddle through the huge cast. Each scene has some dramatic event going on, and the characters have clear-cut motivation (power!) so that despite the twists and turns, the viewer can generally follow what is going on. The viewer also gets into the lives of various characters so there's no time to be bored.

Warning: If you are unfamiliar with the characters, it's impossible to follow. Our friend who watched a show with us and who knew nothing about Game of Thrones, had no clue what was going on and was bored.

Really, I am not being condescending when I say the Game of Thrones is enjoyable. Once you get to know the characters, and there are many of them, you feel you know them. There's Daenerys, Mother of Dragons, who's hell bent on getting back her father's throne. There's the dwarf Tyrion Lannister who's a sympathetic member of the ruthless Lannister family. His sister Cersei and nephew Joffrey are also incredibly cruel and hateful. (I was happy to see Joffrey die in Season 4.)

I note that the world in the Game of Thrones is male-dominated. Even though some women are strong, they derive their power from men. Even Daenerys who develops into a determined queen, got her start from her husband Drogo; later her dragons are a source of power. Women like Cersei, the Queen of Thorns, and others have had to manipulate their husbands to get power. Young Margaery, as another example, learns from her grandmother cunning tricks in order to control the young king, Tommen.

The pictures are courtesy of Wikipedia.

Tags: #GameofThrones #HBOSeries #entertainment Television Series, Game of Thrones, HBO, entertainment

This is all for now,

Cecilia

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.