Case Study: "Game of Thrones" and Its Overuse of Character Death

Game of Thrones and Its Overuse of Character Death

Many are looking forward to April 24th when the start of the sixth Game of Thrones season is scheduled. I too can't wait to see how the story continues, and yet ... Well, the great success of the series proves that it does many things right. But as any successful project it does a few things wrong. And one of these "mistakes" kind of sours my watching experience.

What I'm talking about is character death.

I'm generally a fan of major characters suffering a dramatic death, but I really dislike it in Game of Thrones: Just for the same reason as why stories in which it's pretty clear that nobody will die often are boring. When you know that there isn't real danger for your beloved heroes an adventure loses potential for suspense.

With Game of Thrones it's the exact opposite: The past seasons have made it clear that everybody - or almost everybody - will die sooner or later. Character death is simply what I expect to happen and when another bunch of characters gets their throat slit my reaction isn't shock or surprise but a rather bored: "Oh, again? Who's next?"

Case Study: How the First "Hunger Games" Movie Turned Us Into Sadists

Metalepsis - How the First Hunger Games Movie Turned Us Into Sadists

Tomorrow is the big day when Mockingjay Part 2, the last part of the Hunger Games movie series, is going to be released. It seems like a good occasion to talk about the very first part. The one that unlike all the others had a very special effect.

Maybe it's just me; maybe you noticed it too. Maybe it was done consciously; maybe it was done unconsciously. But if you ask me, the effect of a narrative metalepsis is there, and this effect is the reason why the first movie impressed me so much. It's the effect of blurring the line between the viewer and what's happening on the screen.

In narratology we speak of a metalepsis when one narrative level enters another one. This happens, for example, when a narrator starts meddling in the affairs of the characters instead of just telling the story. Or when a novel is about the reader reading it. Or when the characters decide to kill their author for all the horrible things he did to them. Or when the reader somehow turns out to be a character in the story. ... You get the idea, right?