OT: GoT Red wedding... Am I evil?

[KenchiSulla]

My interest goes out to world war 2, but yes, I like fantasy. I like to read about it, like to watch movies about it and like to watch a certain HBO series about it...

My mother comes to babysit her grandson every two weeks (its a two hour drive for her). She is very interested in GoT and had watched the first two seasons + 7 episodes of season three with us over the past couple of months (we started somewhere in 2013...).. We had a great diner and I told her if we are going to watch GoT tonight, we'll have to watch two episodes... I figured, she has seen season one (Ned Stark), she'll be able to handle it... We watched and now I'm not to sure if she'll want to watch season four with us. Did she see it coming? Don't think so, although episode 8 and 9 have signs all over it...


My question, is the 40s and 50s generation able to handle a series as brutal as Game of Thrones? Television used to be so friendly when I grew up. Yes, there was the occasional drawn out loss but nothing as "in your face" as episode 9 of season 3, GoT.... Am I evil? Should I have steered her away from GoT?

EDIT: I've explained that Bolton is actually the father of the guy torturing Greyjoy (not our Greyjoy) so it does make a bit more sense now...

[tocaff]

Even though TV was glossed over life in those days we actually, IMHO, had a better grip on reality that today. So, no the series isn't so brutal as you make it out to be. There's been plenty of other things aired that are much bloodier and violent.

If you've read the books you'll know that HBO actually toned it down a bit.

[Schorsch]

red wedding reactions compilation

[jmalter]

'S a good question, Cannonfodder.

IME, older folks are likely to expect a bit more validation from the fiction they read - where the hero saves the day, avenges the dead & rescues his beloved. More recent fiction is blowing up the reader's expectations.

Serial novels of the past (LotR, Narnia) were predicated on the eventual triumph of Good over Evil. SciFi that celebrated the triumph of the 'competent man' (Heinlein, Crichton) over adversity were the norm.

Stuff I've read lately by GRRMartin, Richard K. Morgan & China Mieville aren't quite so certain about that. These fables end w/ a temporary, Pyhrric victory over their foes - a victory whose cost was too great to bear, pointing to a future of greater struggles, tinged by the likelihood of inevitable defeat.

[wdolson]

In general humans are a lot less brutal than they used to be. Modern people seem to go into shock when faced with the brutality of past ages.

We've seen GoT up to the end of the most recent season. I don't think it has any of the shocks the red wedding may have had for some people.

I saw an interview with Peter Dinkler before the last season began and the interviewer asked him if there were any surprises coming up for that season. Dinkler just said, "you could read the books..." Anyone familiar with the books knew the red wedding was coming.

Bill

[geofflambert]

I thought this was about the GoT MilK ads. Never mind.