I'm sure the Game of Thrones fans have already watched the latest episode of the hit show on HBO. The show has gone into quite some controversy lately, what with all the gore displayed on screen, and the
violence against women, and a number of other controversial issues. But last weekend's installment of the epic story provided yet another piece of
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It seems to me that passion is the enemy here, not empathy.. Empathy is intimately wedded to reason. Rightly understood, they are not opposites or in conflict. Part of the application of reason is giving consideration and weight to the effects of a policy. If you only use statistics then you aren't looking at every part of the equation and you open yourself up to error.
What is on display with Stannis is not cold-blooded ruthlessness or an application of reason divorced from empathy. Instead, it is fanaticism without regard to evidence or reason or empathy. It is pure passion. Obsession. Meglomania. Madness. Maybe it isn't as clear in the TV series as the books, but Mellisandre is not acting on Stannis's behalf, indeed it isn't clear to me that she is even working on behalf of the Red God. She has lied to him much more than she has told him the truth. She has her own agenda that isn't entirely clear. What is perfectly clear, however is that her main claim, that Stannis is Azor Ahai, is self evidently wrong, either a mistake or a deliberate deception. And, in the books at least, Jon Snow and Samwell Tarley know this.
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I never read the books myself, but the producers are changing things as the series is progressing, which is certainly keeping the book readers on their toes now. For example,. the series had a rape scene between Ramsey Bolton and his newlywed bride, Sansa Stark is different in the books. It was a pretty rough scene (in fact the actor who plays Ramsey Bolton, Iwan Rheon, has said in interviews, the role really challenges his comfort zone, and he has a hard time with it.
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Frankly, an eventual novelization of the series might end up being a better novel than the source material.
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But I really like the big scope of Game of Thrones, its sort of like Der Ring des Nibelungen for me.
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I'm sure the series is avoiding this, because it costs a lot more to film something than it does to type something. Part of the reason ASOIAF gets me irritated now is because it is so good, but it is also completely off the rails.
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Just because someone is dead in the books doesn't necessarily mean they're dead in the books.
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Cold-blooded ruthlessness and application of reason are exactly what we are seeing. Magick actually works in Westeros, Stannis has seen it work. He Sacrificed his daughter to save his army, and the kingdom.
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BUT WHO WILL THINK OF THE CHILD BURNERS!?!?
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