Game of Thrones - safe characters to care about?

[stolen_tea]

So, I recently started watching the Game of Thrones TV series with my roommate, and I was wondering - which characters are safe to care about

Comments

[ladybird97]

Yup, you're mostly right on those. (I can fill in details on why it's only "mostly" right, but those would be ginormous spoilers for later in the books.) I'd add Sansa to the list, too - she's much more likeable in the TV series than in the books. And I have to say that there are very few people who don't have soul-shattering things happen to them :(

I'll happily talk offline (or hidden behind a nice safe spoiler tag) if you want more :)

[allyphoe]

My thoughts exactly. Also, it would suit me just fine if the series went on hiatus, and Mr. Martin actually finished the books!

[apintrix]

Becoming emotionally invested in Cersei is an interesting trip. You have to peer through the misogyny of the plot to do it, but GRRM does allow such a reading.

Sansa too.

[eveanhei]

I agree; I like Cersei. Well, I am sympathetic and interested in what happens to her.

[stolen_tea]

Huh. Iiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.

[eveanhei]

I see a lot of similarities between her and Robert Baratheon. I think the TV series might actually do a better job of extemporizing on that than the books.

Note, just because I have some sympathy for her doesn't mean that if a barrier broke down between fiction and reality and Game of Thrones characters started walking around Capitol Hill, I wouldn't turn and run as soon as I saw her (or for that matter from... um.... nearly the entire cast).

[eveanhei]

Your bets are fairly good ones.

I just have to say, if you had any doubts about my goodness as a person, I spent so long laughing at twitter after that last episode that my sides hurt and I couldn't breathe.

[stolen_tea]

I admit that I snickered a lot, as well. I mean, I've only read the first book, but that, or seeing the first season, should be enough to tell anyone what kind of world this is.

[jodawi]

Haven't watched it, would bet that none are safe. Why please fans in the final episodes when you can kick them in the stomach until they bleed out their rectums?

[stolen_tea]

I don't see it as that bad, really. I mean, I do appreciate that no one has a "get out of death free" card, and that while it is fantasy, it is not escapist fantasy. And I do have a fondness for grand tragedies where almost everyone dies in the end, a la Hamlet. So I'm not inherently opposed to this, but mostly it's that there is something about long-form video narratives that engage my emotions in ways that other mediums don't quite seem to. I'm not sure if that's very coherent, but there it is. I'm down with what he's doing, I just need to make sure I'm braced properly. :)

[orichalcum]

Mostly, I think it's probably a good rule not to have your emotions tied up too deeply with the Starks? Tempting though that is? Ones that survive do not exactly have nice things happen to them. Varys, though...Varys might be safe?

[stolen_tea]

Heh. I kind of get the idea that Varys will eventually make a bad enough mistake to get himself killed, although I like the character and will be sad when that happens...

[orichalcum]

I'm just saying that the man has managed to survive two major regime changes already....

[stolen_tea]

Heh, yeah. I just worry that he'll underestimate Littlefinger at the wrong moment. I think there've already been times where Littlefinger has had information that Varys hadn't...