Five ways that Game Of Thrones changed fantasy (And three ways it really didn’t)
Last week’s New York Comic Con had a handful of Game Of Thrones events and panels–including the Rave Of Thrones–but one in particular on “How Game Of Thrones Changed Fantasy” with a few famous fantasy authors caught our eye. We asked freelance contributor Rachel Kolb to write it up.
At the 2014 New York Comic Con, Game Of Thrones fans didn’t have a lot of choices as far as panels or events. This might explain why the writer’s panel “How a Game Of Thrones Changed Fantasy…or Did It?” was at full capacity with another room full of people wanting to get in. Fortunately, I was one of the lucky ones who got a seat in the room.
The panel included writers Seth Fishman (The Well’s End), Robin Hobb (Fool’s Assassin), Gail Z. Martin (War Of Shadows), Garth Nix (Clariel), Patrick Rothfuss (The Slow Regard Of Silent Things), and Cinda Williams Chima (The Sorcerer Heir), and was moderated by David J. Peterson (Living Language Dothraki). Together, they broke down the ways that Game Of Thrones has changed fantasy and examined ways that people think GOT changed fantasy but may not have. The conversation spanned from writer deadlines to character deaths and came back around to the relationship between fans and writers. According to the esteemed panel, here are five ways that Game Of Thrones changed fantasy and three ways it didn’t really.
Game Of Thrones changed fantasy because…
George R.R. Martin paved the way for authors who take longer with books. A Game Of Thrones, the first book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice and Fire series, came out in 1996. There were five years between A Storm Of Swords and A Feast For Crows, and there were six years between Crows and A Dance With Dragons. Patrick Rothfuss was one of the first on the panel to chime in that one of the series’ great legacies is paving the way for series writers who take a long time between each book. (editor’s note: I am tremendously amused that Rothfuss brought this up, given his similar issues.)
Game Of Thrones opened the door for more bleak fantasies. The book series and TV show appealed to readers ready for a darker view of the world. Gail Z. Martin observed, “This was the right book at the right time because let’s face it, it’s been a shitty past 10 years! There have been other writers that took a bleak look at things before this.” She referred to Katherine Kurtz’s King Kelson series, saying, “[Katherine Kurtz] didn’t just push the 10-year-old out the window, she left him on a pike for his parents to find. 30 years ago, that was a little edgy, and I think it’s really interesting how everyone has embraced Game of Thrones because I think it grasps on the spirit of the age.”
Game Of Thrones changed how writers pitched their own work. Seth Fishman is a literary agent in addition to being a writer, and he attested that the biggest change since GOT became a literary and television phenomenon was the query letters. Writers are consistently comparing and contrasting their work to the novels and show.
Cinda Williams Chima also quipped, “My tagline is, ‘Like Game Of Thrones, with less sex, more romance, and a lower body count.’”
Game Of Thrones expanded people’s perceptions of what a fantasy novel could be. Patrick Rothfuss referred to the strange dichotomy of fantasy in the mainstream as Tolkien to Rowling.
“We had Lord Of The Rings, but we always had Lord Of The Rings. Then we had Harry Potter, but that’s just two…and if people go, ‘Well, fantasy is either Tolkien or Harry Potter or in between,’ then you’re like, not a lot of it fits on the spectrum between Tolkien and Harry Potter. And then you get a third point, and then people are like, ‘Oh, fantasy can be kind of anything,’ and that’s the big deal in my opinion, is you go from relatively simplistic good vs. evil, very rich world-building, but you know, it’s pretty straight-forward there-and-back-again story. And then you get Harry Potter which is wish fulfillment, YA, also pretty straight-forward good vs. evil. And then Game of Thrones comes in and is like, ‘Well, how about a bunch of boobs and incest and killing folks and moral ambiguity?’ So now you can say, ‘Well, my book is somewhere in between Game of Thrones and Harry Potter,’ and people are forced to go, ‘Wow, there is a lot of in between there.’ So it’s really broadened the perception of what fantasy is, even if they’ve never read a fantasy book.”
Robin Hobb also joked about Tolkien’s prominence in fantasy, saying, “I used to get e-mails accusing me of ripping off Tolkien. Now, I’m ripping off Martin!”
Game Of Thrones brought fantasy into the mainstream. Robin Hobb addressed the stigma attached to adults reading fantasy novels. “With Harry Potter, there were these grown-up covers so adults could read them on the subways. There are no ‘adult’ covers for Game Of Thrones. No, it’s okay to read this stuff now. It has brought it into the mainstream so that fantasy now is the mainstream.”
Game Of Thrones Didn’t Change Fantasy Because…
George R.R. Martin wasn’t the first fantasy writer to take years between books. This might seem to contradict with #1 on the first list, but Martin just paved the way for more mainstream writers to take their time. It was not unusual for fantasy writers to take a very long time between books in their series, especially if they are writing or editing other books. As the panel pointed out, some of them have a slower rate of turn-around than George R.R. Martin.
George R.R. Martin wasn’t the first fantasy writer (or writer in general) to kill off a beloved main character. Patrick Rothfuss challenged the notion that George R.R. Martin was the first to kill off un-killable characters or that he is even the best at doing it. “Joss Whedon was doing it way before it was fashionable. Joss Whedon talked about it and said you can’t put people into peril and then they get them out of peril, and put them in peril and get out of peril, you can only do that so many times before you cannot maintain tension any longer because there’s been no long-term consequences to any of this peril. Your readers are smart. They get desensitized…George R.R. Martin is nice, but Whedon is still the best.”
Garth Nix also chimed in, “It is easy to kill characters. What’s hard is to kill a character for a reason with believability and also to write a strong enough balance and fill a book with interesting characters so that when that person dies, it stings. It hurts. You read a little bit, you’re aching at it, and then you’re fine because you have these other characters that you can follow and the tension builds again. And that’s what is so hard about it, doing it right.”
George R.R. Martin wasn’t the first fantasy writer with a rabid fan base. One of the most fascinating parts of the panel discussion was about fan interactions and fan ownership over a book or a larger book series. Nearly all of them have received letters and e-mails from fans, demanding that they change something in their books or write something into the next book. Cinda Williams Chima has certainly experienced these demands, and she shared a recent example at the panel “I just got a classic e-mail recently,” she said, “and it was someone who not only thought I should write another book in a particular series but had a long list of things that needed to happen in that book, and it was entitled, ‘From Your Fans’ Perspective,’ you know, like she talked for all fans.”
Patrick Rothfuss gave a little tough love to these readers, saying, “In some ways, this comes from a place of love, but so does stalking…We love to write these books. We love to bring you these books, and you can want more, but that doesn’t give you any say in our lives.”
Watch the whole panel here!
Rachel Kolb is a Disney fangirl, Swan Queen shipper, and life-long Broadway nerd with an encyclopedic knowledge of original Broadway cast recordings. She is currently a staff writer at JustPressPlay.net and a contributor to Sound on Sight. She is also the creator of LudusNYC.com, a website celebrating Broadway theater that offers tips on making theater-going more affordable. Since the fall of 2013 she has been a regular co-host on The Disney Film Project podcast, a show dedicated to reviewing every film released by the Walt Disney Company, from the classic animated features to Pixar and LucasFilm. She can be found on Twitter @rachelekolb and @LudusNYC.
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