This is both about the novel and TV-series.
We experience old men and women, young girls and boys, and everything in-between in a brutal world where everyone can be a victim. There is sex, nudity, open homosexuality, boys sucking mother’s nipples, girls killing, girls being beaten and crying until they’re red in the face, decapitations, really scary walking dead, dragon babies suckling at a woman’s breasts and so on. This is a great far cry from «family friendly» stories.
This is daring and truly mature storytelling.
There is a sense of menace right from the start, a mature mood usually not present in many rather childish fantasy novels. We know something bad will happen and that it will rock our world and challenge our perceptions. Characters perceived as main characters may not remain so very long and not be long for the world. Bad people may survive and thrive, and good people may not.
I wasn’t initially very excited about the story, since I’m not very interested in what’s going on at royal courts and such, but the story is so well crafted and so engaging that I tend to forget my original misgivings.
It’s also well translated from novel to film. The few changes are mostly due to insufficient production funds. Large battle scenes, for instance are mostly left out. We only see the result, not what happened. A clear disadvantage to be sure, but not enough to put me off watching the series.
It has a very realistic or at least believable feel to it and I am hooked.
The ending, the revelation of the Dragon is clearly one of the greatest ever.
