Happy Birthday ‘Game Of Thrones’: 3,717 Character Deaths And Counting
Did you know that the book that Game of Thrones was based, A Song of Ice and Fire, was actually published 20 years ago and it wasn’t as well accepted as it is now, 20 years after?
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin was already a three-time Hugo Award winner, an established novelist, and a screenwriter. But when he came out with A Song of Ice and Fire on August 6, 1996, according to an in-depth report by The Guardian, book sales weren’t where HarperCollins pegged it to be. Fast forward to 2016, five books (A Song of Ice and Fire was only supposed to be a trilogy) and seven Game of Thrones seasons later, Martin has sold more than 70 million copies of his A Song of Ice and Fire novels throughout the world.
George R.R. Martin writes in his blog about the making of Game of Thrones.
“Reviews were generally good, sales were…well, okay. Solid. But nothing spectacular. No bestseller lists, certainly. Turnouts were modest in most places. The crowds didn’t reach one hundred anywhere, and at one stop (St. Louis, if you must know), not only was attendance zero but I actually drove four patrons out of the bookshop, allowing me to set my all time “bad signing” record at minus four.
“Back then, I’d thought the whole story could be told in three books, and that it would take me three years to write them, a year per book.”
But after the Game of Thrones books started to walk, after more people started getting attracted to the dark, epic fantasy that we now know as the Game of Thrones universe, George R.R. Martin is already working on a sixth installment, entitled The Winds of Winter.
When talking Game of Thrones, we immediately think of two things: sex and death. George R.R. Martin has built the Game of Thrones universe atop a pile of dead bodies, which, he says, is only natural for a story that’s generally about war and conflict. Now—as per HarperCollins’ computation—at 3,717 character deaths throughout the whole Game of Thrones universe, Martin tells Galaxy’s Edge that it’s because all men must die.
“[In other stories], The only ones who die are extras. That’s such a cheat. It doesn’t happen that way.
“Once you’ve accepted that you have to include death, then you should be honest … and indicate it can strike down anybody at any time. You don’t get to live forever just because you are a cute kid or the hero’s best friend or the hero. Sometimes the hero dies, at least in my books. I love all my characters so it’s always hard to kill them but I know it has to be done. I tend to think I don’t kill them. The other characters kill ’em. I shift off all blame from myself.”
HBO’s Game of Thrones series was really the biggest factor that propelled George R.R. Martin to fame. And Game of Thrones, like Martin, has gone a long way, too, since its premiere episode in 2011. Game of Thrones have bagged nominations and awards year after year, across countless of award-giving bodies, as reported by The Guardian. It has also propelled to fame many a name, such as Emilia Clarke (who plays Daenerys Targaryen) and Kit Harington (actor behind Jon Snow).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDvTnvrSllM
But as the proverbial saying goes, all good things must come to an end. At HBO’s presentation at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour, new programming president Casey Bloys officially announced the end to Game of Thrones.Game of Thrones is officially ending after its eight season,Hollywood Reporter reports.
“Yes, I think [the showrunners, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff] have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons, but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”
Game of Thrones Season 7 will be based on the two final, still unpublished, books of A Song of Ice and Fire: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. Game of Thrones Season 7 will come back to screens Summer 2017.
[Featured image courtesy of HBO]
