The Curious Orange
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2007
- Messages
- 148
I’ve just finished re-reading A Storm of Swords, and I thought I’d share a few thoughts.
I’ve always loved stories with multiple storylines, I guess it’s one of the things that draws me to fantasy, and as an aspiring writer, it’s one of the things I want to do in my own writing, but ASOIAF takes the idea of multiple storylines to a whole new level.
One of the first writing books I read had a chapter on multiple plotlines that used Vanity Fair as an example – not the best example, I know. Alan Dean Foster’s book uses The Empire Strikes Back as an example, highlighting all the things in Luke’s internal journey on Dagobah that are reflected and echoed in Han and Leia’s journey. That film is a lot more complex than I first thought.
So as a writer, the first thing I wanted to know was how does GRRM do it?
Here’s his secret – he’s telling the same story twice. Every character’s story is mirrored or echoed in another.
Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon are the first set of conjoined characters, Ned being uptight and stiff, while Robert is a drinking womaniser. Both are married to women who aren’t their first choice, and neither seems to relish the high office they hold. Both are pretty clueless when it comes to the Game of Thrones, and both are betrayed and led to their death by the same woman.
Robert’s son becomes King, as does Ned’s. Whereas the father’s were lifelong friends, the sons have an instant animosity. Both kidnap close family members of the others.
Both Kings are killed at a wedding, betrayed by the bride’s family, who should have been loyal bannermen. One of the Stark sisters is at each wedding, but is powerless to help as they are dragged away by an errant knight. Dontos is killed, Sandor is left for dead. Both sisters make their escape by ship. Sansa and Arya are tied together all the way through this thing.
Sandor’s trial by combat with Beric Dondarrion echoes his brother’s fight with Oberon Martell.
Cersei and Dany are two of the most closely linked characters. Dany is expected to marry Viserys, but is married off to the brutish Drogo, who she comes to love. Cersei is having an incestuous relationship with her brother, and is forced to marry the brutish Robert, who she only despises more. Both husbands die, and both women are cursed by a maegi.
Cersei has three children, who aren’t her husband’s. Dany’s three children are her dragons, who aren’t Drogo’s either. Jaime says it best when he remarks that the Targaryens married bother to sister, why shouldn’t the Lannisters? Barristan Selmy leaves Cersei’s service to join Dany, Jorah Mormont was in Varys service all along, and leaves Dany’s side. Hints are that Tyrion is leaving Cersei’s side to join Dany too. Having another Mormont on the Wall ties that storyline in as well. (Cersei’s eldest child is dead, Ned’s eldest child is dead – what does that spell for Drogon, I wonder?)
Every event has an equal and opposite event. Every character has a counterpart. Every word of the story is told again, sometimes the same, sometimes the opposite, with another cast of characters. It really is genius.
I’ve always loved stories with multiple storylines, I guess it’s one of the things that draws me to fantasy, and as an aspiring writer, it’s one of the things I want to do in my own writing, but ASOIAF takes the idea of multiple storylines to a whole new level.
One of the first writing books I read had a chapter on multiple plotlines that used Vanity Fair as an example – not the best example, I know. Alan Dean Foster’s book uses The Empire Strikes Back as an example, highlighting all the things in Luke’s internal journey on Dagobah that are reflected and echoed in Han and Leia’s journey. That film is a lot more complex than I first thought.
So as a writer, the first thing I wanted to know was how does GRRM do it?
Here’s his secret – he’s telling the same story twice. Every character’s story is mirrored or echoed in another.
Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon are the first set of conjoined characters, Ned being uptight and stiff, while Robert is a drinking womaniser. Both are married to women who aren’t their first choice, and neither seems to relish the high office they hold. Both are pretty clueless when it comes to the Game of Thrones, and both are betrayed and led to their death by the same woman.
Robert’s son becomes King, as does Ned’s. Whereas the father’s were lifelong friends, the sons have an instant animosity. Both kidnap close family members of the others.
Both Kings are killed at a wedding, betrayed by the bride’s family, who should have been loyal bannermen. One of the Stark sisters is at each wedding, but is powerless to help as they are dragged away by an errant knight. Dontos is killed, Sandor is left for dead. Both sisters make their escape by ship. Sansa and Arya are tied together all the way through this thing.
Sandor’s trial by combat with Beric Dondarrion echoes his brother’s fight with Oberon Martell.
Cersei and Dany are two of the most closely linked characters. Dany is expected to marry Viserys, but is married off to the brutish Drogo, who she comes to love. Cersei is having an incestuous relationship with her brother, and is forced to marry the brutish Robert, who she only despises more. Both husbands die, and both women are cursed by a maegi.
Cersei has three children, who aren’t her husband’s. Dany’s three children are her dragons, who aren’t Drogo’s either. Jaime says it best when he remarks that the Targaryens married bother to sister, why shouldn’t the Lannisters? Barristan Selmy leaves Cersei’s service to join Dany, Jorah Mormont was in Varys service all along, and leaves Dany’s side. Hints are that Tyrion is leaving Cersei’s side to join Dany too. Having another Mormont on the Wall ties that storyline in as well. (Cersei’s eldest child is dead, Ned’s eldest child is dead – what does that spell for Drogon, I wonder?)
Every event has an equal and opposite event. Every character has a counterpart. Every word of the story is told again, sometimes the same, sometimes the opposite, with another cast of characters. It really is genius.
