Game of thrones – George R.R. Martin

Who says a protagonist can’t die?

I didn’t get much from this week’s lectorial, unfortunately. I just wasn’t in the right mood to focus after Rachel’s typo of ‘public’ to ‘pubic’. That was way to funny. Anyway, one thing that stands out was one of Brian’s points on what makes a protagonist. He stated that a protagonist cannot die. While this may be the case for the majority of narratives, there are a number of times where writers/directors will do the exact opposite.

*** INCOMING SPOILERS ***

‘Game of Thrones’, one of the most popular shows that is currently airing, is one of those narratives that goes against the criteria of a protagonist. First of all, there is more than one protagonist in this show, which goes against the idea that there is only one protagonist and many antagonists. In the first season, Ned Stark seems to be the central protagonist of the show. The one that everyone loves and can empathize with… and then George R.R. Martin decided to kill his character off. People began to flip! Who was going to take the place of protagonist? Whose story are we going to follow? The following seasons placed us in the shoes of several charactered, scattered across the world. Jon Snow at the wall, Brandon Stark’s journey to the raven, Catelyn and Robb’s Stark war against the Lannisters, Arya Stark and her training, and Sansa Stark and her life as a hostage. The central theme of these protagonists seems to be that they are all united by the Stark name. But then we have Cersei Lannister and her craving for power, Tyrion Lannister and his general hijinks, Daenerys Targaryen and her revolutionary movement across the narrow sea. There is so much more, but I want to try keep this short. All these characters and their stories have one thing in common – they all have difficult lives which change their character in vast ways.

‘Breaking Bad’ also doesn’t follow the conventions of a normal protagonist. While the one protagonist; Walter White, ticks most of the boxes for the criteria of a protagonist, he also does the same thing Ned Stark did in Game of Thrones – die.

But these two shows were highly successful and popular all across the world. So from this, we can see that the general conventions of a protagonist aren’t hard rules that have to be followed in order to create an empathetic character. This guidelines can be broken in order to create a very moving narrative, and from that, it is evident that we should think outside of the box and be creative in thinking of ways we can create effective characters.