Ask the Maester: Answers to Your Questions About the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 4 Finale «

"It’s kind of the go-to observation that George R.R. Martin’s main achievement, in terms of reinventing the fantasy genre, has been the way his story has so ruthlessly subverted the genre’s tropes and applied shades of gray to where we’re used to only black and white. Tolkien never tried to get us to empathize with an orc, after all.

But underneath all the pseudo-historical medieval realism and self-aware deconstructions of well-worn fantasy structures, this is ultimately a story about dragons, ice zombies, magic elf children, and sorcery. Martin doesn’t so much subvert the tropes as bury them deep in the narrative, under a layer of sex, blood, and fire.

As the film critic Danny Bowes tweeted at me the other night, “Civilians are watching this … Holy shit.” Like 18 million civilians a week. Holy shit."

  

Andrews asks, “Could you explain the little girl throwing fireballs? And who is the old guy in the tree?”

 Ask the Maester: Answers to Your Questions About the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 4 Finale «: