Vision of Life; by Sanjay: GOT; A Story of a Evil Within!

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“There is nothing in the world more powerful than a good story”... Tyron Lannister, Game of Thrones, Last Season!

Well, who can argue with this dialogue or quote though the master mind or say writer is George RR Martin yet now after reading all eight novels (episodes) & seeing all the seasons of the rage called GOT i.e. Game of Thrones, for me the words are engraved on my brain & image of the Imp, played by Peter Dinklage uttering those words will take a lot more time to fade, may be it won’t ever! And ask any Bollywood movies lover (I am one) & he will vouch for the quote of The Imp of GOT as it’s those powerful stories by Salim-Javed only, which has given rise to our biggest Super Star, yes the only one Amitabh Bachhan. So we the Indians do love & respect when we comes across a real good story & time & again we have shown that may it be movies or even TV serials like “Buniyad” or “Hum Loag” or how can we forget the curfew on Sunday roads when Ramayan or Mahabharat used to be aired on our beloved DD i.e. Dur-Darshan! One main thing was common in all those hit on-screen dramas was & is the story of the drama, isn’t it? And then off late even when the power of our story telling seems to be lost a bit (with respectable exceptions) we have respected & loved firangi stories also & the GOT isn’t exception to it! Well won’t stretch your patience much this is about Game of Thrones more fondly known as GOT is a HBO channel TV series based on the novel rather say saga written as Song of Fire & Ice, Dance With The Dragons but mainly you can call it as Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin! And this is not just about the TV series which has been aired for nearly ten years with eight seasons & each season consisting seven to eight episodes but it’s about the novel also as I read all eight volumes nearly eight thousand pages & saw all episodes accounting eighty plus hours of my last year & a lot more hours which are in the form of sleepless nights I spent because of watching & reading GOT in parallel!

Now you must be real irritated with my all this ga ga over some TV serial or a novel, ok for all such irritated minds, there was an era in early 80’s in India, where only two categories used exists i.e. those who has watched a movie named Sholay & those who hasn’t watched it! Same way even today not in just country, all across the globe (thanks to Hot Star & 4G) there exists two categories i.e. one who has watched Got & other who hasn’t! Well, some may sarcastically say one category is which follows & loves GOT & other is which hates GOT but then this also emphasize popularity of the series aka novel! So, same on the lines of Crime Master GOGO in Andaj Apna Apna, "Ye Teja Teja kya hai, ye Teja Teja"; same way "ye GOT GOT kya hai ye GOT GOT"! It’s a fiction story about seven kingdoms & a war or interrelation between four major families or say houses i.e. Tragarians, Lannisters, Barethrons & Starks! All these are names of prominent families & then there are many for e.g. Tayrell, Tarlis, Grayjoys, Bolton, Toolies, Frays & such but main are the first four. Needless to say it’s a war for ruling all these families & yes there is another world which lies beyond the ocean & with different cities & culture known as Khalasar & Westros. And oh yes, there is a Night King & his “Army of Dead” too, along with these entire human race to conquer (read kill) all the humans! The era of GOT shown, can be considered as few hundred years before Christ when Kings & Queens used to rule & the only way to rule was using fear. In this era there is still Black Magic played & yes presence of God is there but only for praying. Here though there are not flying brooms but yes dragons who can burn a city in minutes are very much part of the story. Here people die & priests bring them back from death by prayers with unfathomable powers which even they doesn’t understand or control! These worlds speaks different languages, has all together different rules & cultures but one thing in all the families across both the worlds is common & that is unending thirst for power to rule & going to any level to achieve that power; rather this thirst for power & what it does to mean & women is the backbone of the story & maybe that’s why GOT become so popular! Because deep within each of us loves power but the fear of what people will say, doesn’t allow that thirst to surface often on our faces but our action many a times reflects it. And that’s why when there as a story where somebody is doing what we can’t do, always appeals us most, ask Salim Javed!

Now you will say (those who haven’t seen or read GOT) what’s big deal in it have we not seen or read all these in many Hollywood movies from Lord of The Rings to recent Harry Potter series & speaking about war for power between families there is Godfather which prevails all such fights! And even in Bollywood or our Hindu Mythology there have been powerful stories of kingdom fights Ramayan & Mahabharat are best example of it! So what makes this GOT so special & millions going crazy for it? That is the success of a real powerful story is what I will say as there is nothing new actually but the way the same old story of human greed has been put together with thousands of characters is what makes it reading or watching worth! Here in GOT its perefect mix of every known story right from Ramayan to Mahabharat to Harry Potter to Lord of The Rings to Godfather! The striking difference is unlike thousands of popular & loved stories of every genre has been based on fight between good & bad or say fight between evil & peace, GOT is based on a fight between lesser evil, evil & worst evil! Confused? Well, this is why I feel it has appealed to today’s genre where nothing is good in totality or nothing is bad, here life is shades of gray & black! In GOT every character has a dark side & he or she portrays that dark side as armor & uses it for survival is the simplest way I can put. Here people kills their brother, sister, father, son & even their love under the name of honor, family, revenge & lastly for greater good! The last one is real joke as when your family chief kills any kid or rapes a woman this can be taken as justice or revenge or to protect family or to create fear among the enemies but if he is from other family (read enemy) then this is evilest thing & the guy is bad guy & deserves punishment!

This story has got violence to extreme level & it sickens your mind even reading it leave apart watching. Those who have access to Hot Star premium there you can watch it uncensored yet reading is more terrifying. I have read many violent stories but what makes you real numb in GOT is the shameless logic nakedly thrown at you behind every hideous act; as at the end all what matters is survival, that’s is what which makes you good is the motto! And every character lives by this rule till the end & keeps eliminating others & here it doesn’t matter she or he is from your family or from others, if she or he is not with you then she or he is your enemy, that simple! This is where GOT hits you worst as slowly if you are serious reader (means if you have got some human part alive in you) then you start comparing your own life story with every incidence & then it hits you how many lives you have taken till you have reached where you are today! What I meant is it’s not necessary to kill someone physically, fortunately we don’t live in GOT era yet that hasn’t stopped us killing each other’s by our acts or by mind, is the fact I want to put forward! And that frightens you most; this feeling shakes you from within as nobody has shown you till now how bad you are actually under the mask of Ms & Mr. Nice!

Many wont like or accept my this outcome or analysis but that’s what it has done to me as this is not analysis, this is just sharing the way you share your experiences of your visit to Disney Land! Off late if you have observed the movies or stories where shades of Black & White combines are getting more popular, may it be latest Marvel flick Venom or even the Avenger’s Infinity War or End Game where the villain himself is shown trying for creating a better world by reducing population by half as he believes its overpopulation which is killing Earth (and he is not wrong really)! Where as in movie like Venom the Hero himself is shown using dark powers to fight more dark powers residing within! I think GOT represents perfectly today’s society where we see everyday each of us doing bad things & covering them up under the tag of “for the greater good”! And obviously those who can’t do that, they have to surrender to the acts of the victims of the badness of the characters with power & yet keep mum as the tag says it’s for greater good! And sticking to this logic in GOT page by page, chapter by chapter thousands of characters comes & perish in most unexpected way rather you get used to so much to this phenomenon that later on you don’t like or love any character as either that character is going to die or its going to kill someone, is what you become sure of!

And then till now whatever stories you have read or seen there is some hero or heroine & a villain which can be a person or situation which makes life difficult for the hero heroine & they love as well goodness overcomes above all the badness of the villain! Take any story till now & it has followed this age old track, not GOT! Here every one is villain in the eyes of others & each time when you come across a character & gets sick of his or her evil acts, the next character beats the earlier character on evilness scale! And like a chain reaction event by event the badness keeps hitting you relentlessly, the same way you face frustration after frustration in real life! As by the time end of the story comes it hardly matters why the war has started & who has won it finally! This is the success of GOT which has appealed the millions following it as the badness around has been used as connecting factor in the story, so openly for the first time & GOT team has succeeded is a fact, TRP figures proves it! Peter Dinklage which plays the infamous character of The Dwarf (a lot similar to Lord Krishna in Mahabharat; please pardon me I am just giving example on basis of central role, no way disrespecting Lord Krishna or Hinduism) is highest paid actor because of this role in GOT with his every dialogue line becoming worth of some million dollars! And the places like Zagreb in Croatia where GOT has been shoot have become tourism rage, all these are signs that the story has hit the masses & bad is the new good!

At the end when the lead character of Joan Snow (well if you can call, then he is hero) has been sentenced to serve at The Wall i.e. a hell like place at sub zero temperature, which has been created to guard humans from Army of Dead; he asks, does the Wall still exists as he himself has destroyed the Army of Dead. On this the Dwarf replies, “Well, the world will always need a place to accommodate the bastards & the killers”! Am I required to tell more that how nakedly the ruthlessness of life hits you in GOT! Well, one thing is sure GOT has made be a different person after reading & watching it & joke is I haven’t yet understood whether its good or bad! Is it that the goodness in me which made me hate this story or the badness in me which made love this story I am unable to understand but whatever it may be it has helped me I am not that good which I used to consider myself & the badness in me is very much real & part of me only! So, if you want to know (read dare to) what you are within, then don’t miss to read & watch GOT & even if don’t want to know what you are then also you can watch GOT (as then reading those 8000 plus pages is not worth) just to know what has made so many millions so much mad about it; and maybe you will find your own-self in the process, as accidents does happens anywhere & any time!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html