Every week, I answer a question from the Monday Act Four...
| |  | | | | Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics | | | | | | Emilia Clarke, top, as Daenerys Targaryen in "Game of Thrones." (HBO) | Every week, I answer a question from the Monday Act Four Live chat in the Wednesday edition of this newsletter. You can read the transcript of the Aug. 7 chat here, and submit questions for the Aug. 14 chat here. This week, I’m going to do something a little bit different and explain why I think I’ve been offering an unsatisfactory answer to a question that chatters have asked me repeatedly. For years, people who have watched “Game of Thrones” and read George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, from which the show is adapted, have speculated about the identity of the “heads of the dragon.” What they mean by that is: Which characters will end up bonding with and riding Queen Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) three dragons? Dany has brought back the creatures, which were extinct before she hatched three remaining dragon eggs in her husband’s funeral pyre. But she can ride and command only one of them at a time, and that dragon has typically been Drogon. Fans have, understandably, wondered who else would get this opportunity. Would it be people who are secretly descended from Dany’s family line? People who prove themselves particularly worthy? I’ve read the novels and watched the show closely enough to hazard some informed guesses. But as I’ve explained to readers a couple of times, I don’t particularly care about the answer. And the reason I don’t care that much says something larger about how I watch pop culture. I’ve never been terribly interested in solving shows’ mysteries and riddles. I’m interested in the clues in something like “Westworld” insofar as they help me understand the plot, and I like the mysteries in “Twin Peaks” or “Game of Thrones” that help advance the series’ themes. But I just have nothing invested in “solving” a show, in making a guess that beats the storytellers to the reveal they’re pacing out slowly for me. I liked “Lost” for the human relationships but got completely lost in the panoply of riddles. All of which is to say, I’m happy to hear your theories! I know we all love pop culture for different reasons, though if you’re reading this newsletter, the Act Four Live chat or the column, I assume our Venn diagrams have at least some overlap. But I’m probably not the Sherlock Holmes you’re looking for. I’m the Watson who will help you understand how you felt about what happened after all has been revealed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Twitter
Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment