Hello, and welcome back! Today I wanted to discuss the various fantasy elements that are present within this book series. However, before I continue, I first wanted to ask you guys a question: Is there anything you’re curious about the series that you want me to discuss in future blog posts? While I still have some topics that I may want to discuss, these blog posts would doubtlessly be more interesting for you guys if they were specifically directed at what you want to know. So, let me know when you comment! (If there’s nothing you can think of, that’s totally fine too). Now, on to the post.
What fantasy elements are present?
To get straight to the point, there are several prominent fantasy elements: dragons, forms of magic, and humanoid creatures that don’t count as humans. Now, these elements seem to be present in a lot of fantasy series. However, what stood out to me was how muted these fantasy elements were throughout the books, especially the first book. While the literal first chapter of the entire series highlights a fantasy element (which shows the reader already that these books don’t perfectly mirror real life), the rest of the first book has little, if any, content that suggests that this is a fantasy series. Personally, I forgot that this was a fantasy series because of how much realism was employed, especially in the first book.
The Development of the Fantasy Elements
After book one, fantasy elements become more prominent, not just because they become more present, but also because they are actively utilized by characters in order to achieve their goals. However, not every character has access to these elements. Furthermore, the characters who do possess such elements (such as magic or dragons) don’t necessarily have an inherent advantage and get everything they want. So, just having a fantasy element doesn’t make characters ‘overpowered,’ which means that it’s not possible to predict every outcome throughout the books.
To me, this fact helped preserve realism in the books, even when there were clearly unreal components. This is because fantasy wasn’t used so that some characters would be favored and others wouldn’t, but rather in order to add a bit of nuance and allow complex characters to develop. And, in a way, this does mirror real life. For example, some characters possess magic capabilities, which should be a clear advantage (because other people don’t have these abilities). But this isn’t the case. Without going into too much detail, characters who have magic don’t automatically get what they want. This can mirror real life if you consider something like, I don’t know, nuclear weapons. Obviously, possessing these weapons gives countries like the United States or Russia a clear advantage over others, due to the destructive capacity and intimidating factors of such weapons. But, does this mean that these countries get exactly what they want? No. So even with the implementation of fantasy elements in the series, Martin still finds ways to mimic reality, which I personally like because it allows a fantasy book to make legitimate commentary on real-life.
Hi Matt! Regarding what you asked at the beginning of your post, I believe we only have a week left of blog posts, so I would just recommend to tie together and wrap up all the content you have shared about this series. Now for your actual post, I would have definitely thought that magic and fantastical elements would have given certain characters advantages, but you made it clear that that was not the case. The analogy you made with nuclear weapons was very helpful, the characters who display the elements have a threatening tool, but that tool isn’t enough to bully everyone around without consequences. Out of the different ideas you have addressed in your posts, I think this one was the least realistic, but even so you did very well to compare it to the nuclear arsenal of large countries. From what I have gathered, the series definitely tries to mimic real life issues, but with the inclusion of fantastical elements it makes it more entertaining to read. Great post once again!
Hi Matt, I don’t have any suggestions for topics. Honestly, part of what is so interesting about your posts is that a lot of the time, the topic is completely unexpected (such as food!) but offer a very interesting look into the books. I think sticking to your planned topics would work just fine!
It’s very interesting to me that fantastical elements don’t appear much in the first book; it seems like having fantasy prominent in the first book would help draw readers in, but you did say you nearly forgot it was a fantasy book, which maybe also helps readers get interested because they are able to relate to the world so well. Good post as always!
Hi Matt,
It is so interesting to hear that there is not much fantasy in the first book. To answer your question at the beginning of your post, we do only have one more week of blogging yet so I would suggest maybe a recap or summary of sorts to wrap up your blogs nicely, or possibly add in your favorite parts about these books or things for us to look out for when reading them in the future.
Back to the post, it was also interesting to hear that not all characters have access to the elements and that this does not create a large advantage (that we’d expect) for them. Looking forward to seeing what you decide for next week!