Before you travel further into this article I warn you spoilers should be expected. We are uncertain of everyone’s journey in the world of Game of Thrones and do not look you ruin anyone’s adventures. However if you are caught up or ever so bold you may continue down the rabbit hole with us.

While I believe there are numerous valid interpretations as to what the deeper significance of the series title is actually referencing (Jon Snow/Azor Ahai/Lord of Light vs. Others, etc), A Song of Ice and Fire is constructed to have a dual narrative: The Fire plot and the Ice plot. The Fire is the battle for dominion over Westeros and claim to the iron throne. It’s traditionally the immediate and central text. While divided among multiple point-of-view characters and spanning countless locations, this portion comprises the volume. It’s plagued with usurping betrayals, continuous warfare, incestuous lust, and delicious manipulation. The Ice is the looming and ever present threat of the Others. For those not in the know, this is the novels name for the White Walkers. The irony, the genius twist of originality, is that this is the narrative that should be the focus. Martin employs a self-awareness in this world-building by actively relegating the paramount to a subsidiary role. It’s reflective of the characters interests, willfully ignorant or dismissive of the soon invasive supernatural. So callous and frivolous in our treatment toward death. Isn’t the presence of the Others to accentuate how self-indulgent, petty, and trivial the priorities and behaviors of these characters are? They’re practically walking embodiment’s for sin. After all, there are seven kingdoms. Not very subtle. These lands are so consumed by lordly squabbles, backstabbing facade festivities, and crippling greed that they have overlooked the urgent and meaningful.

George R.R. Martin is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. The influence is overt from literary scholar to simply a casual reader. Thankfully it’s not akin to J.J. Abrams-like carbon copying for the plain sake of nostalgia. The dark lord Sauron is believed to be extinguished upon the openings of the first chapter of the Middle-Earth epic. Predominately forgotten! That was perhaps his greatest deception outside of having the rings themselves forged. His underlings and machinations regularly appear in the narrative upon his open reveal. He himself, however, never physically appears in the Third Age. You never see or meet him in a corporeal form. The most delivered are vague descriptions of afterthoughts and near Lovecraftian ambiguity. Does he even have a physical entity? It’s irrelevant. The threat is inexplicably there nonetheless.

This is something that was once often frowned upon in authoring during Tolkien’s time. I know many Oxford professors he studied under strongly advised against this. Yet it works! Why? Because it creates an unbeatable and timeless opposition. Omnipotence! By leaving the lord of Barad-Dur incorporeal and never actually present in the narrative you’re effectively created a God. Sauron becomes something more than just a generic man in a high castle. He is no longer identifiable and simultaneously universally everyone. Instead of he or she…it develops a story no longer dictated by a simple inevitable dethroning. Instead you profoundly create an idea. You create an eternal metaphor for innate evil being immortal. You’ve stripped it of its often pointed-at individualism. When in its highest forms, fantasy is effectively a strong reflection of archetypal human emotions at a very core foundation. After all…what is mythology, folklore, and fairy tale if not parable? A way to guide you into a child-like but should-be universal acknowledgement of right and wrong.

Martin is however not quite as simplistic as the up-front didactic nature of Tolkien or Rowling. He’s far more Brothers Grimm. He often emphasizes fault and mistake far more than other contemporary fantasy writers. There is a deep desire to accurately portray humanity for what it sincerely is; flawed. What is this pedestrian right and wrong? Society seems to legalize it’s that narrow. Black or white! Sometimes the greatest messages observed are not of some incorruptible fallacy and beacon of virtue but through adversity.No matter how grievous, mistakes can empower. In literature they can inform on who not to be. The compass upon every opening of the television show is not genuinely to display the battle strategies and happenings of every party. It represents the morality that should be prior, the one we often forget. The Other. The moral compass.

While their frosty visage is intentionally used sparsely, every appearance of a so-called Other is delivered with utmost emphasis, tremendous weight, and cautious handling. Martin avoiding over-saturation often emphasizes their ultimate importance. It implies or perhaps even defines these nearly omnipotent specters as the final thematic crux to the overarching picture. It doesn’t require an explicit statement. The carefully crafted atmosphere of their scenes evokes this significance through use of effective wordplay and gravitas. Death is unavoidable. It has become disrespected. Its meaning forgotten. Its burden ignored. Yet its cold hands come indiscriminately. It’s inescapably coming to fairy you to judgement for your sins. Was this not the point of the Others, to BE the point? The great metaphor for the steady reaper; how casually the seven kingdoms dealt out ruination, how skewed their morality has grown, how they simply all are so damn flawed? Accountability, punishment, finality comes for all. In that…we are united.

Well imagine of the dark lord Sauron arrogantly came out of the shadows to fight at Gondor. Imagine if he is perished before Frodo destroys the ring of power. How would you feel?

…I guess HBO missed that theme. The dominant theme! What is even the over-all point now? Was it just to unify most…only to assuredly separate most again by the climax? That doesn’t seem very satisfying. It all just feels so premature now, as if White Walkers (Others) were filler this entire time. A gloriously bloated red herring! You can almost cut them out entirely and outside of a few deaths…the general foundation of the story would remain the same. It seems most book fans recognize Martin didn’t forget this theme. It won’t play out the same way. I’m just hoping he actually does finish the novels. It wasn’t about petty politics, it’s not about Cersi Lannister.