Check Out Japan's Take on A Game of Thrones

[cainx10a]

And Japan can do do soul-crushingly, horrifically brutal and depressing dark fantasy. It's called Berserk. It's a bit less presumptuous in that it's very much a young men's action comic, though in Japan the young men's demographic (or "seinen" as it were, and "gekiga" before it) has for a long time been notorious for senseless violence and exploitative material. Which, I suppose, is exactly what that comic is, though its fanbase considers it a long-languishing and unfinished "mature fantasy" epic masterpiece.

Which sounds familiar.

I would say, A Song of Ice and Fire, is a little bit like Berserk except it's grounded in reality, (the high-fantasy part is creeping in little by little, as magic is slowly returning to the world etc ...), and it's a world gone to shit once the war breaks out, bandit roaming the land taking what they want, when they want, and the knights who are sworn to protect you, are raping, killing and doing the bidding of their lords.

So you don't have demons taking over villages .... yet ;p ...., and turning the men into rat demons before they decide to have an orgy with the women before eating them, demons are so ... demonic.

But at the end of the road, Berserk turned into power ranger once Gats/Guts/Gatsu gathered his little D&D team (does Farnaise count? - she does handle kitchen and cleaning duties wonderfully, I think). I stopped reading once the team went on their little sea trip.

Still, Dragon Age was probably the one who tried emulating ASOIF along with a mix of LotR and the gods know where BioWare may have borrowed more ideas. I don't think you can even compare DA with ASOIF, one was trying to be an epic, the other seems to be a bit more than that, sure I expect the last 3 books to be exactly what LotR is, with all the warring factions allying themselves to face a much bigger treat, but still, the journey is much more important than the ending.

But I agree, the Japanese are no stranger to mature, dark and gritty stories, once you know where to look.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

The first 10 or so don't seem manga-ish at all really. There are couple that are obviously heavily stylised, but generally they are fairly normal looking.

Game Of Thrones is fast becoming the best thing on TV.

 

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

Still, Dragon Age was probably the one who tried emulating ASOIF along with a mix of LotR and the gods know where BioWare may have borrowed more ideas. I don't think you can even compare DA with ASOIF, one was trying to be an epic, the other seems to be a bit more than that, sure I expect the last 3 books to be exactly what LotR is, with all the warring factions allying themselves to face a much bigger treat, but still, the journey is much more important than the ending.

That's a good point. Come to think of it this would also explain where DA got the "Ser" from.

 

[Spacewolf]

Pass.

I honestly think these remind me of a Japanese version of the Mack Bolan novel covers, which would be great if you were reading a pulpy, made for tween boys serial, not GRRMs epic masterpiece.

Honestly, if I didn't already have the nagging suspicion that George R. R. Martin was suffering from a case of burnout and disillusionment with his own work those covers might've tempted me to give the series a shot. Completely inappropriate to tone but gorgeous enough to buy the books anyway and maybe put my earlier reservations aside to give it a shot. On the topic of earlier reservations, I should elaborate.

Besides, the artwork and secondary material for the series I've seen mixes full plate harness (a decidedly advanced Late Medieval/Renaissance technology, despite what D&D and the post-D&D fantasy genre might tell you) with what I was led to believe was a gritty low-fantasy Dirty Medieval setting. And that insults my sensibilities far more than seeing fanciful manga-influenced art topping a rather grimly serious story ever could.

Considering its based on the war of the roses there was indeed plate armour during that time.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Those covers are cool, very nicely done. I gave up on this series about a quarter of the way through the first book. Not one character had any admirable qualities, every one was despicable. And while I have no problem with tales of murders, betrayal, assassins and skulduggery, etc the brutality, child rape and murder, incest and deplorable characters made the thought of reading any more too hard to bear. By all means protagonists should face incredible adversity but this one went too far for too long without anything redeemable happening.

I'll probably check out the miniseries out of curiosity to see what they did with it. It's bound to have been seriously stripped down, probably incorporating little more than names, characters, places and token plot line. While I wish companies made better TV instead of having to dumb-down for mass market appeal (the way Disney did with Tron: Legacy for example, and ending with a disastrous movie), perhaps in this case it would actually benefit the series. Taking an interesting idea and/or people/places and make something from the good bits, stripping out much of the aforementioned depressing drudgery.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Huh, only a few androgynous looking male leads and not even a hint of giant robots, tentacles, ninjas, pedophilia subtext, borderline xenophobia, or school children fighting Satan.

Great job Japan! Keep up the good work!

 

[370999]

I don't like them. They are pretty but would far better suit a grimm high fantasy tale than a SOIAF.

 

[itf cho]

I didn't much care for most of them. The ones featuring Tyrion were particularly bad, I thought.

 

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

Considering its based on the war of the roses there was indeed plate armour during that time.

Fair enough, but most art and costumes depicting the characters certainly don't look the part. I distinctly recall paintings of 15th century England involving a lot of silly cloth-wrap hat things, and I think Blackadder had a few silly hats in that timeframe, too. And I saw one piece of art for SOIAF, I think a cover, that actually put a fully decorated, antlered great helm (as in, the wearable can that normally goes with chain maille) on a knight wearing plate. While passable in a "it's okay because the whole fantasy genre is just D&D rebranded and reimagined" sense, this kind of anachronism shows a lack of care or research beyond second-hand cultural sources.

Or a fear of looking silly by going too "period" which is another reason why I find the fantasy genre, in general, hard to take seriously even when it's being deathly serious.

 

[StrixMaxima]

Is HBO or the books' author sponsoring this site,now? I mean, no problem covering the show's premiere and some reviews, but the sheer amount of Game of Thrones hype around gaming sites (not just this one, mind you) is staggering.

Yes, I don't like Game of Thrones (show, didn't read the books). But that's not the issue.

 

[KarmicToast]

Who is the person in picture "19"??? Darerys unborn fetus?

 

[Dana22]

This looks bad, to say the least.

 

[icyneesan]

#6 is my favorite. The guy just looks positively badass.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

There not half bad.
But so far the best covers for a series ive seen are the new Space Marine battle novels. The design is just amazing and they look great stacked on the shelfs of my library.

 

[Fapmaster5000]

Fair enough, but most art and costumes depicting the characters certainly don't look the part. I distinctly recall paintings of 15th century England involving a lot of silly cloth-wrap hat things, and I think Blackadder had a few silly hats in that timeframe, too. And I saw one piece of art for SOIAF, I think a cover, that actually put a fully decorated, antlered great helm (as in, the wearable can that normally goes with chain maille) on a knight wearing plate. While passable in a "it's okay because the whole fantasy genre is just D&D rebranded and reimagined" sense, this kind of anachronism shows a lack of care or research beyond second-hand cultural sources.

Or a fear of looking silly by going too "period" which is another reason why I find the fantasy genre, in general, hard to take seriously even when it's being deathly serious.

u mad bro?

In all seriousness, though, I do think you're setting your standards a little bit absurdly high. I do have to ask, are you a history major of some sort, or just have a passion for it? (I'm not trying to be insulting in any manner, I just want to know where the desire for absolute fidelity comes from.)

To me, your standard of "Oh, they have plate mail and rapiers, but they're not wearing the appropriate funny hats and tights: fail." strikes me like the hard scifi fans who will bash on a book that spends describing the difficulties and societal effects of Newtonian drives and distributed civilization, but has an airlock work different than modern standard.

Appreciate the world, it may work different then ours. If a series violates its own continuity or rules, then fire away, I say, but just because their weapons technology doesn't match their dress code (and not even that far off, it's not togas and assault rifles or anything truly absurd) isn't a reason to discount G.R.R. Martin's series.

His books are a unique deconstruction of high fantasy, with correlations to our history, and a world that is very much like ours, but decidedly different (winter is coming). It's worth a view, just for the unique voice. You don't have to like it, but it's worth a try.


PS: The other series Dragon Age borrowed from was Wheel of Time. Look at the collared mages in DAII and think of the Seanchan. Eh? Eh? Still, it's refreshing to see a game lift from Martin and Jordan, as opposed to more Tolkien.

 

[RandV80]

No, the irony that I'm too cynical to trust the marketing and word-of-mouth for a cynical-toned series isn't lost on me. But at times, when people describe it, it does sound like GRRM is trying too hard to be what Dragon Age tried to be. "Fantasy for grown ups." Few things in marketing get me more suspicious than trying to sell something as "(blank) for grown ups."

You know I don't think it was ever really marketed this way, but rather this was how it come out through word of mouth. Keep in mind that A Game of Thrones was released in 1997, well before all the 'gritty reboot' style became popular in common culture. Hell I think that was the year we had bat nipples.

Additionally, the history of author GRRM aligns with the idea that this is an original and genuine work of fiction from him rather than some marketing gimmick. He wrote short stories through the 60's and 70's (before getting into TV script writing in the 80's) and element from his early work can be found throughout A Song of Fire and Ice. While he grew up on sci-fi and comics, which was the nature of the market back in those days, Lord of the Rings was a huge inspiration for him when it finally got published and could be read, and he left the TV/Hollywood industry in the 90's to write his own fantasy epic.

While you are critical because it's talked about as a period piece but seems to have lots of technical flaws for one, you're a little off here because that's not what it is. It takes inspiration from the War of the Roses, but by no means would GRRM want to limit himself by adhering to strict guidelines of one. While with character development and plot he sticks to the 'gritty' and 'real' side (I hate using those words because they've become so cliche these days), for the big picture he's very strongly into the concept of romanticism. You criticize there being platemail from the renaissance error in what appears to be an earlier medieval setting, but this is a fictional world that's been in a medieval setting for thousands of years. Doesn't seem very realistic being like that, but his sci-fi works from the 70's were the same way. Realistic characters placed in an over sized & imaginative galaxy teeming with life & mysteries. In his fictional worlds romanticism trumps realism.

So basically what I'm saying is that GRRM isn't trying to cash in on anything from a marketing angle, but rather his work is genuine and it's us the fans of it that are saying all these things or creating expectations you seem to disagree with. And I know his history plus short stories because he released a collection of them combined with some biography blurbs a few years ago, that I checked out of a library when I saw it available a couple months ago.

 

[boag]

cool, hopefully they will make an Anime or Manga Adaption soon enough, would love to see the changes they make to it in such an adaptation.

 

[No One Jones]

Hate them all.

 

[loc978]

Well, I really don't like what they've done with Jon Snow or Tyrion... but the one with Daenerys and the one with Bran and Summer both look a little truer to what I had in my mind's eye when reading the books than what I've seen of the TV series. Mind you, I understand why the changes were made, especially with Daenerys. They would have had to cut a whole lot of content if they kept her thirteen years old at the start.