something about LotR being Tolkien’s way of addressing the unimaginable loss of life and trauma during WWII.. something about ASOIAF being GRRM’s way of addressing the romanticization of war in Vietnam, and then later Afghanistan and Iraq… Tolkien’s atmosphere being dark and hopeless so he used fantasy to inject light into it and made a story where everyone got to live… while GRRM’s atmosphere was divided by invasion and imperialism, so he uses fantasy to show death and carnage as it happens in war, even in the face of magic. they both inform one another, they’re both products of their times and those losses, and they both have that ultimate message of saying “there are things worth fighting for,” but whereas Tolkien needed to say “we found it and we did it,” GRRM’s saying, “we’ve lost it and we need to find it again”

i was just thinking literally how sexy game of thrones fall from grace was. it was so close to being adult harry potter for years to come with the houses assigned as personalities, themed weddings etc etc and the nostalgia after it ended would’ve exacerbated all that just like it did hp but it died a terrible awful death as it deserved. peace and love on planet earth <33333

i wonder if actors ever get their scripts and are like

well this is fucking stupid

[image description: photos of the cast of Game of Thrones at the season 8 table read, in various stages of grief]

Lord of the Rings:

Originally posted by marta-bee

Vs.

Game of Thrones:

Originally posted by riderj123

"But where's that light coming from" BITCH IT'S FANTASY WHO CARES

Ok but also from a like, theatrical storytelling perspective, there’s a thing called “willful suspension of disbelief” which is basically the concept that in order to let ourselves be immersed and enjoy a story, we need to turn off our knowledge that it’s all fake anyway.

like yes, we all *know* it’s unrealistically bright for a night time war, but it needs to be so we can SEE the story being told, and the lighting designer used blue light to show it was night time. We KNOW that Sir Ian isn’t actually a wizard but we SUSPEND that DISBELIEF because we want to be entertained.

theres the moon, theres the stars, in this fantasy world the stars might be four times as bright or there might be two moons

or, considering this is a land without electric lights, its assumed that everyones eyes, including those of the viewers, have adjusted enough to the darkness that yes normal ass moon and stars provide sufficient illumination to actually see that the elf king is not wearing sweatpants like youd be able to tell or who the hell was that who just got stabbed thats kind of an important detail in an action scene

Elijah Wood said he brought this up with Andrew Lesnie, cinematographer on LOTR, once and asked him where the light was coming from in a particular scene, and Lesnie just smiled and said “same place as the music”.

"same place as the music"

Part 47

(All parts of this series available here)

This is really something, TBH