Only a matter of time until the "Game of Thrones" bug bites

Haven’t been won over by ‘Game of Thrones’ yet? It’s only a matter of time, says Clare O’Reilly.

HELL, according to my friend Siobhan, is being stuck in a room of Game of Thrones fans.

A few weeks ago we were out with a group of friends we hadn’t seen in months. We were just in the door at the end of the night when talk turned to Game of Thrones. Five of the six of us were fans. Siobhan was not, had never seen the show, and had no intention of changing that fact. Still, she sat there while we discussed the finer points of the season so far for the best part of an hour.

“Please”, she said finally. “Please stop talking about stupid Game of bloody Thrones.”

I twisted around from my perch on the couch where I had been holding court on the Lannister family’s woes. “I don’t understand why you won’t just watch it.”

“I don’t like fantasy” she said bluntly. “I’ve told you already. I’m not watching it. I’m just not.”

“I think it’s a stupid reason not to watch the greatest television show of all time.”

“You know what?” Siobhan said slowly.

“I’m not going to watch it. Ever. And I don’t care about the stupid Red Wedding either.”

The room went silent.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” I said softly.

Generally, I’m ‘a live and let live kind’ of person. Except, it turns out, when it comes to a person’s right to choose whether or not they want to watch Game of Thrones.

I love the TV show, and I’m an even bigger fan of the book series behind it, A Song of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin. The problem with being so enthusiastic about something is that it can turn some people, like Siobhan in this instance, off the idea entirely.

As a programme, Game of Thrones is a hard sell, even if you’re not half-cut and dealing with a fantasist. Yes, there’s dragons. There’s blood and gore galore. There are wise-cracking dwarves. There’s an abundance of bare breasts. There are magic shadow babies birthed in caves. But there are also sibling rivalries and family histories that will break your heart. There are brothers and sisters torn apart by war. There’s a hot-headed young tomboy who is transforming in front of the audiences’ eyes into a cold-blooded murderer. There’s political intrigue and double-crosses left, right and centre. There are weddings on screen that will make you reconsider attending one in real life.

The series has something for almost everyone, so if I was to convert Siobhan I’d need to target my message. She’d written her thesis on the representation of women in the media. I could work with that.

I waited till we were alone. Then I pounced. “Women,” I said triumphantly. “George R.R. Martin is amazing at writing women.” This pronouncement was met with blank stares. “Oh god,” said Siobhan incredulously. “You’re still talking about it. You’re still talking about that bloody programme.”

“No, no hear me out.” I said quickly and launched into a description of the leading female characters and how in this series, they didn’t fit the usual tropes. They weren’t just the wives and girlfriends. They were leaders, they were killers, they were knights, and in some cases, horrifically bad mothers.

“But what about the dragons?” she said warily. Fellow fans, I’m not proud of my response. But in my defence, I was so close, and they don’t appear till the end of Season 1 anyway. By that stage, she’d be hooked.

“Dragons!” I said, laughing merrily. “God no. They’re mentioned, yes, but as a metaphor more than anything else. No, no dragons to be seen here. Just women being represented brilliantly.” “Fine”, Siobhan said flatly. “I’ll watch one episode. One. But only if you promise never to mention it again.”

I promised and fell back onto the couch in relief. I’d done it. I’d saved her from a life without Game of Thrones. My friends chose that moment to come back into the room. If I had Siobhan convinced by the prospect of a nuanced three-dimensional portrait of the difficulties faced by female characters in a male-dominated world, then I lost her somewhere between “You won’t believe the amount of incest” and, “Wait till you see the dragons.”

WHICH WAY TO WESTEROS?

Northern Ireland is one of the primary filming locations of the hugely popular HBO TV series, Game of Thrones. Earlier this spring a group of Brazilian fans based in Dublin braved the wind and the rain and headed for the border in search of Westeros.

Armed with a rental car, GPS, filming equipment and a love of Game of Thrones, Vinícius Rodrigues, Angelo Brandes, Rafaela Oliveira and Filipe Cardoso covered 800km in two days.

The result? The short video, “Searching for Game of Thrones“, available to view on Youtube and on www.dublinparabrasileiros.com.

Angelo Brandes runs Dublin Para Brasileiros, a website for Brazilian students in Dublin, and came up with the idea for the trip.

“We decided to film ourselves searching for Game of Thrones locations to motivate Brazilian students to do the same tour,” explained Rafaela Oliveira, one of the videographers behind the project.

Their favourite spots? “Mine was definitely The Dark Hedges.” said Fillipe Cordoso. Fans of the show will recognise it as the King’s Road, north of King’s Landing.

Would they recommend people go and follow their footsteps? “Yes definitely.” said Cardoso.

“We had no idea how beautiful the landscape would be but it’s really interesting to go and see where everything is filmed.”