Video essay explains why and how the Red Wedding is so powerful
By Ariba Bhuvad
The Red Wedding is one of the most talked about, traumatizing, and memorable scenes of
television. Even all these years later, it’s still hard to believe something this daring happened. Fans of the novels knew it was coming, of course, but that didn’t take away from its power.
In a video essay by Matter of Film, the Red Wedding is dissected and analyzed in depth. We always tend to think back on the Red Wedding as something that blew us away, but there’s so much more to it. It essentially changed the foundation of television storytelling. Watch how:
Matter of Film explains how many shows have a conflict at the center of the narrative. They cite Lord of The Rings and Breaking Bad, two stories where the problem was obvious and the goal clear. Game of Thrones is different.
As the video points out, for the few seasons, there were three major plot points — the war of the Five Kings, Daenerys’ journey, and the Starks versus the Lannisters. It all comes to a head in “The Rains of Castamere” where members of the Stark family are viciously murdered. It becomes very clear here that Game of Thrones is not messing around. “Realism of the unexpected can be brutal.”
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If you were watching closely, you could tell something was going to go down at the Red Wedding before it did. The lighting of the scene, the mood, and the look in Catelyn Stark’s eyes were all enough to get us worried.
Matter of Film points out that “moral rigidity is always penalized in Game of Thrones” and history has certainly borne this out. The people who mean to do well often are punished for their attempts to make the world a better place. Makes you nervous for Jon Snow in season 8, doesn’t it?
The Red Wedding felt fans feeling a bit lost in how they understood the entire narrative. As Matter of Film says, we often “seek protection in narratives.” Game of Thrones doesn’t always provide that stability because anything can happen at any given moment.
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