My Issues with the Plot Structure of Game of Thrones Part 2

The Night's Watch

Even though I just got done bashing Daenerys Targaryen's story arc the reality is that The Night's Watch story is actually my least favorite of the 3 main story lines. Like Daenerys's arc, it's super predictable where the entire thing is going to lead. Unlike Daenerys's story arc, the Night's Watch story actually has a negative impact on the "Contest for the Iron Throne" story. 

For those of you who have not watched Game of Thrones, The Night's Watch is a military order that guards a huge wall. The purpose of the Night's Watch is to protect Westeros from a marauding band of people called "wildlings" and from ice zombies called "The White Walkers." (In the books they're called "The Others" and they're not zombies, but they're still a major supernatural force that threatens to obliterate all life on Westeros)

The main problem with this arc is that the story ultimately leads to a gigantic army of ice zombies breaking through the wall, who will then supposedly overrun Westeros (or at least try to). One major theme of both the show and the books is that it ultimately doesn't matter who sits on the Iron Throne. The reason why it doesn't matter is because the White Walkers will supposedly just wipe out everyone anyway. All the squabbling and in-fighting over the Iron Throne has weakened Westeros to the point where nobody can fight back against this overwhelming army of the Dead.

Remember all the characters that died, got brutalized or were screwed over in other ways in an attempt to get the Iron Throne? All of that was for nothing! This story arc negates the purpose contest over the Iron Throne. Or at least, it tries to. "The Night's Watch" and "The Iron Throne" story lines ultimately contradict each other. One plot line has to be sacrificed in favor of the other and either way the story loses. So let's go over the two scenarios shall we?

• Scenario # 1: The Army of the Dead Is More Important than the Back Stabbing over the Iron Throne - In this scenario the contest over the Iron Throne doesn't actually mean anything. The contest is rendered pointless since the White Walkers will just kill everyone anyway. If this is how the books play out then why is there an entire plot arc about nobles killing each other over the Iron Throne? Might as well just make a sword and sorcery version of "The Walking Dead."

 I can see this scenario pleasing some members of the fanbase who actively rooted for the annihilation of Westeros, but I can also see a significant portion of the fanbase getting pissed off by this "Kill'Em All" ending since it would mean that all of their favorite characters got killed off.

• Scenario # 2: The people of Westeros Unite To Defeat the White Walkers. Then afterwards Everybody Goes Back To Killing Each Other - In this scenario, the White Walkers are defeated. People come together to defeat their common enemy. (Bytheway, this is one of the biggest cliches in all of fictional story telling) Once the enemy is defeated everyone goes back to killing each other over the Iron Throne. 

     For those of you who saw the show, you'll know that "Scenario # 2" is the route that the show chose to go down....and it pissed a lot of people off. After 7 Seasons of build up the White Walkers and their leader get wiped out in one episode. Most of the cast present at the battle survive. All that build up had zero payoff. The White Walkers are essentially a hyped up distraction that temporarily derailed the overall plot of the show. 

       On the one hand I'm happy that the contest for the Iron Throne was the ultimate endgame for the show, but on the other hand what purpose did the Night's Watch story ultimately serve? At least Daenerys's story arc ties into the contest over the Iron Throne. This doesn't even do that. 

One unpopular opinion of mine is that both the show and the books would be better off if the Night's Watch story never existed in the first place. The series would have been so much better if it were consolidated only to the contest over the Iron Throne.

There is one last point I'd like to make regarding the reason why I don't like The Night's Watch story arc before I wrap these two blog posts up:

Is Westeros actually worth saving? 

Here's something I once said about the cast of Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire:

"I can’t think of another fictional work that’s been so effective at getting me to dislike most of the cast. Most of these characters are despicable! I get that Martin’s trying to create characters that have flaws, but saying that the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire are “flawed” is like saying that Bill Cosby’s a “bit of a perv”

(Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-unpopular-opinions-you-have-about-A-Song-of-Ice-and-Fire/answer/Grant-Boothe) 

I stand by that statement. Game of Thrones is the first major story that I actively followed I can think of where I dislike more characters than I actively like. In fact, that used to be the appeal of the show for me: Watching horrible people do stuff with the hope that one day they'll all get killed too. Thankfully the show killed off every single character that I wanted to see dead. 

So how does this relate to the Night's Watch? Simple. Why should I care if The Night's Watch succeeds or fails to save all of Westeros? There are so many psychopaths, monsters or just generally uninteresting characters that if the Night's Watch succeeded in committing genocide on the continent I'd probably be actively cheering them on. There are so many horrible characters in this show that them dying would be received as a good thing. 

This is the one major ingredient that "save the world" narratives need in order to work: You need a world worth saving. The best shows with this narrative all have them. 

• Avatar: The Last Airbender -  Yep. That's a world worth saving. GO AANG! 

• Star Wars: This galaxy is cool. GO REBELS! 

• Lord of the Rings: Middle-Earth is awesome! GO FRODO! 

• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: I like Amestris and I like this cast. GO ED! 

If you don't care about the continent then what's the point of the narrative? There's no tension if the world sucks and everyone in it deserves to die. Up until Game of Thrones that thought never occurred to me. Moving forward it will be an actual requirement: If you want me to care about your fictional world you need to give me a fictional world worth actually caring about.

P.S. There's other plot related stuff I wanted to write about, but this became WAY longer than I anticipated so expect more plot related posts in the future...especially when John Barkmeyer gave me some great food for thought. ;)