Game of Thrones or Dan Carlin: Better History?

How do I like my history? Dan Carlin has me asking that question over and over. He's a podcaster who is educating the world about history. He often takes very deep dives into important events. And even though it's an audio-only medium, it's often engrossing.



Game of Thrones didn't happen, but it can still be very illuminating.



The Battle of the Bastards feels like an authentic representation of what a high middle age society and politics, here, here, and this.

Game of Thrones shows better than conventional historians tell.

Here, we see precisely how Dark Age rulers could instantly destroy an old family, thereby changing the politics of a realm well into the modern age. This is a literal time saver!

But, there are drawbacks. 


Dragons, after all, aren't real. And they are major players in the series. As is magic. 

But it's still a fantastic way to examine the Dark Age mentality. 

Shazam! is the Singularity

Shazam! Is a funny story about about a superhero which was at one time owned by Marvel. 

A foster kid fights evil as a grown man. It feels like an uncanny copy, because it is.

It feels like what would happen if Saturday Night Live did a superhero movie. It's a superhero film that understands it's for kids. And when the kids are doing the talking, the show shines. When the adults get involved, it feels like a very clunky Law & Order episode. Like the adults know that there is something wrong with a thirty-something man who acts like a middle-schooler paling around with a boy, they just can't put their finger on what it is.

2019's Shazam! feels like pop culture folding in on itself. It shamelessly borrows from Harry Potter. 

Hollywood, don't borrow from yourself. Copy from the War of the Roses!

Us has an incredible twist. 

A normal American family kills other normal Americans. Not with guns, but with sheers.



Sheers, and terror. 



The scariest thing is when we find out that they aren't really anything other than people. People who have been driven to do terrible things.



However, Game of Thrones takes the cake when it comes to playing the long game with a twist. The whole series was an enormous setup! And we fell for it!

Terror is (almost) Watching The Wall

Two episodes in, and I have to say that The Terror is great at showing stir-crazy. It's a hard thing to get right. The Terror is about three British ships going into the Arctic for some strange reason.

It tells the story of Victorian England's understanding of the unknown to a great effect. It assumes that the audience understands that they are watching a horror movie. It plays up mundane acts into horrifying events. It makes great work of the "slow burn" trope.

Nothing shocks anymore. So, what do they show? Nothing.

At least the dragons are seen.

Shae and Tyrion and Sunset BLVD

Hollywood loves love triangles. Sunset BLVD was one of the best. A young writer, (William Holden), gets into a financial scrape which will likely end with him banished to Dayton, OH. Dayton, OH wasn't a bad place in 1950. But Sunset BLVD wouldn't have an engine for the finely tuned plot without the drama of the explanation of the film's famous and bizarre opening.

Right away there's all manner of questions which draw you in. It's horror film told from the perspective of a never-was screenwriter as dead man recounts how he got that way. Only the scary demon isn't a ghost or a devil. It isn't even Gloria Swanson, who plays the past-her-prime-but-doesn't know-it star who he is taking advantage of.



It's his greed. Greed that killed him. Greed is frightening. Especially when it blinds people to reality.




Shae was blinded by her greed. In a much longer time-frame we see her work her wiles on Tyrion. She has him convinced that even though she is a prostitute, it is he that she truly loves.

 

Her long-con of The Little Lord was much more shocking in it's payoff and his killing spree was much more shocking. Game of Thrones proves that Hollywood has gotten better at storytelling.