Game of Thrones, end of season three

Here are some thoughts on the series I wrote to a friend who said I should post them.  So I have.

Many of these stories involve matching a national political struggleto a romance (think Robin Hood and Maid Marion leading the Saxonrebellion against the Normans).  So far, GOT has refused to do this.Redhaired witch is not in love with king she manipulates.  Bastard whoescapes hangs out with burn victim girl--or is that deformed skin?Guy who lets him escape is childless and a widower. Starks are dead.Theon is castrated. One hand brother is incestuous.  Dwarf is in atriangle.  Bran is a little boy.  His sister is a little girl (didlove the scene where she and he field the guys claiming to have cutthe wolf's head off). Blondie is like Queen Elizabeth, a virginmother.  Funny that the hunky guy she seemed to like dropped out ofthe finale. it's like all out sado-masochistic death drive hasoverpowered any heteronormative plot development.  Maybe the finale isa symptom of that death drive and the stasis, the sense of waste thatcomes with it--you don't get a story; you just get sensationalizedscenes that go nowhere.  Even the escape scene with theboat--presented as funny--has no direction--just follow that star and keep the coast in view, the old guy says.Only Theon's sister lays out a rescue plot.  And there's the vaguecollective threat of the wild walkers in the oath.  But even thatthreat was staged as a scene--the opening of the first scene--thatended as a story when Stark beheaded the deserter.  It's as if bits ofstories were offered up here and there only as a ways of buildingplatforms on which horrific or sexy scenes can then be staged,sometimes the sexy becoming violent or "perverted."  The death drivemay also explain the plot holes since the multiple plots are all ineffect empty, ruses of linearity that actually stall out in staticscenes, quasi-tableaux vivant or tableaux morte.  The stalls are placed
effectively.  you expect development and then it is cutshort--literally when Stark is beheaded.  Have you noticed that therehave been very few battle scenes?  Usually we see a battle about tobegin, the battle is skipped, and we go to the aftermath.  The dwarfbeing knocked out during the battle is a good example.