Bracket Round in Review - Initial Thoughts.     What just happened?          

Submission Day Chatter Part 2

The brackets are in, the brackets are in, the brackets are in, and your preferences are all laid bare, you mad bastards! I will say this: you are NOT the most predictable lot. Let’s focus for a moment on some happy surprises. There’s no WAY I would have predicted the Onion Knight’s number of champ votes. In an earlier post I did focus on Liam Cunningham’s appeal as Davos, but it was just to make a point about the Criteria; I had no idea he’d be getting that many picks as champ. And YET! Why is he not even in the top 20 when it comes to popularity?! Popularity is the metric for overall match-up wins. How in seven hells is he scoring so high as champ but not showing up on the damn leaderboard? Let’s bring in Nate Silver because Connington DOES. NOT. GET IT!

Have you seen the Ned Stark votes? My man is smack in the middle of the pack, in both champion votes and popularity. The North remembers Sean Bean’s gravitas as well as that lordly upswept partial-ponytail-knot hairdo. I mean come on. Nobody cooler. Sean Bean’s real hair, too. (I’m willing to bet. Based on a close examination of Google image search results. Computer, enhance.) Anyway I’m genuinely gratified to see Lord Eddard rated as high as he is, but still a little ticked off that he didn’t do even better.

This brings me to Connington’s theory of One Thing. Here it goes. This show is a genre exercise, right? It’s not a grand tragedy. It’s not Shakespeare. It is an epic, sure, but it is epic melodrama, and that’s okay! Don’t be scared by that word. Melodrama is not a slur! In melodrama the characters must fit into recognizable types and they don’t change much and THAT’S OKAY!

To be a great G.O.T. character you have be ONE THING. And that one thing can be tragically compelling. Ned is honorable to a detrimental degree, and that is sad and powerful. Arya is a fierce kid who is forced to become a vicious murderer, and that is sad and powerful. Theon has been robbed of being a Greyjoy and can never be a Stark and that is sad and powerful.  Varys has been robbed of a big part of his humanity and desires only to serve humanity and that is sad and powerful. Etcetera. In stories like this, we like people who are One Thing. We can wrap our heads around it, and “One Thing” makes sense, especially with a cast this big. The “One Thing” theory brings us to the smelly rotten egg of the bracket board. I’m looking at you, Khaleesi.

Yesterday we discussed what was shaping up to be “the Daenerys Problem.” It came to pass in a big way. Who knew that Dany would earn the same number of champ votes as Hodor, Brienne, and THEON? Good lord. It’s almost enough to get me back on her side. There was a recent video online in which Emilia Clarke ran around Times Square in New York dressed as Jon Snow, beard and cloak and all, and accosted bystanders, yelling about the North and winter and doing a more than passable imitation of Kit Harrington’s accent and persona. I think it was for charity or something? Anyway it was very charming and winning and you should all feel like complete monsters for snubbing her on the bracket. J.K.--she was way more fun in that video than she ever was on the show. But it’s not her fault! The scripts are confusing us as to her “One Thing.” Is she wrathful? Confused? Sad? In love with Jon? Only wants the throne? Only wants revenge? The show itself doesn’t seem to know, so the character is not allowed to be ONE THING--and just look at how people turned on her.

Next time, we dive back into the analytics and discuss, among other things, how a lot of you nerds advanced The Hound further than ole Connington did, and you know what?  I see it now. You nerds were probably right about that one.

VOTE IN ROUND ONE AND MOVE YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS FORWARD