Forum:Brainstorming: G.R.R.Martin inspiration

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George R. R. Martin Inspiration

Aeynrieus in Forum:Trivia guidelines brainstorm suggested that that the major inspiration sources, such as George R. R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire, should have an article of their own. I think it's a good idea but I'm afraid that its realization exceeds both my abilities and the amount of time I can devout to this, so I'm putting up this forum to find people willing to participate.

So far, I've collected these major similarities:

Setting

- the country at civil war, with the royal line almost extinct and without a direct heir

- the threat of a long-forgotten enemy whose defeat requires special knowledge

- the forbidden blood magic

- the return of the dragons thought to be extinct

- a greatly diminished ancient empire practising slavery

Grey Wardens - Night's Watch - an order established to fight a supernatural enemy who returns after prolonged intervals, during which the common knowledge becomes lost or obscured and the order diminishes in numbers and importance; unable to procreate (the taint x the oath of chastity); have the right to conscript criminals in their ranks

Antiva - Braavos?

- both are places with important merchant bankers and assassins guilds.

Characters

Anora - Queen Cersei - a power-hungry blonde b**ch on the throne, not bearing children to the king who frequents other women

Loghain - Tywin Lannister - a powerful nobleman, the Queen's father and Regent after the king's death, an unscrupulous yet very capable guy

Couslands - Starks - a high-ranking noble family on good terms with the king, betrayed and murdered by a trusted ally

Rendon Howe - Roose Bolton - the aforementioned trusted ally; fond of torture

Warden - Jon Snow - a novice who becomes the Commander of his order

Alistair (if Fiona's son) - Jon Snow (if truly the son of prince Raeghar and Lyanna Stark) - a royal bastard ignorant of his true parentage; prefers the sworn duty to the position of power

Eamon Guerrin - Ned Stark - the foster-father of the said royal bastard

Eamon Guerrin - Jon Arryn - the king's advisor, acting against the Queen; poisoned in a way that faked illness

Isolde - Lysa Arryn - a silly woman married to an elder man, over-protective of her son

Isolde - Catelyn Stark - in her relation to her husband's supposed bastard

Morrigan - a figure from the "fairy-tales" - there is a tale of the Watch Commander who encountered a beautiful pale woman in the Wilds, who bewitched and seduced him to conceive a child who would presumably take over the Watch (confirmation needed, I can't recall where exactly this brief mention was)

Flemeth - the black-handed man who takes Bran to the north - an (ancient?) being of unknown powers and intentions; a possible seer and shapeshifter (raven), or able to see through the raven's eyes

Sophia Dryden - Ned Stark - an aristocrat sentenced to death for plotting against the deviant king with a questionable claim to the throne; conscripted to the Wardens/Watch to make their lives of better use (though Ned Stark's conscription was prevented by Jeoffrey's psychopathic insisting on his execution)

King Arland - Jeoffrey - a psychopathic boy ascending the throne and doing away with opposition

King Arland - Aerys Targaryen - a psychopathic and generally feared and hated king

Trivia

the way the unsuccessful recruits choke at the Joining reminds of the effect of the strangler poision which is served dilluted in red wine, resembling thus blood

Your suggstions? Ygrain (talk) 09:16, November 1, 2010 (UTC)

The story is inspired by GRRM. There is not a direct analogy for every character and attempting to do so is speculation. As far as I know, someone said that the inspiration is the DA is supposed to be "low-fantasy" in that wars happen, people die, and there's difficult choices with no perfect ending.

We're just coming off a decision to reduce the number of speculative trivia. Let's not guess what the parallels might be. -- tierrie talk contr 16:26, November 1, 2010 (UTC)

I would compare Wardens to the Kingsguard rather than Night's Watch. Night's Watch recruits anyone, and they are not strictly martial order since they have stewards and builders.--Master-at-arms (talk) 19:18, July 10, 2012 (UTC)

I think it's rather unfair that GRRM gets so much attention with its parallels to pretty much every fantasy genre out there. Dragonlance has just as much similarities, IE:

• the mages have an organisation that polices renegades, and renegades can be killed on sight.
  
• sudden return of dragons.
  
• no divine magic.
  

You have to realise that almost ALL fantasy genres overlap. The Seekers of Truth might be the same as the Sword of Truth series, Towers and Mages from Dragonlance, Anders can be Raistlin Majere, darkspawn are clearly orcs (down to "corrupted" schtick), Qunari can be the Gondians after Spellplague... if we listed all the parallels, Dragon Age 10 would be out before we finish. - 20:27, July 10, 2012 (UTC)

^^^Agreed. We shouldn't devote time to creating a list of all similarities for this exact reason. Just because they exist, doesn't mean they were intended, or as you're implying, inspired. 74.83.215.181 (talk) 17:36, July 11, 2012 (UTC)

I think Melisandre and Morrigan have some traits in common, like they're both powerful beautiful sorceress with a hint of evil. And they both do magical rituals where they get pregnant. Also, both of them have unusual eye collors. PS: You could warn spoilers when you refer to the third book User:Franciscoamell

The thing with A Song of Ice and Fire is that Dragon Age developers adimitedly used it while creating their game/world/history, it is not just coincidence or vague inspiration. Raoniluna (talk) 12:39, July 13, 2012 (UTC)