Dialogue Dive: When Game of Thrones' Writing Was Still Good

regardless of how piss-poor many of the final episodes of Game of Thrones were it is undeniable that the show for a good long while existed as the pinnacle of dramatic television and there were a lot of factors that got it there the effects were fantastic the sheer scale of the show was bonkers the casting was phenomenal I mean I could go on and on but the biggest factor at least in my opinion as to why the show was once the king of television was because of the writing specifically the dialogue in the first four seasons you'd be hard-pressed to find a better written television show out there so what I want to do in this video is dive into the dialogue but when Game of Thrones was in its prime season 3 episode 7 the bear and the maiden fair is a great episode to focus on not the whole thing though just one short scene where Joffrey and Thailand are sharing dialogue well I'm sure that everyone appreciates the scene of the pure enjoyment of seeing Joffrey verbally pimp-slap for 180 seconds I always get giddy over the scene from an editing standpoint on the surface it seems like a straightforward conversation between two characters and that's good because like the saying goes do your job right and no one will know you did it at all however the technical aspects of how the writers packed so much information inside such a short scene is really amazing first let's watch the scene to get a refresher on what exactly happens then after I will break down what I see as an editor and hopefully be able to explain why I'm so impressed and give a little insight for those who want to view writing more critically if you are familiar with what happens in the scene already feel free to skip ahead but for the rest of us here we go your great-grandfather you wanted to speak to me yes I'd like a report on the meetings of my small Council you're welcome to attend the meetings of your small council your grace any or all of them I've been very busy many important matters require a king's attention of course you've been holding the council meetings in the Tower of the hand instead of the small council chamber I have yes may I ask why the Tower of the hand is where I work walk from that here would take time time I could otherwise spend productively so if I wanted to attend a council meeting I would now have to climb all the stairs in the Tower of the hand we could arrange to have you carried tell me about the Targaryen girl in the east and her dragons really to hear about this is it true apparently so don't you think we ought to do something about it when I was handled the King under your father's predecessor the skulls of all the Targaryen dragons but kept in this room the skull of the last of them was right here it was the size of a couple and the biggest was the size of a carriage yes and the creature to whom it belonged died 300 years ago curiosities on the far side of the world are no threat to us but how do we know these dragons are just curiosities and not the beasts that brought the whole world to heel because we have been told as much by the many experts who serve the realm by counseling the King on matters about which he knows nothing haven't been counseled you are being counseled at this very moment I should be consulted about such things from now on I will see to it that you are appropriately consulted on important matters whenever necessary yo guys see I told you really awesome scene now let's watch it again except I will jump in and point out parts that I think are really impressive from a technical writing standpoint [Music] yo great-grandfather you wanted to speak to me yes so right off the bat I want to point out two things to keep in mind going forward first this entire scene is constructed in a traditional three-act structure there is an introduction with an inciting incident a midsection with rising action and a climax and a resolution this means that the scene by itself really functions as a self-contained narrative this gives it a compelling feeling attention of sorts also pay attention to how well the scene does in giving you information about the show itself even if you have never seen any other episode or better yet even if you have never even heard of Game of Thrones this scene fills you in on almost all the important facets of the show from genre to setting to the conflict to the characters and their roles oh great grandfather you wanted to speak to me yes and best of all it is all done really smoothly we can keep track of all the information revealed so you can get a picture of how efficient this scene is I'd like a report on the meetings of my small Council you're welcome to attend the meetings of your small council your grace I've been very busy many important matters require a king's attention of course so good dialogue not only presents information to the audience to further the plot it follows and highlights the traits of those speaking if a character is shy you should be able to tell it in their speech I'm happy same goes for an outspoken character voice so greedy this is brass a technique that experienced writers use in dialogue to show the attributes of a powerful or strong character is having that character control the flow of a conversation notice how Tywin responds to Geoffrey's request I'd like a report on the meetings of my small Council you're welcome to attend the meetings of your small council your grace most people would have immediately responded with a report if the King asked for a report but the dialogue here works to showcase Tywin strength as a character instead of fulfilling Geoffrey's wishes like a less imposing character would Tywin tells the King he can fulfill his own wishes he is basically telling Joffrey it's your responsibility to stay informed not my responsibility to report to you Joffrey is the king the most authoritative person on the entire continent but if Tywin can assert authority over him we of the audience can then perceive Tywin to be someone even greater than a king and this is all done not by a lengthy explanation to the audience but through dialogue you've been holding the council meetings in the Tower of the hand instead of the small council chamber may I ask why here is another cool really subtle trick used to show tywin's power in the situation Joffre the king is now requesting permission to ask a question i ask why this may seem like a small innocuous common phrase of speech but it really is these little things that writers have to employ to make dialogue seem natural while also packing in the details Joffrey seeking permission to ask a question is another signal of how Tywin is exerting power over the direction of the conversation and therefore the situation at the Tower of the hand is where I work walk from that here would take time time I could otherwise spend productively so if I wanted to attend a council meeting I would now have to climb all the stairs in the Tower of the hand we could arrange to have you carried Tywin moving up the stairs signals the end of the introduction because our characters and our conflicts have been established Joffrey needs information and Tywin wants to keep the information to himself and as I said in other videos whenever one character attempts to keep another character from achieving their goal conflict is created now we move into the mid section where the characters interact with the conflict during rising action until they reach the climax also pay attention to the subtext being used in the scene we could arrange to have you carried subjects is the implicit underlying meaning message and theme of dialogue proper use of subtext is usually considered the highest and hardest aspect of dialogue mainly because you have to write two conversations at once the explicit spoken conversation and the implicit unspoken conversation Tywin saying we could arrange to have you carried maintains the explicit formality of addressing the king while also implicitly threatening Joffrey pay attention to this type of subtext to the rest of the video because it appears a lot tell me about the Targaryen girl in the east and her dragons where did you hear about this here we have a cool example of Joffrey trying to gain back control of the conversation he drops his line of questioning on the small council meeting probably sensing that it isn't going anywhere and goes right into a demand of information about Daenerys and her dragons what he really wants in this scene but Tywin being Tywin not wanting to relinquish his power or control push his back Tywin answers Joffrey's question with his own question where did you hear about this he continues to try to exert control over the direction and content of the conversation is it true apparently so don't you think we ought to do something about it when I was handled the King under your father's predecessor the skulls of all the Targaryen dragons but kept in this road the skull of the last of them right here it was the size of an apple demonstrated here is another technique used in writing dialogue to signal a character that has power they will respond with something completely unrelated usually with a story or an anecdote it shows that they control the flow of the dialogue the biggest was the size of a carriage yes and the creature to whom it belonged died 300 years ago curiosities on the far side of the world are no threat to us how do we know these dragons are just curiosities and not the beasts that brought the whole world to heel here we have a rising action because we have been told as much by the many experts who serve the realm by counseling the King on matters about which he knows nothing haven't been counseled you are being counseled of this very moment and there is our climax layered with subtext finally after this we move into the resolution I should be consulted about such things from now on I will see to it that you are appropriately consulted on important matters whenever necessary yo Greyson of course Tywin gets the last word in with some excellent subtext to boot he tells Joffrey that he will be consulted whenever necessary which might be never considering the little respect that Tywin has for his grandson also Tywin's yoga is the subtext cherry on the top of the scene it is basically him saying oh that's right I'm talking to the king I almost forgot and looking back at the scene there are over a dozen pertinent pieces of information given in just three minutes I hope I could help break down why I'm so impressed with this scene aside from my Tywin fanboy bias I really do think it is a tight well edited extremely entertaining few minutes Oh in case you're wondering how the to Who Shall Not Be Named wrote this script it actually wasn't them george RR martin himself wrote the script which makes a lot of sense when you think about it if you liked this kind of video and would want to see me dive into the dialogue of other scenes or other shows just let me know and for anyone who didn't hear my announcement last week i opened myself up to do editing if you have a short story or a novel that you want edited or you want guidance and coaching on writing feel free to contact me through email I offer stuff like developmental edits where I work alongside you chapter by chapter novel critiques concept development first impression edits and as I said before coaching opportunities and if you're worried about pricing you can probably relax I want to make things as affordable as possible for you guys if you are interested email me with yours onra word count and name to get more information again thank you all for watching as always it was a pleasure and I will talk to you all again soon

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 1,764,924

Keywords: game of thrones, jon snow, david benioff, dan weiss, game of thrones season 8, a song of ice and fire, george rr martin, game of thrones ending, tyrion lannister, peter dinklage, writing, tywin lannister, joffrey, tywin lannister best dialogues, a game of thrones, d.b. weiss, iron throne, game of thrones breakdown

Id: JrGenUdbeP4

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019