Just Sayin

If you don't watch this series, I don't know what's wrong with you.  George RR Martin has been writing this book series for years, The Songs of Ice and Fire, and although it is difficult to read at first, for it is a style I have never come across, and have yet to see again, I was thoroughly satisfied with the story, raw and beautiful as it is, filled with hope, heartbreak, deceit, many things ugly, and little beauty. 

When HBO decided they were going to make a television series out of it, I was all at once disappointed, thrilled, hopeful and fearful that they would ruin a genuinely unique story in a world where there is little originality left.  The show turned out to be better than I could have dared hope, raw and unrelentingly cruel as the books.  I am in love with this series, even though there is a great deal of it that is difficult to watch.

There is a scene in which a young and mouthy dethroned prince is making demands that he shouldn't be making of a man that is far more powerful than he is.  Alas, because he is still a boy in so many ways, he doesn't realize it until it is too late.  It makes me wonder about society today.  If punishments were more severe for rash, foolish, and dangerous actions, would people in general make better choices?  There are countries around the world where it is still okay to cut off the hand of a thief.  I think America would do well to take a page from the global book of punishment.