Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Visual Parallels: Game of Thrones + Rome

Game of Thrones and Rome. Both excellent series from HBO, both highly expensive with huge ensemble casts and intricate and astonishing scale of production. But there are even more similarities between the two.

Finding those when you set on searching for parallels was remarkably easy here because these two series have several key elements in common. In Game of Thrones we have cunning Cersei and in Rome we have manipulating Atia. They both take joy in winning when other lose, they both know great, adulterous passion and they are both prepared to do whatever it takes to survive. They also share love for their children which, most of the time, is the main motivation for their actions.

There are even similar moments here - after Bran Stark is pushed off the tower by Jaime Lannister because he saw Cersei having sex with him, she visits his room and comforts his mother. In Rome there is a great war of pretending, lies, plots and murder attempts between Atia and Servilla. After Servilla is stripped naked and humiliated in public on Atia's orders, Atia visits her and pretends to be a wonderful and honest friend.

There's also a younger rival - Octavian's wife for Atia and Margaery Tyrell, soon to marry Cersei's son, for the Lannister Queen. There are even similarities when it comes to the placement of Atia and Cersei in the shot - they are usually surrounded by darkness or by candles, leaving them next to the pure fire. We also see them smile only when something awful is happening and they are content of that, or throwing fake smiles when they are surrounded by people.

In Rome Servilla commits suicide after losing her son Brutus. In Game of Thrones after Catelyn sees her son Robb die she stands there motionless, practically allowing one of the Freys to cut her throat. In Rome we have young and patriotic Octavian who wants to avenge his "father" Caesar. In Game of Thrones we have greatly respected Robb who wants to exact vengeance for his father's death.

There are other similarities originating in the series' styles - they both feature a lot of sex and violence. Sometimes, though, the scenes were filmed in a very similar way, especially when we are being show the aftermath of a battle or the cut off heads of those who were particularly unlucky. We also get to see a person watch the body of someone whom they loved and who died being grotesquely paraded around.

We have two beautiful, strong and brave queens - Daenerys, technically without the Throne as she is a part of abolished dynasty and Cleopatra, a puppet queen for the Romans. They both use seduction and at one point of the story they stand up to their douchbag brothers and take the claim to the throne away from them.

There is one big similarity coming up, the assassination that is very much like famous killing of Caesar, but it's not until season 5 or 6 of Thrones.
And finally, because I couldn't help myself:
RELATED POSTS

14 comments:

  1. Oh man, you got a good eye for these things. My favorite episode of Rome is "The Spoils". Ray Stevenson chanting "13th" and kicking ass with help from Kevin McKidd later in that episode. I love that show. I miss it so much. Thankfully, there was Starz's Spartacus series to help fill that void as it's a great show. It took a while to find its footing but when it did. Oh, it got really good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Oh, that was such an incredible episode, best scene of the show right there! I love when McKidd started weeping when Pullo chanted Thirteenth! on his knees.

      I saw few episodes of season 1 of Spartacus, I'll probably finish it soon. I love Lucy Lawless and she plays such a great character there.

      Delete
  2. More outstanding work here! I'm quite surprised we had to wait this long for a GoT Visual Parallel ;)

    Great timing with that slap gif - perfect!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yeah I was waiting for right thing to pair it up with! :)

      Delete
  3. I love these posts.. Especially because it's GOT!

    I just watched the 6,7 and 8th episode of season 3 again.. compared to the 9th, man, they really dragged some things out when you watch the second time but still better than 90% of the other things on TV. I might see the 9th soon as well and two live reactions to the red wedding! Can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! :)

      Oh absolutely, GoT at its weakest is still better than other shows. Oh the reactions will no doubt be hilarious :)

      Delete
  4. WOW, another outstanding visual parallels Sati!! We've been waiting for some time :D The similarities are striking indeed. Too bad ROME only had 2 seasons! Btw, GoT got a bunch of noms but none for Nikolaj I see, that's a shame! :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, here is another - http://cinematiccorner.blogspot.com/2013/07/visual-parallels-somewhere-earrings.html - 2 in one month! :)

      Yeah it's awesome that they got nominated so much, but when it comes to actors they really missed who should be nominated the most :/

      Delete
  5. Great work once again. Your visual eye is insane. I mean, some of those stills are IDENTICAL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I know I've done well when I'm pairing those two and I have to check which still is from which movie/show :)

      Delete
  6. Wow, this is really cool, Sati. I haven't watched Rome yet, but you've definitely got me interested. We just got HBO Go, too, so now I can finally play catch-up with some of these HBO shows I missed.

    Great job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Rome is definitely worth seeing, all HBO shows are, except for Girls, which is a disgrace :)

      Delete
  7. Awesome job as always! By the way, I'm halfway through season 1 of Game of Thrones, and I dig it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!

      Oh, that is AWESOME!!!! So glad that you like it!

      Delete