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| photo courtesy of Pexels.com |
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| photo courtesy of Pexels.com |
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m a BIG Game of Thrones fan. Not a super-fan, mind you…I watch the show, don’t read the books, but whatever. Anyways, we are currently, in my family, watching the final season alongside the other millions of viewers engrossed in the show, but I have a problem.
We, as humans, know our motivations, generally speaking. They’re actually, usually, not that complex. Go to school to get a job to make some money to support yourself (and/or your family) until you can retire and, well, you know…the rest of it all. You hear stories about “so and so” who went off to get revenge for her brother who was killed in a car accident. Or a parent was a cop/politician/etc. and I want to do that to honor them.
Okay, so, yeah, technically motivations, but “why” are those your motivations? What else is there to make you want to accomplish this goal? What are you going to do after it is accomplished?
Motivation isn’t just about the “why” of doing something then, but about the “then” that follows it.
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Apparently, that was his original purpose for why he was created…until he then rebelled and killed his creators. But he’s apparently still all gung-ho about accomplishing that initial goal of human annihilation. Why? What is he gonna get from that once it’s done?
Let’s say the Night King wins the war against the living, conquers the known world, and all that is left are his zombies and his commanders. What the heck is gonna happen now?
“Job well done boys, okay, well, I’m gonna go take a nap. Carry on without purpose for the rest of eternity in a world of ice where you don’t need to eat or drink to survive and the only other people out there for companionship are rotting corpses that don’t have any intelligent thoughts of their own. Cheerio!”
No one else has a problem with this scenario?
Why is the Night King so bent on this outcome!?!?
From a writing perspective, George R.R. Martin has never written from the Point of View of the Night King. We’ve never seen into his head or anything like that, but, of the literally hundreds of characters he has written: HOW HAS NO ONE QUESTIONED THIS YET?
The part of a story that is most compelling, the part of life that is most compelling, isn’t having a goal to achieve, because we all have that goal at some point or other. The point of life that is most compelling, is what you are going to do once that goal is accomplished, what emotions that accomplishment will engender. What will you achieve next,? Does reaching that goal offer satisfaction, or regret?
In the case of the Night King…well, we’ll never know now.
Don’t waste so much time on the achieving that you forget to embrace what comes after, that you forget the reason why you are doing it, or what you are going to do once it is done.
I’m going to make my fortune, and then retire with my family to a private island so we can all live out our lives in peace and harmony. Why? Because I don’t trust our current political status and would rather be somewhere safe than somewhere where I don't know what safety means.
“Job well done boys, okay, well, I’m gonna go take a nap. Carry on without purpose for the rest of eternity in a world of ice where you don’t need to eat or drink to survive and the only other people out there for companionship are rotting corpses that don’t have any intelligent thoughts of their own. Cheerio!”
No one else has a problem with this scenario?
Why is the Night King so bent on this outcome!?!?
From a writing perspective, George R.R. Martin has never written from the Point of View of the Night King. We’ve never seen into his head or anything like that, but, of the literally hundreds of characters he has written: HOW HAS NO ONE QUESTIONED THIS YET?
The part of a story that is most compelling, the part of life that is most compelling, isn’t having a goal to achieve, because we all have that goal at some point or other. The point of life that is most compelling, is what you are going to do once that goal is accomplished, what emotions that accomplishment will engender. What will you achieve next,? Does reaching that goal offer satisfaction, or regret?
In the case of the Night King…well, we’ll never know now.
Don’t waste so much time on the achieving that you forget to embrace what comes after, that you forget the reason why you are doing it, or what you are going to do once it is done.
I’m going to make my fortune, and then retire with my family to a private island so we can all live out our lives in peace and harmony. Why? Because I don’t trust our current political status and would rather be somewhere safe than somewhere where I don't know what safety means.
What happens once you get there? A chance to start anew because once you get there, there will be no one to tell me I can’t. But that chance will be on my terms, whatever those terms might be.
The story is there, in that moment after achievement. In the
denouement that is often left to silly phrases that mean nothing and everything at once: They lived happily ever after.
The point is that they lived, but if we don’t know that “why they wanted to,” then it’s a shallow life we see.
I know what GoT has said about the Night King’s motivation. I just want to know MORE about it and what he was hoping to achieve after it was accomplished. Is that too much to ask!?!?!
Probably. But don’t ever stop asking it of yourselves.
The story is there, in that moment after achievement. In the
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The point is that they lived, but if we don’t know that “why they wanted to,” then it’s a shallow life we see.
I know what GoT has said about the Night King’s motivation. I just want to know MORE about it and what he was hoping to achieve after it was accomplished. Is that too much to ask!?!?!
Probably. But don’t ever stop asking it of yourselves.
At times we all need a bit of motivation. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGood advice. Readers do want to know what motivates characters. It answers the why.
ReplyDeleteDon't watch GoT, but totally agree about motivation!
ReplyDelete