Magic Realism in Game of Thrones
There’s a hint of the magical from the very teaser of the pilot of Game of
Thrones. This is a fantastical world, where showrunners/writers/adapters David
Benioff and D.B. Weiss wisely make sure not to introduce too much too soon for the audience to take in.
In the opening scenes, a group of Wildlings north of The Wall has been massacred. One terrified rider encounters the horrific array of dismembered bodies in the snow and rushes back to tell his two companions. He’s never seen anything like that before—surely other Wildlings couldn’t have done that? His fellow rider openly scoffs, assuming the “witness” is a scaredy cat making up stories. When they ride back, the bodies are indeed gone. There’s just a flash of a tall, icy being, a scream, the skeptic is dead and we know the other riders will be next. We later learn that looming figure is an undead “White Walker.” It reanimates a girl it killed, a mere child. It’s chilling to see her icy blue, dead eyes
—without a word, we know she means to kill, too. The rest of that first episode then unfolds as normal life—well, normal for the world of Game of Thrones—but from that sprinkling of magic at the start, we know there will be more to follow.