[1]7,302 words
(Caution for those who read below – for the web is dark, and full of spoilers. If you haven’t read the books, stop what you are doing and read them.)
Introduction
“Dark wings, dark words” intone the characters of Game of Thrones [2], as they know when a raven beings a message, the black birds are rarely delivering joyful tidings. Or, as a media critic Marshall McLuhan put it, “The medium is the message.” Though author George R. R. Martin has created a fantastically detailed alternate universe, there is only so much television can show. Season 2 of Game of Thrones was a far more drastic departure from the books than the relatively faithful first season [3]. However, more important than story changes were the tone of those...