The Expanse’s Unlikely Game of Thrones Connection
The Expanse has more in common with Game of Thrones than its storytelling, with connections to the creative mind behind GoT, George R. R. Martin.
You Are Reading :The Expanse’s Unlikely Game of Thrones Connection
The Expanse has more in common with Game of Thrones than well-crafted mythologies, complicated alliances, and top-notch world-building — there’s also an unlikely connection between its creator and Game of Thrones’ author, George R. R. Martin. What’s more, both shows are born out of a love for geeky games.
Just like Game of Thrones, The Expanse does not cut any corners when it comes to world-building. The Expanse portrays a realistic world of the 23rd century, in which humanity can now travel space efficiently. Although the plots of various characters are complicated, the overall story arc involves conflict between three different factions of the human race. There’s Earth, the governing body, a colony on Mars knowns as the Mars Congressional Republic, and those who live in “The Belt,” a series of habitats built in the asteroid belt between Mars and the outer planets. Much like Game of Thrones, whose houses are constantly struggling with and against each other for power, the three factions in The Expanse are always in conflict.
The Expanse feels like Game of Thrones in space: both shows manage to combine gritty realism with fantastic elements. While Game of Thrones depicts a fantasy world in a realistic way, so too does The Expanse come across as a genuine portrayal of humanity’s possible future. The technology, such as the Rocinante ship, and concepts in the show feel authentic, from how flight is portrayed in space down to the language spoken by the Belters. However, there’s more of a connection between The Expanse and Game of Thrones besides various elements and themes. As it turns out, Ty Franck, one of the writers and creators of The Expanse worked as an assistant to Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin in 2011.
The Expanse’s Game of Thrones Connection
Ty Franck, best known for writing The Expanse book series with fellow author Daniel Abraham (they publish collectively under the name James S. A. Corey), managed George R. R. Martin’s finances and performed a number of other duties. In an interview with Lightspeed Magazine, Franck stated that he built Martin a state-of-the-art computer to write his novels on (dispelling the rumor that he still writes on an old DOS computer). It appears the two had a familiar relationship: In an interview with Newsweek, Franck described how he saved Martin from a fan wielding scissors who was trying to get a lock of the author’s hair. Still, Franck insists his own writing style is very different from Martin’s, and most of what he learned from the superstar author has to do with the business side of things.
Although Franck may have a different writing style from Martin, the two have one other significant thing in common: a love for tabletop RPG games. Just as the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books, upon which the Game of Thrones television series is based, plays out like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, so too is The Expanse based upon an RPG. In fact, Franck created the world of The Expanse as a setting for a game he has been playing with his partner Daniel Abraham, and many of the events in the show are taken from it. Despite this, in his interview with Lightspeed, he stated that “games are terrible books.” Franck says you can take the setting and characters, but events in an RPG game play out very differently than they need to in a story narrative.
Similarly, George R. R. Martin is an active RPG gamer. In the ’80s, Martin was a gamemaster for a superhero RPG called Superworld. Because of this, it’s reasonable to assume Martin’s own writing has been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons and other similar games. In this way, the biggest connection between The Expanse and Game of Thrones is George R. R. Martin’s and his ex-assistant Ty Franck’s love for RPG games.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/expanse-game-thrones-george-martin-rpg-game/