
Since people started creating stories we have enjoyed fantasy.  As a kid listing to your mom read or an old man watching a great movie. J.R.R. Tolkien has been considered as the best fantasy writer of all time and the creator of modern day fantasy.  He created eucatastrophe, a sudden favorable result to a story, and its opposite dyscatastrophe, a sudden change in events that does not help the protagonist. No matter what happened though his climaxes always ended with eucatastrophe.  Many great fantasy stories, whether TV or book, have followed this model and been successful. George R.R. Martin, writer of the fantasy series the Song of Ice and Fire (asoiaf) that was later translated into the hit TV series the Game of Thrones, has broken that mold and been successful.  The loved protagonists of this story often suffer dyscatastrophe with no eucatastrophe to save them.  So this begs the question after 100 years of people enjoying Tolkien's version of fantasy why do people now love this new fantasy created by Martin with so much uncertainty and unpredictability. 

This is such an interesting topic to me because I love fantasy, whether it's a new TV show or a book such as Harry Potter.  Several people suggested to me that I watch the TV show the Game of Thrones, I did and could not get enough. I soon read the books and loved them to.  The question how has Martin's ASOIAF has effected modern fantasy does not necessarily effect my values but it has changed the way I see fantasy.  Before I got into Martin's world I enjoyed almost all fantasy stories.  Recently, though, I have become much pickier when it comes to fantasy because so few stories can match the awesome unpredictability of ASOIAF.  I am qualified to write about this because I have researched this topic and am a fantasy enthusiast myself.  The fact that I have read these novels and watched the TV show could make me slightly biased but I can easily get around that by letting my research do the talking for this paper. 

The first article, "popularizing epic narrative in George R.R. Martin's a Game of Thrones" focuses on how a story based outside of reality and based in a middle ages type world can still fascinate audience (Halaman 304). It points out how George R.R. Martin was one of the most influential people in 2011, at the start of the TV show, according to time magazine. Halaman major question is why the first book in the ASOIAF series, published in 1996, finally became a New York Times' best seller in 2011 despite getting multiple awards when the book first came out. He believes that Martins books reflect culturally held beliefs so his story does better in 2010 on compared to the 90s and early 2000s (Halaman 305). Halaman wrote this as an essay in a journal I found on google scholar so he is a credible author. 

The second article, Grief  as joy: dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe in A Song of Ice and Fire, written by Susan Johnston talks about the differences between Tolkien's works and ASOIAF.  She refers to Tolkien's coined terms dyscatastrophe and eucatastrophe, how fantasy authors use them in different ways and amounts. How Martin uses unprecedented amounts of dyscatastrophe to make the books and TV show completely unpredictable. I found this article on ebsco and the author Susan Johnston is credible because she has been peer reviewed. The third source is a book called Beyond the Wall. It is edited by James Lowder.  Lowder created and edited this book with the help of several writers. It analyzes the world that the ASOIAF story takes place in.  It's based off how realistic his world is. Despite the fact that the fantasy world with magic, dragons, ice zombies everything is based in reality just in another world.  It analyzes how deep the ASOIAF story goes. He talks about how in-depth the history of this magical world goes, he also points out that the information given in Martins books is only as reliable as the fictional character.  Each character does not know everything about the world they live in, just like people before Columbus didn't. Overall, Lowder made sure over 218 pages to explain in-depth what the ASOIAF world is truly like.  This author could possibly be biased because anyone who spends this much time on a fantasy story must really enjoy it. I found this article on ebsco and it is a reliable source

This topic can be argued, simply by comparing old popular fantasies like star wars and the Lord of the Rings to ASOIAF and the Game of Thrones. All of my sources agree that the major difference between the old and the new is that Game of Thrones brings an unpredictability that is unmatched in any other predictability.  The different perspectives of my sources is what caused me to change my topic.  Before I wanted to know why Martin's world was the best fantasy series, now I want to know how his stories differences with old fantasy will affect the future of fantasy and why others love this new version so much. The possibility that I might have to change my research topic again if I can't find enough sources on the current question I am asking is there.    
