I understand logically why the game of thrones show aged up so many characters for practical reasons (child labor laws, canon scenes which would be inappropriate to film w a child without traumatizing them, etc.) but having most of the main characters be adults really takes away from the tragedy of the entire story. Dany is only 13 when she’s sold to Khal Drogo, she is a scared and quivering child with no home and no family when we meet her. Jon is also 13, keenly aware of his branding as an outcast by the rest of his family, longing to simply be accepted alongside his big brother robb. robb himself is 14 and rides off into war, his death, before he can even properly grow himself a beard. his own mother is unsure if he’s ever kissed a girl, yet he commands an army. podrick is 10. bran is 8. brienne is only 19, not in her early 30s. missandei is around 9, a child of the slave trade who has lost absolutely everything and yet clings to her fellow former child slave (Dany) as a mother. They’re all so terribly, horribly, tragically young when the stories begin, and all either already the victims of multiple tragedies or the prey for narrative darkness. In this way, asoiaf is a story not about political savvy and connections, but of a hundred desperate and forsaken children grasping for safety and family and trying to ensure the next generation of children will never suffer as they have (and they fail at that too)
