No Heroes, but Heroic Actions
I love this thread! In my opinion, the Song of Fire and Ice trilogy does lack the traditional hero and villian. In traditional fantasy, you have a hero who discovers a hidden talent and must save the world from evil. The villian is undoubtably evil and the hero, although ocassionally stumbling along the way, is undoubtably good. George R.R. Martin has turned that concept on its head. There is no "main character" thus far. You could argue Jon Snow is one, and I would agree to a certain point. Martin has the uncanny ability to switch POV from several characters telling us the story in new and unusual ways.
/// Spoiler Alert ///
Only in this way we became aware that Bran was not dead, merely escaped with cannogmen. In this sense there are no "true" heroes in stories, only characters with "heroic" and "villainous" actions. Futhermore, there is room for further growth and change. Take the Kingslayer, Jamie Lannister, for instance. He attempted murder on a innnocent child, and had no qualms about ruthlessly killing Ned's men in cold blood. In his perpective that is what he had to do.
Before getting his hand getting cut off, Jamie was defined by his swordmanship. Only Aerys thought differently. Aerys Targaryen, the Second, choose him for the Kingsguard not because of his ability to defend him, but to slight his father, Tywin. Since the loss of his right hand, he views the world slightly differently. No longer must be he defined by his superior swordmanship. It appears that he is genuinely concerned about upholding the honor of the kingsguard. This hardly makes up for the "villianous" actions that he had done in the past, but is part of the process of change. Possibly this is part of the epiphany of Jamie toward good. Or not. We have yet to see Jamie's response to Tywin's death. Jamie could have a negative reaction toward Tyrion from killing Tywin. He still has deal with the dwarf's "confession" of killing his son
In recap, while the book's lack a clear hero and villian, they most certainly make up for it with the diversity of human action, nothing is set in stone.
/// Spoiled END ///
I just want to add points about religion in the Song of Fire and Ice world. The poster mentioned that the Septon is the "new" faith. That is true. The old faith is only worshipped primarily the in the North and the Southron individuals think that is "backwards". The new faith is of the seven aspects of God. It was founded by the Andals who invaded the Seven Kingdoms, burning the "heart trees" and destroying the Children of the Forest. The Andals had the seven pointed star on their chests and a desire to convert the masses. That said, most people give lip service to the church. The septons apparently have little political power (although the high septon has economic power, since the old one was fairly plump.).
