Stephen L. Carter, Columnist

Baffled by 'Game of Thrones'? That's the Glory of It

Drowning in plot confusion is half the fun.

July 14, 2017 at 4:17 PM UTC

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of law at Yale University and author of “Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

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Allow me to confess a shameful secret: I am constantly losing track of "Game of Thrones" characters. This debility afflicts me particularly during the long winters between seasons. When someone who vanished from the story years ago suddenly reappears, I don’t shout, in the manner of the true Throner, "There he is!" I’m more likely to frown and say "Who’s that again?" and reach for my iPad.

"Game of Thrones," which returns for its seventh season this weekend on HBO, is the most complex and convoluted television show in the history of the medium. That complexity is half the fun.