<P> All characters are designed to speak with their own internal voices to capture their views of the world . The Atlantic pondered whether Martin ultimately intended the readers to sympathize with characters on both sides of the Lannister--Stark feud long before plot developments force them to make their emotional choices . Contrary to most conventional epic fantasies, the characters of A Song of Ice and Fire are vulnerable so that, according to The Atlantic, the reader "cannot be sure that good shall triumph, which makes those instances where it does all the more exulting ." Martin gets emotionally involved in the characters' lives during writing, which makes the chapters with dreadful events sometimes very difficult to write . Seeing the world through the characters' eyes requires a certain amount of empathy with them, including the villains, all of whom he has said he loves as if they were his own children . Martin found that some characters had minds of their own and took his writing in different directions . He returns to the intended story if it does not work out, but these detours sometimes prove more rewarding for him . </P> <P> Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen generate the most feedback from readers . Martin has stated that Tyrion is his personal favorite, as the grayest of the gray characters, with his cunning and wit making him the most fun to write . Martin has also said that Bran Stark is the hardest character to write . As the character most deeply involved in magic, Bran's story needs to be handled carefully within the supernatural aspects of the books . Bran is also the youngest viewpoint character, and has to deal with the series' adult themes like grief, loneliness, and anger . Martin set out to have the young characters grow up faster between chapters, but, as it was implausible for a character to take two months to respond, a finished book represents very little time passed . Martin hoped the planned five - year break would ease the situation and age the children to almost adults in terms of the Seven Kingdoms, but he later dropped the five - year gap (see section Bridging the timeline gap). </P> <P> Although modern fantasy may often embrace strangeness, A Song of Ice and Fire series is generally praised for what is perceived as a sort of medieval realism . Believing that magic should be used moderately in the epic fantasy genre, Martin set out to make the story feel more like historical fiction than contemporary fantasy, with less emphasis on magic and sorcery and more on battles, political intrigue, and the characters . Though the amount of magic has gradually increased throughout the story, the series is still to end with less overt magic than most contemporary fantasies . In Martin's eyes, literary effective magic needs to represent strange and dangerous forces beyond human comprehension, not advanced alien technologies or formulaic spells . As such, the characters understand only the natural aspects of their world, but not the magical elements like the Others . </P> <P> Since Martin drew on historical sources to build the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, Damien G. Walter of The Guardian saw a strong resemblance between Westeros and England in the period of the Wars of the Roses . The Atlantic's Adam Serwer regarded A Song of Ice and Fire as "more a story of politics than one of heroism, a story about humanity wrestling with its baser obsessions than fulfilling its glorious potential", where the emergent power struggle stems from the feudal system's repression and not from the fight between good and evil . Martin not only wanted to reflect the frictions of the medieval class structures in the novels, but also explore the consequences of the leaders' decisions, as general goodness does not automatically make competent leaders and vice versa . </P>

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