Game of Thrones: the hidden parallels to modern life

IMMIGRATION, climate change, mental health, MeToo, race, religion, public shaming, banking, inequality, disability, the failure of politics, and pacifism.

These aren’t topics you’d immediately associate with a TV show best known for sex, violence and dragons, but they lie at the heart of Game of Thrones. The epic series comes to an end on Monday amid a welter of hysteria as viewers finally learn who’ll emerge victorious after eight bloodstained seasons telling the story of the battle for the Iron Throne of Westeros.

With a global audience of one billion, it’s easy to dismiss GoT as simply highly polished mass–market TV. But that would seriously underestimate what George RR Martin – who wrote the books which inspired the show and and helped create the series – has to say about life in the 21st century.

Part of the secret of the show’s success is that it taps directly into very modern concerns. A scene might take place in a brothel or involve a sword fight on a lonely road, but more often than not it will be making comment on issues like children’s rights, infertility, or alcoholism. It’s not a show afraid to take on the big questions facing humanity today.

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Immigration

One of the biggest storylines in GoT sees the leaders of Westeros – the fantasy setting for the show – trying to keep Wildlings from their land. Wildlings, a sort of mash–up of Picts and Vikings, live north of Westeros – a medieval kingdom like 14th century England – and are kept out by a giant man-made wall. Imagine if Trump built Hadrian’s Wall.

The Wildlings are culturally very different to the people of Westeros and so are feared and hated. However, with their land facing destruction, they want to get south and over the wall to safety. They are refugees fleeing war.

Unsurprisingly, Lena Headey, who plays evil queen Cersei; Maisie Williams, who plays heroine Arya Stark; and Liam Cunningham, who plays fan favourite Ser Davos Seaworth, have all spoken out on the need to help Syrian families escaping violence.

Mental health

Post-traumatic stress disorder looms large in GoT. This isn’t the kind of show where survivors return from battle without mental scars. Many characters are profoundly damaged – none more so than Arya Stark. The show centres around the enmity between the Starks, and their rivals the Lannisters.

Arya’s father Ned Stark is executed in front of her when she is just a child. Forced to run for her life, Arya tramps the land in disguise, facing rape and murder at every turn. She channels her fear and anger into revenge becoming a highly accomplished killer by the time she reaches adulthood.

But Arya is a psychological wreck. She obsesses on violence, can carry out acts of brutality without batting an eye, and has all but expunged empathy from her emotional palette. She displays all the symptoms of PTSD, including hyper-vigilance and a fragmented sense of identity – at one point she even gives up her own name.

As Shahida Arabi, the author of books such as The Smart Girl's Guide to Self-Care, says: "Arya endures what is known as complex trauma throughout the show ... drastically shaping her personality and worldview."

Disability

It’s rare to watch a show with so many disabled characters – even rarer to find the characters portrayed in a positive and honest fashion, including the figure many see as the star of the show, Tyrion Lannister played by Peter Dinklage. As Tyrion says, he has been on trial his entire life for being a dwarf. Yet he remains a man of intelligence, charisma and passion.

Other characters are paralysed, another has lost a hand, one has a profound learning disability, and another has a facial disfigurement. The show rarely, if ever, tips over into sentimentality or paints disabled people as whiter than white – they’ve flaws, they’re real, and they’re never allowed to forget their disability, and are often cruelly humiliated for it.

Disabled activist Rebecca Cokley says until GoT she’d "never seen my own experience in life reflected so accurately, so vividly, so viscerally".

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MeToo

Life is dreadful for women in Westeros. Women are told when to marry and who to marry; women and girls are raped in war; women are sold into sexual slavery; women are abused within marriage. Yet, as GoT nears its conclusion, it’s the women who have emerged as the strongest, most intelligent characters – though often driven by all-consuming desire for vengeance after the treatment they’ve endured.

In a show renowned for killing its stars, the number of men who were front and centre when the show started has been severely reduced in size. Most are dead or no longer in charge. In this final series, women command.

Sansa Stark, played by Sophie Turner, has gone from the most victimised character to something akin to Boudica. "It’s funny the way [my storyline] is kind of mirroring what’s happening in real life," says Turner. "How all these women who were subjected to a lot of horror and oppression are taking a stand."

The very modern phenomena of public shaming and "slut–shaming" were also incorporated into GoT – most infamously when Queen Cersei was paraded naked through the streets by a mob. Jon Ronson, writer of So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, said the scene was basically Twitter brought to life.

Climate

"Winter is coming" – the three most repeated words in the series. From the opening scenes, viewers have been aware that something is very strange about the seasons in Westeros – summers last for years, and when winter finally comes it’s a mini Ice Age.

The changing climate doesn’t just bring disruption and suffering – it brings death. As winter comes, so do the White Walkers – an army of the undead, risen from the snow, out to destroy humanity.

The leaders of Westeros, however, are too busy fighting among themselves to pay attention to the coming winter. The parallels with climate change are one of the few hidden messages which Martin will admit to, saying: "The people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of ‘winter is coming’, which has the potential to destroy all of them."

Religion

Religion is hated in Game of Thrones. Not by the characters – most of them are in thrall to one church or another – but by the creators. Whenever religion rears its head, misery follows in quick succession.

There’s a multiplicity of faiths in GoT and all are flawed. Torture, persecution and murder are carried out in the name of religion. Fathers burn their own daughters at the stake. Religious fanatics assault and tyrannise ordinary people. One of the most evil characters in GoT is the priestess Melisandre, the "Red Woman" and follower of the "one true god, the Lord of Light". Her religion is one that favours fire and blood rather than forgiveness and peace.

Gods throughout the book are mostly useless – they don’t grant prayers, their prophecies don’t come true. Religious leaders are either lecherous hypocrites or stone-cold fanatics.

The swipes at religion have clearly stung. One religious writer, Jana Riess, said: "Martin’s commentary on the ineptitude and corruption of a state religion is frankly a bit predictable as a cultural product ... Nothing new to see there."

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Race and homophobia

Race is a slippery thing in GoT. On the surface there appears to be little racism. No racial epithets are thrown around, and there’s no white supremacist ideology on display. But people of colour are mostly at the bottom of the pile.

Slavery is endemic across one half of the world, and while most slaves are black, it doesn’t appear as if race was the reason for their enslavement. Rather the strong enslave the weak.

The only time homophobia rears its head is for political reasons. No-one really cares much if someone is gay – unless, of course, their sexuality can be used to hurt them. One of the most charismatic characters in the series is the bisexual Oberyn Martell, who lives life by his own rules – however, he does have the luxury of being a prince.

Diversity in casting has been an issue though. Star Wars actor John Boyega said: "There are no black people on Game of Thrones." That’s not quite true, but certainly black actors are less prominent than white actors.

The character of Daenerys Targaryen – one of the main contenders for the Iron Throne, due to the fact that she owns dragons – also has been criticised for slipping into White Saviour mode. She does a lot of freeing of black slaves and then being showered with love and awe.

"The beautiful part about the show is that it is reflective of the real world," says Michael Harriot, a GoT fan and writer for the online magazine Roots. "Daenerys is basically the embodiment of white privilege. She is inches away from becoming the most powerful woman in the world simply because someone gave her some dragons at birth."

Wealth and inequality

In Westeros, money is the root of all evil. In war, the Iron Bank of Braavos lends funds to whoever financiers think will win no matter their morality or crimes. Wealth is power and power is wealth. If you can buy your way out of prison, you’ll live, and if you can’t you’ll lose your head.

The rich are exploitative, decadent, amoral. Petyr Baelish is perhaps the best example in the show of the hedge fund mind at work. One line sums up his attitude to the world: "Brothels make a much better investment than ships, I’ve found. Whores rarely sink." Don’t come to GoT looking for political correctness, incidentally.

Meanwhile, the poor live and die in squalor, in places like "Flea Bottom", surviving on a "bowl of brown". The people are there to exploit, intimidate and terrorise – and the rich hold scented hankies under the noses when they have to walk among them.

Politics

"When you play the game of thrones, you live or die. There is no middle ground." So runs the famous quote which gives the show its title.

Like today, compromise in politics is dead in GoT. Politics is not about the greater good, it’s about individuals scrabbling for power over the backs of everyone else. It’s a self-serving system, and one which only worsens the lives of the "small folk".

Only the elite can play the game – and the 99% have to live with the consequences of decisions taken by morally questionable, rich and stupid leaders. Political paralysis is the order of the day – with no ruler equipped to understand the complexities of leadership. Everything is broken in Westeros – there’s not enough money, guards can’t police the city, news is faked, there’s no social mobility, the lives of the poor mean nothing. CNN’s John Blake says the show offers "eerie political parallels" to the world we inhabit today.

War

For a series that drips blood, there’s no more pacifist show than GoT. Martin has said that "true horrors derive not from orcs and dark lords but from ourselves".

War achieves nothing in GoT. The series opens after the assassination of a Mad King, and looks very possibly as if it might end with the enthronement of a Mad Queen – Daenerys. Throughout the show, Daenerys has moved from put-upon naif to full-blown tyrant. In the last episode, she carried out an act of mass murder so appalling that many fans were outraged that their heroine had turned into the ultimate villain. That’s kind of the point of GoT – everyone is morally grey and war reveals that.

The Red Cross even studied the behaviour of key characters and labelled them all war criminals, including Daenerys who has crucified people, burned victims alive, and carried out reprisals on civilians.

Military violence in the show often seems inspired by the worst atrocities of the last 100 years. Cities are burned, child soldiers forced into service, prisoners are mutilated, raped and murdered. And all the while the lives of ordinary people, if they are lucky to survive, remain unchanged – no king or queen betters their conditions through war.

In war there’s just one certainty – and it’s expressed in an often quoted phrase from the show: "Valar Morghulis". All men must die.

The history which inspired Game of Thrones

THE TV series may speak to modern times, but it draws heavily on the past. The greatest influence is the War of the Roses – two rich households locked in a death embrace over who will rule a kingdom.

The Dothraki – a horde of nomadic horsemen – are taken straight from the history of Genghis Khan. Daenerys Targaryen is an updated Cleopatra. Brienne of Tarth is a lift from Joan of Arc.

The infamous Red Wedding scene – in which one rival family slaughters another over dinner – was inspired by two Scottish atrocities: the Massacre of Glencoe and the Black Dinner of 1440 when the teenage Earl of Douglas and his little brother were murdered after supper with the young James II at Edinburgh Castle.

The Lannister family have more than a touch of imperial Rome about them – from poisoning rivals, to killing their father and sleeping with their siblings, the wealthiest family in Westeros cares only about itself and its desires.

In case you've missed it

GAME of Thrones ends tomorrow, so if you want to know what’s been happening over the last eight years, here’s a quick catch–up.

The story begins after the assassination of the Mad King – Aerys Targaryen, who butchered and tyrannised his people. The realm has been reunited under the usurper Robert Baratheon – backed by his old friend Lord Eddard Stark, and married to Cersei, the eldest daughter of the Lannister clan.

Cersei kills King Robert and puts their son, the Caligula-esque Joffrey, on the throne. However, Edd Stark discovers that Joffrey is the product of incest between Cersei and her brother Jaime. For his troubles, Stark gets beheaded – and so war beings, with rivals lining up to take the Iron Throne.

Meanwhile to the north, the Night’s Watch – a rag-tag group of soldiers meant to guard the Wall – learn that the Wildlings are coming, intent on entering Westeros to gain safety from an army of the undead pursuing them.

Across the narrow sea, the surviving daughter of the Mad King, Daenerys, rises from an exiled "beggar princess" sold into marriage to a Queen with three dragons at her back, ready to take back her kingdom with "fire and blood".

Monday’s episode will finally reveal who will sit upon the Iron Throne. The only problem is that after eight seasons of apocalyptic violence there’s not much left of Westeros to rule.