All About Game of Thrones

This post will be slightly different than previous ones, because I'm going to connect pop culture to real-world events, not just political theories and concepts.  The post's title gives away that it'll be focusing on Game of Thrones, because season 7 of GoT wrapped up recently and I need a "fix".  So let's dive in. 

I'll start by making the case that Game of Thrones is, in one major way, an allegory for World War I, because I'm a huge WWI buff.  Let's start with how the series begins.  At the start of the show, Westeros has been at peace for several years, but there are tensions simmering beneath the surface.  The Starks and the Lannisters don't get along, House Martell is nursing a grudge against Tywin Lannister, the exiled Targaryan children want to reclaim their throne, and the Night King is raising an undead army in the north.  The glue holding that peace together has started to dissolve.  This state of affairs is somewhat analogous to Europe in 1913; although it's not a perfect match, there are a few parallels.  Despite regional conflicts like the back-to-back Balkan Wars and minor crises like the Fashoda Incident, Europe was enjoying a few decades of relative peace.  However, just like in Westeros, tensions were brewing beneath the surface.  Britain and Russia worried about an up-and-coming Germany, France smarted over its loss in the Franco-Prussian War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was clumsily mismanaging the Balkans, and so on. And both the European great powers and major houses of Westeros were ensnared in a web of entangling alliances that increased the likelihood of a continent-wide conflict.  I suppose that makes either Ned Stark or Robert Baratheon the Archduke's fictional counterpart.

The next couple of parallels are just coincidental similarities I noticed between the show and mostly 20th century events:

• The loot train battle from S7E4 is kind of like the early battles of World War I (the first few months, before the front lines stabilized and trench warfare began.) Dany's dragon is like the machine gun, a new and effective weapon that creates massive carnage, and the Lannister soldiers are the unlucky troops on the receiving end.  
• The Night King's army vs, well, pretty much everyone else is maybe symbolic of the Cold War.  I'll admit, I'm probably stretching this connection to the absolute limit, but consider this: the dragons represent nuclear weapons and everybody on the side of the living represents NATO.  Also, the White Walkers and especially the wights somewhat resemble a communist society, or at least how other works of fiction have portrayed one; I might be reaching here, but think about the "bugs" in Starship Troopers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or Animal Farm.  

Finally, Game of Thrones can probably be used to explain the concept of realism (which I briefly discussed in my Prisoner's Dilemma post).  Realism proposes that nation-states are the primary actors, exist in an anarchic system, have interests but not allies, and constantly struggle for power.  Sounds a lot like the interactions between the various houses of Westeros, doesn't it? Those same interactions also illustrate two international relations explanations for how alliances develop, known as "bandwagoning" and "balancing." The two terms are pretty easy to figure out, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining them; but to understand their relevance to Game of Thrones, recall how one of the lesser houses positions itself in relation to a more powerful house, like the Starks or the Lannisters.

That's all for now.  I may revisit and expand on Game of Thrones as an example of realism in the future, because I barely scratched the surface and I also stumbled across some excellent reference material. And if you want to learn a little about how GoT references pre-20th century events, here is a fun article.