Why We Love

Game Of Thronesby Faith Swick

It’s the best “world-building” there is

• Adult audience: it is meant to

keep you on your toes to follow

all the plot lines and innuendos

• The show is complex meaning

it engages you cognitively

• Wether you like it or not you are

emotionally invested in what

happens next

It’s ridiculously smart: Your brain

has no choice but to stay engaged

• It is arguably superior to all

other shows in both plot and

language

• So smart, that it can be hard to

follow

• Basically it works our brains,

and your brain likes that

Other organs get a workout too…

• There’s sex, violence, jack-in-

the-box moments, and gushing

internal organs

• sexposition has become a

hallmark for the show. Basically

this supposedly forces people

to pay attention to essential plot

explanation through the

nakedness.

You can’t bank on what’s to come

• The simultaneously best and

worst part about the show is

that just when you think you

see a thread, the show proves

you wrong.

• Central characters are killed,

psychopaths claim power, and

weddings become bloodbaths

• These twists and turns give us

awesome dopamine rushes

that keep us coming back for

more

The concept of “good” and

“bad" become blurred

• Except for a handful of truly wicked

people -Joffrey Baratheon- even

the best characters are flawed and

even the worst have something

redeeming

• the characters’ actions can be so

unpredictable that it forces us to

give up trying to decide who’s a

good guy and who’s a bad guy

• These grey, unknowable

characters are maybe more

accurate representations of the

world today

Archetypes used wisely

• conniving queens, ruthless

kings, valiant knights…

• the show sets up a number of

classic archetypes, and plays

with them in extremely clever

ways

• Called “The Imp” or “The Half

Man,” Tyrion is supremely

intelligent and possessing of a

quick, biting wit. He is very much

an embodiment of the Trickster

archetype seen in mythic

storytelling throughout history

around the world.

The Women

• Female characters might be

even more diverse than the

male characters

• They must all learn to use their

wits to maneuver and

manipulate the more powerful

men around them

• the tomboy, the spoiled

princess, the conniving queen,

the loving mother, the witch, the

warrior, prostitutes, and lots of

others

The show uses “medieval” fantasy

to point out modern-day reality

• One of the best examples of

modern-day metaphor in the show is

the Wall

• It’s designed to keep out others. It’s

an effective metaphor for the United

States’ own undocumented

immigrant issue. Just like Westeros,

the U.S. is debating whether its

southern borders should be sealed

by larger and ever more restrictive

walls as more and more foreigners

are attempting to breach it

• This is just one of many modern day

connections

Works Cited

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/07/08/dee

per-than-swords-10-reasons-were-so-addicted-to-game-

of-thrones/

• images from google

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Bo89m2f6g