Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-37731826-20190411034701/@comment-4708902-20190531231524

Yukaphile wrote: @Godzillavkk Outside a war zone, life is mostly not murder and rape, and I know Game of Thrones is. Which is why I don't like it. That many people do speaks volumes to how morally bankrupt we are as a culture, embracing hate and despair, rather than the optimism we had leaving the 1990s, which was proven to be a damned lie. There's much more than that. Political manipulations, plotting, protecting family, discovering hidden family secrets, learning that good and evil are not set in stone and are human inventions, the line between religion and science, etc.

Game of Thrones is supposed to be an inversion of stories like Avatar The Last Airbender. What Airbender teaches, is to love everyone. Hope is the greatest power. it teaches you not to mourn over the dead but to pity the living beings. It teaches you not to stop loving even when faced with genocidal madmen. it teaches that your crush becomes reality. it teaches you that bold is beautiful. it teaches you that not all people are born evil …… and the list goes on. If summarized, you will find out that it teaches you to be absolutely optimistic, stuff like ‘everything happens for a reason’.

But Game of Thrones teaches you to love no one but yourself. it teaches you that too much attachment makes you vulnerable. It teaches you to mourn over the dead and complete their mission, take revenge if its necessary. it teaches you that no one is perfect ( well, Airbender series taught us that too) and its not ok ( here, Airbender series spoke rather something different). It teaches you about the ‘survival of the fittest’. its a story of betrayal. It makes you realize that slytherin is the best house to be in, in hogwarts. Being cunning is not a vice but a survival strategy. It teaches you to love yourself and that’s the best thing about this series I think. Oh, and Sansa Stark teaches you that sometimes your crush becomes your greatest regret.

And GOT is not the only fantasy to challenge Airbender themes. The 4 part book fantasy series The Inheritance Cycle teaches that sometimes your enemies will have the support of the very people you want to protect or liberate, and that overthrowing Empires can disrupt peace and security, and that sometimes you have to get dirty. When the heroes besiege enemy castles, their not besieging dark strongholds, their besieging cities with civilians inhabiting them. Now the higher ups order the soldiers not to directly murder or rob the civilians, but innocent people are killed in indirect collateral damage. Hell in one siege, the main hero even helps a terrified family to safety. It also teaches that people fear what they don't understand. For example, the heroes are aided by dwarves, elves and even an orc like race called urgals which most of humanity hates(it's a fragile alliance, and the urgals promise to halt attacks on human settlements once victory is one), and dwarves and elves have niot been seen or heard from in 100 years and are thought to be myths. And when people see that their real, their frightened. But the heroes need dwarven and elven help because their vastly outnumbered. And when the war finally ends, and the rebel leader is crowned Queen, there are many people who view her as a usurper and as a result there are several assassination attempts on her. Even remants of the previous evil king's army continues to fight. It takes month's if not years in order for her to show her people that she's better then her predecessor in order for peace to resume.