Abstract
Game of Thrones is a popular, award-winning television series with an eight-season run on Home Box Office, based on the Song of Fire and Ice series of books by George R.R. Martin. It depicts a morally complex political situation in a fantasy environment that has some similarities to medieval Europe. In the midst of this setting, the series advocates a cynical attitude towards politics, social structures, and religion. Most notably, the series suggests that there is no such thing as political legitimacy. This entry identifies a pattern of cynicism throughout Game of Thrones but points towards the thoughts of John Locke and Thomas Aquinas as possible alternatives to the story’s cynicism.
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References
Aquinas, Thomas. 1920. Summa Theologicae. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Accessed 4 February 2021 at www.newadvent.org/summa/
Jackson, Matthew. 2013. Which thrones character changed most from book to TV? GRRM explains. SyFy Wire. Accessed 4 Feb 2021 at https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/which-thrones-character-changed-most-book-tv-grrm-explains
Locke, John. 1764. Two Treatises on Civil Government. In Classics of liberty: The enhanced editions. London: A. Miller et al.. https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/john-locke-two-treatises-1689.
Martin, George R.R. 2017. Game of Thrones. New York: Random House Publishing.
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Silverman, E.J., Riordan, W. (2021). Game of Thrones as Philosophy: Cynical Realpolitiks. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Popular Culture as Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97134-6_90-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97134-6_90-1
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