Game of Thrones

Anna O’Brien

Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama series based on the popular novel series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R. R Martin. The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and its sixth season concluded on June 26, 2016. It is scheduled another season in 2017. The target audience for Game of Thrones would be young adults because it has an age rating of 18 due to the high quantity of sexual scenes and death. I believe at first, when Game of Thrones was only available through the novels, the target audience member would typically be an explorer as it was a new piece of material that presented exciting and empowering storylines. However, now that society has taken Game of Thrones under its wing, it has now become mainstream. As well as this, people who are ‘Groupies’ (people who want to be accepted by those around them) or ‘Trendies’ (people who are desperate to have the admiration of their peer group) would watch Game of Thrones because a lot of people watch it purely for the ability to involve him or herself in conversation at school or work. I personally believe that the best season so far for strong female roles, enticing backstory and horrifying deaths has to be season 6.

I think that the encoders purely want to supply people will a decent source of entertainment and there is nothing too in depth about it. Many ideologies are presented throughout the show; for example, family is shown as the most important thing ever through characters such as Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Cersei is very protective over her children, she is shown in the show, giving up anything for her children, in order to give them the best and to make sure they’re okay, which is quite ironic considering all 3 of her children meet terrible ends. This celebrates the theme that family is more important than anything and you should do anything for the people around you.  As well as this, they show that women can be just as powerful, or even more powerful than men. This is shown in episode 8, season 6 ‘The Battle of the Bastards’ when Sansa stepped in at the end and takes charge of the battle they’re losing. This simple act won them the battle and gave them the satisfaction of murdering a man who solely deserved it. This celebrates the empowerment women can have and that you can’t always rely on men to save the day. This tells us that not everything in life has to follow the stereotypical story structure of the woman getting into some form of trouble and the man must do anything he can to save her, but it bends that entirely, flipping the roles completely.

Somebody with an oppositional reading of Game of Thrones might feel as though some themes and ideologies presented throughout all 6 seasons are too dark or unrealistic for today’s day and age, considering being able to speak about rape, incest or murder (three themes that are commonly explored in Game of Thrones) without offending someone is physically impossible. This can be caused by their personal experience, for example, someone in their family may have been murdered or one of their close friends may have been the victim of a sexual assault, therefore they may get extremely offended and upset when something of that particular topic is mentioned.

 Someone who would take a negotiated reading of Game of Thrones, I believe would agree with some points such as the fact that family is the most important thing, or all women (in an ideal world) would be equal to men, but disagree with themes such as murder, rape or destruction of land that are commonly presented throughout all 6 seasons of the show. I believe that this kind of person would be an explorer that enjoys searching for new things, but doesn’t want to join the mainstream cycle that Game of Thrones provides. As well as this, I think that they could also be a cynic as they think there is always something wrong with the show as a whole.

Season 6 Trailer