No one in the real world wakes up every morning and vows to do evil. People want to do good, and if asked they’ll justify their actions as doing good. We may think of Dick Cheney as an embodiment of evil, but he justifies his actions as necessary to achieve a greater good. We roll our eyes at his transparent, self-serving claims; however, he probably entered politics out of a desire to do what he thought was good.
Sauron, the villain of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, is pure evil. We don’t know his motivations, but we suspect he does, in fact, wake up every morning and vow to do evil.
George R.R. Martin has been named “the American Tolkein,” but his A Song of Ice and Fire series is far closer to real world politics than Tolkein’s world. The two fantasy worlds share dragons, knights, mystically named swords, and castles, but underneath the trappings, A Song of Ice and Fire looks a lot like our political world. All of the main characters compete for power and, no doubt, a desire to do good. None wake up every morning deciding to do evil.
Warning: here be spoilers!
The discussion below the fold assumes that you've read all five books.
Not a big fan of sword and sorcery? Imagine this political scenario: Senator Robert wrests power away from a long-entrenched political dynasty, with the support of an uneasy alliance. Unexpectedly, he dies during his first term in office. His obvious successor, Joffrey, is too young and too nasty; immediately upon Robert’s death, rumors (planted? leaked?) sprout like mushrooms about Joffrey’s qualifications for holding office. Meanwhile, several members of the coalition that put Robert in office think that they can win a primary battle against Joffrey. At least one owes his support to an intolerant, bloodthirsty religion. Another wants to secede from the union. Meanwhile, the last scion of the old dynasty plots her comeback. And thus a bruising political war begins. Yes, that’s the premise of A Game of Thrones.
Still not convinced? Consider these political allegories.
The Meritocracy: Although most power is inherited, the Night’s Watch is a democracy. The men are judged solely on their merits, and they elect their leaders. They’re also treated somewhat contemptuously by other rulers: they’ve been hit hard by budget cuts and have to beg for funding.
The Religious Right: Westeros has a dominant religion (the Seven) and an older religion (the old gods), and the two coexist pretty well. However, a highly intolerant new religion is introduced in Book 2. Its supporters are fanatics. And they’re aiming to win the game of thrones.
The Visionary Liberator: Daenerys becomes a sort of Abraham Lincoln/Mother Teresa of her time when she frees the slaves of Slavers Bay. She even visits plague-stricken victims without regard for her personal safety. Note: in Book 5, Dany succumbs to enormous pressure to roll back her reforms.
Are the Lannisters Republicans? If a political analogy could be drawn between the parties of our time and the great Houses of ASOIF, I see the Lannisters as the Republicans. They’re rich. They’re more interested in gathering power than in governing. However, the Starks-as-Democrats counterpart doesn’t hold up. Far from being a Democrat, Robb Stark secedes from Westeros to declare himself King in the North.
The ultimate weapon: The old Targaryen dynasty ruled for 300 years in large part because their dragons could trump all weapons in battle. Kings rode the dragons and directed their flames, cooking knights alive in their armor, much as a fighter jet pilot would rain death from the skies. Robert’s alliance was able to overthrow the Targaryens in large part because the dragons died out. It’ll be interesting to see how Martin reconciles the dragons’ bloodthirsty nature with Daenerys’ pacifist tendencies.
Prior diaries in the series:
New miniseries announcement
The Setting
The women
The Starks
Misogyny