If someone would have told me 7 years ago, I would write a blog in April 2019 because of the release of season 8 of Game of Thrones, I would have ‘lol-ed’, and said ‘NO WAY I am ever going to watch that horrid series where children get pushed off towers; women raped at weddings; people killed at random and money and power are the only things that matter.
I have in any case from childhood onward been unable to watch violence on television or in movies. Even the evil queen from Disney’s ‘Snowhite’ scared the living daylights out of me.
In my teenage days I went to see The Godfather but had to leave the theatre at the scene where a guy gets nailed to a reception desk with a knife going through his hand. I went to see the first Highlander movie with my cousin. It has a scene where the head of the evil guy pops up screen-large. I jumped up from my chair, flung my glasses from my head in the act of throwing my hands in the air; caught my glasses in that same act; thought I sat back down on my seat; but the seat was a self-folder. I ended up on the floor of the theatre, which my cousin thought was verrry funny.
So when my oldest son was re-watching Game of Thrones a good two years ago, just before season 7 was about to start; and suggested I should give it one chance; I assured him that was never going to happen. But… my son did get me to sit down. By now I’ve seen all 7 seasons a number of times and together with an estimated, 10-million-viewers-worldwide, am eager to watch season 8.
Why? What is it about Game of Thrones people recognize?
Personally I think Game Of Thrones will go down in history as the Great Myth of the 21st Century. Where Beowulf signified the people’s struggle in early Medieval times; Game of Thrones is the perfect analogy what life is like right now. Materialism, narcissism and material blindness are at their height. Rulers kill their own peoples and encourage the division between rich and poor. Religion rules through manipulative powers. Money; rather than the ability to be compassionate, rules the World. Blatant self interest of moneymakers has free range as well as the abuse of power; and it’s all in Game of Thrones.
On the positive; Game of Thrones is also about a small group of people who begin to see the light and understand why and where the world needs drastic change. Game of Thrones is not Medieval; Game of Thrones is the world today. It is not fantasy; it is what is taking place right under our noses. Winter has arrived and it’s about time we pay our debts.
“The Tower’ comes to mind in connection with Game of Thrones. Card number XVI of the third and spiritual layer of the 22 Archetype cards shows us two people falling to earth. The detachment from old systems of power; the end of an era; the betterment of a new; describing the times of change we live in right now. To read more about its meaning click the card.
Ingrid Schippers
April 15 2019
The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated April 16, 2019 or click the link below.
