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Ecocritical Reading of Game of Thrones Series

Catherine Teres Baby

Game of Thrones television series broadcasted by HBO which has won

around 255 awards till date is roughly based on George R.R. Martin’s novel A

Song of Ice and Fire. The drama series is set on the fictional continents of

Westeros and Essos which very much resembles the Middle Ages of Earth —

though, as in many fantasy series, there’s no specific correlation to Earth history.

The show depicts the civil wars fought for the Iron Throne and control

of Seven Kingdoms of Westeros as three different plots. The three principle

houses involved in this civil war are the Starks of Winterfell, the Lannisters of

Casterly Rock, and the Baratheons of Dragonstone. As the series begin, the

Baratheons under King Robert Baratheon, control the Iron Throne. However,

with the death of the King, the Lannisters seize power with King Robert’s wife

Cersei Lannister becoming the queen-regent after her son assuming the throne

and her brother, Tyrion Lannister, becoming their chief advisor. After that, many

of the other houses rise up to fight Lannister, control and claim their own right to

the Iron Throne.

The second storyline is about Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter

and last surviving heir to House of Targaryen which takes place in Essos. House

of Targaryen were the powerful rulers who ruled the Seven Kingdoms before

Baratheons coming to power. Targaryens seeks to build an army and return to

Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne. At first Daenerys is sold into marriage to
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the Dothraki tribal leader Khal Drogo by her older brother who was later killed,

and Daenerys becomes a powerful queen who has in her possession three dragons

— a species thought extinct since the rule of the Targaryens. With her dragons

and the massive army she’s building, Daenerys plan to cross the Narrow Sea,

which separates the two continents, and defeat those who deposed and killed her

father.

The third storyline takes place in the Northern part of Westeros at the

massive ice structure called the Wall, which protects the southern lands from the

“wildling” humans and supernatural creatures such as White Walkers that live

“beyond the Wall.” Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Ned Stark (head of House

Stark) enlists with the Night’s Watch, the small army stationed at the Wall that is

charged with protecting the southern lands. With the approach of a long winter,

the Wall and the Night’s Watch are under siege from wildling invaders who seek

to overtake the Seven Kingdoms.

Game of Thrones has been subjected to many feminist, archetypal

readings as it deals with controversial issues like gratuitous sex, rape, fake

lesbianism etc. The female characters are powerful yet masculine and in a way

highly stereotypical. Almost all the characters are archetypes and even nature is

presented as a character.

Eco criticism as a critical study emerged during the 1990’s and it is the

study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. As a

critical theory it paved way for us to consider nature as an essential part of our
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existence. Man from time immemorial has been leading a life close with nature

as part of it. The advent of Christianity brought forth a drastic change in how man

saw nature, unlike olden days. Christianity considered man as supreme creation

for whom God created the entire universe with all its natural resources. Based on

Genesis, as Lynn White Jr. claims “Christianity, in absolute contrast to ancient

paganism and Asia’s religions (except, perhaps, Zoroastrianism), not only

established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God’s will that

man exploit nature for his proper ends”(Garrard 38 ). This idea of man as supreme

being even though made of clay and which has resemblance with God paved way

into the destruction of nature. Man became the masters and nature became the

slaves. “In the early Church, and always in the Greek East, nature was conceived

primarily as a symbolic system through which God speaks to men: the ant is a

sermon to sluggards; rising flames are the symbol of the soul's aspiration”

(Glotfelty 11). But the modern church disregarded these ideas and so with them

the nature. God no more recites the hymns of nature and it takes natural calamities

to make humans realize the relevance of nature in their lives.

Game of Thrones being a middle age tale has non-Semitic, paganistic

religions which valued nature above everything. They received signs from nature

and had unnamed gods and goddesses. The ‘old gods’ are one of the gods of the

religion which is nature-based and animalistic. They’re seen as part of the earth,

manifesting in the trees, stones, water, and animals. The other God ‘Great

Stallion’ was an important religious figure in the first season of Game of Thrones,
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as Daenerys first adjusted to life as a khaleesi. The Dothrakis worship a horse

god, named the Great Stallion, representing the role- horses play in their lives

and culture. Most of the other religions are also closely associated with nature

and natural beings.

Nature is quiet often addressed as ‘Mother Nature’ in our society as it

exhibits motherly qualities and also because of its close associations with

womanhood which results in Eco feminism. In Game of Thrones there is a

reversal of this concept of ‘mother nature’ as Daenerys takes up the role of mother

of three dragons namely; Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. There is a unique bond

between the mother Daenerys and her dragons who are born out of fire. The fiery

creatures go around like kittens and mother-child bond is evidently seen in the

series. There are many instances where Daenerys addresses the dragons as ‘my

children’. The sheer truth that Daenerys comes out of fire unscarred gives insight

into the purity she possess, as fire is traditionally considered to have cleansing

properties. The mother and her children are pure and righteous and it is from the

birth of dragons that Dothraki tribe entitle her as their true ruler. Thus from the

birth, fire becomes a symbol of purity which naturally existed in the universe.

Eco critics tend to identify literature based on the location of action, to

tag it as an ecological text. The ‘outdoor environment’ is usually identified as a

series of adjoining and overlapping areas which move gradually from nature to

culture, along the lines:

Area one: ‘the wilderness’ (e.g. deserts, oceans, uninhabited continents)

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Area two: ‘the scenic sublime’ (e.g. forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs)

Area three: ‘the country side’ (e.g. hills, fields, woods)

Area four: ‘the domestic picturesque’ (e.g. parks, gardens, lanes) (Barry

246) among which some are easily identifiable in the series. The entire series

takes place in ‘the country side’, ‘the scenic sublime’ and ‘the wilderness’. Being

a medieval tale it lacks the more refined, man intervened ‘domestic picturesque’;

which has parks, gardens and lanes. The series begin at a snowy uninhabited area

which is haunted. There is a sudden shift in scene towards the pastorals where

House of Starks live. The human inhabited areas are mostly ‘the country side’ or

‘the scenic sublime’. The area where ‘night walkers’ live and ocean between the

Targaryens and the Iron throne can be considered as visual representation of ‘the

wilderness’. These areas play a pivotal role in forming the inhabitants of those

areas, as wilderness is often considered as closer to gods and believed to be areas

where gods and demons reside. In Bible, Old Testament God often appears in the

form of fire or thunder in huge mountains and other uninhabited places. The area

where man less intervene makes it pure for Gods stay. And in Game of Thrones

one can trace these area vividly.

The relationship human characters share with animals in the series are

yet another important eco critical view point. The Stark Family pets giant wolves,

who are faithful than kith and kin. Bran Stark, the youngest of the stark house

children finds them in the woods and requests to keep them instead of killing and

each sibling pets a wolf , including the illegitimate son; thus making direwolves
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symbol of Stark family. It is often stated that; “The boundary between human and

animal is arbitrary and, moreover, irrelevant, since we share with animals a

capacity for suffering that only ‘the hand of tyranny’ could ignore” (Garrard 137).

The giant wolves in the series share an emotional and mental connection

with their owners and continuously act as their protectors at the time of need.

‘Nymeria’ the wolf of Arya protects her by biting Prince Jeoffrey

Baratheon when he attacks her, the other direwolf ‘Summer’ owned by Bran

protects him from ‘night walkers’ and accompanies him through his journey as a

differently abled. These direwolves possess qualities like loyalty, fearlessness,

etc; which becomes the characteristics of their human companions, to the extent

that the future of human character is presented through the direwolf. Killing of

Sansas’ direwolf ‘lady’ marks her early separation from family while Jon Snows’

‘Ghost’ who is different from other direwolves in many ways represent him, who

is an illegitimate child. The animals or creatures used in the series are mostly

unrealistic and vulnerable like the fiery dragons and giant direwolves. And by

including them instead of usual pets, the series producers and the writer gives an

insight into how a beastly animal can be more faithful and fearless than the human

characters. They literally become their protectorates and benefactors even to the

extent of sacrificing themselves.

The climate is another aspect of the series, which has the capability to

dominate the minds of the characters. The most common description about the

series; “Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for
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the Iron Throne has begun” (Game of Thrones ) indicates the association it is

blessed with to denote the intervention of nature in the series. The climate in

southern Westeros and Essos is of the usual, altering ones; while the climate in

Northern part of Westeros with ‘Wall’ has long winters; like the long winter in

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which is

possessed by the White Witch. In GOT too we find a similar association as it is

possessed by the ‘White Walkers’ thus making a clear cut association of how

even climates can represent innate natures of beings.

The striking factor of the series is that everything remains as it is,

unaltered. Humans live as a creature in GOT rather than as ‘the creature’. Animals

and seasons are given a superior position along with green nature even in the

absence of talking animals and moving trees, which are common features in

animation series. Game of Thrones, while maintaining the human, picturesque

picture of nature; it also provides an insight into how it can alter our daily lives

for good. All characters good or evil are in one way or another developed with its

interactions with nature and animals. And the most projected to nature are the

best survivors of it.

In an age where nature is considered as an option and which exists for

human need, this series provided an innate nature which dominated the world and

humans were just one among the several beasts. To protect nature is now an

essentiality and by presenting nature in series like these, the humanity would feel

more compassionate towards its natural beings. It takes more than a flood or an
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land erosion to make humans realize the value of nature these days and to protect

them still seems out of question with the only possible outcome as human

intervened nature. Movies, novels, poems, series like GOT with crude nature

gives an insight into the long lost nature which decorated the world once. To be

more benevolent towards nature would make apocalypse seem like a distant

dream and thus indicates how nature and humanity share an intertwined destiny.
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Bibliography

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural

Theory. 3rd ed. New Delhi: Viva, 2015. Print.

“Game of Thrones”. hbo.com. HBO, N.p, N.d. Web. 31 Oct, 2018.

< https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones>.

Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge, 2004. Web.

Glotfelty, Cheryll, Harold Fromm. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in

Literary Ecology. Georgia: Georgia UP, 1996. Web.