By Ayesha Borker
Edited by Sanchita malhotra, Associate Editor, The Indian Economist
The game of thrones gained instant popularity when it first aired on world television. An adaptation of George R. R Martins book A Song of Ice and Fire, the TV series is best known for its unexpected twists and high voltage drama. A saga of power and violence, it is a spectacular display of vivid characters scheming and plotting to gain their hearts desires.
Amidst its mass approval, the series writer has also received a lot of flak for mercilessly killing his characters at any random point in the book to add shock value. The intensive use of violence, abuse and conspiracies was objected to, by many activists. Many concerned with the kind of message being sent into the society. Martin hurdled to his defence by claiming that Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights in world history, bumped off many of his characters too. Be it Ceaser or Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, no play is devoid of any killings.
What is interesting with these developments is that while people are gravely engrossed into finding faults in fantasies, many miss out on the strong resemblances to reality.
So, you think GOT is brutal and gory so much that it deems unfit to mankind viewership? Think again.
Let us consider the Middle East to be Kings Landing. I think it is the prime place where everyone is fighting for their own spot. Subtly, for power. Iraq is where dragon eggs are buried (wait: thats an analogy for liquid gold- oil). Leaders or nations; all are trying to find their foothold in the wonderland. Nothing less than a battle field, notable names like Saddam, Bush or even Obama; everyone is involved in the trials of the nation.
Syria on the other hand is fighting amongst itself. The Shias and the Sunnis both want to claim their land. Another civil war in Somalia and you know fiction is nothing but reality.
Israel and Palestine are fighting for their ground and thousands are dying for no fault of their own. The war in Afghanistan never seems to end. And Russia and Ukraine can bring down civic planes. Uprisings in Egypt and a we see nation coming on its own.
No matter what place you go, the game of power a-la thrones is prevalent even today, in the most brutal way possible ever. Many would refer to democracies or politics as the modern day fighting arena. But we still have primal wars waging in our planet. Give every demographic location a fictitious family name (Stark, Lannister, Baratheons etc.) and you have your very Game of Thrones on your homeland. No need to tune into HBO.
Bloodshed and killings are in thousands. Innocents are still living in archaic realities. The so-called modern world is nothing but imaginary for thousands. People dont realize this but the hunt for power is still most rampant , even after thousands and thousand years of evolution. Probably, before pointing fingers at artists we can have a look at our own reality and concentrate on correcting it. Or reflect on the thought that art imitates life.
The games people play have become innate to human quality. The harm it causes has become insignificant. The world we live in is still the same. But, we are all Jon Snow here. We know nothing.
Ayesha has completed her engineering and is currently working.She has a very logical bent of mind and keeps an interest in a variety of topics. She has a passion for writing poems and maintains a blog too(/http://wondread.blogspot.