Kings, knights, princesses, great battles and a fight for power. Such themed stories can positively influence the development of young people by shaping their positive values. But if you see the TV series “Game of Thrones” on your child’s computer screen, cut off the access to the Internet as soon as possible! The production is so steeped in vulgarity and pornography as none of the existing works promoted on a equally large scale.
There is probably no young Internet user who hasn’t heard about “Game of Thrones.” All popular portals feature some spin-offs of the HBO box-office hit in the form of memes, photos and quotes. Masses of Internet users frantically look forward to each new episode. The Polish fan page of the series on Facebook is followed by almost two hundred thousand people, while further tens of thousands of young people belong to the Internet “communities” sharing their experiences, photographs, posters and other gadgets associated with the show based on the prose by George R. R. Martin.
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Sex, drugs and the Middle Ages
What is the phenomenon of the popularity of “Game of Thrones” about? The author of the saga certainly opts for original plot twists: in his multi-volume novel, he kills one of the main characters every now and then. But is that the only source of success of this fantasy-based series by Martin? Apparently not.
The production takes its inspiration from the scenery, architecture, clothing, and even secular customs of the Middle Ages, however, the authors deprived this faith-governed period of any form of Christianity. That’s true the world presented in “Game of Thrones” was conceived by a fantasy writer, but it obviously alludes to the Medieval period. Thus, we watch stone castles, colourful stained-glass windows, as well as knights, princes and monarchs dressed like in the Middle Ages. However, except for this, the story told by the American writer and HBO has nothing to do with the thousand-year era of Christianity heyday; the whole world there is polytheistic, or atheistic in fact, because the “gods” of Westeros aren’t of particular importance for any of the characters of the series.
The pseudo-medieval surroundings and handling unexpected deaths definitely cannot be the only source of unparalleled popularity of the show. To arouse the interest of the viewers (and first the readers), Martin uses an unprecedented amount of vulgarity. As if that were not enough, the series is steeped in scenes like from the dingiest pornographic films.
Sexposition – a new era of TV series
Shocking with erotic scenes in “Game of Thrones” is something more than just attracting attention of a contemporary viewer. Eroticism, in fact, is for the show authors some kind of a new element of film art. American critics have even coined the term “sexposition” that defines what sex is for HBO productions: the main characters often indulge in their own lusts, but even more often a sexual act (in a variety of constellations) is displayed in the background of a scene, despite not being connected with its contents.
It’s really hard to find an episode in which there are no scenes of sexual intercourse. Almost all the characters have sex, regardless of their age. When becoming king, one of the main characters was a boy aged about twelve years. Soon he received two prostitutes as a gift and ordered them to torture each other in his alcove. Giving courtesans to him wasn’t anything scandalous in this royal family, since the king himself was a fruit of the relationship between his mother and her brother, who was thus his uncle and biological father at the same time. The parents of the minor ruler of the Seven Kingdoms were shown in an incestuous embrace already in the first episode. The authors prepared another gift for the still excited audience (in one of the subsequent seasons): a scene of sexual intercourse between these characters by the corpse of their late son.
Scenes from “Game of Thrones” circulate in the net as “the most insane” among sinful scenes in the cinematic history. That’s a deliberate strategy of the producers. One of the show directors told the media that an HBO representative allegedly urged him to present as many scenes of naked women as possible, which he didn’t want to agree to. The situation was bizarre, because this director, Neil Marshall known for his ability to shoot battle scenes, was supposed to film an episode showing only a knightly battle! It’s really hard to put any scenes with women in it!
Admiration from left to “right”
Clearly, the assumption of the series is not to show a brutal fight for power, but in fact to promote sexual immorality and perversion. The production has gained unprecedented popularity in the United States, and in Poland it also has its large fan club. It includes not only the eulogists of pornographization from leftist magazines like “Newsweek,” but also many journalists from so-called right-wing media, who take pleasure in writing about the release of each new season, seeing only a description of “fascinating political games” in the show’s story.
Since “Game of Thrones” is recommended to everyone from both left and right, the Poles have been massively downloading the series from the Internet. On the Vistula River, the production isn’t as widely promoted as overseas (where it’s referred to in a number of television channels, while here, despite being discussed in newspapers, the show mainly exists in the minds of Internet users). The fans of George Martin’s saga also include numerous teenagers, who model themselves on their American counterparts, spending long hours on watching many episodes of their favourite TV series without breaks. Such a hobby has been even named as binge watching.
Thus, if you notice on your child’s computer a scene in which knights fight under the ornate banners and you’re happy to see your offspring interested in such topics, stop at the computer for a while. Check whether they’re watching “Game of Thrones.” If so, you’d better cut off the access to the Internet.
Krystian Kratiuk
