A large population of India spend their time holed up in their rooms, watching series on Netflix, Amazon Prime or just on the television set. One of these popular series is ‘Game of Thrones’, an adaptation of the novel ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ written by George R.R. Martin.
This series is downright beautiful for the kind of plot it follows and the paramount perfection with which the actors portray their characters. The twists and turns and the depth of the tale makes it even more interesting. It is also known for its gory scenes of violence and its acts of what one would call making animal love. Nudity and violence go hand in hand when it comes to this series. This makes Game of Thrones quite a taboo for the Indian censor board. When watching the series on television, one has to look at the screen with utmost attention to join the dots because the Indian censor board tends to cut the scenes displaying too much violence, nudity or any other kind of obscenity. Well, we all know that most people find a way around and watch it on other platforms or devices to grab the essence of the full story.
After starting to watch the series myself, I realized that the hype was not because of the stark naked women or gruesome deaths; the hype was obviously about the story itself. Since it first aired in 2011, the show has managed to soar to new heights with the release of each episode because of the consistency that it maintained. The development of characters and the story line is awe inspiring; it will always take you by surprise.
In India, Game of Thrones gained popularity due to many reasons. One is politics. Politics is a topic that is discussed at every other table in India and politics is an important theme in Game of Thrones.
Also, a lot of us draw parallels between the Indian epic Mahabharata and Game of Thrones. Starting from swords, battles, families and love; everything excites us. Even though Game of Thrones is unlike the other serials of India because it doesn’t showcase the same plots again and again, it has certain charms to it like the Indian epics that mysteriously attract Indian viewers.
The series teaches one much about trust and relationships. Not everybody you are friends with is trustworthy and not everyone is what they seem. There is something about each line of every character having meaning to it like “Winter is Coming” which signifies the approach of the long night which brings with it the army of the Night King or “the Lannisters send their regards”, the lines that Jaimie Lannister says to Lord Bolton and the same line which Lord Bolton says to Robb Stark while killing him. Karma is so often shown at work in the series. The characters get what they deserve in the end and that makes the viewers ecstatic. In India, a land where almost everyone believes in “what goes around comes back around”, Game of Thrones seems like a series which displays not only word play, but also, justice perfectly.
India is a country where feminism has only recently emerged as a wave. There are some amazingly strong female characters in Game of Thrones. The first to be mentioned is Danaerys, the mother of dragons and the breaker of chains. This woman started off with nothing, but by the end of season seven she is one of the strongest women of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Cersei is a grey character, but she is ambitious and powerful. One doesn’t think of the Lannister name without thinking about Cersei Lannister. She evokes fear in people and makes sure that she gets what she wants. Arya Stark was a little girl in the beginning of the series and in season seven she is a trained assassin, emotionally and physically strong. Other than these three characters we see a lot of women in the series that are enigmatic. They are strength personified, be it a queen or a prostitute. Most women in the series exude robustness along with beauty. This engages Indian women to the series.
In conclusion, we watch the series because of its several exceptional qualities. It is very intelligently written with the perfect background and a flawless cast. Yes, the sex and violence increases the appeal which is no lie, but it can’t be ignored that the cinematography is brilliant and the entire tale is an allegory of the world as it has been since generations.