Introduction—High Fantasy, Political Dreams, and the Mainstream: Reflections on Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones, the HBO television adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, is a cultural phenomenon. It is currently the most popular show that HBO has ever produced, breaking records for viewership throughout its run, both in terms of broadcast and streaming; the most recent season captured over thirty million viewers across platforms on average (Koblin). This popularity for the series has led to the emergence of neighbourhood viewing parties, fan conventions, and academic conferences. For many fans, anticipation of the release of a Game of Thrones premiere or finale may be experienced as an event. The series manages to connect what traditionally might be understood as "high" and "low" culture in a way that resists compromise. What is surprising, however, is that Game of Thrones belongs to a genre that has historically been maligned. Whether it is categorized as "lowbrow" or "mass market," the fantasy genre has traditionally been considered too escapist or vapid, trapped in binaristic plot lines between "good" and "evil," invoking verbiage that seems more in line to describe pulp fiction than serious, rigorous, socially significant media. Game of Thrones descends from a long line of lowbrow progenitors, ranging from the 1950s' genre of peplum films (or, as critics derisively referred to the genre, "sword-and-sandals") to the campy 1990s fantasy revivals, such as Hercules: The Legendary Journey and Xena: Warrior Princess, both minor cultural phenomena in their own right—yet neither show carried the cultural gravitas or received such critical attention as Game of Thrones has.

The epic aesthetics of Martin's dark high fantasy texts have led some critics to refer to him as "the American Tolkien" (Grossman). Further, the success of HBO's Game of Thrones has ushered in a new golden age of "prestige television"—a term one would hardly associate with "lowbrow" media (Suskind). As this special issue of Canadian Review of American Studies asserts, Game of Thrones is a series for serious study. Although popular culture is sometimes disparaged as trivial, a show with the audience and cultural resonance of Game of Thrones influences, confronts, and questions the values and ideals of the social imaginary from which it has sprung. What does this widely received fantasy suggest about current American political and social phantasy?

Certainly, it is tempting to read Game of Thrones as allegorical to our contemporary moment, especially when Martin openly draws these associations. In an interview for the New York Times, Martin suggested that President Donald Trump reminds him most of Joffrey:

They have the same level of emotional maturity. And Joffrey likes to remind everyone that he's king. And he thinks that gives him the ability to do anything. And we're not an absolute monarchy, like Westeros is. We're a constitutional republic. And yet, Trump doesn't seem to know what that means. He thinks the presidency gives him the power to do anything. And so, yeah, Joffrey is Trump.

(quoted in Sims)¹

Following these comments, the interviewer asked Martin to reflect on "how Game of Thrones provides insights into the mind-sets and strategies of modern-day geopolitics," but the author decided to "pass" on the question (Sims). Nevertheless, building from Martin's own association of Joffrey with Trump, it may not be difficult to see the fictive Wall that defends the northern borders of the Seven Kingdoms as a model for the proposed wall that will purportedly defend the southern borders of the United States of America from Mexico. Such a barrier, of course, promotes a normative centricity through the exclusion of those deemed unworthy of inclusion, be they White Walkers, Wildlings, or an "other" denomination. The show's controversial representation of several rape scenes led to a national discussion surrounding sexual violence that occurred just prior to the #MeToo feminist movement's campaign against patriarchal exploitation in 2017 (Itzkoff, "For Game"; "More Outrage"). Further, as Martin has suggested, the HBO series might especially convey an allegory for pressing environmental concerns:

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