Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse December 22, 2015  

By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) December 22nd, 2015

This piece was also posted on Moviepilot

All images from Star Wars films or Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Lucasfilm)

One thing that is missing (among other things) in the new Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens is the interesting meditation on the nature of good and evil that all the Lucas-helmed projects—Episodes I-VI and the underappreciated Clone Wars TV series—contained (in fact, for anyone who appreciates the deeper aspects, even if executed imperfectly, of what Lucas tried to do, the disappointing Force Awakens is missing a lot: it seems to be more of a Jacksonesque Hobbit-like simple action-centered movie with Star Wars frosting on top of a blah-meh-typically-soulless action movie, just with a good cast that did the most they could with the material they were given; it lacks all of the deeper mythos and philosophical aspects that made Star Wars more than just action movies set in space, but I digress).

In particular, there are several key themes about the nature of good and evil that are particularly well illustrated by the Lucas enterprises, including Clone Wars. Below, a number of these themes will be discussed in detail, with FULL SPOILERS (and out of courtesy for those who have seen the movies but not Clone Wars, I will start each sentence with specific Clone Wars spoilers with a bold CW SPOILERS, and END CW SPOILERS will let you know when it is safe to keep reading). If you’ve already seen all six movies but need a refresher, this video here should do the trick.

 Below are five of the main lessons we can take from the Lucas-helmed parts of the Star Wars saga.

1.) Often the worst and most destructive evil is driven by naked ambition for power at any cost

In Star Wars, we have the Jedi order, users of the Light Side of the Force (the universe’s mystical, magical, living energy field), and the Sith (usually two), users of the Dark Side of the Force; the Jedi use their powers, generally, to protect and help others, while the Sith, generally, use their power to empower themselves and harm others. We have Senator, then Chancellor, Palpatine (who all along is Darth Sidious) in Lucas’s six movies and Clone Wars, a man who is secretly a Sith Lord who wants to dominate the galaxy and rule with an iron fist, who is willing to kill anyone, and kill any number of people, to achieve these ends, even to the degree of starting two wars and destroying an entire planet. Close behind is his apprentice before Anakin, Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus, whom we see—especially in Clone Wars—is willing to go to extreme lengths and to kill many innocents in his pursuit of power as well. He is also dreaming of overthrowing his master and ruling for himself, and he goes through several apprentices in trying to set all this up but is eventually killed by Anakin at the request of Palpatine himself, not long before Anakin becomes Darth Vader, Sidious’s new apprentice. To Palpatine and Dooku, everything and everyone exists just to serve their ends of attaining and keeping power: the biggest mass murderers in history—Hitler, Stalin, Tamerlane, etc.—operated under this idea, with other human beings being seen as just means to their ends, not ends in and of themselves, violating Immanuel Kant’s great ethical precept. From the start of a galactic-wide civil war between the Republic and Separatists to the destruction of Alderaan, the Sith showed there were truly no limits to the amount of death and destruction they would allow to happen to advance their personal goals for gaining power.

2.) Good can produce evil

Evil can also be done far too often for understandable or even good reasons. Unlike Palpatine and (presumably) Dooku, Anakin does not turn to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader mainly for power for himself (while this is not indisputably clear in Episode III, a good watching of Clone Wars does remedy this). Rather, Anakin is becoming increasingly worried about his secret, forbidden wife—Natalie Portman’s Padmé Amidala—who is now pregnant with his child(ren!); his dreams show her dying in childbirth. Anakin is still haunted by the death of his mother, who died in his arms when he tried to rescue her after being tortured by the Sand People; Anakin’s response was to slaughter the entire village of Sand People: men, women, children, even pets. This act is one of unmistakable evil, and yet we are feeling for Anakin who is feeling the pain of losing his mother. He even tells Padmé about his murderous vengeful rampage just after it happens and she, like the audience (presumably), takes him in with open arms. At the grave of his mother, he voices his guilt for not being powerful enough to save her and swears that he will never be so weak again that he fails to protect someone he loves. Thus, when Chancellor Palpatine begins dropping hints to Anakin in Episode III that there are ways that the Force can prevent someone from dying, Anakin is all ears. What we don’t know is how deeply and justifiably upset and disillusioned he is with the Jedi Council, which some of the best Clone Wars episodes of later seasons show us.

CW SPOILERS We know from a story arc which has Anakin meeting Captain Tarkin (before he is Grand Moff) that Anakin finds the Jedi Code and philosophy as frustratingly inappropriate in wartime, that by not going far enough, the Jedi constantly miss opportunities for victories that could end the war, and that by holding back even with good intentions, the war—and suffering—are prolonged.

In small ways throughout the series, we see that Anakin and Jedi Master Mace Windu’s personalities clash repeatedly. Additionally, in one story arc, the Jedi Council decides to have Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin’s mentor and best friend, appear to be taken out by an assassin as he fakes his death. We learn it is Obi-Wan’s decision to keep Anakin in the dark on this because Anakin’s raw emotion is a strong selling point to the enemies of both the Jedi and the Republic that Obi-Wan is really dead. Obi-Wan then goes through some interesting (temporary) surgery to take on the appearance of the bounty hunter who was hired to kill him; the idea is that an assassin who killed a Jedi Master would get a lot of street cred in prison and be able to find information on a major plot against the leader of the Republic, Chancellor Palpatine. Anakin, meanwhile, is consumed by pain and anger and nearly kills Obi-Wan while pursuing who he thinks is Obi-Wan’s assassin. He eventually realizes that something is not right, and confront Masters Yoda and Windu about the deception. Anakin is hurt and angered and disappointed that he was kept in the dark by the Council, and even more so when he learns Obi-Wan was key in the decision. Anakin voices that he suspects the Council is hiding more things from him and that Obi-Wan might not even be aware of this.

As bad as this experience was for Anakin, not long after, there is an even worse experience for him. At the beginning of the Clone Wars, Anakin is assigned a young female padawan apprentice named Ahsoka Tano. At first he does not want the responsibility and views her as a nuisance, but he admires her spirit and takes her in despite his misgivings. He quickly becomes very attached to her, and even early in the series, we see Anakin torture a Separatist prisoner to get information that could save her life when she is in danger. 

The series shows a very rewarding evolution in their relationship, as they both grow and change over the course of the war; over the show’s movie and six seasons, they go from constantly arguing with each other, with Anakin having to teach his headstrong apprentice some tough lessons, to being more respectful and trusting of each other, to being near-peers and admiring each other’s growth, skills, and abilities greatly; Anakin feels a true sense of accomplishment in helping Ahsoka to grow into a great Jedi, while Ahsoka feels a real sense of accomplishment that a great Jedi like Anakin would place so much trust and faith in her as a padawan.

When another Jedi frames Ahsoka for a terrorist attack against the Jedi Temple, the Jedi Council as a whole turns on her and refuses to accept her claims that she is innocent; in a decision that is not unanimous (apparently Masters Yoda, Plo Koon—who brought Ahsoka into the Jedi Order—and Obi-Wan, it is implied, did not side with the majority), the Council bars her from the Jedi Order and decides to turn her over to the Republic’s military courts. During the preceding debate, Obi-Wan argues passionately that they should be the ones to judge Ahsoka, but Master Windu counters that that move could be seen as a biased one and that throwing Ahsoka under the bus would be more politically convenient for the Council as the Jedi are losing public support as the war drags on and on. That the Council chooses political convenience over loyalty to one of their own is but one example of how the war is twisting the values of the Jedi. Windu also questions whether Anakin is too emotionally attached to Ahsoka to be involved at all, to which Anakin angrily replies “Master Windu, with all due respect, she’s my padawan.” Even before the Council pronounces its verdict on his padawan, Anakin sees that this is about political convenience and, enraged, he yells at the Council that the proceedings are “just a formality;” he has to even be checked by Temple guards when he protests after the decision is announced. But Anakin is hardly giving up: he gets Padmé, whom Ahsoka has helped repeatedly, to represent her in the military court. But they all know that the cards are stacked against Ahsoka, so Anakin knows he needs to figure out who really committed the terrorist act. None other than (now Admiral) Tarkin leads the prosecution at her trial, and just before what is almost certainly a guilty verdict is announced, Anakin bursts in with the real Jedi traitor, who confesses to being a terrorist.

At a meeting with the council, Anakin and Plo Koon offer heartfelt apologies to Ahsoka; an unapologetic Windu seems almost to suggest Ahsoka should be thankful for the incident since it has made her stronger; and Master Yoda invites her back into the order. Anakin emotionally adds “They’re asking you back , I’m asking you back.” Trying to keep her own emotions in check, she turns down the offer, telling Anakin, “I’m sorry Master, but I’m not coming back,” and walks out of the Temple. Anakin is crushed, then quickly runs out to catch Ahsoka in a very emotional confrontation; Ahsoka notes the Council did not trust her, but Anakin counters that he stayed by her the whole time. “I understand, more than you realize, I understand walking to walk away from the Order.” Frustrated with the Council and forced to live out his marriage in secret, Anakin has good reasons for being fed up. “I know,” is Ahsoka’s response, hinting that she has actually figured out Anakin and Padmé’s secret relationship. She tearfully walks off into the sunset, leaving Anakin crushed.

The Council also asks Padmé to endanger herself on covert missions in several instances, instances of which Anakin does not approve, instances which cause conflict between him and Padmé. One of these instances happens very soon after Ahsoka has left the Order, and Padmé is only saved by a last-minute rescue from Anakin, and both events are happening just before Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Anakin’s faith in the Order is at an all-time low, and for good reasons: he sees (not without some validity) that the Jedi Code is prolonging the war and that Jedi peacekeepers are not well-suited to being generals in a war, that decisions of the Council—with which he completely disagreed—just lost him his padawan and put his wife in serious danger (repeatedly); the Council and even his own Master have also kept him in the dark on at least one big operation, causing him emotional pain on multiple levels… END CW SPOILERS

Thus, when Anakin does finally turn on the Jedi after Mace Windu tries to execute Chancellor Palpatine—whom Anakin has exposed as a Sith Lord but has also told Anakin that only his Sith powers can help save Padmé from “certain death”—rather than put him on trial, we can, in light of The Clone Wars, have a much better—and much more sympathetic—understanding of why he turns on the Jedi Order and chooses the Dark Side. Having lost much following the Jedi and nearly even more, his faith in the order and the Light Side crushed, Anakin chooses a different path, one that a war orchestrated by the Sith combined with poor decisions by the Jedi Council have made it the far more convenient and attractive path for Anakin to take. He wants power for himself, yes, but mainly to save another. Thus, even in Anakin’s decision to become a Sith, we have very un-Sith-like motivations. That is why after Padmé gives birth to Luke and Leia, she can still tell Obi-Wan with her dying breath “There’s good in him, I know, I know there’s still…”

Additionally, idealism taken too far can produce unintendedly evil consequences. The Jedi’s idealistic prosecution of the war also empowered their enemies and prolonged the suffering of millions. The sad truth that Lucas is getting at is that there is no escaping the corrupting influence of war, that well-meaning actions can even increase suffering, and that war by its very nature destroys ideals and can corrupt even the noblest of people, turning them into instruments of evil. Yet war doesn’t corrupt on its own…

3.) When good people/institutions compromise their values too much, it leaves room for evil to flourish and destroy them, both from without and from within

In the prequels and especially The Clone Wars, we see ideals fall far short in reality, whether in the corruption of the Senate or the peaceful philosophy of the Jedi order giving way to the violence of war and political convenience. Early in the series, Yoda worries aloud that “In this war, a danger there is, of losing who we are.” In particular, Master Mace Windu seems to push the Council to compromise its values more than anyone else and advocates for questionable actions that are contrary in spirit to the Jedi Code. Yoda always seems to voice concerns but fails to take a stand, and while there are Jedi that move forward with such actions with regret, Windu does not seem to even blink an eye or hesitate for a moment. When the Jedi choose a warrior path, deception, arming rebels illegally, political convenience over loyalty, and even (in an unfinished but canon Clone Wars story) assassination, there is room for Anakin to and his padawan Ahsoka to doubt. The doubts created by the Jedi Council’s own decisions—albeit under very trying circumstances—open doors that lead to their destruction and the destruction of the Republic. Of course, the Sith very much have a role in this too, but if the Jedi Council had behaved differently and closer to their ideals, the Jedi would not have lost Anakin to Darth Sidious and the Dark Side.

CW SPOILERS Perhaps the best expression of these sentiments occurs when the Jedi-turned-terrorist traitor who tried to frame Ahsoka is given a chance to speak after being caught, in this speech that is given:

“I did it. Because I’ve come to realize what many people in the Republic have come to realize. That the Jedi are the ones responsible for this war. That we’ve so lost our way that we have become villains in this conflict. That we are the ones that should be put on trial, all of us! And my attack on the Temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become: an army fighting for the Dark Side, fallen from the Light that we once held so dear. This Republic is failing! It’s only a matter of time.”

END CW SPOILERS

The Jedi mean well, but under the massive pressure of war, they betray many of their values. Many in the public around the galaxy come to see them simply as one side’s leadership in a terrible and destructive war, just as responsible for the killing as the other side. Yes, the Jedi do clearly conduct war more humanely than the Separatists, but it is a distinction that is lost on much of the galactic populace and one that is less pronounced the more the war drags on. And this is all part of Darth Sidious’s plan: as the Jedi are his biggest obstacle to power, he creates a war that will not only kill many of the Jedi but also destroys their reputations and credibility as “the guardians of peace justice in the galaxy,” forcing them into a new role of military leaders in a war that kills many innocents.

4.) Evil often involves people losing their humanity and becoming more like machines

In the prequels and The Clone Wars, the “bad guys” are often unthinking droids. The droids in the armies of the Separatists carry out their orders and their killing without question, as they are, literally, machines. We also never see the faces of Imperial Stormtroopers, and their all-encompassing armor tends to make them feel more robotic and less human, some humorous dialogue aside. In contrast to the droids (and, apparently, Imperial Stormtroopers), there are some great stories involving the Republic’s clone troopers realizing that they are human beings and not robots or automatons and that they can think for themselves and even challenge orders that they believe to be wrong.

CW SPOILERS This is not lost at all on the Sith Lords who orchestrated the clone army’s creation, as they made sure from the beginning to be certain that when it comes time for Order 66—the order to execute all the Jedi—that the clones’ minds will be taken control of as far as following that order, removing any choice for them. END CW SPOILERS 

The droids in the droid armies are metaphors for the mass-killers of many human armies, who lose their humanity and become little more than droids when they unthinkingly, robotically kill their fellow humans, even unarmed civilians, by the hundreds of thousands and millions. From Genghis Khan’s Mongol riders to crusading knights, to Hitler’s Nazi SS and Rwandan Hutus with machetes, to mass shooters in America to ISIS executioners, cold, brutal killing can be said to reduce people to unthinking, unquestioning automatons.

While the contrast between Jedi heroes and villains is simple, what Lucas excels at is showing us the transition from feeling, moral human to monstrous, callous droid. A the end of Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Anakin has his hand cut off by Count Dooku, and his missing hand is replaced by a robotic one; this happens after Anakin has already engaged in a mass killing of Sand People in response to the torture and death of his mother; his path to unthinking killer has begun, literally and symbolically. In Clone Wars and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we see the top general of the Separatist Droid Army, General Grievous, and we can tell that behind his mask there is a living head with malicious eyes; before Obi-Wan kills him at the end of Revenge of the Sith, we also see that there are some organs encased in his cyborg body, but it is clear from the beginning that with Grievous, there is little living and breathing that is left of him; he is at least 90% machine, a soulless, callous killer that is simply a slave to power. He is very much meant to be a preview of what Anakin will become when he himself becomes encased in the living tomb of his black Darth Vader armor. This is after Anakin’s legs have been cut off by Obi-Wan on Mustafar, where volcanic flames had burned him beyond recognition. He will spend most of the next two decades (the rest of his life) alone in silent torment, having lost everything—his friends, Obi-Wan, his wife Padmé—and living a life of servitude to his master, Darth Sidious, a life in which he now has become little more than a machine for his master’s bidding, killing without a second thought.

In the original trilogy of Episodes IV-VI, especially if you have seen the prequels, you watch realizing how Luke staying true to the Light Side is no certain thing. Like his father before him, Luke gets his hand cut off in a lightsaber duel (fighting his father, Anakin, now Darth Vader) and also gets a mechanical replacement hand, foreshadowing a potential following in his father’s footsteps. At the end of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, we are meant to feel nervous that Luke will give into his hate, kill his father, lose his humanity, and become a robotic servant of the Emperor just like his father has, and we are meant to feel relief when both he does not and his father redeems himself out of love for his son.

We meet Anakin as a cute little boy who wants to help people, and he grows into a monstrous, machine-like mass-killer. We are meant to be reminded that even the worst of us are not born that way and that the process of becoming evil is in part a process of trading away one’s humanity in favor a becoming more of a machine.

5.) Even the noblest may fall into darkness, but the most villainous may also come back to the light

Which brings us to our next point: human beings will always be human beings, with both elements of Dark and Light always present within us. Anakin is first a hero with dark tendencies who manages to overcome them until he does not; then he becomes a villain with deeply-buried good tendencies who manages to suppress them until he does not.

CW SPOILERS In Clone Wars especially we see Obi-Wan face the same temptations—both of true love and of how to react when his love is killed—that Anakin did, but Kenobi reacts in polar opposite ways, maintaining faith and fidelity to the Jedi Order and mastering his emotions so as not to give into hate and desperation, and we see Yoda is powerful enough in the light side to avoid his own temptations to go to the Dark Side. CW SPOILERS END

While characters like Obi-Wan and Yoda stay true to the good, we expect characters like Grievous and Palpatine to stay evil, and they do not disappoint.

But that is why Anakin is so important: ultimately, Sidious is only as successful as he is by winning over Anakin; without Anakin coming to his aid, Mace Windu kills Palpatine and there is no Emperor, no Empire, no Order 66, and the second Anakin turns on Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, Palpatine is destroyed and his reign is at an end. In short, the people in the world that are closest to pure evil always need people like Anakin to accomplish their goals. It serves their interests to suppress their minions’ humanity because it is that humanity that is ultimately a threat to their order: no mass murderer has ever succeeded without getting thousands of others to surrender their humanity and carry out his or her evil plans. It is very hard to tell the difference between a Palpatine and an Anakin without intimate knowledge of each; thus, in the real world, we must confront and fight evil while still giving it a chance to redeem itself: America had no desire to fight and kill every Nazi and every German soldier in WWII; modern counterterrorism and counterinsurgency doctrines rely heavily on the ability to separate the hardest core from the rest of their followers, and winning over those less hardcore followers rather than having to kill them. Luke Skywalker succeeding in bringing the Empire’s second-in-command over the Light Side, no small achievement by any standard. Thus, Anakin dies in a state of redemption, not a fallen state.

Conclusion

Lucas’ imagined universe has much to teach us about our own. We see that ambition can destroy whole worlds, people, and nations. Evil can result both from good intentions and from the good failing to live up to their ideals, yet, perhaps most disturbingly, good intentions can also result in evil outcomes. Even in the most seemingly black-and-white of conflicts, Star Wars teaches us to have faith in the humanity of the other side even while being prepared to fight and kill when necessary. Having too much faith or too little can each be destructive, as Anakin teaches us, and people can change for either the better or for the worse. The more of our humanity we retain, the less we can become robotic killing machines in the service of unbridled ambition, but our emotions and attachment can come to be used against us, too. No one is above potential corruption or incapable of potential redemption. In Star Wars as in life, we cannot take either a person’s good or evil for granted; such things are fluid, not permanent, just as the Force is, just as life is. In the end, the future is dependent both on our own reactions and how we react to others’ actions, whether we are powerful in the Force or think the Force is “all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.” Even if sometimes clumsy, at least the George Lucas-helmed parts of Star Wars are in part defined by asking their audiences to think about these ideas, something J.J. Abrams is less interested in pushing his viewers to do.

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 Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse June 16, 2015 

By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) June 16th, 2015

Republished by Movie Pilot

SPOILERS for the first five seasons, including the season 5 finale, but NOT for season 6

Varys: You have many admirable qualities- self-pity is not one of them. Any fool with a bit of luck can find himself born into power, but earning it for yourself? That takes work.

Tyrion Lannister: I’m not well-suited for work –

Varys: I think you are. You have your father’s instincts for politics- and you have compassion.

Tyrion Lannister: Compassion? Yes. I killed my lover with my bare hands, I shot my own father with a crossbow!

Varys: I never said you were perfect.

AMMAN — Game of Thrones, the award-winning hit HBO series that keeps setting new internet piracy records, is an incredibly unique show for many reasons. And though it has dragons and magic and frozen zombies, one of the reasons it is so unique is that it dares to tell us harsh, uncomfortable lessons about the very real world in which we live. Below, ten of the most important and salient will be discussed.

1.) A revolution, a campaign, and winning a war are all far easier than actually governing

“King Robert was strong; he won the rebellion and crushed the Targaryen dynasty. And he attended three Small Council meetings in seventeen years of ruling, and he spent his time whoring, hunting and drinking until the last two killed him. So, we have…a man who thinks winning and ruling are the same thing.” —Tywin Lannister

_____

“Killing and politics aren’t always the same thing! When I served as Hand of the King, I did quite well with the latter, considering the King in question preferred torturing animals to leading his people. I could do an even better job… advising a ruler worth the name, if that is indeed what you are.” —Tyrion Lannister to Daenerys Targaryen

_____

Hizdahr zo Loraq: Politics is the art of compromise, Your Grace.

Daenerys Targaryen: I’m not a politician. I’m a queen.

Hizdahr zo Loraq : Forgive me. You’re right, of course. Still, it’s easier to rule happy subjects than angry ones.

Those who are good at climbing the path (or ladder, if you will) to power often find that exercising power or holding onto their new seat of power is far more challenging than the climbing process that got them there in the first place. In the same vein, often the skillset that allows one to ascend to power is not the same skillset that allows one to hold onto power and/or effectively govern. From Robert Baratheon to Daenerys Targaryen, we’ve see powerful characters stumble and struggle to maintain control and to rule the lands they have conquered (and for Jon snow, how many days did he last as the Lord Commander?). An army and dragons can’t govern. Robert’s hold on the Seven Kingdoms was short-lived, and Daenerys’ ability to govern her eastern cities seems precarious at best.  Let’s replace dragons with fighter jets and we can see the same basic experience for the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan recently. We can also see echoes of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt and both Barack Obama (he is better at campaigning than governing) and Nelson Mandela (legendary as a non-violent civil rights leader and revolutionary, not-so-great as South Africa’s President once in power). Americans were fortunate that their revolutionary generation of Founding Fathers could both lead a revolution and lead a government exceptionally well. France’s Revolutionary leaders during the French Revolution fell far short of the American mark when it came to governing. This show reminds us starkly the difference between getting power and using it well.

2.) Bad and good can and do coexist, even within the same person, policy, or country

Tyrion Lannister: So here we sit, two terrible children of two terrible fathers.

Daenerys Targaryen: I’m terrible?

Tyrion Lannister: I’ve heard stories.

Daenerys Targaryen: Why did you travel to the other side of the world to meet someone terrible?

Tyrion Lannister: To see if you were the right kind of terrible.

Daenerys Targaryen: Which kind is that?

Tyrion Lannister: The kind that prevents your people from being even more so.

_____

“You were a hero, and a smuggler. A good act does not wash out the bad. Nor a bad the good.” — Stannis Baratheon to Ser Davos Seaworth

_____

Melisandre: Are you a good man, Ser Davos Seaworth?

Ser Davos Seaworth: I’d say my parts are mixed, my lady, good and bad.

Melisandre: If half an onion is black with rot, it’s a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil.

When it comes to Tyrion Lannister and Arya Stark, two of the show’s most beloved characters, most people are ready to sing their praises. And yet, when Tyrion had a chance to escape he murdered both his former lover and his father without needing to do so to escape. Arya herself seems driven by revenge and little else, and was content to let The Hound—the closest thing she’s had to a friend for a long while—die a slow and painful death. At the same time, we have Jamie Lannister—poster child for incest and attempted child murder (remember Bran?)—making us swoon by helping Brienne of Tarth, sticking up for his incest-love-child Myrcella, and standing up to both his father and Cersei on behalf of Tyrion. Sandor Clegane has many awful deeds on his resume, including murdering the butcher’s boy who was friends with Arya—yet he also saved Loras Tyrell from his own brother, Gregor Clegane, when Gregor (The Mountain) was being a sore loser in a jousting tournament, and Sandor also showed more kindness to both Arya and Sansa than arguable anyone else in recent memory except for maybefaceless-man Jaqen. Who here didn’t feel sympathy for The Hound when Arya just left him to suffer? Who didn’t come away from that scene feeling at least a little different about Arya? Then we have Stannis, touchingly showing Jon Snow respect and giving him a lot of leeway even as he sacrificed his own daughter to fire and a stake and murdered his own brother. Even Catelyn Stark killed an innocent girl who was Walder Frey’s ill-treated wife as her last act just before she herself was killed. Perhaps the most conflicted character still alive is Theon Greyjoy, now the shadow of a human being known as Reek. Even one of the Sand girls, who had poisoned Bronn and who was ready to murder a young Myrcella just because she was a Lannister, was willing to save Bronn with an antidote to that poison and didn’t mind showing a man who was down and in jail her lovely breasts as a pick me up.

One of the things that makes Game of Thrones so unique is its complex portrayal of characters as something more than simply “bad” or “good,” to which so many other shows and movies tend to reduce things. Human beings seem to always have had a tendency to lionize or demonize their heroes and villains in an oversimplified way that bears little resemblance to reality. Robert E. Lee is revered by most white American Southerners as some sort of saint, even as he fought to destroy much of what was the United States and the Constitution in favor of preserving aa society based on race-based chattel slavery. Russians today seem to revere Putin. Ronald Reagan is practically deified as a saint even though his record as president is highly questionable and often shameful. Richard Nixon is demonized even as he made peace with China, created the E.P.A., and ended the Vietnam War (though clearly not in the best way possible), hardly an all-bad legacy and full of significant, commendable achievements. George W. Bush may have objectively had one of the worst presidencies in American history, but he did more than any other president (including Obama) to combat AIDS, spending billions of dollars and saving millions of lives. Billions worship Jesus of Nazareth without really factually knowing much of anything about him, and billions others revere the Prophet Mohammad even though they factually know very little about him. The United States often tries to do good, but does more bad in the process. The NSA spying program helps to keep Americans safe but also violates their privacy. Even Pope John Paull II—literally a saint—had a pretty bad record on the child sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church. Perhaps it is in our DNA, but it makes us poor judges of character more often than not and blinds us to the very real truth when we try to make so many public figures into either heroes or villains. We can love or revile characters for certain reasons, and then feel the opposite about the same characters for other reasons. And that’s ok. It’s better than reducing people to simply “good” or “bad.”

In particular for policymakers, this can help people in power to realize that making deals with people who can actually make a positive difference should not be based simply on whether or not they are thought of as “good” or “bad.”

3.) Sexual violence against women is pervasive and often there is no justice for either the victims or the perpetrators

“And to my son, the stallion who will mount the world, I will also pledge a gift. I will give him the iron chair that his mother’s father sat upon. I will give him Seven Kingdoms. I, Drogo, will do this. I will take my Khalasar west to where the world ends and ride wooden horses across the black salt water as no Khal has done before! I will kill the men in iron suits and tear down their stone houses! I will rape their women, take their children as slaves and bring their broken gods back to Vaes Dothrak! This, I vow, I, Drogo, son of Bharbo. I swear before the Mother of Mountains as the stars look down in witness! As the stars look down in witness!”­ —Khal Drogo, translated from Dothraki

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“Have you ever seen a war in which innocents didn’t die by the thousands? I was in King’s Landing after the sack, Khaleesi. You know what I saw? Butchery. Babies, children, old men, more women raped than you can count. There’s a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.” —Ser Jorah Mormont

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“Elia Martell. I killed her children, then I raped her…then I smashed her head in, like this! ” —Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane

I will simply link to feminist writer Amanda Marcotte’s brilliant and very true MUST READ article shooting down all of the specious arguments about why Sansa’s rape scene and others in Game of Thrones are somehow “wrong,” should be done “differently,” or are “sexist” and “misogynistic.” Does anyone think that Steven Spielberg is an anti-Semite because he showed Jews being killed in the Holocaust in Schindler’s List? Today, even in 2015, sexual violence is pervasive all over the world, and even often in the most progressive and modern societies, from the U.S. to Sweden (Stieg Larsson, anyone?) Only about 5% of cases are even ever reported to authorities, which means that for 95% of women even in the modern world, justice for the raped and the rapists almost never happens. Yet people get furious with Game of Thrones because it displays a medieval world (where rape was pretty much institutionalized and far more widespread than it is today) that shows us just that. Whether with Sansa or Wildling women, the show should make us damn uncomfortable with rape, and it does.

If you want a rape story with a happy ending, watch an network TV movie-of-the-week or Lifetime. If you want to be taught an adult lesson about the real state and results of sexual violence in the real world, and walk away with the obvious truth that rape is a mostly unpunished crime suffered by unknown and silent victims, internalize that, be far more outraged about rape that you would with a misleading happy ending complete with justice and healing, and use that outrage to both care and do even more about rape in society, then watch the show. If you want to childishly be coddled and made to “feel good” that rape, actually, isn’t a silent, hidden, mass horror, don’t watch the show. But don’t pathetically try to claim the showrunners or George R. R. Martin are misogynistic, patriarchal, bad people who are encouraging rape simply by portraying it realistically and who have failed in their “duty” to give us stories that reinforce and reward our smug, modern sense of self-righteousness that cries “BAD” whenever things turn out in a way we don’t like. I’m all about women’s empowerment, but the ever-present public talk of women’s empowerment has led too many to believe that this empowerment is a common reality in many places and instances where it is not. A huge portion of the women on earth—perhaps a majority—are not “empowered” and are at risk of abuse committed with impunity, including rape; that’s the unfortunate reality. All (the mostly unknown and unheard) victims of rape are lucky that a show is as brave and bold as this one to make people realize just how terrible and pervasive rape, with its near total lack of justice for its victims, truly is.

4.) The noble path does not necessarily lead to success and the good guys often don’t win

“Poor Ned Stark- brave man, terrible judgement.” —Jamie Lannister

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“I’m not Ned Stark, I understand the way this game is played.” —Tyrion Lannister

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“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” —Ramsay Snow

There is perhaps no other show on television that reminds us as starkly that the good guys don’t always win and following moral and ethical principles does not guarantee success; heck, in real life it often maybe even usually does not. It began with Ned Stark losing his head. And it has hardly ended there, as any fan of the show or books can tell you. Among the ranks of the powerful, there are more Joffreys than Neds. George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns used some pretty dirty and shameful tricks to falsely smear two decorated war veterans—John McCain and John Kerry—and we all remember who won those contests. It is easy to lose track of how many crimes Silvio Berlusconi, longtime Prime Minister of Italy, has been accused of over the years. We have many states ruled by murderous dictators, from Bashar al-Assad in Syria to Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Putin and the Koch Brothers have immense wealth and power, and can hardly be considered nice guys. Many of the brave people who stand up to these people and challenge them simply lose. Other times, they don’t simply lose, they lose their lives as well (see, quite recently, Boris Nemtsov). Or see Benjamin Netanyahu winning re-election in Israel through race-baiting. Or Hamas winning an election, period. It is useful to remember that, more often than not, this is the way the world works. Ned and Robb Stark, after all, were naïve to proceed as they did and it cost them their lives.

5.) The most horrible acts are often done for the most predictable reasons

“Just how safe do you think Myrcella is if the city falls? Do you want to see her raped and butchered like the Targaryen children?! Make no mistake, they will mount her pretty little head on a spike right beside yours.” —Tyrion Lannister to his sister Cersei, mother or Myrcella

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Petyr Baelish: Tell me, Ser Loras., what do you desire, most in this world?

Loras Tyrell: Revenge.

Petyr Baelish: I have always found that to be the purest of motivations.

We often hear the term “senseless horror.” But, quite disturbingly, horror often has a purpose behind it that is fairly banal and predictable, even as it is still often inexcusable. Stannis sacrificed his own daughter to be burned to death, but it was almost boringly easy to explain why: he wants to be king, the one thing which defines him more than other aspect of his character. Joffrey has a bunch of babies killed, simply and predictably because he doesn’t want any competition. Jamie Lannister almost murders little Bran Stark, simply because he doesn’t want his incestuous secret to get out and also to protect his love: his sister. Daenerys reopens the fighting pits to keep the peace and lets her dragons burn a man alive to make an example. Lord Bolton wipes out most of the Starks and their supporters at Robb Stark’s wedding because he wants to be warden of the North. And Theon betrays the Starks to win the affection and respect of his father (which he didn’t).

Likewise, the U.S. firebombed Tokyo and nuclear-bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in large part because it hoped these acts would end WWII faster and to intimidate a muscular Soviet Union. The U.S. much more recently invaded Iraq because it hoped it could bring democratic reform to the Middle East through invasion and occupation in order to reduce the root causes of terrorism and help stabilize a region ripe with fossil fuels. Israel invades and occupies the Palestinians for close to fifty years now mainly because it is afraid for its own survival. Terrorists often use terror because they are weak, oppressed, and have no hope of fighting a conventional military force. ISIS kills dissenters so it can maintain its grip on power more easily. Even the Rwandan Genocide was carried out mainly by one group (Hutu) against another (Tutsi) that was oppressing it, and then a reverse countergenocide was launched in revenge. One can hope that because of the sheer predictability of these crimes, they might at some point become easier to anticipate and prevent, especially for policymakers.

6.) Even in a brutal world, random acts of kindness are powerful

“I’ll stand for the dwarf.” —Bronn, volunteering to fight for Tyrion as his champion

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“Leave him be!” —Sandor “The Hound” Clegane as he rushes to defend Loras Tyrell against his brother, The Mountain

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“I will be your champion. ” —Oberyn Martell to Tyrion Lannister

Even in as brutal and cruel a world as that of Game of Thrones, there are still random acts of kindness that can surprise even the most cynical. Perhaps the biggest was when Bronn offered to fight for Tyrion at the Eyrie in front of crazy Lysa. Just a few episodes ago, a big hulking beast a fighter, who had no relationship with Tyrion, cut Tyrion free from his shackles so he could join Jorah in the arena and make his case to Daenerys. I already mentioned Bronn’s new love interest saving him from poison, and then there’s Jamie risking his neck to help out Brienne. The Hound saves Sansa and Loras as I’ve also discussed. Ser Davos sticks up for Robert Baratheon’s bastard after Melisandre sets her sights on him, and Sam goes way out of his way to help the wilding girl Gilly and her baby. Robb stark shows mercy to Osha the wildling who almost captured Bran, then she ends up helping to save Bran and Rickon Stark and is still looking after Rickon. And Tyrion goes out of his way to treat Sansa with kindness, passing on sex with her even though, within Westeros, he was well within his rights to insist, as we can tell from the distasteful bedding ceremony. All of these acts of kindness either do or presumably have big consequences for the show, too, and the characters receiving them (many of whom would have died without the help). The big exception, of course, is Oberyn Martell fighting for Tyrion as his Champion in Tyrion’s (second) trial by combat, since Oberyn loses, dies, and then Tyrion is found guilty.

The real world is also full of random kindness, of the type that’s sometimes just enough to not lose hope. As Gandalf says in The Hobbit, “Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.”

Then again, sometimes good deeds don’t go unpunished. Ned Stark thought he would give Cersei the courtesy of a heads-up that he had figured out Joffrey was an incest-bastard borne of her and Jamie. Lot of good that did him… Similarly, the U.S. had little to gain in Somalia helping hundreds of thousands fend off starvation and ended up with the Black Hawk Down episode, dead Americans, and an Osama bin Laden emboldened by the American withdrawal…

7.) Religion is dangerous

“Trial by combat: deciding a man’s guilt or innocence in the eyes of the Gods, by having two other men hack each other to pieces. Tells you something about the Gods.” —Tyrion Lannister

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“We all must choose, man or woman, young or old, lord or peasant, our choices are the same. We choose light or we choose darkness. We choose good or we choose evil. We choose the true god or the false.” —Melisandre

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“Death by fire is the purest death.” —Melisandre

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“Belief is so often the death of reason. ” —Qyburn

The world of Game of Thrones may be fictional, but it is deadly accurate at showing how dangerous and even deadly religion can be. The Lord of Light priests/priestesses, especially the vampy Melisandre, are clearly fanatics willing to do anything to further their agenda. Getting a major character like Stannis to sacrifice his own daughter by burning her alive was just the latest of her outrages and atrocities. Stannis quite literally played with religious fire, and now he and his wife and daughter are dead. With Melisandre, we see when a cause and religion are united, there are no more rules of decency for the fundamentalists and fanatics. And face-changing Jaqen and whatever sort of Many-Faced-God temple-cult he has brought Arya into seem to employ magic and death and assassination in equal measure. Not to be outdone cult-wise, Jonathan Pryce’s Sparrows—more or less the Taliban of Westeros—are about to turn King’s Landing into the 1990s Kabul of the Seven Kingdoms. They already seem all too happy to murder people who are gay (good luck Loras!), among other fanaticisms. Religious-backed or religion-associated violence are omnipresent not just throughout human history, but in the present day as well, and studies show that religion tends to amplify cruelty and violence in conflict, rather than the reverse, a point I have made before. Groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the (Christian) Lord’s Resistance Army, Srebrenica, both Buddhists and Hindus killing Muslims in South(east) Asia, and, not too long ago, the (Christian) Ku Klux Klan, the IRA/UDF and Catholics and Protestants killing each other in Ireland, and Europe’s pogroms against Jews (just to name a few examples!) are all indicative of this trend. 

Politicians too often simply focus on religion’s positives and blame its negatives on outside forces, but this is specious reasoning at best. The better leaders will be able to recognize the perils and pitfalls of religion and the faithful and be able to guard against them. Cersei Lannister unleashed a demon with her supporting Jonathan Pryce’s High Sparrow, not wholly unlike the U.S. when it supported mujahadeen in Afghanistan. Fiction that inspires fanatics can be dangerous in both the fictitious and real worlds, it would seem, and the more rational would do best to try to wield and engage such forces cautiously, if at all. Better to avoid playing with fire. The U.S. did not, and 9/11 was one of the long-term results, while Cersei suffered her own personal 9/11 as a result of her poor decisions with that naked walk of shame she had to endure. Thus, the problems with religion in Game of Thrones mirror the problems with religion in our own world.

8.) Trust, loyalty, and friendship are possibly the most prized commodities and they are also among the rarest, while backstabbing and secret agreements are much more common

“Backstabbing doesn’t prepare you for a fight and that’s all the realm is now: backstabbing and scheming and arse-licking and money-grubbing. Sometimes I don’t know what holds it together.” — King Robert Baratheon

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“People work together, when it suits ’em. They’re loyal when it suits ’em. They love each other when it suits ’em- and they kill each other, when it suits ’em.” —Orell (the Wildling)

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“Yes, Ned Stark had many admirers- and how many of them stepped forward when the executioner came for his head?” — Olenna Tyrell

It’s rare, but friendship still shines in Game of Thrones. Tyrion and Varys, unlikely duo that they are, seem to have really bonded on that ship even more than before. Sam and Jon of the Night’s Watch are also quite the bromance, and even Sam and Maester Aemon Targaryen were getting quite close before Aemon died with same at his side. Podrick is touchingly loyal to both Tyrion and Brienne. King Robert and Ned Stark had a touching friendship, too, so much so that Ned Stark was almost the only person Robert Baratheon thought he could trust towards the end. Hodor’s undying loyalty to the stark children is also touching (kind of like a mentally challenged Samwise Gamgee à la Frodo in The Lord of the Rings). Ser Davos gets an honorable mention for his deep loyalty to Stannis, though the loyalty is not returned and Stannis seems to be pretty unworthy of Davos’ fidelity, who even lost his son at Blackwater Bay fighting for Stannis. Perhaps more interesting is the bond he developed with Stannis’s daughter, Shireen.

Note how short the above the list is… There are far more betrayals in the show and if I listed them here I’d be giving a summary of the whole series. I think anyone reading this already realizes the value of friends and allies in the real world because how many of us really have many especially close friends, but Game of Thrones can be a good reminder. In international relations and politics, true friends and allies are also incredibly rare. The “special relationship” between the U.S. and UK is a very rare example of steadfast allies staying together over time, for example. Japan and the U.S.are another good example. Most alliances, however, are borne out of convenience and last only briefly (think USSR and Nazi Germany, then USSR and the Allies in the same war!). This is true in politics too, as we can see politically how many Democrats were afraid to even be associated with Obama in the midterm elections of 2014 (to their detriment), even though Obama was a big part of the reason why many of them previously won in tight races. There is often a negative price to pay for staying loyal. It is hard to tell which city has more backstabbing: King’s Landing or Washington, DC. For non U.S.-readers, I am sure you can pick up your local paper and read similar stories of backstabbing about your own country’s politics. Political and geopolitical winds can shift faster than the power rankings for the houses of Westeros. In the real world, “Red Wedding” Bolton-Lannister style backstabbings are more common than true friendship, sadly. Now, with the Season 5 finale, we can also add Jon Snow’s backstabbing (to his face) at the hands of his own brothers of the Night’s Watch. The policymaker who is on his guard but also values true friends and alliances will be the one to listen to, then, in the end.

9.) The rich and powerful generally do not care about the masses and treat them as their playthings

Tyrion Lannister: Listen to me, Queen Regent, you’re losing the people. Do you hear me?!

Cersei Lannister: The people? You think I care?!

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Olenna Tyrell: If it’s equality you want, so be it. When House Tyrell stops sending our crops to the capital, everyone here will starve. And I’ll make sure the hungry know who’s to blame.

High Sparrow: Have you ever sowed the field, Lady Olenna? Have you ever reaped the grain? Has anyone in House Tyrell? A lifetime of wealth and power has left you blind in one eye. You are the few, we are the many. (Walks away slowly and then turns back) And when the many stop fearing the few… (Exits)

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“The powerful have always preyed on the powerless- that’s how they became powerful in the first place. ” —Tyrion Lannister

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“The lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.” —Tywin Lannister

You don’t need to read Marx or agree with communism to know that the rich and powerful ruling classes care for little more than themselves (and if you don’t agree with this statement, there is a really good chance that you are rich or powerful and in the ruling class). This goes for most of human history and continues quite powerfully today. And there are even academic studies that prove those on top are more selfish and have less empathy in their bones. There are so many examples of this in Game of Thrones, the way each House and wannabe ruler is so willing to spend human lives to get what they want. Even Daenerys, who exhibits some concern for her new subjects, also expects them to serve her and die for her claim to a distant throne in a land almost none of them have ever seen. Mance Rayder cared for his people. And Mance Rayder is dead. Tyrion and Jon Snow (and the many departed Starks) seem be the only characters in positions of power who routinely try to look out for those less powerful than them. A lot of good it did Jon Snow, as this very compassion is what incited a rebellion of his own Night’s Watch brothers when they killed him at the end of season 5. But almost all the powerful leaders in Westeros seem to only think of their people as objects, breaking Kant’s rule to always treat people as ends themselves, not means to an end. That is still sadly how the world works most of the time, even today. Syria (and now Yemen) and its people have become one giant chessboard, it people all pawns in a deadly game of international rivalries. CEOs make billions and treat their many workers as poorly as they can get away with. The list goes on and on, but the point is, there are very few powerful people who really fight for the masses, and Game of Thrones does a great job reminding us of this.

10.) Preparation and organization are key

“Winter is coming.” —House Words of House Stark

Last, but not least, the show emphasizes that preparation is key. Daenerys has been prepping for her invasion of Westeros for five seasons now (but did not plan her occupations of Mereen and Yunkai well, and thus had revolts in both). Both Tyrion’s preparation for the Battle of the Blackwater and Jon Snow’s preparation for the Wildling assault on The Wall allowed each to save the day. Robb Stark was great at winning battles but Tywin outmatched him by planning for a long game and even turned the Starks’ bannermen Boltons over to his side, defeating his enemy with secret diplomacy. We see preparation paying large dividends. Likewise, in the real world, this also is very true. Barack Obama won reelection in 2012 with a meticulously planned political campaign. But the same man just recently failed to plan for, anticipate, or engage opposition enough for his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and the deal was voted down by the House as a result. The American occupation of Japan after WWII was planned well and far in advance, while the more recent occupation of Iraq was clearly not; the many and telling differences in results are clear. And in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israelis are famously well-prepared and organized, and have been for the entire conflict, compared to their famously disorganized Palestinian and Arab rivals. That is a big part of the reason why today there is a full and functional Israeli state, while the same can hardly be said of a Palestinian state, sadly. Game of Thrones mirrors our real world well in showing how serious preparation can really pay off, a lesson policymakers should never forget.

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In conclusion, we can see that the world of Game of Thrones is very harsh and brutal indeed. It is perhaps the most important thing about this work of fiction that is able to so powerfully remind us of how brutal and harsh our own world still is, and to stimulate discussion about these truths and how to address them, both in popular fictional culture and in terms of what we do in the real world.

See related article: Game of Thrones and the Gift of Empathy

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