GOT Finale and the Demonization/Marginalization of Poc In the Finale

Published May 20, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Dear Dick and Gene,

Thank you for your podcast. I listen to several GOT podcasts but you have always been the one that gets a reaction from me- for better or worse. This is the mark of intelligent analysis and I appreciate your commentary. I think GOT was fantastic TV and will be the standard by which future “prestige television” is measured. Thus, it is with a sad heart that I must shat on the finale and grumble bitterly about how people of color (POC) were treated in the finale. I know you are busy but let me sum up:

1. The finale begins with out-of-control swarthy foreigners brutally executing surrendering Lannister soldiers. It’s only the honorable white forces from the North who are appalled at this violence and try to stop it. Foreign POC slaughtering “innocent” white people is a trope that you hear at every MAGA rally. I was half expecting Grey Worm to flash MS-13 gang signs as he slit the throats of the Lannister prisoners.

2. Next, we see Crazy Dany holding a bloodlust pep rally with out-of-control swarthy foreigners chanting, hooting and hollering. The honorable people of the North are not participating and are appalled at the spectacle. It is then that honorable Jon knows he is the only one that can stop the killing. So he stabs Crazy Dany- because we know that a man would never slaughter innocents. Mad King, Joffery, Robert and Stannis notwithstanding.

3. Grey Worm imprisons Jon and demands justice. But the only people who control the system of justice are apparently the rich white Westerosi landowners and the token Dorne prince who doesn’t have a speaking part or name. So diversity- yea!

4. The rich white Westerosi landowners don’t include Grey Worm in any decision making. He has an army, conquered Kings Landing, fought side-by-side with the great houses and should be treated as an equal. House Stark would be wights now if not for the Unsullied. Is he treated like the decorated veteran that House Stark owes a debt to? He is not. The council tries to buy him off with land but Grey Worm wants “justice” i.e, more blood. Apparently, that is the only thing Grey Worm will ever know. The council then acts if Grey Worm is not even there and writers saw it fit to let him stand there while the “adults in the room” decided the future fate of Jon and Westeros. I mean we can’t give an out-of-control swarthy foreigner a vote or say in this- can we?

5. In the negotiations, Sansa gets a separate North. While not directly on point, recall previous episodes where Grey Worm and Missandei remarked how the Northerners did not like their kind. The North is depicted as where the honorable and defacto racially homogeneous people (the real Westerosi) live.

6. Then so that we can make the rest of Westeros great again- the writers chose to have all the out-of-control swarthy foreigners self-deport. No vote, no council. They just get up and leave because their white savior is dead and can’t self-rule. Besides we can’t have them integrate into Westerosi society- not even the good ones. Think of what it will do to the property values!

Please be certain, I am not saying D&D are racist. D&D are human and have inadvertent biases. But as the finale stated, the most powerful thing in the world is a good story. Because this is such a powerful story, it hurts to see these tropes- however inadvertent- infect the finale. Indeed, better writers than me have written about the treatment of POC in this series and can point to many other examples. I hope when the next prestige series comes along, I won’t lament these same tropes.

Keep shatting!

Reeshee

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