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Satire alert: everything must be about Singapore.
The Game of Thrones (GOT) Season 5 has finally concluded, bringing forward the same old savagery, the same few lords fighting for a damned iron throne, and people who know nothing.
What's so different this time? Well, after realising just how much inspiration LKY is to Tywin Lannister's character, Mothership.sg concluded that R.R Martin probably wouldn't just stop at observing the nation's founding Prime Minister.
Utopian Singapore with its penchant for cleanliness, sterility, and sanitisation is probably the furthest thing from Westeros, but that's not stopping Mothership.sg from drawing some creative parallels.
1. Controversial priestesses
Having made unpopular decisions, both are divisive figure in their own respect, attracting fervent devotion while driving some away. Most of all...
It's all for the glory of God!
Looks like George R.R Martin keeps tabs on the City Harvest Church's latest developments.
2. The Damaged Tumblr Girl.
Another instance proving just how "in the scene" R.R Martin is, would be his inclusion of a character typifying a Damaged Tumblr Girl.
In the very first place, how to spot this growing subculture? Apart from congregating in Tumblr, here's how:
- They publicly denounce all romantic advancements because of past hurt e.g "they can't love anymore" but not really.
- They herald Thought Catalog as the marker of human progress.
- They share a lot of cryptic songs from Daughter or Mayday Parade on Facebook. Like you now Miserable at Best, or Terrible Things.
- They love saying "I use vices to numb my pain"
The one true proxy would be their penchant for reblogging and sharing quotes like this one:
Or any quote remotely similar to "behind my smile is".... or "behind a strong girl is...".
Surprise surprise, GOT's poster girl for strong, independent woman Brienne of Tarth is a Damaged Tumblr Girl too, just like you and I, and everybody in the world.
What an excellent anthropological observation on George R.R Martin's part.
3. Language mavens
The guardians of the English language pervade in all societies, sanctifying the English Language, freeing it from new-age diction, proletariats' slang, and the horrifying, grave mistake of confusing you're* with your. Likewise, Singapore has its own Protectors of the English language, warring against any of those who dare to flout its conventions.
Like the Singapore's 5SOS fanclub
or esteemed writers in the "underground" singapore subreddit:
Benioff and D.B Weiss made an astute point on our society's linguistic insecurity, as seen through Stannis of the House of Baratheon, First of his Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.
The showrunners added another title to his name, Lord of Grammar.
4. The Hardhome Massacre - Xiaxue versus Gushcloud, Westeros-style.
Despite busy refuting rumours about his impending death, George R.R Martin still spares some of his allegedly limited time on Earth to track the online spat between Xiaxue and Gushcloud.
This is Xiaxue - she hardly updates her blog nowadays, but when she does, it's a rampage:
This is Gushcloud - young, dashing, and knows everything.
Xiaxue presumably prying apart Gushcloud's skeleton crow-laden closet.
Xiaxue singlehandedly resuscitating and mobilising a legion of online supporters to troll Gushcloud.
How Gushcloud feels..
The aftermath..
Looks like the showrunners have to thank both Xiaxue and Gushcloud for providing them with inspiration for this season's tour de force episode.
5. The Jorah Mormonts
The theme of desperation becomes all too clear when this season reintroduced Jorah Mormont.
He made no effort in concealing his adoration – he kidnapped former Hand of the King for the Khaleesi, slayed numerous enemies, and came back after being exiled twice. Doesn’t matter if she's half his age.
His inspiration? Definitely the well-loved Stomp, a citizen journalism site which celebrates the trials and tribulations one had to brave through before uniting with their loved one.
Wow Stomp, you've made your mark in the world :').
6. The Slammed and Shamed.
A small city-state, highly wired, and filled with bored people - whisk them altogether to concoct the perfect recipe for online shaming.
No matter how small or big some people's faux pas might be, those people's misdeeds would be paraded in the online sphere, with their personal information being bared to the whole wide world.
Unfortunately, their blunders have been the defining event of the past few years. 2014? The Jover Chew and Anton Casey year. 2013? The Janice Leong year. 2012? The Amy Cheong year. 2011? The Adelyn Hosehbo year.
This season's most memorable catchphrase?
SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME *ding* SHAME
7. Pro-family movement
This year's Faith Community Baptist Church service during the Pink Dot weekend...
and last year's.
Translated to something like this....
"We will wear white until the pink is gone - Westeros-style".
Loras Tyrell - a gay skilled knight of House Tyrell - was locked up by The High Sparrow - leader of a religious sect - for committing "charges of sodomy, buggery, and blasphemy".
8. The wildcards.
Both looking cute and harmless, you'd think the worst they could do would be to produce weird movies deemed too avant-garde for mortals. Or feign a possible meeting with journalists.
The show-runners' acute awareness of Singapore's socio-political landscape materialised in the form of Olly, a nondescript youngling who turned against (or outed, however you see fit) the very person who helped him:
But then again, understanding the highly complex nature of Amos Yee, the showrunners eluded the simplistic portrayal of Olly being just a traitorous child, and imbued some depth into him. Said child has apparently been goaded by older crows (just like how Amos' actions were allegedly driven by society), and holds some serious emotional baggage from the past (just like how Amos claimed that his dad...)
Not bad showrunners, not bad at all.
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