Is Tyrion a Republican?

In my reading of various journalists’ accounts of the Republican National Convention, I came across an article from Vulture/nymag.com by guest columnist Liz Meriwether (creator of TV’s New Girl) in which she does various interviews at the convention. In this piece she decides to analyze the opinions of Republicans through the common language of pop culture, specifically through the analogy of Game of Thrones:

I was standing at the Republican Convention having a serious conversation with a man wearing an enormous felt elephant hat with Donald Trump buttons on either ear, and I realized I was having a great time. We weren’t talking about Trump. We weren’t talking about the chaotic, macabre, and mostly boring convention. We were talking about television. Specifically, which Game of Thrones character is the most Republican.

“I know who Hollywood would pick — that awful boy king who was just the worst guy ever. They would make him a Republican. But in reality, the imp would be the Republican. Maybe I’m not saying it the proper way … but he rocks. He’s brilliant. He’s always leading the right way”…

Personally I can definitely see the whole of House Lannister as being Republican, and with some definite similarities to House Trump (the house words: ‘I know good words’) in particular. Oddly similar blond and blue-eyed genetic traits? Check. Treacherous ratfuckers? Check. Reputation for greed and financial wizardry undermined by the reality of constant borrowing? Check. Incest? Uh… maybe. “A Lannister always pays his debts?” FUCK no.

Given all that, I could count Tyrion Lannister (The Imp) as a Republican, of a certain standard.  Fond of luxury (and whores), and cynical about human nature, but he nevertheless believes that he should administer government as efficiently as possible for everyone’s benefit. The problem being that the rest of his family doesn’t share even his pragmatic level of morality, being addicted to power for the sake of power.

And of course fans know that after several years of the family treating Tyrion like a freak and yanking his chain, they ultimately turned against him, culminating in him killing his own patriarch and eventually defecting to the enemy House on the other side of the world.

There’s a lesson there for Republicans, and they keep refusing to learn it.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *