Member-only story
The hidden message in Game of Thrones — part 1: the hero’s journey
Trying to answer the question of “Who am I?” is like solving a quantum mechanics problem. In quantum mechanics (QM) the electron is simultaneously “up” and “down”. We don’t learn which one it is until we perform an experiment. Likewise, we aren’t any more “up” or “down”; “good” or “bad”; “right” or “wrong” until we are faced with an experiment —a life event. Game of Thrones (GoT) is all about this.
GoT is a story that starts in Winterfell, the North, where we meet the bastard of the honorable Eddard “Ned” Stark. A man so honorable that it was and still is tough to believe that he could father a child outside of marriage. That child is Jon Snow. He doesn’t have the Stark name because he is a bastard of the North, land of snow, hence the name. The same naming logic for bastards applies all over the world:
- Flowers: The Reach
- Hill: The Westerlands
- Pyke: Iron Islands
- Rivers: The Riverlands
- Sand: Dorne
- Snow: The North
- Stone: The Vale of Arryn
- Storm: The Stormlands
- Waters: The Crownlands
Through 5 Books (with 2 more allegedly still being written by George R.R. Martin) and 8 seasons of HBO’s thrilling drama series, we follow Jon Snow, White Walkers, and many others from every corner of this world.
Spoiler Alert!
Don’t read further if you don’t want to ruin Game of Thrones.
Jon Snow’s story line follows that of the “hero’s journey”. The hero’s journey is a motif seen around the world, through all cultures, and through all times. It’s a story told for each culture’s people to have a sense of the adventures that life brings and how to conduct themselves through these trials.
The hero lives an ordinary life in an ordinary world. There is a call to adventure but the hero tends to initially refuse the call. Eventually the hero is forced to go on the adventure, one way or another, and descends into some new, mysterious world with different rules and ways. The hero faces various trials and crises. By overcoming these…
