Game of Thrones and Westworld. Westworld and Game of Thrones. Both big sweeping HBO shows with big casts and big budgets and big online followings. Both very important to the network’s bottom line, especially as the battle heats up with streaming services like Netflix (and Hulu and Amazon and Disney and Apple). Both featuring ominous catchphrases — “winter is coming,” “these violent delights have violent ends” — that foreshadowed a violent uprising and struggle for power.
So there’s all that. But there’s also this: the two main revolutionary figures on the shows — Dolores on Westworld and Daenerys on Game of Thrones — have a lot in common, too. Beyond the fact that both of their names have three syllables and start with the letter D. I started making a list of similarities yesterday and I keep going and going and now I can’t stop seeing them. It’s becoming a problem. Some of the similarities are more of a stretch than others but when you line them all up it kind of becomes a thing. Here, I’ll show you.
Dolores is:
- A blond woman
- Who was once naive/innocent (quiet and shy rancher’s daughter)
- And kind of a prisoner (stuck in a robot murdersex fantasy park patronized by the one percent)
- But started learning about her real place in the world (through Bernard/Arnold/Ford’s explaining and programming)
- And rose to power (is the leader of a robot army)
- By murdering her oppressors (Delos executives)
- While riding on the back of a tamed beast (horse, work with me here)
- And is plotting to take over the world (“And it won’t be enough to win this world. We’ll need to take that one from them, as well.”)
- With her dope of a love interest (Teddy, a sweet little naive forest creature with a jaw so prominent he could hang his cowboy hat on it)
- Who has cheated death (a lot, because he’s a robot)
- And thought he was the hero of the story (lol, poor sweet Teddy)
- And is probably wrong about that (yup)
- And their whole deal is pretty weird anyway (they were programmed to like each other but still kind of do anyway even though Dolores knows about the programming?)
Which brings us to Daenerys.
Daenerys is:
- A blond woman
- Who was once naive/innocent (deposed princess)
- And kind of a prisoner (married off to warlord by whiny entitled jerk brother)
- But started learning about her real place in the world (took charge when Drogo died, after her brother was executed for being a whiny entitled jerk)
- And rose to power (is the leader of a few armies)
- By murdering her oppressors (a whole mess of Khals and Lannister loyalists)
- While riding on the back of a tamed beast (dragon, this is why I needed you do work with me on the horse thing)
- And is plotting to take over the world (“I am Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons,” etc. etc. etc.)
- With her dope of a love interest (Jon Snow, a crappy military commander who would have lost the Battle of the Bastards if Sansa hadn’t shown up with reinforcements at the last minute)
- Who has cheated death (let’s not talk about this again)
- And thought he was the hero of the story (lol, poor Jon)
- And is probably wrong about that (yup)
- And their whole deal is pretty weird (kind of incest?)
See? See?! It is kind of a thing. I’m not crazy. Leave me alone.
