Arrested Westeros: Gem of the Internet

*Warning: This Blog Contains Game of Thrones Spoilers for Season One*

The entertainment realm of culture is truly fascinating. There are certainly examples otherwise, but the current generation is living amongst a golden era of television. Currently, there is substantial programming, in both quality and quantity, such as dramas like Breaking Bad and Mad Men and comedies like Parks and Recreation and Modern Family. These shows manage to hook viewers in with their characters and plot, but also with the underlying subtext of each episode. To surmise briefly, Breaking Bad and Mad Men deal with personal struggle, Parks and Recreation give a feminist perspective, and Modern Family tackles moral quandaries within everyday life.

So when the subtexts of one of the greatest comedy series, Arrested Development, and one of the best dramas, Game of Thrones, come together in one extraordinary place, only magic can ensue. And it does, at Arrested Westeros.

 
Arrested Westeros is an incredibly clever Tumblr dedicated to captioning stills from Game of Thrones with quotes from Arrested Development. If you have not seen either show, the jokes may go over your head, but rest assured these vastly different television shows have more in common than you think.

Arrested Development is a sitcom about the Bluth family, a formerly wealthy, eternally dysfunctional family, as they deal with the patriarch, George Bluth, going to jail and its aftermath as their social status changes.

Game of Thrones takes place in Westeros, a fictional land made up of seven kingdoms, as multiple noble families fight for control of the Iron Throne.

Though from different genres, both shows illustrate power struggles and their aftermath. In Arrested Development, the family owns a company where there is constant internal strife between the father, George, the oldest son, Gob, and the middle son, Michael. Though Michael is the most honorable and deserving of all of them, both his father and brother constantly plot against him.

This power struggle is reflected in Game of Thrones as well. The current king is the despicable Joffrey, who is more focused on keeping the throne from his own family than the any of the other families. Much like Gob, who was briefly president of the Bluth Company, Joffrey tries to rule using fear and is constantly suspicious of his family, even his own mother.

The other element linking these two shows so fantastically is family. Both series deal with very incestuous relationships, sure, (Cersei and Jamie will always be worse than George Michael and Maeby), but it goes even deeper than that. The very characters themselves resemble each other: Lucille’s icy parenting style can easily be interchanged with Cersei or Tywin Lannister; Ned Stark and Michael Bluth both claim honor above all else; even Buster and Joffrey share that their father is their uncle (though in different ways).

Arrested Westeros is television match made in heaven. It takes two great things and makes you look that them both in a new light. If that isn’t the aim of the entertainment world, then I don’t know what is.

Culture Shock is Good for the Soul

Growing up in the United States can make it difficult to appreciate the cultures of other nations. Many Americans’ natural inclination is to pity developing countries, sometimes even pity other developed nations. American ethnocentrism is so engrained within our own culture, that it skews the reality of the rest of the world around us. This is why travelling abroad is so important—it provides a better understanding of other people and their cultures.

Recently, a friend of mine named Sarah Pfander (whom I met abroad, actually) had the opportunity to study overseas in Mali for the semester. Unfortunately, due to the military coup that ousted its president, she, among other foreigners, was evacuated. Though her time in Mali was cut short, Sarah still managed to immerse herself within the culture.

One of the more obvious distinctions between Mali and the United States was the cuisine. “I had to put my vegetarianism on hold,” Sarah explained, “because they cook meat with everything there.” Even seemingly American dishes, like hamburgers, had their own Malian flare, as they put cinnamon in the hamburger meat.

Perhaps the most challenging difference that Sarah encountered was the lack of amenities people in the United States take for granted, such as indoor plumbing. The area Sarah stayed in did not even have electricity until 2002.

Despite all of these disparities between cultures, the Malian people are a happy one—and not the naïve, tribal happiness the West conceives of. “They are not just happy because they don’t know any better,” Sarah elucidates. “It’s an informed happiness that comes from the knowledge that life could be better. There could be more development and more jobs, less corruption and less poverty. But with that could come more crime and less love. Life in Mali is so communal; every neighborhood is a huge family. Malians are the most generous, hospitable, kind, caring, and funny people I’ve ever met. And they are happy because even though the country could be doing better, they know they’ve figured out a lot more [than other people] how to live with compassion and community.”

 Sarah’s experience in Mali is one of many examples that travel is good for the soul. Exposing oneself to new things, whether than be a new type of food or an entirely different culture, is the only way to broaden horizons and gain a more worldly perspective. The United States is one of the most highly developed countries in the world, constantly giving aid to developing countries in need. If the U.S. is not familiar with the country’s people and culture, how can they possibly know what they need?

Rather than treating developing countries like projects or stereotypes, the developed world must see the real people of these countries and view the magnificence of cultural traditions that are not their own.