Eight Years Later: Game of Thrones Contest
Vocal is bringing “Game of Thrones’-loving creators together for another community-wide contest. Submit your most heartfelt, surprising, or life-changing stories about how GOT has affected you for a chance to win $500. Use #VocalGOT to enter.
What the Women of Westeros Mean to Me
I have always been a firm believer in the magic of how the right book or series can seem to find a person when they are most in need of it. I, however, avoided the call of the Game of Thrones franchise for quite some time. Despite how many people assured me that I would enjoy the books and television show, I refused to watch it on the grounds of how much blood and violence I’d heard was in it. As a chronically ill and severely depressed person suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following a fatal car accident I had been in at the age of 15, I had a tendency to be extremely wary of anything I might find potentially triggering. That is, until a day came when I reached an ultimate low, when the circumstances of my life managed to get so bad that I was convinced nothing in this world could possibly trigger or upset me more than I already was. Seeking an escape in problems that were not my own, I began to binge read/watch the series and to my surprise what I found in its volumes was not triggering, but instead cathartic as defined in terms of Greek theatre: “The purification and purgation of emotions through art that results in renewal and restoration.” In other words, the show slowly but surely came to mean one thing to me: Healing. Through the plights of the show’s leading female protagonists in particular, I found a means to better process, understand, and ultimately overcome trauma of my own.
'Game of Thrones' Gave Me Confidence as a Woman
I started watching Game of Thrones in my first year at college. I was staying in residence when we kept seeing references to the show everywhere we looked. It was even brought up in my lectures and seminars. We had to know what the commotion was all about! After watching the first episode, we immediately had to watch another, and another... and another. Before we knew it, the night was over and we had to pack up our things for our first morning class. After our original binge, the five of us would always come back together to gather in one of our small dorm rooms. We would eagerly sit together to watch what was going to happen next in the Seven Kingdoms. We were hooked!
Sansa Stark (and Sophie): My Queen Forever
There have been many times when I've wanted to give up on myself. Some days I thought my mental illness would destroy me. Other times, it would be thinking I wasn't good enough to pass my classes, get a job, or get my writing published.
How 'Game of Thrones' Has Changed My Life
Game of Thrones has reminded me who I am. Someone who is strong enough to do anything she puts her mind to. Someone who knows what she can handle. Someone who can fight every fight and know that she can win no matter how small that win may be. Out of the deepest, darkest holes I have crawled in, it has lifted me up and has shaped me into someone who can be a warrior in her own war and win against every demon that comes her way. No matter how hard the task, no matter what is holding her back, no matter who has hurt her, no matter how dark her mind may get, she will rise from the ashes like a woman scorned and fight until her last dying breath. The important characters have shown me that no matter what kind of obstacle tries to overcome me, I can run at it head on and fight no matter what my odds are, even if I’m bound to lose. It has taught me to be strong in every way that I can be strong. To have an upkeep of that strength to depend on every day that comes and to be proud with every day that passes. That being a woman is far more powerful than society can ever comprehend. To never take a weakness and see it as such. To always show your strength toward others, but more importantly to yourself. To be the dragon, especially on the days when you feel like the sheep. To see the good and fight for it. To fight injustice with justice. To look your demons in the eye without fear and say, “not today.” To use all of the power, fire, and courage you have inside of you every day, to use so much of it that you can burn a whole city down with the belief that you have within yourself. Most importantly, to know your strength, know what you are capable of, know that you can do anything, and to know your true worth in every inch of who you are.
Wear It Like Armor
"It means she is deaf." Nothing, nothing can prepare you for the moment you find out your child is different. Not strange, or odd, but that their bodies are fundamentally "broken." When anyone says the word "deaf" to me, even now, it feels like the moment that changed our lives forever, a heart stopping stab to the chest.
Tharen KoelschPublished 5 years ago in Geeks"Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History"
Throughout history, women have been known for their mothering nature. The caregivers. The nurturers. The ones that are to raise the next generation in hopes that their offspring can change the world. Making it much better than how they were possibly leaving it. Although those traits are good, there have been women throughout history who had taken a different approach. In recent years, we have seen women step up and take their power back from the male oppression in which beliefs have branched into the everyday consciousness. We as women are coming for the man's metaphorical "throat" by showing that we possess more than what men have given credit for.
Jay WilliamsPublished 5 years ago in GeeksPorcelain, Ivory, Steel
I was late getting on the Game of Thrones train. I started watching it over the summer of 2015, and roped my mother into watching it with me as well. We were hooked.
Tessa OrozcoPublished 5 years ago in GeeksAlone on the Throne
I was born in the winter; since then it has been coming. Ever so cunning, it is as quiet as the humming of the drumming hearts. The first chapter of change began with a beheading fit of rage, all on the stage of life. We were right next to him when the wolf lost the first fight. We screamed as lion hearts beamed and it all seemed like it could grow no worse. It carried my trust off like a hearse, and my heart burst like a balloon as the script continued to unleash all the doom and the story’s bloom continued to swoon and loom.
Christina BruckerPublished 5 years ago in Geeks'Game of Thrones' Season 8, Episode 5 - "The Bells" My Thoughts
Late to the party, but better late than never. Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones titled “The Bells” left almost an entire fanbase floored when Daenerys Targaryen, Queen of the Unsullied, laid waste to King’s Landing. Most knew Khaleesi as the even-tempered queen who expected to march her army peacefully into the kingdom and set up shop; this, however, was not the case.
Christina ScanlonPublished 5 years ago in GeeksOver 5 Years, 'Game of Thrones' Changed the Course of My Love Life Forever
It's strange and interesting how series, books, films, stories, and ideas have such agency. The human way of understanding the world in the only way that affords full freedom. It can have ripple effects that cross the border of fiction into our real lives. Stories, like smells or sounds, can catapult us back in time to the point when they were most relevant. This has always been particularly powerful for me. I've always loved books and writing. Something that came from within me, not any outside influence. I would spend all my free time in the library and went by the nickname of "Bookworm." I would get deeply emotional when following my favourite characters, feeling their woes, joys and challenges as if I was there. As if I was them. An active imagination is the grounds for identification. But Game of Thrones intertwined itself like a relaxed serpent into an aspect of my life that seemed so strangely far from it. My love life.
Nessy WriterPublished 5 years ago in GeeksWhat 'Game of Thrones' Means to Me
Back in 2011 before the first season of Game of Thrones hit our screens, I was in a very dark place. I’d split up with my first serious boyfriend, I felt insecure, had no self-confidence, was riddled with anxiety and depression, had to drop out of my nursing degree, and kept sinking lower and lower.
Tilly MontgomeryPublished 5 years ago in GeeksAlways on the Peripheral
I was in grade 11 in 2011 (the irony) when I first witnessed anything GoT related. Confession, I only watched that one season (and read book one). But still to this date, GoT is everywhere. It has never left me alone. GoT is always trying to seduce me into finally sitting down and watching the rest of it. But I resisted—more on that note later on.