Game of Thrones final season: Red Cross helps you pick sides before winter comes

For those of us who are fans of the show, Game of Thrones can create some internal conflict. We love watching the characters, but sometimes their actions can be so... hard to watch!

Some Red Cross superfans found a perfect way to reconcile their humanitarian spirit and love for the show. To mark the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, Australian Red Cross has analyzed every previous episode to reveal the television epic’s worst war criminal.

The results are in:

• Breaking news: Westeros is full of violent war criminals
• In total, the team of dedicated Red Cross volunteers calculated there had been 103 violations of the laws of wars, an average of one-and-a-half war crimes per episode
• No big surprise here: The Warden of the North, Ramsay Bolton is the worst offender with 17 serious violations of the laws of war.
• The Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen is the second-worst offender. She committed 15 war crimes in total, six of which involve the abhorrent use of her dragons to rain fire on her foes. Unsurprisingly, IHL doesn't have much to say about dragons. But it does prohibit the use of means and methods of warfare that cause superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering and indiscriminate attacks. And, let’s be fair, the dragons
• Even show favorites have blood on their hands: Tyrion Lannister racked up four violations, and Jon Snow six.
• To find out if the White Walkers are subject to the laws, and if the Wall is protected under IHL (crossing fingers, right?), visit Australian Red Cross’ website 

 

To celebrate how much we all love #GoT and #IHL here at Red Cross we analysed every ep to find the show's worst war criminal. #GoTIHL #gameofthrones https://t.co/J2JDxMoSm5 pic.twitter.com/P6XQUcyetr

— Australian Red Cross (@RedCrossAU) 8 avril 2019

Why did we do this?

 “The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement works every day to educate people that even wars have laws,” explains Catherine Gribbin, Senior Legal Advisor, International Humanitarian Law. “A pop culture phenomenon like Game of Thrones – a show that is loved across the globe – is a great way to help people in countries that are not experiencing war connect these important real-life rules to scenarios they see on the screen. We want people to ask “would you have complied with the laws of war at the Red Wedding?”

Canadian Red Cross also offers great resources to teachers wishing to learn more about issues related to conflict, such as refugees, child soldiers, gender-based violence, and how to integrate these in their curricula :

• Join us for a webinar on child soldiers and children associated with conflict on April 16^th
• If you are in Montreal, sign up to our teacher training sessions April 26-27
• If you are in Waterloo, sign up to our teacher training sessions on May 3-4

 
HBO and Game of Thrones’ international distribution partners were not involved in the analysis.