Kit Harington on how GoT mirrors real-world politics

"Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington has compared US President Donald Trump to the fantasy show's 'mad boy-king' Joffrey Baratheon.

He said that if people had paid attention to the HBO hit, they could have avoiding living in a "Thrones-like world".

"I think it's always been about two things for me," variety.com quoted Harington as saying.

He added: "About dysfunctional families -- or families in general, always where the best drama is -- and the everlasting idea that people who seek power are very often the last people who should have it. Unfortunately, we're leaving 'Thrones' with a Joffrey as the President of the United States of America."

Joffrey is the mad boy-king who was killed in the fourth season of the show, which is aired in India on Star World.

"I'm deeply sad of the state of the world as 'Thrones' ends. Because if it was prophetic, you'd hope that people would have watched 'Thrones' and tried to avoid some of the situations these characters find themselves in, and I feel like we are living in a more 'Thrones'-like world."

Harington also addressed the degree to which the show could be controversial, raising questions over time about, for instance, its depiction of female characters and the degree of violence and assault.

"I think it's an amazing fantasy because it deals with incredibly difficult and varied, very human characters. It has incredibly complex female and male characters in it. It was controversial, very controversial at times, but it asks questions of its audience and it asks questions of its viewership," he said.

"And so in that way it did what dramas should do, and it raised the idea of what fantasy could be. That could seem less important than other things, but it's always been sneered upon, the fantasy genre, as being less important. But I think it's an amazing genre and a genre with endless scope."

--IANS

sug/mr