#14—Game of Thrones Philosophy: Oaths, Honor, Duty, and Love

Exploring Kodawari

When is it okay to break an oath? How do we deal with the tension between honor and duty on the one hand versus love and doing the right thing on the other?

This episode is essentially a conversation about life philosophy, and we tried to answer difficult questions such as those. Specifically, we did this by examining the concepts of oaths, honor, duty, and love in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones.

If you have not seen Game of Thrones and don't plan to, this should still be an interesting conversation about some deep life philosophy.

However if you do plan on watching Game of Thrones, **THIS IS YOUR SPOILER ALERT** . We do spoil many plot points in our discussion, so go finish the series first and then come back and listen!

Thanks to our guests Joe Labriola and Stephen McLean for coming on to help us with this episode! Valar morghulis...

Timestamps (clickable on webpage):

• [06:06] Why it is worth reading the books
• [09:16] Oaths, honor, and other philosophy covered in Game of Thrones
• [13:42] Hierarchies and the role of self-preservation
• [16:52] The Marcus Aurelius quote that explains Jon Snow, and why "love is the death of duty".
• [23:56] The problems with the last season, especially the battle strategies in The Long Night episode
• [28:56] Our favorite character arcs
• [39:56] What is honor?
• [52:54] Who was the most honorable character in Game of Thrones?
• [01:01:15] The very first episode and how it opens with an oath-breaker (Will) being punished
• [01:03:59] Letter of the law vs. Spirit of the law
• [01:07:34] Why honor codes are often purposefully vague—we must take on the burden of doing the right things to ourselves, like Jon Snow did.
• [01:11:30] What Game of Thrones has to say about nature vs nurture

Links Discussed:

• Luke's Medium article: Oaths, Honor, and Duty: The Best Scene from Game of Thrones Final Season
• Tamler Sommers: Why Honor Matters
• Game of Thrones episode 1: Will is executed for deserting the Night's Watch ("The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword")
• Jon Snow and Maester Aemon ("Love is the death of duty")
• Season 3 Episode 5: The Kingslayer comes clean to Brienne about the circumstances surrounding the Mad King's murder.
• The best scene from Game of Thrones: Jon and Tyrion speak about Daenerys
• Joe Labriola's previous appearance on Exploring Kodawari (#5—Beach Cleaning)
• Stephen McLean's previous appearance on Exploring Kodawari (#7—Music, Meaning, and Mindfulness)

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