Succession and Game of Thrones: The Roy family as GoT characters
By Erin Qualey
Succession and Game of Thrones are basically the same show. Here’s proof.
During the long hiatus for Game of Thrones, HBO introduced a new series. Brimming with socio-political drama, toxic family dynamics, and a fight for an empire, Succession quietly debuted in the summer of 2018. At the time, it garnered some comparisons to HBO’s tentpole fantasy series, but without the flashy lure of dragons, violence, and gratuitous sex, the show mostly flew under the radar when it first aired.
However, as viewers and critics caught up over the past year, the show quickly became both a critical darling and a fan favorite. Sure, the show doesn’t have overt war scenes or fantastical beasts such as dragons and ice zombies. But what is does have in abundance is the snap, crackle, and pop of hushed political posturing, manipulative deal-making, and giddy backstabbing that made Game of Thrones so truly compelling in the first place.
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Now as Season 2 of the dark comedy is in full swing, the similarities between the characters on Succession and Game of Thrones are more apparent than ever. As the players jockey for position to take over Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) media empire, Logan himself is thinking about the long game. While he attempts to takeover another news conglomerate – Pierce Media – the remainder of the people in his orbit scramble to be in proximity to his frightening levels of power and self-assurance. Unlike Game of Thrones, the piece-moving on Succession rarely ends in physical manifestations of violence, but the constant, bloodless in-fighting between family members is almost more anxiety provoking than death by rare poison. The true poison on Succession are the toxic relationships between the Roy family. They are empty shells, only focused on external glory to the detriment of their souls.
So, much like Game of Thrones, Succession is working towards crowning an ultimate winner. Presumably at the end of it all, someone will reign supreme as the CEO of Waystar RoyCo. And after Game of Thrones, the tactics to get there seem very familiar. In the run up to a modern-day throne, the characters on Succession each have at least one Game of Thrones counterpart. Who are they? Read on to find out.
Caution: Spoilers follow for Succession and Game of Thrones. We’ll cover the entirety of Game of Thrones, and through Season 2, Episode 4 for Succession.