‘There are no black people on GoT’: why is fantasy TV so white?

The genre has a problem with diversity, and George RR Martin’s series is no exception, but some feel its omissions reflect reality

This month, the biggest TV show in the world returns for one final dragon-slaying, wall-toppling, throne-nabbing season. In the time since it last aired, memes have been shared, elaborate theories have been devised and revised, bets have been laid (Lyanna Mormont FTW) and cos-play outfits have been lovingly stitched. Yet there is one aspect that is yet to receive adequate attention: Game of Thrones – great show, but is it racist?

This much should have been obvious from way back when the very first episode aired in 2011. It was clear then that showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss envisioned their world as a white one. The majority of the action took place in Westeros, George RR Martin’s skewed spin on medieval Britain and the west, where the fair-haired, fair-skinned Lannisters engaged in a generations-long power struggle with the darker-haired, fair-skinned Starks. People of colour were not absent from the show but they were relegated to its cartographical margins. In the east, or Essos, the Dothraki people were depicted as a nomadic tribe of violent, rape-happy savages. That is until Westerosi princess Daenerys arrived, like Stacey Dooley on a Comic Relief jolly, and civilised them all.