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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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But by acting on this noble impulse, Jon critically undermines his other duty of protecting the realm from literal ice zombies that want to kill all humans. And thus the folly of trying to follow all his noble impulses: which eventually gets him killed in a mutiny.

This isn't necessarily related to your overall point, but this plot point is probably the show failure that pissed me off the most. In the books, the brothers mutiny against Jon because he broke his oath. Whether one agrees or disagrees with their actions, they had a reasonable motive for what they did. The show abandons the nuance entirely and just rounds the brothers' motive off to "hurr durr racism". It's infuriating.

This is exactly related to my overall point. By the later seasons the show has very much returned to this black/white way of seeing characters, but this time woke. Jon couldn't possibly do anything wrong, it's just the evil bigots who hate wildlings trying to sabotage him. While in the books there is an element of bigotry in the mutiny, Bowen Marsh does let the wildlings through the wall. It's Jon doing what the readers want him to do (using the Night's Watch to fight the Bolton's) but breaking promises that causes the mutiny in the end.