The Anthropology of Game of Thrones 

By the time "Winds of Winter" is released, us homo sapiens would probably already have evolved into an entirely different species.

The White Walkers are just highly evolved barn owls. You heard it here first, folks.

“Sothoryos is the continent we know the least about” Ulthos wants to know your location

"Im a fan of the show" "in the wake of the premiere of the final season" oh dear :D

Technically there are fish people, in the shivering sea, and flat out deep ones.

kind of wish the show went for a more ethereal look for white walkers rather than the very mundane magic zombie design. would've been more distinct + memorable.

I finally figured out. Game of Thrones is a post-apocalyptic world and the white walkers are the surviving robo-anthropo-droid-AIs of current civilization.

OK I've seen a lot of GoT nerd videos, but this has to be one of the nerdiest. I love the simplistic explanations.

Worth noting that even in a setting where magic is real, the principles of evolution still hold up. Like if dragon breath is supernatural, dragons would still evolve to take full advantage of it.

I love it when writers mix science with fiction. Its a nerd's paradise.

I would argue that, even though the Children and Giants probably diverged from each other long before they arrived on Westeros. The size difference between the two in comparison to the Ibbanese, Brindled Men, and Homo Sapiens is likely explained by Insular Gigantism and Insular Dwarfism. Given the fact that an isolated species will trend towards following an evolutionary path designed to deal with unique environmental pressures, it seems likely that the two species were isolated from each other and the rest of the world millennia prior to the last Ice Age. The Giants likely faced environmental pressures that were predatory in nature, while also being able to take advantage of plentiful food sources to increase in size and bone structure in order to protect from said predators. In contrast, the Children probably found themselves in an ecosystem that was relatively bereft of large predation, but also saw food sources in reduced abundance, leading to adaptations trending towards lower energy requirements. This would develop into smaller and more delicate statures. Then, as the Ice Age began and sea levels dropped, it's likely that both groups were suddenly exposed to the continent of Westeros, likely in the form of land bridges connecting to their respective islands of origination. I would posit, therefore, that due to stark differences in appearance, the Children and the Giants are not really closely related at all. They share bipedalism and a geographical location (Westeros) but do not exhibit any other real anthropomorphic similarities. I would probably assume that the Giants are probably a species that branched off from the Ibbanese or Brindled Men several millennia before the last Ice Age, while the Children branched off even further back, perhaps 10 Million years prior to the last Ice Age. I might even go so far as to suggest that the Children were the first to split from the rest, and that the isolation that lead to their Insular Dwarfism likely predates the split between the rest by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. This is also, I believe, supported by the fact that their intelligence level surpasses most, if not all, other species on Planetos. Now...this is wild speculation...but I suspect a cursory inspection of the Sunset Sea by oceanographic technology would probably reveal either a Hawaii-like set of submerged islands off the coast of Westeros, or a small, submerged subcontinent far west and north of Westeros with an oceanic ridge that would act as a land bridge during a major Ice Age. If you took the time to read all that, I hope you enjoyed!

What did the Others say to each other during the Long Night? No Homo.

"Sothoryos, probably the continent we know least about." *Staring at Ulthos intensifies.

"No animal on earth has 4 legs + wings." I think George means no vertebrate... xd

2:11 "Grorge has taken the time to think these things out" *Well, too bad the directors didn't*

The Others seem to be a lot like Daugar, the undead of Norse mythology which unlike classical zombies are intelligent. It’s for this reason I think that they’re the result of some sort of a mutagenic organism/pathogen. I also wouldn’t completely rule out magic since there does seem to be clear examples of magic such as warging and arguably Jon’s resurrection. I like the idea of a world that combines magic and natural science, even putting a science to magic. But then again we’re talking about Lord George, first of his name, writer of books, and crusher of dreams so all of this could be wrong. Edit: I think House Targaryen itself is another example of magic. No house could survive that long with that much inbreeding.

I think the true gold gem for paleobiologists in the world of "Planetos" is that continent of Sothorios. Located in the equator and thus less likely to suffer from ice ages and fairly removed from homo sapiens influence, it must be a teeming with late extant transitional forms not only for early humans, but also for other creatures such as dragons. By the way, I really like his hypothesis about the white walkers as aliens since they clearly don't fit with anything else in the planet.

Apparently the Giants of Essos (I hope that is spelled right) are much larger than the Giants of Westeros. They’re twice as tall as their Westerosi brethren/descendants/cousins.

"GRRM has clearly really thought this out!" WESTEROS AND ESSOS ARE BOTH JUST GIANT RECTANGLES

I hope he does a "Zoology of game of thrones"

Mark Twain said, first get your facts straight, and then twist them at your leisure. Meaning that you can build fantasy only if its based in the real world, and that attempting to go full Jupiter Ascending destroy any semblance of suspension of Belief. It's easy to accept a fantasy world if it feels real to us.

I really respect his desire for scientific accuracy in his work of fantasy. Personally I wouldn't have the patience to do the same in my work a fantasy. I'd just want to go nuts and create all sorts of things!

One small point, in our world aurochs survived until surprisingly recently, the last known example died in Poland in 1627.

As a Measter of the Citadel, from a scientific perspective, how would you explain the unpredictable season lengths of Westeros?

No the white walkers are basking sharks. It's so obvious

it's unfortunate we'll probably never see the rest of "Planetos". The ASOIAF world is so interesting.

so if the whitewalkers suddenly get a UFO in the final season and either flee the planet for losing against the united stark and targaryen forces. Or get a UFO to blow King's landing to smithereens. we'll know who to credit for being right

As a Anthro major and GOT fanatic....this is bliss 😍

So here I am, in my last class of school. Tired, hungry and bored, I reach my daily peek of apathy... And then I see at the corner of my screen "Trey the Explainer's "The Anthropology of Game of Thrones". My face now glows with glee.

I believe the Ibenese are mixture of fantasy dwarves and real life neanderthals.

I read somewhere that Westeros is inspired by the migration of Celts, Romans, Vikings, Danish into the British Isle. The land bridge is Doggerland, the wall is Hadrian's wall, the free folk are Scottish, etc.

I love the White Walkers are aliens theory. It reminds me of my favorite book series, Codex Alera, where the Ancient Roamn-like civilization encounters what has been confirmed by the author to be an extraterrestrial invasion. It's cool to have a sci-fi premise being described in a non-technological way

Wait... Trey is a fan? *X-files theme song starts playing*

What a cool and interesting way to look at Planetos and ASOIF. Thanks for the video and your fascinating perspective on this topic.

3:43 I read somewhere that Martin took inspiration from Anglo-Saxon Great Britain, but wanted to explore what it would be like if it were the size of South America. •The North = (is based on) Pictland. Note how they are more closely related to the First Men than the Andals just as Scots have deeper Celtic than Germanic heritage •The Riverlands = Northumbria •The Iron Islands = The Isle of Man •The Westerlands = Wales, despite their Celtic roots •The Vale = East Anglia •The Reach = Mercia •The Crownlands = Essex (& northern Kent) •The Stormlands = Kent •Dorne = Sussex if it were Frankish. Note that the Dornish are from the area of the river Rhoyne, while the Franks are from Rhineland. The Dornish are also stereotyped to have excellent wine and love sex more than the average Westerosi-well-known French stereotypes This would make Essos a compacted Eurasia, so I'd guess that: •The Free Cities = Western Europe after the fall of Rome •Sarnor = The Goths, who fell to the... •The Dothraki Horde = The Huns •Former Valyria = The former Roman Empire •Slaver's Bay = Sassanian Near East, where Old Ghis = Ancient Egypt •Lhazar = Canaan •The Red Waste = The Syrian and/or Arabian? Desert •The Bone Mountains = The Urals •Qarth = the Silk Road port of Karachi •Further East = The Far East. Edit: Changed formatting for clarity. Edit2: I'd also guess the White Walkers are based on early Medieval British fear of the Vikings. I always thought of the Children of the Forest as Westeros' pixies. But, now that I think about it, pixies vs. Vikings sounds really weird. Still, Martin _has_ taken it all his own direction, so I stick by this guess.

You literally made this video for me. Anthropology and Biology are my favorite subjects and GOT is my favorite show (I plan to read the books soon too)

“Magic. Mythical creatures, and a lot of sex” - Trey the explainer I cracked a lot after that

As a lover of anthropology I just want to say that this was a great idea. Thanks for your work.

You could do one on The Elder Scrolls world as well, the world and citizens of Tamriel, Atmora, Akavir etc. Although their origins are sort of well elaborated in the books in game but and they are quite fantastical in nature. An analysis could still be done

I believe there were giants in the bone mountains that were twice as large as their westerosi counterparts

0:21 that dragon is probably a large basking owl

YES !!! finally I won't have to rewatch two year old videos to hear the sweet sweet voice of TREY the Explainer

George: "There are no animal on earth that has 4 legs plus wings" Insects: ARE WE A JOKE TO YOU ? YOU PUT LOCUSTS IN YOUR OWN DAMN BOOKS !!

"The Others are aliens." You sound like Preston Jacobs....I like it.

I’ve always found Neolithic anthropology fascinating. I’d really love to see more videos on this type of lore based subject. And did you seriously just sing the entire song at the end? Lol Altogether great job on this video. I loved it.

25:00 - possible - but if we're going to go there I would much prefer if the others turned out to be androids and/or cyborgs created by a lost human civilization - since both explanations require advanced technology but this is more consistent with appearance and motivation to be fair I might be biased - I like the whole magical/fantasy world that is actually set in the future idea - might be that most magic/unrealistic aspects are somehow explained by this actually being set in the future after the ruin of an advanced civilization long before any of the known history began

**Starts playing Game of Thrones theme in head**

I knew we were due a Trey the Explainer video, my Trey the Explainer sense was tingling ☺

I never got into GOT, now would probably be the time.

White walkers are probably inspired by the theories of alternative biochemistries and shadow biospheres.

Fantastic job man! Can’t imagine the work that went into this...much appreciated!

BRO TREY DO SPECULATIVE ZOOLOGY. LIKE AN ENTIRE VIDEO ABOUT THE TOPIC WITH CM KOSMEN AND DOUGAL DIXON AND OTHERS

Oh shit, he uploaded. So what do you think is the wildest, craziest, Adaptation in biological history?

Aurochs weren't extinct in the middle ages and still existed in small populations in Europe, the last went extinct in the 15th century.

I've read through the books twice and feel like a fool for never realizing they had neanderthals. I'll have to read them again with that context in mind.

I came for dinoaurs. I stayed for a vast majority of interesting topics which broaden my horizon and even made me choose a biology presentation for my school finals. This is how RU-vid is done. Well done, Trey. You are by far my favourite on here, and even though I never watched GoT this was still super interesting to me!

I prefer the book version of white walkers simply because of lack of explaination for them. The tv series kind of ruined the mystery in exchange for generic environmental message out of nowhere. Hearing about misunderstood villains, I think the Others might be simply trying to get away from harsher winters in order to survive, thus try migrating south, rather than wanting to whipe out humanity because they were created to do so.

man, i watch a ton of videos about the greater worldbuilding, and they're always filled with lots of speculation and such. i really appreciate your approach to this subject, this is one of the better videos i've seen regarding the lore in a long while

"Long ago the planetosi live together in harmony, then the Space mari-" "FOR THE EMPEROOOOOR!!!"

Love the vids, keep up the good work man

Here is a challenge now that you try to examine fictional worlds and concepts through a scientific angle The Anthropology/Science of Vampires, Pillar men, Hamon and Stands of JoJo's Bizzarre adventure.

My GoT head canon has always been something like: Earth; in the far future; colonizes much of the galaxy, and places homo sapiens on Planatos as some sort of comparative experiment--in terms of the creation of intelligent life--and then subsequently their whole civilization falls apart leaving the seeded races of hominid (homo sapiens) to compete with the genetically and technologically advanced "Others (white walkers)" who remained of the original homo sapiens civilization. IDK if this makes sense but it always did to me :)?

This was such an interesting video! Your anthropological knowledge and enthusiasm for the books combined so well and I'm living for it. Thank you!

Thank you, Trey, you informing genius. This is the perfect opiate till the final season rolls in.

Great video, very interesting and enjoyable. One correction, the Dothraki actually haven't been inhabitants of the Dothraki sea for very long, "only" about 400 years since the Doom of Valyria. Before that, most of the Dothraki sea was ruled by the Tall Men. I don't entirely remember what that race of humans looked like, but I believe they were tall (obviously) and white skinned. I imagine that they were closely related to the Andals, because of their height and complexion. I don't know whwre the Dothraki lived before they conquered the Tall Men's lands and turned it into the Dothraki Sea, but since the Womb of the World and Vaes Dothrak are ancient, sacred place to them, I imagine that they have been living in the eastern part of the Dothraki Sea for a while, although they may have migrated from east of the bone mountains, or maybe from the south in the Red Waste, since they have a darker complexion. I found what you said about the Qartheen and Valyrians migrating into their territories at a later time, given that their skin is pale although they live so far south, very interesting. I always imagined that the Valyrians used to have a normal, darker complexion and normal eyes, but they modified their appearance using blood magic to the extremeley pale, silver-haired, purple-eyed beautiful people that they were (and are) today. Given that they saw themselves as gods, it wouldn't surprise me if they used magic to make their appearances as mystical and beautiful as possible. The Qartheen confuse me however, especially since their history is so ancient, but it could be that only the elites are that pale because they spend little time in the sun (don't know if that's true, but Daenarys only mingled with the elites while she was in Qarth, while she was describing their tallness and paleness). Maybe the original Qartheen were Tall Men immigrants, thousands of years ago, given their proximity and similar appearance. Their isolation behind their walls would explain why they still look so different to the peoples around them.

fantastic content! I loved this deep dive, as I've always been most intrigued by the ancient history of Planetos and the other races oh human that inhabit it. This was exactly the video I wanted!

This is what I love about you, Trey. I don't care about Game of Thrones, and yet you still manage to make these videos incredibly entertaining

Light skin human closer to the equator could be a hint of a subterrean society driven underground due to the ice age. Valyria had vase geothermal caves. And the Qartheen might have done the same.

This is one of the channels that I just love getting notifications from. Every video is a gem, so interesting and creatively educational! Keep it up Trey

At 16:12, it shows Martin's 1979 novelette/short story Sandkings. I was unaware he published a book with that exact piece of art by Michael Whelan, because for decades I've owned and listened to the album "Beneath the Remains" by Sepultura (1989), which has the exact same artwork but obviously used a decade later. Interesting! Also, great video. Thanks for explaining the universe of "Planetos". LOL. Kind of a generic name to be honest.

What about the fish people that live in the North Eastern archipelago? And I'm pretty sure you missed a few more. There are also the Deep Ones that may have created the Salt Throne, which should count as some sort of archaeological evidence. As well as a multitude of races from East Essos.

I showed all my friends your channel ur my favorite RU-vidr and ur subjects are interesting and inspiring

*me on my break from studying for my anthropology exam* : -_-

The 13th Warrior is also about medieval people who lived among and fought against another species of human.

Amazing analysis! Wish we had more science-oriented fantasy RU-vidrs like you. It was a really amazing trip!

Does anyone think even the *known world* map might be inaccurate? It reminds me of our own medieval maps of oblong continents, and in reality Westeros and Essos might be a lot 'messier'.

I dont even like game of thrones BUT DAMN IS THIS VIDEO GOOD

I just found your channel and this video. I'm so glad I did, as I'm really enjoying the lens through which you're looking! Thanks so much for your time and effort!!!

I love your taxonomic names for the various species of Planetos! Awesome video!

Hopping on that GoT/asoiaf train before season 8? You at least have precedent in your Giants and Dragons videos unlike many RU-vidrs... btw great work, keep it up Trey!

I also think that ASOIAF has much more forgiving/bendable/adaptable DNA since all these different species have had some kind of offspring with homosapiens and all the inbreeding doesn't seem to have nearly as devastating effects as it has in our world

“No animal on earth has two legs and wings” Literally every single insect in the world: i’m about to end this man’s whole career

This is _such_ a cool video. Thank you for making it and sharing your knowledge with us!

I absolutely looooove how much thought GRR has put into asoif! And I love pondering the mysteries hes laid out and their possible relation/inspiration of our own world!!!

"I hope you enjoy the last season of Game of Thrones." lol

Humming the song at the end brought a smile to my face, a moment before you laughed yourself. Well done my friend. That's why I love you're channel.

I love your videos, no other knowledge youtube channel has as much heart as you. Keep up the good work!

This was fantastic. Would love a Preston cross over ;)

Fire breathing, apache helicopter in midievil times level anachronism, 2 legged, scientifically accurate dragons.

I anticipate your videos trey, keep up the good work I genuinely mean that.

I like your hypotesis about the others! I also love that you created an evolutionary tree for the humanoids of Westeros, this makes GoT even more interesting to watch! Thank you.

DID SOMEBODY SAY "ANTHROPOLOGY!!!"

You should do the anthropology of the Mass Effect universe!

As a person interested in anthropology and lore, i greatly enjoyed your video. Its exactly what i was looking in explaining the lore of GOT

While I was listening to this I kept thinking: "Wow Trey should really watch some of Preston's videos! I bet he'd love them!!" You and PJ are two of my favorite RU-vidrs so I'm really happy that you know and appreciate his work!

Wait a minute.. This isn't paleo profiles :(

17:50 I always thought of the giants to be gigantopithecus blacki (especially the larger Essos variety).

[rocks up to this vid 5 years late] Yoooooo, I LOVE THIS. This was so much fun to listen to. I loved your scientific approach to it all; it was all really well-reasoned and thought out. Great vid!!

“Real creatures like giants, and even mythical creatures like giants” lol

I love this video, though I was hoping you would go into the difference between humans and the humans of valyria. if you read into the world of ice and fire and fire and blood there are mentions of the fact that valyrians had problems bringing fourth issues with non-valyrians and many times valirian women would give birth to children that were scaled, winged and tailed still births. The easiest ones to point out would be with Maegor the Cruel having married more than 5 times with different women and each time his wives gave birth each child came out in this human/dragon hybrid it also happened to Rhaynes Targaryon in the dance of the dragons as well as to Daenerys when giving birth to rhaego. id love to hear what you think about that!