If Indian Game of Thrones existed, would it look like this?

Vishal Dutt is an engineer dropout, photoshop addict, art enthusiast and die hard GoT fan. For more, visit here.

Do we really need sex, rape and gore in Game of Thrones?

It's clear to anyone, both long-time lovers of fantasy and those less well-versed with the genre, that Westeros and the land of Ice and Fire in general is not a utopia. Far from it, it's not even a fantasy world that many of us would choose to live in.

Unlike Tolkien's Middle Earth or the fantastical Hogwarts, it doesn't come across as a "better place". In fact, it seems a twisted version of ours, with some of the worse aspects - patriarchy, a rigid class system, corruption and power-crazed rulers-magnified and drawn larger than life. This is where the violence of the show becomes useful, even a plot point.

The show's writers have to illustrate just how messed up and terrible the world is, how much in need of the typical fantasy saviour. The constant denial of this saviour - through the killing of those we might suspect of being the one we need, such as Ned Stark or his son Robb - is how we are reminded time and again that Westeros, despite the presence of dragons, is depressingly like our real world, where no magical Messiah will appear to make everything all right. Read more here.