The HOTD thread is dead so I'm starting a new one for leftist discussion of the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones universe including books, shows, plays, etc.
Imma start by asking who’s the most Historically Progressive force in Westeros as of the latest book:
>King Stannis for being a developmentalist monarch trying to unify the Seven Kingdoms against the threat beyond the Wall?
>Daenerys Targaryen for trying to abolish the slavery mode of production in Essos, rebirthing magic in the world and holding the power of dragons against the Others?
>The Brotherhood Without Banners for engaging in Protracted Smallfolk War against the tyranny and brutal violence of Houses LARPister and Frey?
>The City of Bravos and the Iron Bank for being a blooming bourgeois republic in a world that's been stuck under slavery and feudalism for thousands of years?
>Yi Ti, who much like IRL China, is a very technologically advanced superpower who does nothing and still wins?
None of those forces are historically progressive, but the setting itself is possessed by the Spirit of Historical Progress which is acting through them.