The On-Demand Economy Ventures to Westeros

We all love HBO’s Game of Thrones and the A Song of Ice and Fire novels for the sex, action and gore, but the thing that makes the story especially engaging is that politics and economics connect the realm to reality.

Imagine for a moment (Remember, this is still fantasy…) that Westerosi citizens were equipped with the smartphone technology of 2016 with access to on-demand job apps. For the diehard reddit tin foil contributors reading this, combine the Weirwood Net with a much faster publicly available breed of Ravens, and iOS and Android apps are basically already available. In considering how this would impact Westeros, it’s easy to see the stark contrast between life with and life without the on-demand economy.

Continue reading to see how the on-demand economy would make Westeros weddings less colorful…

Weddings Gone Wrong, Part 1: Good Help Is Hard to Find

Regarding Westerosi (Surely you’ve heard this by now) event planning, particularly for weddings, it’s exceedingly difficult to rely on your event staff to come through as planned. Considering the amount of planning that goes into these special events, there’s clearly a regional issue with their execution.

As they say with best laid plans, not even the Starks, the Lannisters, or the Tyrells (despite their notoriety as world-class Houses) can account for the improbable outcomes of some of their most planned events.

Consider Joffrey Baratheon’s and Margaery Tyrell’s wedding. This event was extravagant and costly. Even attempting to itemize the expenditures of their special day is enough to make a king purple in the face.

This wedding included fire dancing, live drama, juggling on stilts, and excellent front-of-house servers.

Problematically, this event also included hundreds of temporary event staffers who would have been matched to this event via traditional part-time employment services courtesy of Petyr Baelish.

Not dissimilar from traditional staffing agencies, Petyr Baelish’s corporate interests superceded those of the event and allowed for his personal agenda to rule the day.

Had the planners of the wedding thought to leverage the on-demand economy, there could have been tremendous savings of both life and coin.

Background checks are common among on-demand services. An on-demand app’s profile pages often detail the average ratings of their community members and use their technology to match your need with a qualified candidate.

Had the Tyrells and Lannisters leveraged an on-demand service for staffers rather than work through Littlefinger, they could have prevented suspicious personnel, such as Dontos Hollard, from attending their event. Not only had Dontos Hollard failed to live up to King Joffrey’s expectations at their last encounter, but he also proved to be a terrible juggler. With Petyr Baelish’s instruction, this non-background checked, non-insured, and non-vetted staffer’s actions choked the oxygen out of Joffrey Baratheon’s and Margaery Tyrell’s special day.

What are some other ways the on-demand economy would impact Game of Thrones?

Tweet your idea with the hashtag #WesterosApp for a chance to be featured in our Sunday mailbag building up to the season finale.