It would be difficult to find a more popular cultural phenomenon than George RR Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and the HBO spin-off television series Game of Thrones. Between these two media sources, the fantasy epic has generated a huge fan base. An estimated 17 million books in the series have been sold worldwide, while the most recent episode of the HBO series had 5.4 million television views, in addition to the estimated one million people who illicitly viewed it within twenty-four years. hours from the first. broadcast11. With such immense popularity in the Western world, whatever emotional connection fans of the phenomenon have to the epic must represent a larger collective social ethic. It is evident that the books, with the first volumes published in November 2000, only gained popularity in the post-9/11 era. The epic is noted for its motifs relating to the application of Valar Morghulis and the White Walkers: the idea that "All men must die" and an impending zombie apocalyptic event, respectively. If one were to combine these two observations, one might propose an intrinsic link between post-9/11 emotional tensions and the reasons for the fantasy epic's recent gain in popularity. One such proposition that will be examined is the idea that people in the West collectively suffer from PTSD resulting from witnessing the terrorist events of 9/11, so much so that they seek to connect with pop culture media who project their fears and realizations. A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones are these projections, as the application of valar morghulis satisfies people's realization of their own mortality, as well as the recognition of the mortality of all those around them, and the constant. .. middle of paper... obedient beings reflect society's collective PTSD resulting from witnessing the events of 9/11. Respectively, one deals with recognizing our own mortality and the mortality of those around us, and the other presents our fear of doomsday and the loss of order and structure. These ideas can be seen in other cultural objects. With songs like “YOLO,” by Drake, “Live like we're death,” by Kris Allen, and others, music definitely plays a role in our obsession with acknowledging our own mortality. Likewise, the repopularization of the zombie genre and the apocalypse also recognizes our fear of the end of society. Another object that could complement this thesis would be The Hunger Games series, which includes both the annual killing of children and a post-apocalyptic world. Pop culture phenomena should not be omitted when investigating the collective social ethics of a period in human history.