Game of Thrones and laws of war: Meet our volunteers

Check yourself! Spoilers ahead!

To celebrate National Volunteer Week, some of the 15 volunteers that contributed blood, sweat and tears to the laws of war analysis of Game of Thrones have channelled their inner #GoT and answered some tough questions! Read on to find out whether their predictions for who would end up on the (now molten) Iron Throne were accurate.

Nicole Urban (@N_W_Urban), fearless project leader and self-declared member of House Tarth (who wouldn’t want to be besties with Brienne?) signed up to the project to put her exceptional TV watching skills into action to disseminate IHL. But who did she want to see on the Iron Throne? Sansa Stark of course. Alas, she didn’t get her wish, but Queen in the North is a decent second prize.

Rachel Routley (@rsroutley) has declared her allegiance lies with House Martell, but was gunning for Arya to be in the (literally) hot seat. When asked if she was surprised by anything on the #GoTIHL project, Rachel said when watching Game of Thrones through a laws of war lens, she was surprised by how FEW violations there were per episode!

Sarah Ireland (@sarahjireland1) takes her research seriously and undertook an online quiz to find out which House she belongs to. Turns out it’s House Tully. According to this foolproof online resource, her "sense of right and wrong runs deep – but so does [her] moat so you can defend yourself pretty easily if you need to!" What became clear to Sarah during this project is that even in a fictional show, based in a fictional location, there were so many instances where the laws of war could (and should) have been considered by the characters, highlighting how fundamental it is for all actors of conflict to have knowledge of the laws of war, and how incredibly important the laws are in protecting civilians. We couldn’t agree more, Sarah!

Mia Tam has elected to join House Tyrell. She said, exchanging banter with the Queen of Thorns and getting rid of Joffrey would have been a lovely way to live before being blown up! Seems reasonable. And who did she want to see on the Iron Throne? It was another vote for Sansa Stark! As the last person you would have pictured on the Iron Throne in season 1, Mia thought Sansa’s character arc from a naive girl to savvy woman, learning from both "good" and "bad" role models, made her perfectly suited for the Irone Throne.

Sharon Edington is the self-declared newest member of House Stark. For the boldest choice in Iron Throne predictions, Sharon betrayed her House with her prediction of Cersei Lannister for the win. Her favourite thing about the #GoTIHL project was re-visiting great moments from the show through a new lens and seeing that so many fan favourites (like Daenerys, Queen of Ashes) were far from innocent in terms of IHL violations.

As we wrap up, we want to take this opportunity thank all the volunteers who contributed their time and brainpower to bring this project to fruition – those mentioned above, and Noel Trew, Maanpreet Kaur, Catherine Gleeson, Monique Cormier, Keilin Anderson, Lori Vullings, Thamilini Gunaranchithan, Hollie Johnston, Shireen Daft and Yvette Zegenhagen. We couldn’t do it without you!