ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a composite or synthetic realism suggested by the ontology of the image in Game of Thrones (GoT). On the one hand, this would be distinct from Lev Manovich's notion of "synthetic realism," which accounts only for the computer-generated image itself. On the other, it would also be distinct from Jean-Louis Baudry's "impression of reality," which conceptualized the cinematic apparatus itself as a machine producing a perceptual reality for the spectator, independent or irrespective of the particular film text. The chapter examines the fundamental relation between fantasy and animation, not only in the series but also in our understanding of both psychoanalysis and visual culture more broadly. It offers a reappraisal of current neo-Lacanian film theory in order to explore the relation between reality, fantasy and VFX in GoT from a psychoanalytic perspective.
