Across the land, peoples gather beneath their banners: a roaring lion, a rearing stag, a peacock spreading wide its tail fan.
Those are the houses of Lannister, Baratheon and Stark, right? Erm, actually it’s the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk and two of Moscow’s satellite towns, Odintsovo and Serpukhov.
At least 16 of Game of Thrones coats of arms appear to be almost carbon copies of those of Russian regions, according to a sharp-eyed user of Pikabu, the Russian version of Reddit website, who gathered them together.
Maybe it's not all that surprising. Coats of arms tend to reuse tried and tested designs and a few favorite animals and objects, and Russia has thousands of administrative districts and towns with their own coats of arms spread over its 17 million square kilometers of territory.
Then again, perhaps Game of Thrones did take some inspiration from Russia. If so, Russians are returning the favor. A trend of naming babies after characters from the TV show means there are already plenty of little Russian Aryas waiting for the Russian winter.
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