Like many of you, I watch Game of Thrones. While watching the latest episode, I realized the characters make many arguments. So, I thought it would be fun to use some of their dialogue as mini LSAT lessons.
If you don't watch Game of Thrones or aren't caught up, turn away for many spoilers lie ahead.
Scene 1 - Jon Snow wields a cool conditional chain
Jon Snow: "I need you with me if we're going to beat them, and we need to beat them if you're going to survive."
survive → beat them → you with me
Jon uses "need" to indicate necessity along with "if" to indicate sufficiency. Though he states only his major premise without giving the full argument, he correctly assumes that everyone wants to "survive" which would triggers the conditional chain allowing everyone to draw the conclusion that the Free Folk ought to stick with Jon Snow.
Scene 2 - Tormund's like "Hey Snow, let me see that cool conditional chain."
Quickly following Jon's argument, Tormund wants to play with the conditional chain also. Earlier in the dialogue he mentions that Jon died for the Free Folk so "do the same" is referencing that.
Tormund: "If we are not willing to do the same for him, we're cowards. And if that's what we are, we deserve to be the last of the Free Folk."
not willing to die for Jon → cowards → deserve to be last of the Free Folk
Like Jon, Tormund also states only his major premise. He also correctly assumes that none of the Free Folk wants to be the last of the Free Folk nor do they want to be labeled cowards. Hence, by failing either of the necessary conditions, we can contrapose and arrive at the conclusion that the Free Folk "are willing to die for Jon". In context, this means join Jon in war to take back Winterfell from the Boltons.
Scene 3 - Cersei is not half as bright
I find this scene really funny. Olenna says to Cersei, "If you're half as bright as you think you are, you'll find a way out of here, too." Without missing a beat, Cersei replies "Never." Like, she just accepts Olenna's insulting premise and plays along. I almost feel bad for her.
Let's look at this in lawgic.
Olenna: Cersei is 50% as smart as Cersei thinks she is → leave
Cersei: not leaving
Conclusion: Cersei's not very bright
Scene 4 - Blackfish understands the inclusive or
In this scene, one of the Frey idiots threatens Blackfish and says "Yield the castle or I cut his throat."
Blackfish, who clearly understands the inclusive or, thinks to himself:
not yield castle → nephew's throat cut
But I remember from this 7Sage lesson that if I yield the castle, that Frey idiot might cut my nephew's throat anyway. I'm gonna call him out on his shit bluff.
Scene 5 - Jamie with a strong contrapose
This was probably my favorite scene from the episode.
Right before this scene, Jamie simultaneously insults and warns the Frey idiot that "only a fool makes threats he's not prepared to carry out."
makes threats he's not prepared to carry out → fool
Since Frey threatened Blackfish earlier but didn't carry it out, Jamie effectively called him a fool. There's the insult. But Jamie is also warning Frey because we can assume that Jamie does not think himself a fool and hence conclude that Jamie makes threats he is prepared to carry out. Jamie proceeds to make the following threat: "Now let's say I threatened to hit you unless you shut your mouth, but you kept talking. What do you think I'd do?"
not shut your dirty Frey mouth → Jamie hits you
And of course, like the idiot he is, the Frey keeps talking.
Scene 6 - Jamie is fond of unless
Jamie uses "unless" again in this scene, "Have him bathed and fed. Unless you'd like to take his place."
don't want to take his place → bath and feed him
Jamie assumes that the idiot Frey does not want to take the prisoner's place and therefore will bath and feed him. This time they take Jamie's threat seriously.
Scene 7 - Davos also knows how to contrapose a conditional chain too
Davos strings together a conditional argument just like Jon and Tormund did at the beginning of the episode.
Davos: "As long as the Boltons hold Winterfell, the North is divided. And a divided North won't stand a chance against the Night King."
Boltons hold Winterfell → North divided → no chance against Night King
Davos correctly assumes that Lady Lyanna Mormont wants to stand a chance against the Night King and so, contraposing back, will arrive at the conclusion that she should help them kick the Boltons out of Winterfell.