Contains spoilers for those who are yet to catch up with Season 5, obviously.
Let's start at the very beginning. Remember the dead direwolf that had been killed by a stag in the first episode?
This was, though you may not have spotted it at the time, a pretty good analogy for the first few seasons of the show. The direwolf (Ned) was killed by the stag (Joffrey Baratheon). Not only that, but the direwolf left six pups behind – as did Ned.
HBO
And the whole thing didn't end too well for the stag, either.
Whether you take the stag to be Robert or Joffrey, the analogy works either way. Both the Starks and the Baratheons have a rather tough time of it, while the Lannister lions are there to take advantage.
HBO
And that's not the only time we see real animals used as analogies for the houses of Westeros.
In the same episode that King Robert is killed in a hunting "accident", we see Lord Tywin skinning a stag.
HBO
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