Game of Thrones, Book 2


The first Game of Thrones book ended with (ex) King Robert Baratheon’s born-of-incest-between-the-Queen-and-her-brother “son”, Joffrey on the throne. In the second book, we see that the “boy king” is too young to maintain alliances (let alone rule), a psycho who alienates his subjects by his wanton cruelty, and a moron who won’t listen to his top advisors. Perhaps such folly is only to be expected in a teenaged king, as Theon Greyjoy wonders:
“Boys believe nothing can hurt them… Grown men know better.”

But grown men cannot let a lunatic, even if he is the King, destroy everything. Which is why Bronn wonders if Joffrey should be assassinated and replaced by his younger brother:
“Seems like he’d do whatever he was told, as a good king should.”
Others like Lord Varys intend to survive regardless of what happens:
“The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.”

Given that Joffrey was not even Robert’s son (see first para) and thus his claim to the throne legally invalid, uncle Stannis Baratheon believes he is the “lawful heir”. But Stannis’ younger brother, Renly, disagrees:
“Why the oldest son, and not the best fitted?... I have it in me to be a great king, strong yet generous, clever, just, diligent, loyal to my friends and terrible to my enemies, yet capable of forgiveness, patient…”
Stannis is a by-the-rules man, and so as is the curse of all such men, never loved by anyone. His advisor Cressen laments:
“No. Nor will they ever. He is strong, able, just… aye, just past the point of wisdom… yet it is not enough. It has never been enough.”
Remember the eternal Machiavelli question: Is it better to be loved or to be feared? Stannis knows he is not loved, and so he is only left with the option that he be feared instead.

Robb Stark, on the other hand, rises against Joffrey for revenge. And breaks away from the realm declaring himself the “King of the North”. Something that enrages both Joffrey and Stannis. “Another false king”, fumes Stannis.

Inevitably, some of the claimants to the throne try to enlist religion on their side (“There is but one true king, and one true god.”). To which came the retort:
“Are we here to dispute theology, my lord? Had I known, I would have bought a septon (priest).”
Aha, but religion is just a tool, as Stannis admits:
“A sorceress who can inspire such dread in grown men is not to be despised. A frightened man is a beaten man.”
On the other hand, losers too resort to magic and religion, as Tyrion says:
“Sorcery is the sauce fools spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence.”
Sound complicated? Tyrion thinks the same:
“Nothing was simple and little was true.”

From beyond the kingdom’s boundaries, (King beyond the Wall) Mance Rayder plans his assault on the kingdom. And so, the Old Bear warns what awaits the winner of this “clash of kings”:
“All of them (kings). The true and false alike. If they would claim the realm, let them defend it.”

And yet, even as self-proclaimed kings sprout everywhere, Varys tells Tyrion:
“All depends on the man with the sword… If it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, why do we pretend our kings hold the power?... Power resides where men believe it resides… A very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
Tyrion, Varys and Queen Cersai are players who don’t wield the sword, but can play the game as well as anyone, and more importantly, know how to rule during peacetime. Because while the war is ongoing with its sieges, food shortages and looting, as Arstan told Daenerys:
“There were four kings in the land, and no justice to be had.”
Which is why Tyrion knew what the common man was thinking:
“King Joffrey and King Robb and King Stannis were forgotten, and King Bread ruled alone.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Student of the Year

Image
As a toddler, my daughter loved Alia Bhatt’s songs, esp. the ones from Student of the Year . (That movie did have many good songs and well-choreographed dances). Fast forward to present day, when she is 12 yo. She rarely watches Hindi movies now, but one of the few ones she likes of late, Raja aur Rani ki Prem Kahani has, yes, Alia Bhatt.   If I had any hopes that there was anything to be read in the name of her toddler-time favorite ( Student of the Year ), they have been dashed. Our conversations come exam time are perfectly captured by this photo and its caption: In fact, the pic below captures how she and I look at her answer sheets – me intently, she with an expression of “It’s over, so why are you even looking at it?”   Of late, we pull her leg and tell her that she isn’t showing any signs of academic prowess, she’d better find a rich guy to marry. Some time later, she showed us this meme on the Internet: “Me No Study, Me No Care Me Go Marry Millionaire If He Die
Read more

Animal Senses #7: Touch and Remote Touch

Instinctively, we think touch is based on contact. Not entirely true, explains Ed Yong in Immense World – there’s a more important aspect than contact: “These incredible feats are possible through movement. If you rest a fingertip upon a surface, you can get only a limited idea of its features. But as soon you’re allowed to move, everything changes. Hardness becomes apparent with a press. Textures resolve at a stroke.” As you run your fingers over a surface, they hit the tiny peaks and troughs and set off vibrations in the mechanoreceptors at their tips.   At the tip of its snout, the star-nosed mole has many pairs of hairless appendages. It uses them to touch things around itself. Alive or dead? Food or ignore? It does these movements at an insane speed. In the time it takes to blink our eyes, the star-nosed mole can probe, identify and swallow its food. “Light may be the fastest thing in the universe, but light sensors have their limits, and the star-nosed mole’s sense of
Read more

The Retort of the "Luxury Person"

Image
Coming up with biting and witty retorts. It’s something we dream of, but rarely manage to pull off. Worse, the more we stew over the offending remark, the more likely we are to come up with that dream retort, as Calvin ruefully points out: During our last holiday at the Taj Resort, seeing my wife carrying towels to our poolside chairs, one of the kids there mistook her for a member of the staff and asked for a towel. When my wife narrated this to us, I did not imagine that my 8 yo daughter would come up with her own retort. But a day later, my daughter recapped the incident, an incident that didn’t even involve her in the first place , and said, “You know what I’d have told that kid who asked for the towel?”. And without waiting for an answer, she told us anyway: “I don’t work here. I too am a luxury person who is living at this resort. Go get your own towel.” We were highly amused by the phrase she had coined: “luxury person”. It certainly captures the kind of holid
Read more