Potential Spoilers Below
This is the crux of the series. Broken down “The Game Of Thrones” is for the most part is the
maneuvering by highborn lords and ladies plus political upstarts to gain
control for the ultimate prize: The IronThrone. The term is
also used colloquially to refer to the monarchy that rules the Seven Kingdoms and the
authority of the King. The game itself never ends when a ruler sits upon
the throne as the players in the game are always scheming to place themselves
in a position to gain said rulers favor. With the parentage of the
children of Queen Cersei in question
chaos ensues which leads to the War of the Five Kings.
The Iron Throne
Of course we know that what Queen Cersei said was true
especially the part about dying. Everybody is playing the game but face
it the Starks are terrible at it because they bring their honor to the
game. Littlefinger in my opinion is
the best player with Varys a close second. Cersei can’t see the layers involved
and is easily manipulated. I won’t go too much into all the plots that
are unfolding because you should already know.
Littlefinger
Varys
Daes Dae'mar is a phrase in the Old Tongue which translates to The Great Game, but is more commonly known as The Game Of Houses. It refers to the political and social maneuvering employed by the nobility of various nations to gain status or wealth, or to cause the downfall of others they dislike.
The Great Game is played the most heavily in Cairhien, where the most seemingly irrelevant act can cause lords and ladies to speculate endlessly about one's motives; even servants of the Cairhienin nobility play their own version of Daes Dae'mar. Conversely, it is rarely seen in the Borderlands, as Borderlanders are more concerned with Shadowspawn and the Blight than individual power, status or wealth.
Draghkar - shadowspawn
Myrddraal and Trollics - shadowspawn
Rand
Perrin
Perhaps one of the most accomplished players of the Great Game in current times is Thom Merrilin, who developed his skill at court in Caemlyn. He has used his skill more than once to come to the aid of Rand al'Thor; first in Cairhien while Rand was hunting the Horn of Valere, and later in Tear after Rand proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn to keep the Tairen High Lords off-balance enough to leave him alone. Another accomplished player of the Game is Moiraine Damodred, whose skillful mind for the Game more than once was annoyed with Siuan Sanche's lack of understanding for it.
Horn of Valere
Moiraine
Siuan Sanche
Rand and Perrin have often expressed their dislike of Daes Dae'mar, though Rand has become skilled in it recently.
Berelain supposedly has used the Game of Houses heavily to protect her small country of Mayene from being absorbed by Tear.
In the Wheel of Time before Rand was proclaimed the Dragon Reborn and started breaking the world they had already been playing the Game of Houses. The Sun Thrown in Cairhien and The Lion Throne in Andor were thrown in to upheaval after his being proclaimed. Rand actually took both thrones and intended to give them to Elayne Trakand but because of his naivety and not understanding that the people would never follow a leader who didn’t take the throne through tradition even though she was the rightful heir to the throne after her Morgase Trakand her mother was presumed dead.
The Sun Throne
Elayne seated upon the Lion Throne
In the meantime armies were gathered, battles were fought and manipulation and backstabbing ensued. As always the common folk suffered the most. She eventually was able to out maneuver the other nobility at odds for the Lion Throne the primary prize and later consolidated her rule and did what no other ruler had done and sit the seat of both thrones.
As I look back on both stories I see that Ned Stark was Rand and Perrin in being so honorable. Rand was so noble that he almost died on multiple occasions because he couldn’t kill women who were trying to kill him. Ned did the same thing but he paid the ultimate price. In both books even the larger focus should have been on the real enemy and not the political gamesmanship of vying for Thrones. The difference between the shows as I see it was in the Wheel of Time Elayne was the rightful heir to the throne but she was not accepted as such and the people who ended up playing the game the best turned out to be the ones who played with honor. In the Game of Thrones the script was flipped in making Joffrey an illegitimate heir to the throne and the people who played with honor got outplayed and died for being naïve.
Joffrey - Illegitimate King
Comments
encouraged. Love to hear the idea’s of others. Most believe that
since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints
which is far from the truth. I simply look at the information presented
and go from there. If you can shine a light on another way of thinking
that opens the door to debate.
This is the crux of the series. Broken down “The Game Of Thrones” is for the most part is the
maneuvering by highborn lords and ladies plus political upstarts to gain
control for the ultimate prize: The IronThrone. The term is
also used colloquially to refer to the monarchy that rules the Seven Kingdoms and the
authority of the King. The game itself never ends when a ruler sits upon
the throne as the players in the game are always scheming to place themselves
in a position to gain said rulers favor. With the parentage of the
children of Queen Cersei in question
chaos ensues which leads to the War of the Five Kings.
|
| The Iron Throne |
Of course we know that what Queen Cersei said was true
especially the part about dying. Everybody is playing the game but face
it the Starks are terrible at it because they bring their honor to the
game. Littlefinger in my opinion is
the best player with Varys a close second. Cersei can’t see the layers involved
and is easily manipulated. I won’t go too much into all the plots that
are unfolding because you should already know.
|
| Littlefinger |
|
| Varys |
Daes Dae'mar is a phrase in the Old Tongue which translates to The Great Game, but is more commonly known as The Game Of Houses. It refers to the political and social maneuvering employed by the nobility of various nations to gain status or wealth, or to cause the downfall of others they dislike.
The Great Game is played the most heavily in Cairhien, where the most seemingly irrelevant act can cause lords and ladies to speculate endlessly about one's motives; even servants of the Cairhienin nobility play their own version of Daes Dae'mar. Conversely, it is rarely seen in the Borderlands, as Borderlanders are more concerned with Shadowspawn and the Blight than individual power, status or wealth.
|
| Draghkar - shadowspawn |
|
| Myrddraal and Trollics - shadowspawn |
|
| Rand |
|
| Perrin |
Perhaps one of the most accomplished players of the Great Game in current times is Thom Merrilin, who developed his skill at court in Caemlyn. He has used his skill more than once to come to the aid of Rand al'Thor; first in Cairhien while Rand was hunting the Horn of Valere, and later in Tear after Rand proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn to keep the Tairen High Lords off-balance enough to leave him alone. Another accomplished player of the Game is Moiraine Damodred, whose skillful mind for the Game more than once was annoyed with Siuan Sanche's lack of understanding for it.
|
| Horn of Valere |
|
| Moiraine |
|
| Siuan Sanche |
Rand and Perrin have often expressed their dislike of Daes Dae'mar, though Rand has become skilled in it recently.
Berelain supposedly has used the Game of Houses heavily to protect her small country of Mayene from being absorbed by Tear.
In the Wheel of Time before Rand was proclaimed the Dragon Reborn and started breaking the world they had already been playing the Game of Houses. The Sun Thrown in Cairhien and The Lion Throne in Andor were thrown in to upheaval after his being proclaimed. Rand actually took both thrones and intended to give them to Elayne Trakand but because of his naivety and not understanding that the people would never follow a leader who didn’t take the throne through tradition even though she was the rightful heir to the throne after her Morgase Trakand her mother was presumed dead.
|
| The Sun Throne |
|
| Elayne seated upon the Lion Throne |
In the meantime armies were gathered, battles were fought and manipulation and backstabbing ensued. As always the common folk suffered the most. She eventually was able to out maneuver the other nobility at odds for the Lion Throne the primary prize and later consolidated her rule and did what no other ruler had done and sit the seat of both thrones.
As I look back on both stories I see that Ned Stark was Rand and Perrin in being so honorable. Rand was so noble that he almost died on multiple occasions because he couldn’t kill women who were trying to kill him. Ned did the same thing but he paid the ultimate price. In both books even the larger focus should have been on the real enemy and not the political gamesmanship of vying for Thrones. The difference between the shows as I see it was in the Wheel of Time Elayne was the rightful heir to the throne but she was not accepted as such and the people who ended up playing the game the best turned out to be the ones who played with honor. In the Game of Thrones the script was flipped in making Joffrey an illegitimate heir to the throne and the people who played with honor got outplayed and died for being naïve.
|
| Joffrey - Illegitimate King |
Comments
encouraged. Love to hear the idea’s of others. Most believe that
since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints
which is far from the truth. I simply look at the information presented
and go from there. If you can shine a light on another way of thinking
that opens the door to debate.
Excerpts that make my point:
ReplyDelete“Hurin . . . ? No, don’t tell me how. I do not want to know.” The gleeman pushed back his chair and went to stare out of the window. “The Horn of Valere. That means the Last Battle is coming. Who will notice? Did you see the people laughing in the streets out there? Let the grain barges stop a week, and they won’t laugh. Galldrian will think they’ve all become Aiel. The nobles all play the Game of Houses, scheming to get close to the King, scheming to gain more power than the King, scheming to pull down Galldrian and be the next King. Or Queen. They will think Tarmon Gai’don is only a ploy in the Game.” He turned away from the window. “I don’t suppose you are talking about simply riding to Shienar and handing the Horn to—who?—the King? Why Shienar? The legends all tie the Horn to Illian.”
Excerpts that make my point:
ReplyDelete“Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand,” Hurin said. “The Great Game. The Game of Houses, some call it. This Caldevwin thinks you must be doing something to your advantage or you wouldn’t be here. And whatever you’re doing might be to his disadvantage, so he has to be careful.”
Rand shook his head. “ ‘The Great Game’?
What game?”
“It isn’t a game at all, Rand,” Loial said from his bed. He had pulled a book from his pocket, but it lay unopened on his chest. “I don’t know much about it—Ogier don’t do such things—but I have heard of it. The nobles and the noble Houses maneuver for advantage. They do things they think will help them, or hurt an enemy, or both. Usually, it’s all done in secrecy, or if not, they try to make it seem as if they’re doing something other than what they are.” He gave one tufted ear a puzzled scratch. “Even knowing what it is, I don’t understand it. Elder Haman always said it would take a greater mind than his to understand the things humans do, and I don’t know many as intelligent as Elder Haman. You humans are odd.”
Hurin gave the Ogier a slanted look, but he said, “He has the right of Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand. Cairhienin play it more than most, though all southerners do.”
I agree with the idea that WoT and GoT are extremely similar. They both spend a lot of time developing the politics of their worlds (“game of thrones” versus “daes dae’mar”). Both stories also have an element of mysticism - the “one power” and the “dark one” in WoT and the “white walkers” and the “night king” in GoT. Both have a race of people living on the other side of a great barrier that are fierce fighters - the Aiel living on the other side of the “spine of the world” in WoT and the wildlings living beyond the wall in GoT. Both even have main characters that can interface with wolves. I do think the main difference is that GoT tends to have much more morally complex characters who exhibit both good and bad behaviors while WoT tends to keep their characters more black and white.
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