Flakes Of Winter.docx

Game of Thrones has truly taken the fantasy and drama genre to a whole new height with its intriguing fully packed R18 scenes, CGIs, and its puzzling plot. It never failed to thrill viewers as to how George Martin, author of the book A Song Of Ice and Fire, left no reservations as to which character to eliminate or raise in the books and the series. On top of this, what makes Game of Thrones a highly rated series is how its characters politically play the ‘game’. The first book and film adaptation of the series are somewhat similar as to how to plot goes. Although some characters have been plucked out on TV, the plot stayed to its course until season and book 2. The movie producers, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, gave the story a twist and tweaked some parts of the book making fan theories stay theories. Although the series had a rough start in its first season, the series was able to bounce back and earned merits from movie critics and got high ratings of a 9.5/10 from IMDb, 80% from Metacritic, and a 94% from Rotten Tomatoes. Since then the series became a juggernaut that has seemingly conquered the pop culture. For some viewers, the series pose a confusion as to how people can be insidious and the greed of power is superficially hot. However, there are some take homes from the movie that can leave one puzzled and think like a strategist. Here are some quotes and truths to be learned from the series. Warning! Contents will definitely have spoilers for those starting to watch the series.

1. Learn to accept your flaws. Tyrion Lannister is one of the fan favorites and main character of the series. His impairment of being a dwarf gave him a difficulty of getting accepted by everyone including his own family. His mother died giving birth to him leaving him with an imprinted anger from his father and older sister. Despite of all the hate and ridicule he’s getting. Tyrion managed to embrace his flaws and focused on enriching his mind making him one of the major players of the game. During the King’s visit to Winterfell, Tyrion met with Ned Stark’s bastard, Jon Snow, and had discourse with him. That time, Jon was lashing out his anger at a sword training dummy at the stables. He was angry at himself of being a bastard son until Tyrion began talking. Tyrion is one of the smartest character in the series considering his ability to understand human nature. This ability lets him make friends even in the strangest places like the Sky Cell and the mountains. He easily won Jon Snow’s trust when he told him, “Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.” The character of Tyrion is teaching fans that no matter how hard the circumstances in life are, one has to get going by embracing all one has and use it as an advantage. Tyrion’s impairment gave him a unique approach to everyone. He doesn’t leave an impression of pity, but rather of awe with his wittiness to anybody he meets. Varys the Spider once quoted, “A very small man can cast a large shadow”.

2. Power lies where we think it lies. In the A Song of Ice and Fire series, George Martin has embedded some riddles that would serve as clues as to how the series will unfold. One of the most interesting puzzle was the riddle Varys the Spider gave to test Tyrion. In the book, A Clash of Kings, the second installment of the series, Tyrion Lannister’s character started to develop. Varys wanted to test Tyrion’s motives by visiting him more often and finally trying to win his trust. Varys is the most resourceful character when it comes to intelligence and information. He has a web of spies landing him with the title ‘Master of Whispers’. In one of their discourse, he asked Tyrion a riddle: “In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me – who lives and who dies?” In the show, Tyrion’s immediate response is, “Depends on the sellsword.” Varys immediately counters by asking, “Does it?” Tyrion’s reasoning, obviously, is that the sellsword has a sword, and therefore the power of life and death. The decision is his, and therefore the power. Varys then poses the true riddle, and one of the main themes of the series: If power lies with the men who carry swords, why do we pretend that kings hold the power? Power, he argues, is ephemeral, a shadow – “power lies where we think it lies.” Varys meant the sellsword to be the common people. Meaning, anyone in a democratic society hold and gives power to whom they think suits it, and that he who rules must always think of the common people. 3. Winter is Coming. The plot began in Winterfell where the Starks lived. The Starks are the harsh family in the North who live in observance of the old religion in Westeros, the continent where A Song of Ice and Fire takes its setting. Their house sigil is the direwolf and their words, “Winter is coming”. The prologue of the first season was when three men of the Night’s Watch were roving beyond The Wall. To make the story short, they encountered a Wight Walker and two of them were killed. One of them managed to escape to Winterfell where he reported the citings. However instead of being treated as a witness, he was beheaded for deserting the watch. The phrase “Winter is coming” is the most famous mantra to fans since it has two meanings: 1) Literal winter was coming, and 2) the enemy in the North is coming. What’s good about this family matra is it instructs their family that winter in inevitable, and no one can stop the inevitable. Old Nan, maid to the Starks, once told Bran Stark a daunting story about the Long Night, the longest winter in Westeros. She narrates: “Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet

deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods”. In our lives, we experience a dreaded winter of loneliness, emptiness, or even sadness. What the phrase teaches us is that we need to prepare for that winter in order to live above it, and always remember that there is spring after winter.

These points are only few of the many lessons to be caught in the series. Some might be imperceptible to read since the series is about how to play the game. However, if we do not grasp and filter the good things to be learned in literary narratives, all the time invested in the story is in vain.