Nerd Talk: How the Westeros Was Won

Game of Thrones spoilers ahead... If you aren't caught up, here's your warning. If you are, proceed! If you don't care to, you might actually find something worthwhile in my babbling anyway.

Daenerys Stormborn basically just mowed King's Landing into ash. Lots of main characters were cut down, lots of innocents to boot, and we only know for sure that Arya got out in one piece, but clearly in a state of disbelief over carnage even she wasn't prepared for.

Taking down Euron Greyjoy's Iron Fleet was gratifying. Daenerys lost another of her dragons in the last episode and it felt like justice. It's when the Golden Company surrenders and the camera goes to Daenerys's face twitching with cold hatred and that coin-flip Targaryen madness followed by Jon Snow's oh-shit face do we realize we have a Mad Queen on our hands. Amid the pointless carnage and montage of final showdowns, a lot of Daenerys fans jumped ship. At first, I thought the worst of it too but there was one thing I've been certain of while watching this show.

Like in actual human history, monarchies have to fall, in bloody rebellion, for new governments to take place. While we can't say for certain whether this was plain-old Targaryen madness or a sudden revelation that the Iron Throne would never be hers, the choice to completely destroy it was, inevitably for the greater good.

I wouldn't say I condone genocide as a solution in the real world, but facing overpopulation, oppressive governments, the rise of theological laws trumping human rights, and irreversible damage to the planet caused by human fuckery, I'm also not entirely unsympathetic to the extremes caused by dystopian desperation. However, it's the 'good intentions' of human ego that often lead to tyranny, genocide and villains who think themselves heroic.

Didn't we see this same theme with Thanos, where he went from just being the big bad guy to a misguided being with a savior-complex? There are always layers that create these moral grey areas. Genocide, wrong, but human neglect and rampant apathy, also wrong. It often takes centuries, all the while those benefitting become blind to the dirty truths of their golden empires, only to stand in shock when the desperation topples them into dust.

I couldn't be surprised that Daenerys went the route she did. She journeyed from an innocent girl who was promised a kingdom by her twisted brother to needing to wallow through the horrors of reality to get there. All the while, she tried countless times to do the right thing, to be a merciful queen. Yet it always made the oppressors stronger with that perceived weakness and time and time again, she had to secure her power through being the monsters she sought to remove. It isolated her from those closest to her, made them fear her--all but a few who truly cared. They never questioned her because it showed a lack of loyalty but even they started to show in their eyes alone a lack of faith.

Losing Missandei, the one who always looked her in the eye and stayed true, was an incomparable loss. Even Grey Worm/Torgo Nudho, while still unfailingly held her command, stopped meeting here eyes. Jon Snow's doubts were plain as day. In the scene prior to marching against the Red Keep, she asks him if he sees her as more than queen and we see without him speaking that his love for her has cooled. 

So while we could assume that she is a jilted woman, isolated and aware that the Throne could still become Jon Snow's despite his refusal to take it, the role of Queen, no, as rightful heir of the Seven Kingdoms (removing gender as a factor altogether), it is more plausible than even inherited incestual madness is less likely than her resolve to destroy the Throne altogether. It is useless to her in securing the people's faith and loyalty. If she cannot claim her birthright through civilized means, she will acquire it through fear, even knowing fear had brought the people down on her father's rule to begin with.

But he didn't have dragons. Well, dragon. Even though fan theories project Drogon might have laid more eggs when he went missing for some time.

While the tagline intimates that the Game of Thrones means you win or you die, the underlying theme makes that a bit of braggadocio, always whispering through the faceless god and the old Valyrian saying that 'all men must die', overshadowing the idea that nobody really wins at all. And no, 'all men must die' isn't some cheeky feminist hint that women are excluded, anymore than mankind actually excludes women.

No one is meant to win this. With the toppling of all major tyrants leaves most of the brilliant minds gone and the survivors not the fittest among us to pick up the pieces. We lose the glory of those times, and often the knowledge of our advancement. We lose the luxuries that allow for the facilities to advance and simply revert to survival.

A little aside here, but this is also why the Ancient Aliens show is absurd to me. The idea that the only explanation for early humans to advance as they did was for extraterrestrial influence to occur is pretty discrediting to our actual potential. While its true that someone had to observe, eat and smoke the plants to discover their properties, create language, etc. we weren't just poop-throwing monkeys, the oddly grunting caveman, and nothing but drooling morons until our modern incarnation. Even the monkeys we descended from (and projected our brain evolution came from through the Stoned Ape Theory) were rather clever creatures from the onset. The capability for wondrous brilliance of thought and utter stupidity were always a gambit. It's also very possible that many processes were not recorded, only built at the zenith of our ancestors' civilizations before greed once more tore them down before the process could be repeated or passed into general knowledge. While even today our most successful humans could hand you a roadmap of exactly what they did to succeed, the repetition  of great achievements often fails without exact conditions that are lost as being inconsequential at the time.

So, as related to the original topic, our very natures guarantee that our own egos prevent good from coming of progress. Conservatives seek to protect dying structures and those obsessed with change are willing to build with bad materials rather than risk not being able to build at all. What remains is a foundation of tears and blood. 

Daenerys must know that there is no way to win. She never comes off as being too stupid to have realized the futility. It's also true that she is a human, subject to whims, emotion, and ego. Though she also believes that nothing could stand against her dragon and beat her, it is also likely that she will be taken down by something as gentle as a whisper. 

Yet through her tyranny, both terrible lessons and even altruistic retrospection exists. Begrudgingly, she is both wrong and right and neither matters. The game is forever changed. Though thrones may not be restored, powerful humans will sit in chairs again and play with lives once more.

It's the real world parallels that make this fantasy a ripe place for comparisons. Of course Westeros isn't Earth but fiction lovers don't fail to see where our mistakes and imagination create a playground so visceral and breathtaking. While the books are a hard read, the show is truly a team effort of epic proportions. The music alone is award worthy, but the actors are no less perfect for their roles. The opening animation itself is rightfully praised as being the only intro it's hard to skip through, no matter how many times you watch it. While I'm not out to convert anyone to watch it nor shove my morally grey and idealistic views of human progress in anyone's face, I hope you were at least inspired to explore deeper than a first impression of anything.

Our very strong gut reactions are often less gratifying than the long game. It's worth reflecting on the true nature of people and world problems, especially through the distraction of fiction.