Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, April 15, 2019

Game Of Thrones

Watching the beginning of the end - plus some of the marathon recap - it strikes me that one of the most pervasive themes in the show is how people are trapped by their history.

Cersei, Daneyrs, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Jamie, Tyrion...they are all prisoners of their past.  Even Bran, who can see everything, is trapped by the past.  Trapped IN the past.  Cersei is captured by the death of her children, the cruelty of her family, her hatred of her brother.  Danerys is a Targarean, ultimately relying on Fire and Blood. Jon finds that he, too, is trapped by his lineage. Sansa by the barbarism inflicted on her by others, Arya by her quest for revenge, Jamie by his past callousness, Tyrion by his lack of wisdom at critical moments.  Everyone is flawed, because everyone carries the tremendous weight of past cruelties that they both inflicted on others and had inflicted on them. 

That's why my king will always be Hotpie, First of His Name, Long May He Reign.

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