“When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.”
It’s nice to imagine a world where staying out of politics is a safe and legitimate option. According to George R.R. Martin after all, maybe it is the only safe move.
A Song of Ice and Fire is a massive narrative spanning a wide and (overly) complex world, but it started on relatively comprehensible grounds. Protagonist Eddard Stark is publicly asked to serve as right hand to his old friend and king, and accepts the role despite great feelings of discomfort.
Tensions rise as Eddard travels south and faces repeated tests of his moral character. His fears about Robert’s incompetency and Cersei’s manipulations fall far short of the real situation. He makes a valiant attempt to unravel the conspiracy of his predecessor’s death, but is too heavy-handed and deliberate to save his friend’s life.
Confronted with the insidious corruption of a monarchy he had helped instate, Eddard Stark chose to stand up for his ideals of justice and morality. His head ultimately rolled not by any clever maneuvering by Cersei - his apparent foe and the center of corruption in the capital - but because a third party wanted easier profits.
Petyr Baelish, also known as Littlefinger, is the true villain of A Game of Thrones. He harbors a deep and unrequited love for Eddard’s wife Catelyn, and takes pleasure in fooling the man as he felt was done to him. He is also the foremost representation of capitalism in the novel, and even ‘defeats’ Eddard by simply being the employer of the City Watch.
Letting Cersei be deposed would see a far stricter monarch take the throne (Robert’s brother Stannis famously cannot and will not bend an inch on his moral views); whereas supporting her grants Littlefinger new realms of profits to be pursued.
Littlefinger's path to power involves just a few betrayals.
So, amidst lavish descriptions of food and lots of child cruelty, A Game of Thrones sees a corrupt and incompetent government being upheld by sheer greed against all moral decency. Does that sound familiar?
It is fucking infuriating to read Trump’s name in political headlines again. His vision - if we’re going to utterly demean that word - for America and the world is exactly the same as Littlefinger’s. War, famine, discrimination, and endless abuse are more than welcome if it lines his pockets and those of his friends.
The archetype isn’t particularly new or unique. Dune offers another blatantly evil parallel in Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, advancing his family’s profits and social standing on the back of genocide, slavery and the ecological destruction of multiple planets. The Lord of the Rings sees Saruman turn his back on all he has ever known for power offered by the blazing engines of industrialization.
Trump, Littlefinger, Harkonnen, Saruman, and a hundred others share a common perspective. The world is theirs to possess and abuse, loyalty and empathy are weaknesses to be exploited, and the will of the people is to be either ignored or harnessed as the situation permits.
All else fails, create your own followers.
In each of these fictional cases, resistance finally comes in the form of a charismatic figure for the people to rally behind. Religious figures inspire zealotry against both the Harkonnens and Cersei’s useless rule; Gandalf and the Hobbits take their turns deposing Saruman.
Yet in each of these cases, the populace was fairly united against their tyrants. Littlefinger’s purchased loyalties aside, he has no relationship with the people; Harkonnen and Saruman also rely purely on their power over others. Their authority is built on fear alone.
This just isn’t true of Trump, whose zealous supporters happily put the man before any and all self-interest. In this way he echoes a more generic kind of villain, such as that seen in Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Each inspires loyalty through fearsome reputation and a history of accomplishment. If their subordinates ever start questioning the morality of their actions, they can lean on the idea that they are just following the orders of 'Great Men' (certainly the topic of a future blog post). And yes there is another real-world, 20th-century comparison one could make here - consider it implied.
A common refrain these days is that we have no hope of escaping our corrupt hyper-capitalist society without social upheaval on the scope of the French Revolution, and these fictional examples would appear to agree. Charismatic figures and justice-seekers hoping to tear Trump down have come and gone. Yet the clown seems to grow stronger with every criticism thrown at him.
Does society need a hard reset?
Probably. But the books I’ve discussed today offer very different glimpses of what is possible.
The Throne Room of Muad'dib - built after purging corruption.
Robb Stark’s attempt to avenge his father goes awry the moment he touches the political games of his opponents. Betrayed at his own wedding, he and his people are massacred by opponents he had been actively defeating in battle. This feels disturbingly accurate to the experience of watching dozens and hundreds of people trying to knock Trump down via the media and by following the codes of law he is happy to ignore.
As yet unwritten in A Song of Ice and Fire but portrayed on TV is Daenerys’ successful war against the power of House Lannister at the end of the series. She refuses to play by their rules - avoiding Robb’s fate - yet the endless violence of her campaign sees her become a brutal villain in her own right. By the time she reaches her throne, she is queen of little more than ashes.
Dune’s ending is a little more hopeful, but requires that its protagonist become the center of a fervent crusade that will span thousands of worlds. Like with Daenerys, a corrupt and failing system is replaced by authoritarian brutality.
At least Lord of the Rings offers potential solace, though it is hard to imagine no issues ever arise for Aragorn or Sam’s descendants in Middle-Earth.
So, the take-away: Revolution is possible, for a united and educated people willing to give their all to depose corrupt systems. They must choose their battles wisely and maintain their morality if they hope to forge anything better than what has come before.
Frodo good, Frey bad, Fedaykin… if the cause is worthy.
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