Next, we see that the succession of rulers on the throne is a succession of shadows that rule, and it quickly ends. You can be a positive ruler and a dwarf like Tyrion. You can be very literate, as Tywin Lannister is the only ruler who is the ideal of Machiavelli and fully corresponds to the concept of "sovereign". He even tries to be a mentor to Tommy, almost quoting Machiavelli. Tywin is killed by his own son.
It turns out that there is a throne that is completely indifferent to the one who rules. If we look at politics, we find that there are many hidden and obvious players: Varys and Littlefinger. This is also a hidden struggle for power. Varis will never sit on the iron throne, but he really manages the situation. We know that he plays all the time. When asked: "Who do you serve?", he pompously answers: "To the state. Which state does Varis serve? Let's not forget that he works for the Targaryens. From the very beginning, Varis has been trying to keep the throne for the only legitimate heir to the Targaryens, and he is working to destabilize the kingdom. But nobody notices it, because Varis says every time that he works for the kingdom.
As for Littlefinger and his famous phrase that "chaos is a ladder. Here is a particularly interesting parable of Varis, which he tells Tyrion, about who really rules the state: a merchant, a priest, a king or a warrior. Who will the warrior listen to: the one who has the most money, who promises him absolution or who will be such a legitimate ruler? Tyrion asks in confusion: "So, what, power is just a trick? And Varys answers: "A shadow on the wall. But even a small man can cast a big shadow. This is a hint of both Littlefinger, which is the hidden engine of a huge number of intrigues, and Tyrion himself.
Time after time we are shown the history of not medieval Europe, and the modern Western world. So every time our political scientists and sociologists ask each other what happened to values, why moral norms are so blurred here and now, in the first third of the 21st century, I can direct them every time to George Martin and the HBO series. It says all about it. They were the first to document the crisis of state values. Machiavelli's system is no longer working, the system of ethics is somehow failing.
Many people perceive Daenerys as a healthy alternative to the rotten values of Westeros. It comes from the east as the embodiment of chaos. Chaos is a staircase, but not Littlefinger rises up this staircase, and Deyeneris, which is not just the embodiment of legitimate power, not just repeats the conditional feat of his glorious ancestor-conqueror. It comes with a horde of nomads, claims to be a liberator of slaves. It is both an allusion to Moses, who brings slaves out of Egypt, and an allusion to Genghis Khan in female form.
Daenerys is guided by the laws of ethics in his conquests. She has good advisers who try to slow down the genetic abnormalities that she inherited from her father. The most important thing that we should remember is that she tries to be the mouthpiece of the new time, the new world, the fair world order. She does not want to be like her father. It gathers those who do not want to repeat the mistakes of their fathers either. On the one hand, we see how sincerely they serve her. On the other hand, we must understand that this is an open ending. We do not know what kind of ruler Daenerys will become.
She has come a long way from a frightened girl to a calm, cold ruler. But do you know who Daenerys is? This is George Martin's answer to the words of Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. When Frodo offers Galadriel Ring of Omnipotence in Lorien, Galadriel hesitates. Since the Ring is given to her without violence, she will not become a black ruler, she will become ruthless, formidable, but not black. She utters a marvelous phrase that she will be admired and trembled before her. If my hypothesis is confirmed, you and I will see how even the most honest, sincere man, who started as Moses, bringing slaves out of Egypt, who started as a liberator and who will get power in his hands, will change. When we admire Daenerys, we need to make a little correction every time on how much this nice girl changes her power.
We did not have time to consider all the options for power, because we have hidden players, such as the Citadel and meritocracy, the Maestros. Separately, of course, the Night Watch, the Wildlings, the Dragons. I suspect that by the final season "Game of Thrones" gradually degenerates into a fantasy of good and evil. Let's see how George Martin will deal with the book, because we are waiting for two more issues: "Winds of Winter" and, perhaps, "Spring's Dreams". But the most curious thing is that the idea remains unchanged: there is power, there is a man, there is a universal appeal of this power, there is a free choice of everyone. George Martin and the creators of the series do not deny us the right of free choice in this great political game.