Warrior Philosophy in Game of Thrones by Francis Briers Read Free Book Online

is Roberts' irresponsibility which has landed the realm of the Seven Kingdoms in so much debt – he refuses to face the realities of their finances.  This kind deliberate blindness is probably not unfamiliar to many of us.  Lots of people today have lots of debt – our increasing debt/credit culture around finance contributed to the financial crash of recent years.  Just like Robert Baratheon we were encouraged to it by the social norms and trusted advisor’s who said “it'll be ok...” but we still have to bear responsibility for it.  With Robert Baratheon, this is one of many ways he constantly seeks to avoid dealing with the realities of his life.  There is a scene, after Ned Stark has been struck down by Jaime Lannister and his men, when Queen Cersei is making accusations of Ned and his wife Lady Catelyn (because Cat has arrested Tyrion Lannister, Cersei's brother), and eventually says to Robert that she should wear the armour and he the gown.  He hits her and she says:
     
    “I shall wear this like a badge of honour”
     
    To which Robert replies:
     
    “Wear it in silence or I'll honour you again.”
     
    When Cersei then leaves Robert clearly regrets his actions and says:
     
    “See what she does to me?  My loving wife...”
     
    This is the crux of it.  For all her taunts, viciousness, manipulation and resentment, for all of the pain that is so much a part of Robert and Cersei's relationship, she didn't make Robert hit her.  He did that.  However skilled a manipulator Cersei may be show does not control Robert, and more than this, his statement for me epitomises Robert's relationship to his life.  In his head he had to go to war because mad King Aerys killed Lyanna Stark - the woman he loved, he had to take the throne because he had the best claim, he had to marry Cersei because Jon Arryn said it was the right thing to do... and now he had to hit Cersei because she drove him to it.  In his mind, none of it is his responsibility.  On the flip-side we have Daenerys Targaryen who was an exile before she was born, has been sold like a prize heifer by her own brother to a brute of a man who doesn't even speak her language and nightly takes her in what is pretty much rape.  Out of this she manages to build a life for herself, to create a loving and in many ways equal relationship with her husband, to become a Queen (Khaleesi) of sorts, and to win the love of her new people.  Daenerys is such a fine example of responsibility in action, it is hard for me not to wonder if perhaps she would make a better ruler for the Seven Kingdoms than the others who are competing for the crown.  I'm not looking to demonize Robert here, I can understand how such a thing could happen in a man so thoroughly bred on violence, filled with frustration and stuck in a marriage so full of pain and bitterness, but it does serve us here as a valuable illustration of how easy it is to relinquish our own power – to disavow our ability to respond.
    All of the above said, I make no judgement of you as you face your life and it's unique challenges, and I would encourage you not to judge others, as we can never truly know another person's pain or joy, regardless of their apparent advantage or disadvantage.  Tyrion Lannister offers Jon Snow a very similar lesson when Jon first begins his training having arrived at The Wall.  In Episode 3 we see Jon fighting and beating the other men who have arrived to serve on The Wall with him.  They are all criminals of one stripe or another and he has judged them and so much of the Night's Watch as beneath him.  He is disappointed to find a collection of criminals where he expected to find men of honour, and in every fighting practice session he takes his disappointment and frustration out on those he trains with.  They all resent him.  Tyrion, in one of his moments of wisdom, responsibility and care, tells Jon Snow of the histories of the men he has arrived with.  Many of them, though