Game of Thrones has truly taken the fantasy and drama genre to a whole new height with its

intriguing fully packed R18 scenes, CGIs, and its puzzling plot. It never failed to thrill viewers as to how
George Martin, author of the book A Song Of Ice and Fire, left no reservations as to which character to
eliminate or raise in the books and the series. On top of this, what makes Game of Thrones a highly rated
series is how its characters politically play the ‘game’.
The first book and film adaptation of the series are somewhat similar as to how to plot goes.
Although some characters have been plucked out on TV, the plot stayed to its course until season and
book 2. The movie producers, D.B Weiss and David Benioff, gave the story a twist and tweaked some parts
of the book making fan theories stay theories.
Although the series had a rough start in its first season, the series was able to bounce back and
earned merits from movie critics and got high ratings of a 9.5/10 from IMDb, 80% from Metacritic, and a
94% from Rotten Tomatoes. Since then the series became a juggernaut that has seemingly conquered the
pop culture.
For some viewers, the series pose a confusion as to how people can be insidious and the greed of
power is superficially hot. However, there are some take homes from the movie that can leave one puzzled
and think like a strategist. Here are some quotes and truths to be learned from the series. Warning!
Contents will definitely have spoilers for those starting to watch the series.

1. Learn to accept your flaws.

Tyrion Lannister is one of the fan favorites and main character of the series. His impairment of
being a dwarf gave him a difficulty of getting accepted by everyone including his own family. His mother
died giving birth to him leaving him with an imprinted anger from his father and older sister. Despite of
all the hate and ridicule he’s getting. Tyrion managed to embrace his flaws and focused on enriching his
mind making him one of the major players of the game.
During the King’s visit to Winterfell, Tyrion met with Ned Stark’s bastard, Jon Snow, and had
discourse with him. That time, Jon was lashing out his anger at a sword training dummy at the stables. He
was angry at himself of being a bastard son until Tyrion began talking.
Tyrion is one of the smartest character in the series considering his ability to understand human
nature. This ability lets him make friends even in the strangest places like the Sky Cell and the mountains.
He easily won Jon Snow’s trust when he told him, “Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will
not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”
The character of Tyrion is teaching fans that no matter how hard the circumstances in life are, one
has to get going by embracing all one has and use it as an advantage. Tyrion’s impairment gave him a
unique approach to everyone. He doesn’t leave an impression of pity, but rather of awe with his wittiness
to anybody he meets. Varys the Spider once quoted, “A very small man can cast a large shadow”.
2. Power lies where we think it lies.
In the A Song of Ice and Fire series, George Martin has embedded some riddles that would
serve as clues as to how the series will unfold. One of the most interesting puzzle was the riddle
Varys the Spider gave to test Tyrion.
In the book, A Clash of Kings, the second installment of the series, Tyrion Lannister’s character
started to develop. Varys wanted to test Tyrion’s motives by visiting him more often and finally
trying to win his trust. Varys is the most resourceful character when it comes to intelligence and
information. He has a web of spies landing him with the title ‘Master of Whispers’.
In one of their discourse, he asked Tyrion a riddle:
“In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them
stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids
him slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest,
‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be
yours.’ So tell me – who lives and who dies?”

In the show, Tyrion’s immediate response is, “Depends on the sellsword.” Varys immediately
counters by asking, “Does it?” Tyrion’s reasoning, obviously, is that the sellsword has a sword, and
therefore the power of life and death. The decision is his, and therefore the power.

Varys then poses the true riddle, and one of the main themes of the series: If power lies with
the men who carry swords, why do we pretend that kings hold the power? Power, he argues, is
ephemeral, a shadow – “power lies where we think it lies.”
Varys meant the sellsword to be the common people. Meaning, anyone in a democratic
society hold and gives power to whom they think suits it, and that he who rules must always think
of the common people.
3. Winter is Coming.
The plot began in Winterfell where the Starks lived. The Starks are the harsh family in the
North who live in observance of the old religion in Westeros, the continent where A Song of Ice
and Fire takes its setting. Their house sigil is the direwolf and their words, “Winter is coming”.
The prologue of the first season was when three men of the Night’s Watch were roving
beyond The Wall. To make the story short, they encountered a Wight Walker and two of them
were killed. One of them managed to escape to Winterfell where he reported the citings. However
instead of being treated as a witness, he was beheaded for deserting the watch.
The phrase “Winter is coming” is the most famous mantra to fans since it has two
meanings: 1) Literal winter was coming, and 2) the enemy in the North is coming. What’s good
about this family matra is it instructs their family that winter in inevitable, and no one can stop
the inevitable.
Old Nan, maid to the Starks, once told Bran Stark a daunting story about the Long Night,
the longest winter in Westeros. She narrates:

“Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
 deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods”.

In our lives, we experience a dreaded winter of loneliness, emptiness, or even sadness.

What the phrase teaches us is that we need to prepare for that winter in order to live above it,
and always remember that there is spring after winter.

These points are only few of the many lessons to be caught in the series. Some might be
imperceptible to read since the series is about how to play the game. However, if we do not grasp
and filter the good things to be learned in literary narratives, all the time invested in the story is
in vain.