At work, I'm trying to avoid high-level decision-making responsibility, despite multiple people advising me in the opposite direction. And yet, in GoT, I'm so satisfied when a character I adore comes into their own, dons the mantle of destiny. I think the issue is I don't want the responsibility when I don't exceptionally care for, or feel exceptionally made for, the position. I don't want the responsibility in the realm of proptech. But, on the other hand, if a wolf journeyed down from the arctic to tell me there was a musical, wolf-cohabiting tribe that needed my leadership, for I was prophesied in the ancient ice carvings, I would go. Or if my many aunts told me I needed to start stepping up as the last in a line of only-sons stretching back at least to my great grandfather, I would do it. Or if the wolf, and my aunts, told me that that Bien line was in fact the line of that arctic tribe, and our family has been secretly fighting back an Ice Age for millennia, I would investigate. First I'd grimace, "ah, shit, it's so cold up there!" but the wolf would say "yeh have the North in yeh. The real North." I'd suffer the typical heroic doubt that plagues the rugged likes of Aragorn and Jon Snow, and then that doubt would suffer me.
Indeed, if my family was a patriarchal dynasty like the monarchies of Britain, Westeros, or (I think) Numenor, I'd be due for quite a huge family tree to rule, with at least five generations of Bien funneling toward me (great grandpa, grandpa, dad, me, cousins' kids, and potentially others before my great grandpa) and tons of branches in those middle generations. Unlike in proptech corporate, I would feel particularly designed to lead such a tree, and I'd feel more emotionally invested. It might actually be a worse experience than proptech -- an unhappier life -- but at least I'd feel clarity of purpose. I'd maybe even be less qualified, in character, to lead that than to lead proptech -- but more qualified on paper, which counts.
So let me rehash this exercise from an old blog post. Which positions would I want in Westeros?
King (of the Seven Kingdoms): no
Hand: I'd only consider this if I had an exceptionally useful king. Otherwise, you're just being king without the glory. Robert wasn't the worst king to Hand; he was a stout, trusty fellow; but it's no mere coincidence you heard things during his rule like "the king shits and the Hand wipes" or, from his own mouth, "I need [my Hand] to rule the Seven Kingdoms while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave" (reciting from memory). Ned would have been a good king to Hand -- Ned suffers the weight of the Seven Kingdoms while you just try to help him turn his admirable decisions into truly excellent decisions. It would suck to be the decisiveness or moral conscience of your king, but with a king like Ned, you'd just be analytical backup, a vitamin to his own wisdom.
Lord of a minor house: sure! You're likely to feel designed for it, most likely being the obvious heir by traditional determination, and your realm is likely to feel somewhat united, compared to lording the geographically and ideologically scattered Seven Kingdoms. Your house supports you through bonds of blood and direct intimate experience; they're less likely to support a distant king with no familial ties who has done nothing super tangible to serve them.
King in the North: sits between what I said about King and Lord of a minor house. The North would be a kingdom, but a more united one than the Seven -- almost united to the point of being a single house (Stark). But even the slightly removed Karstarks are a thorn in your side, so I'd be careful before accepting this.
Warden of the North: better than King in the North in that you can defer some responsibility to the King of the Seven ("I'm just a warden! I'm doing my best!"), but worse in that you lose some pride for your realm, it being subservient to the distant king. I love the North as an independent kingdom, but I'd rather be Ned to Robert (before Arryn died) than Robb to Joffrey or Jon to Cersei. Sansa to Bran is a decent situation though, since your distant king would be fundamentally respectful of the North.
Hand of the King in the North: this is enticing, because your realm is less divided than the Seven Kingdoms, and your king is likely to be more grounded. Hand of Ned or Hand of Jon are like being Davante Adams during those MVP Rodgers seasons -- just being served goodness, and handling it expertly.
or, to really lean into my childhood dream...
but that one is not so clean. Favre has a little too much Robert Baratheon in him (southern, stubborn, gluttonous), and Driver wasn't such a master as Adams. Rodgers-Adams is really the pinnacle of effectiveness, but Favre-Driver has that old-school heart in it. Rodgers-Adams is a bit cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment