Who Is Worthy Of The Iron Throne?
At this point, we have seen the entire leadership of nearly all the best candidates of Game of Thrones. In episode 5, we have seen that Dany have clearly conquered King’s Landing. However, many believed that she is not worthy of the Iron Throne. It should have been Jon or Sansa, etc.
But are they all worthy of the Throne?
Let's take a look at our top three candidates elected by the internet:
Daenerys Targaryen
From season 1–7, she had shown remarkable leadership. Not only she was able to lead the Dothrakis after being sold as a slave, but she was able to rule Esos and their people. Additionally, her people followed her willingly. I made an article about this here:
However, season 8 shown us her tyrannical side when all went South. She was not able to control her emotion and she went full autocratic “Let is be fear”. She burnt down the entire King’s Landing to ashes and did not remember why she initially started her journey. I am not sure what the writers are trying to do with the character, but this is not the Daenerys I know.
She used to be the one who spoke of freedom. She freed Slaver’s Bay, freed the slaves, rule the entire Esos because of her goodwill to no longer see people suffer, and most of all struggled to not be Mad like her Mad King father. Her goal was dead set in the beginning to free the slaves of the entire world, which is why she wanted the iron throne so that the world will no longer no of slaves.
But because of what she did at King’s Landing, she is losing followers and therefore not fit for the Iron Throne. In fact, one of her trusty advisers, Varys, had already betrayed her so I won’t be surprised if more and more people are going to do the same to her. She would still fit to be one in Season 1–7, as for Season 8, she is no longer worthy of the Iron Throne. Here is a break down of her flaws:
Jon Snow
The same case with Jon Snow. Had he stayed in character at Season 1–6, I would have elected him as King. In fact, I would prefer it if he rules alongside Daenerys (I will discuss it later) since he had proven to be a remarkable leader as well. He came first as a warrior who can lead the Watch Brothers. I made an article as well about him here:
The problem is, lately, he had not been as communicative as before. Yes, he was able to convince that the threat of the Night King was real, except that he put in honor too much.
In Episode 4, after the battle with the Night King, he failed to acknowledge Daenerys to the Northerns and Wildlings of her sacrifices for the North even when her initial goal was to go for King’s Landing first. Furthermore, he was not able to defend the reason why he bent the knee to Dany in the first.
He pledges loyalty to Dany because he saw how she sacrificed her dragon to save Jon. Had he mentioned this at the council meeting in the very first episode of Season 8, not only the Northerns will follow him but the people of Essos would also acknowledge him as well. This leadership can work even if he prioritized honor first, however, he must not forget about power.
In the Game of Thrones, it is all about power. Honor plays a part in it, but not all the time. The problem with honor is that it becomes very difficult to know what is right and smart. In fact, Jon Snow was nearly killed all the time because he was very courageous and willing to die for the North. He was killed later on at season 5 though but later brought back to life.
But that is the problem as well right there. Yes, leaders think about their people than themselves, but then they will keep playing as the hero all the time. They will trust people to death if that means that they can get more people to be on the same side. But then they will not check their backgrounds first, which is why most of the Stark leaders are always betrayed because they believe that honor is more important than dignity. For example, Ned Stark was betrayed by Littlfinger because he did not do thorough research on what kind of person he is. Robb Stark was also betrayed by the Freys because he did not carefully consider who else the Freys are in allegiance to.
I made an article on the problem of his leadership here:
Up until season 7, I would still consider him a remarkable candidate for the Iron Throne. Yes, he did say he doesn’t want the Throne, which made us want him to be the King. But seeing him not being communicative enough with his vision and not knowing how to play the Game of Thrones, I reconsidered his election.
Sansa Stark
Throughout the entire season, she had shown an amazing character development. The once innocent princess to become a dangerous person to mess with, thanks to Littefinger.
If you want to know the kind of person Littlefinger is, I made a breakdown of his way of playing the Game of Thrones here:
By season 7–8, she is mostly shown to be a remarkable government than a Queen. She made her goals dead set that she will not let anyone mess with the Starks ever again. This means she only cares about the North, not King’s Landing, Dorne, or anywhere else. Her only vision is not to let the North fall into the wrong hands again.
She has also shown to be sneaky as well. In season 7, Littlefinger was trying hard to get Sansa turn on Arya. However, Sansa knows her sister never wanted to be the Lady of Winterfell, which made her suspicious of his intents after that. However, she managed to keep her cool until she dropped the guilty verdict slowly to Littlefinger by exposing his crimes from the very beginning to the audience. Here we see that she knows how the Game of Thrones works, except that she did not place herself as the one in full power of the entire Westeros.
Sansa has also proven to be a good manager whilst Jon was with Daenerys. She managed the logistics of food sources for the North and their allies, keep her allies in check on when are they arriving to Winterfell, asking daily reports of her allies and the situation of the North, and calm the other Lords and Maesters down about Jon’s decision to meet the Dragon Queen.
We see here that she is better off as a government/Hand of the King or Queen. But she is not a suitable candidate for the Iron Throne, she is better of like Tyrion Lannister but way smarter and sneakier now.
So who do you think should be on the Iron Throne?
If it were up to me and had circumstances have been different, I would choose the characters of Jon and Dany when they were at season 7. They both are natural leaders with different personalities and that they can, in a way, handle each other’s flaws.
Dany is known to not able to keep her emotions in check if things go south. We have seen her how she went outburst when things did not go the way she wanted and later on, will not think twice.
Jon, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. He kept his emotions in check and was able to handle all the angers and hatred he received. This can be an advantage for him to calm Dany down. Dany can also help him think twice on who he should pledge loyalty to if ever he is making an alliance with other parties because he is a “people-pleaser” type, which we don’t want that a lot when playing the Game of Thrones.
This is why there must be a King and Queen when ruling a nation. Both King and Queen can keep each other in check when they lead. We have seen this a lot with Ned and Catelyn Stark, which was why they were both admired by many houses, up until the point Ned got too much information that he wanted to expose to the Lannisters.
What about this season now?
At this point, someone should burn the Iron Throne. For now, no one is suitable to rule the whole 7 Kingdoms. Besides, just like real life, we don’t see a president who rules 7 nations now do we? We used to have a lot of Emperors and Empresses until they were mostly taken down.
However, maybe George RR Martin may prove me wrong? We must see where his plot is getting at once he finished the book.
If there are things that you may agree or disagree, let me know in the comments :) I am welcoming all feedback and criticism.
