I had this realisation awhile back, the way Tywin and Tyrion are politically is almost perfectly reflected in how their champions (Oberyn and The Mountain) fought. Tyrion is deceptively dangerous in the political realm. He dances around his enemies, making sharp jabs to throw them off balance and often appearing like less of a threat than he truly is. There is something captivating about the way he plays the game. It's a joy to watch him outmaneuver and banter with his political rivals, but there is an edge of ruthlessness to him. Often, he has already found a way to beat you before you even sit down at the table. Oberyn is deceptively dangerous in a fight. He dances around his enemies, making sharp jabs to throw them off balance and often appearing like less of a threat than he truly is. There is something captivating about the way he fights. It's a joy to watch him outmaneuver and encircle his enemies, but there is an edge of ruthlessness to him. Thanks to his use of poison, he has already found a way to beat you before you draw your blade. Tywin is something of a political brute. Unlike his son, he is direct, straitforward, and doesn't bother with fancy wordplays. He is, in many ways, far less, and yet far MORE dangerous than his reputation conveys. On the one hand, he relies far too much on brute force intimidation. Frequently targeting those houses that are weaker than him, or who are too afraid of him to really fight back. When talking to his children, his aproach is blunt force. "You WILL do what I want." and when faced with an equal opponent such as Robb Stark or Ollena Tyrell, he finds himself quite easily outmaneuvered and rapidly giving ground. But what truly makes Tywin fearsome is his ability to endure, and his oppurtunism. The man is a survivor, as relentless and unyeilding as he is simplistic. You better make sure that when you have him on the defense, you FINISH HIM OFF. Because he will find a way to capitalise on ANY weakness. Any advantage. And when he does the result is final, devastating and horrifically brutal. Just ask Robb Stark. Gregor Clegane is a brute. Unlike Oberyn, The Mountain is direct, straitforward, and doesn't bother with fancy swordplay. He is, in many ways, far less, and yet far MORE dangerous than his reputation conveys. On the one hand, he relies far too much on brute force intimidation. Frequently targeting opponents that are weaker than him, or who are too afraid of him to really fight back. His aproach is blunt force. and when faced with an equal opponent such as Oberyn, he finds himself quite easily outmaneuvered and rapidly giving ground. But what truly makes The Mountain fearsome is his ability to endure. The man is a survivor, as relentless and unyeilding as he is simplistic. You better make sure that when you have him on the defense, you FINISH HIM OFF. Because he will find a way to capitalise on ANY weakness. Any advantage. And when he does the result is final, devastating and horrifically brutal. Just ask Oberyn Martell. August 30, 2023

Bran won the game by fucking off and not even playing lol

Paetyr Baelish is the wasted character in the series All his backstory is in the Blu-ray History & Lore which ever get acknowledged in the series so it dont matter if he live or not

3 best players based on how fast they ascended to power: Bronn Davos Qyburn These three came from nothing and held immense positions of power.

For the time, that Tyrion was hand of the king, he was a damn good player too.

Its pretty clear why little finger isnt consisered a threat to varys in the books like he is in the show. Varys wants that shit to go sideways and chaos to reign

why is robb stark held in such a high regard he never met the lannister in a fair an conventional fight and his tactical and strategic movement was largly carried out by the blackfish and aided by his dire wolfe, so the only things that were really done by him was deciding were to go and in this he was assistet by his bannerman. so if you combine this with his bad political moves what makes him so great

Bloodraven?

Tyrion clearly outplayed Pycelle and should have been on the top 5.

i guess youre just going off present timeline people because larys strong and bloodraven are probably even better than any of the players today especially bloodraven hes the best to ever play in my opinion my man was winning the game of thrones while stuck in a tree a thousand miles away

completely disagree with pycelle hes a piece not a player tywin is the player thats moving pycelle around everything he does he does for tywin he has no individual motives that would make me count him as a player especially because i really have no idea why he loves tywin so much ive heard theories hes IN love with tywin but idk if i believe that

I don’t get what's so up about the mountain. He's just humongous in size. He's not hell of a warrior. Oberyn almost beat him and without much difficulty. He died because he became careless.

What about Bobby B? He spent his entire adult life on top, despite drinking, whoring, and hunting, and doing literally nothing productive (aside from storming Pyke). Everyone else is scheming or plotting or maneuvering, whilst Robert just sits there drunkedly sending Lancel off for the breastplate stretcher

Yeah, Mace doesn't come across as big of a fool in the books compared to the show. Also, a Ned vid would be awesome. 👍

I heard a theory somewhere that the fighting stopped and all three of them went up to the room. When they all came down Dayne being the honorable knight he is tells Ned that he must die and you must tell people you defeated me in combat. He then gets a warriors death and Ned returns the sword. Howland Reed then takes Daynes sister as his wife to protect her and takes her back home with him. I don’t know if it has any standing but I did like the theory.

What if Ned had gone with Renly to tell Stannis the truth?

Varys' weakness as a player seems obvious to me: In a world with very real magic, refusing to tolerate it, even to your advantage, puts you at a serious handicap. It plays well in the Robert-era, when magic is seemingly "asleep", but it's hard to scheme your way out of Drogon's mouth or a red priest's assassin if you aren't ALSO willing to resort to the occult. I would say that refusing to back Stannis in the interim would be a point of that in action. Stannis follows the Red God, so he's not even worth considering. Even though Stannis would be quite capable of squashing the current civil unrest and putting off the war for a little longer to better fit the timetable. You can't tell me Stannis wouldn't start ANOTHER civil war within the next decade, especially if he tries to squash the Faith of The Seven. That way you don't have to pull the Young Griff trigger so early. Even if you think that's a stretch, it's a matter of "refusing to play the cards you're dealt" and players who do that, like Ned (the Ur example), don't get to win in the end.

Varys: starts singing it's the hard-knock life fom Annie to lighten the mood... Tryion: "it's funny since you've never had a hard c**k" Varys: "I said KNOCk not C**K!"

Lann the Clever was the GOAT.

Tywin’s only real mistake was underestimating Tyrion. That man had the game, set, and match until he took a bolt to the belly.

Varys biggest weakness is that the little birds he relies upon are are fragile as a post-book show story line

GREY WORM? XDD

Little is gitting used up you can't just do the same thing forever and expect to win

Varys biggest weakness is his inability to build a legacy so he’s forced to make all of his plans within his lifetime.

Olena also married in to the Tyrells despite the fact that it wasn’t the planned marriage. She’s been playing the game since she was young, she didn’t even inherit much.

Bronn. Bronn gained the most out of anyone else, directly because of his actions. He started as a common sellsword and ended up as Lord of the Reach and pretty much the wealthiest man in Westeros. He played his cards very well, only took very well calculated risks and succeded because of it. He was loyal enough to not be suspected of treason, but never too much as to compromise his own interests in order to serve others. He fought for Tyrion in his first trial by combat, because he didn't have much to lose, but plenty to gain. Then, he refused to fight in the second one against Ser Gregor, because he had too much to lose and not many things to win by fighting. He proved his loyalty first to Tyrion, then to Jaime, and thus he was rewarded handsomely but knew when to stay out of things. In the battle of the Bells, again, he chose not to participate. He just stood by and let the rest of Westeros destroy itself. Same for the battle against the dead. And then he again took advantage of the new status quo and became Lord of Highgarden. He had some luck go his way of course, but his execution was flawless.

Problem vayrs has no balls

Varys relies on being on people’s good side too much. If Stannis had trashed King’s Landing, if the Tyrell army had been just one bit delayed, there was no way he would have survived ‘a truly just man’. No one is really loyal to Varys either, so anyone nuts enough to shoot him right then and there ends his play decisively.

15:40 Catelyn Tully*

Varys’ biggest issue is he doesn’t have the balls to make big plays (pun intended)

Technically in the books since the only evidence of Olenas involvement is Littlefingers confession he could be lying to make Sansa afraid to ask for help since she would be afraid to trust anybody since anybody but him could betray her according to him.

Pod- he didn’t have to pay Game over

How is Jon not on here lmfao 🤣 he was a better commander than everyone here because they all failed.

I definently agree with the top 2 but I would flip them. I have no doubt Varys could do the same thing as Baelish but he hasn’t. The manipulation that Baelish did is just insane. Manipulating the war, taking control of 2 and probably 3 kingdoms in the span only being in power for less than 20 years but honestly both of them could be 1 good list

The number five is meh; I could nominate Renly instead. The guy was quick and determined to take advantage of opportunities; he was a charismatic leader who generated devotion in his subjects and was skilled at forming alliances. Even his death wasn't for any political or military mistake, but for a magical ritual that killed him in the most dishonorable and unjust way. Seriously, what chance would he have against that?

Wow imagine if you were a king 🤴

why didint tyrion just send 1 wildfire bomb? You couldve burned his entire army right there, if 1 bomb burned like a quarter of his forces if you sent like 10 you just won the battle instantly.

Love the video you should make one ranking the army’s of each region

In my opinion little finger is still the best player. Varys have at least to fuck ups deny and being threaten by Jamie to free Tyrion but everting in the books at least goes according to plan of Peter so I think that he really is the best

Varis's weakness is his lack of friends. He could have been killed at every time when he was in kingslanding. Tyrion was the only person who liked him. When Jaime frees Tyrion, he threatens to kill varis and nobody would have cared. He simply has to rely on his mind

Where is Bobby B? He and Aegon are the only 2 players to actually win the game. These 5 are merely playing the game while Bobby and Aegon actually claimed victory.

its obvious. his greatest weakness is that tyrion has balls, and he doesnt.

varys' weakness is his hatred of magic tbh fundamentally, he is playing a political game in a world he understands, while the thing he hates most grows stronger and stronger each day. in the end i think it will cloud his judgement and cause him to make unwise decisions for no reason beyond prejudice, ultimately compromising his endgame once dragons and red priests take center stage.

Let's see: (Based on Show only) 1 Grandchild on the Iron Throne - Brandon Stark 1 Grandchild Queen of the North - Sansa Stark 1 Grandchild Lord of the Eyrie, Warden of the East - Robert Arryn 1 Son is the Lord of Riverrun and Lord Paramount of the Trident - Edmure Tully 1 Daughter was Dowager Lady of Winterfell - Catelyn Stark 1 Daughter was Dowager Lady of the Vale - Lysa Arryn 1 Grandchild was King of the North - Robb Stark And he died of old age and not violently like every other character on the list (Show only, not books) Hoster Tully dominated the Game of Thrones.

If certain book theories are correct about Varys' sister, his weakness may be loyalty to his family, which would make a very interesting parallel between him and Ned

Shouldn't Tyrion outrank Pycelle?

I still think Walder Frey was a good player. Plus i honestly think the dude did nothing wrong. Lets be honest the freys are just less attractive starks. What he did was very practical and his best option for his family. The north would never had won the war no matter what.

Vary’s biggest weakness, along with Littlefinger was crap writing from D & D the moment the material from the books dried up, as they seemed to forget how the characters even functioned and turned them into idiots. I personally hope the faceless man theories are cannon as would explain a lot, regardless if that seems a lazy way to fix the problem. Least it saves 2 great characters entire ark from being shat on from a great height.

how is Hot Pie not number one?

Video idea(s) What if Danny stayed in Essos, gained control of the continent and went to war with Westeros as a whole to take back the throne? Or who would be able to beat the other in full scale war Westeros or Essos?