Game of Thrones Season One Ultimate Unofficial Guide: The Game of Thrones Season 1

dismembered bodies were arranged in the beginning of the first episode was a circle with a line down the middle. This shape does not turn up in the rest of the season, but is most likely significant further on in the story. The creatures responsible for the massacre, White Walkers, have been hibernating for thousands of years. This symbol might relate to something from the time when they first terrorized the realm.

Parallel Circumstances

    With so many dynamic characters it is interesting to note certain parallels that exist among them. For instance, Viserys, Joffrey, and Robin Arryn all have absentee father figures and all three males are arrogant, short-tempered, and cruel. While Joffrey and Robin are raised by their paranoid, overbearing mothers, Viserys is left to fend for himself and forced to care for his younger sister. Viserys grew up without a father or mother, Joffrey was unaware of his true father’s identity and largely ignored by Robert, and Robin lost his father in a Lannister murder scheme.
    The eunuch Varys and the men of the Night’s Watch also show similarities. Varys swears to be an agent of the realm and will align events to ensure the peace of the kingdom, even if that means hiding the truth. He is a eunuch, so naturally is celibate and has no claim to any family of his own. The Night’s Watchmen are expected to remain celibate after taking their vows and forsake any possibility of continuing their bloodline. While the Night’s Watch live in a dangerous, bleak climate, Varys also lives in a dangerous political climate, always having to watch his back and carefully plan his maneuvers. The Night’s Watch is the first line of defense against any trouble beyond The Wall and Varys serves in this position for the king. His title is Maester of Whisperers, or official royal spy, so he is most likely the first to know of any dangerous intentions toward the king.
    Ned’s older brother, Brandon, and their father are unexpectedly executed by the unjust Mad King Aerys, forcing Ned to handle the responsibilities of taking his father’s place; a position in which he was not groomed because his older brother was heir to Winterfell. Ned’s son Robb suffers a similar fate when Ned is unexpectedly executed by an unjust king, Joffrey, leaving Robb to take on the head of House responsibilities sooner than anticipated.
    Cersei and Jaime Lannister are involved in an incestuous relationship that has resulted in offspring. They are practicing the same bloodline preservation that the Targaryens had used for centuries. The only difference is that the Targaryens used this technique in successive generations, resulting in strains of madness to occur within the family.
    The Dothraki tribesmen and the Targaryens share similar qualities in that they both believe that violence equals power. The Dothraki men do not cut their hair until defeated by a challenger, so the long hair of certain men symbolizes their warrior skills. If one wants to be king, he simply needs to fight for the throne and win. The Dothraki constantly pillage and plunder neighboring villages that do not pay them tribute. The Targaryens operate in much the same way. They used the terror of three dragons to subdue the kingdoms under their control and continued to reign with violence. They fought each region and won, uniting them as one kingdom under their rule. They held court until they were defeated by a challenger and forced to give up control.

Without a Home
    Also of note is that the three families who do not live on lands handed down the bloodline from the Age of Heroes, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, and the Lannisters, are the same families at the forefront of the struggle for power. The Targaryens left their ancestral home of Dragonstone for the city they built at King’s Landing after terrorizing the realm into submission. Having no home in which to return after losing control of their founded empire led to the death of their ancient culture as well as all but two of the bloodline. Dragonstone was put under Baratheon control once Robert took the throne. The two remaining Targaryen siblings have grown up in exile on foreign lands.
    During the Targaryen conquest, the Baratheons became the first family to ever seize The Stormlands after vanquishing the last of its Kings, turning the oldest castle in Westeros into the new Baratheon stronghold. Orys Baratheon, Aegon’s bastard brother, was the man who brought the Stormlands into submission to