From Game of Thrones to House of the Dragon: a semi-serious guide to love in the Seven Kingdoms

From Game of Thrones to House of the Dragon

After Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is also pleasing us a lot, with its mix of dragons, intrigues, twists and battles. Perhaps one of the secrets of the success of the Seven Kingdoms sagas is also in the ruthless, cynical but certainly consistent realism with which romantic relationships have always been described. Love in the Seven Kingdoms is damn complicated, difficult, it is a paper boat in a stormy sea, ready to be shipwrecked in wars, assassinations, catastrophes, undead, dragons but above all a ruthless law: it is only said that in feelings are reciprocated, it is not even said that love brings you luck. Perhaps the reality is that George R.R. Martin has also provided us with a perfect love manual for the real world, hidden in his fictional world.

In the name of Lord Friendzone

It is impossible to start with this analysis on Game of Thrones. and House of The Dragon without honoring the most exemplary and famous fallen that the Seven Kingdoms have given us, the defeated par excellence: Ser Jorah Mormont, the Lord of the Friendzones.

There is probably no more unlucky character in love, he is the perfect demonstration of how often a feeling needs the right ground to take root, in short, the right premises.

And by land we mean the right time, space and favorable contingent situations, such as pleasing the desired person. Ser Jorah has the cold and elegant look of Iain Glen, and falls into the sensational misfortune that many and many know: falling in love with the wrong person.

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Daenerys Targaryen is wrong for a myriad of different reasons - she's the Queen she's sworn to protect, so she's in too high a position. In addition, she is much younger than him (yes, age is often a problem) and she cannot have a normal love life, but above all she will never nurture or nurture a feeling for him other than a deep affection and esteem.



We have all been through it, all like poor Ser Jorah have thought: "you will see that one day things will change!" . As Max Pezzali sang instead, the friend rule is never wrong, and Ser Jorah always sees himself awarded the terrible title of Lord Friendzone at every opportunity, for his and our desperation for him. As if that weren't enough, when Daenarys exiles him, to return to her Jorah overcomes all obstacles and suffering, kills fearsome opponents, even saves her life ... The result? "Hey welcome back Jorah, this is Jon Snow".



After Khal Drogo and the vain Daario (who later ended up in a corner at the first opportunity) finally comes a rival that is impossible to beat. is that in the end, crying on the funeral pyre, Daenerys perhaps realizes one thing: she was the only one who really loved her for what she was. Unfortunately Friendzone is forever my dear and dear ones, you know it too well , it's like death and taxes. Just ask an expert in the field like the legendary Tormund. Strangely enough, his efforts, his sheepish irony and the animalistic way he eats at the table are worth nothing to seduce the giantess Brienne. in this case, Friendzone ended up dead.

Love, hate and other ingredients

Something similar also happens to Ser Criston Cole. As soon as we see it in House of the Dragon we think " here came the other half of Rhaenyra's heart. " And instead… here too Martin taught us that in that gigantic mess that is love, things often change and not for the better, that nothing is as it seems. Cole sees his love escape proposal rejected by the Princess and soon turns into a vile, unstable and violent man. Or maybe he had always been? Of course, he has little to envy to a beloved character like Tyrion Lannister, so tied to his Shae, perhaps one of the most beautiful couples in Game of Thrones. Also in this case a refusal, even if animated by the best intentions, lays the foundations for a tragedy: a betrayal and then a murder.

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Robb Stark is no better, who out of love for the beautiful Talisa finally finds himself with the worst wedding party of all time and literally loses his head. Here love is a tombstone rather than saving. In House of the Dragon, Rhea Royce's is held in Daemon's hand. Literally. Here then perhaps the idea that love is a poison, or that it makes us weak, may also emerge from time to time, because often in the Seven Kingdoms, the couples that last longer seem to be those in which passion has succumbed to reason of state. or at least it has been overshadowed. "He who loves with detachment wins" goes an ancient Persian adage and it seems to be really so in Martin's world.

In House of Dragon, Rhaenyra finally marries out of political necessity with Laenor Velaryon, openly homosexual, yet for several years it holds up with the right balance. Laena Velaryon and Daemon become a close-knit couple just as Viserys was with the regretful Emma, ​​and even with Alicent, who certainly shows several times that she cares about the old and sensitive King in spite of everything. Even between Robert Baratheon and that gorgon of Cersei Lannister it had lasted longer than certain "pure loves". Ned and Catelyn Tully had not chosen each other, yet theirs was an exemplary marriage. Then? Love does not exist? Is it an illusion? Not really.

Misfortunes, incest and forever alone

Love is certainly precious, but in merciless times it is often a luxury, which we have just happened to have defined as disinterested for a few decades . But looking around us it is clear in everyday life that often not even in our advanced 21st century it really is.

Jon Snow loved the feisty Ygritte, who had friendzoned Orell, the skin-shifter who first understood that that brunette there was not telling it right. It also brought slightly bad luck to her, so much so that at one point she had got into the uncomfortable habit of shooting Jon with burst arrows. Isn't love beautiful if it's not a quarrel? Even if it's not a bit incest, let's face it.

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After Game of Thrones also in House of Dragon the tendency to effusions between relatives. Daemon Targaryen and Rhaenyra after Cersei and Jaime Lannister? Let's say that after all in many dynasties of the past it was not so different, it was thought to "save" dynastic purity. Often with not great results. The frail physique of Vittorio Emanuele III was long attributed to the fact that he was the son of Umberto I and his cousin Margherita of Savoy. In the Seven Kingdoms, however, it is a forbidden fruit, something that cannot be done. Yet think about it, who has loved himself more than Cersei and Jaime, who has been more faithful? Nobody. The "can't be done" belongs to another very unfortunate couple: Gray Worm and Missandei. The affection and delicacy of the impossible relationship that binds the two is one of the most sensitive points of the Game of Thrones narrative.



The sentimental loneliness of Margaery Tyrell and Sansa Stark are also important, although it forces them into the dimension of forever alone. Sansa in particular, goes from one sentimental nightmare to another with an almost Fantozzian constancy: there is not a single decent man in her love life, she has to deal with sadists, torturers, psychopaths and manipulators like Joffrey, Littlefinger and above all Ramsay Bolton . In the end, in her as in Arya, we find the certainty that you don't need another person to be complete, what counts above all is to have your own freedom.

Which perhaps explains why Pedro Pasca l's Oberyn Martell (which we will find in The Last of Us) is the protagonist of one of the most sincere and successful love stories with her beloved Ellaria.