Worse Man

Originating mid-way through A Game of Thrones, Worse Man carries the idea that the problem with a might makes right philosophy is not rule by brutes but rule by treachery.

A sub-theme of Lord's Take

7 AGOT Catelyn II: Catelyn is so sure she's right about what Ned should do she abuses reason, undermining Ned's confidence and gangs up on him with Luwin. But she hadn't considered the consequences and feels punished when she realizes she'll be separated from him when he goes south, since someone must rule in his absence.

19 AGOT Catelyn IV: Littlefinger uses his history with Catelyn to sell the lie that he lost the catspaw blade to Tyrion, to implicate Tyrion as having paid to have Bran murdered.

40 AGOT Eddard X: Robert asks how you can fight someone you can't hit.

48 AGOT Eddard XIII: Renly offers Ned swords but he prefers to bid Littlefinger bribe the Goldcloaks. Understanding it comes to swords, but aiming to spare lives and children's tears with a show of strength, Ned recognizes the need to enter into covert dealings with corrupt men.

59 AGOT Eddard XV: Unable to convince Ned to make false confession, Varys lies and says Sansa's life is at stake.

66 AGOT Arya V: The streets of Fleabottom are dangerous. After most of the belongings she fled with are stolen, Arya has a harder time remembering why not to steal. Her life is in constant threat from those who'd have her cloak and boots. An older girl knocks her down and tries to take them. In such a world, the worse man lives and the better man dies.

68 AGOT Sansa VI: Now that Sansa has no guard against Joffrey and he's king, he has her struck by kingsguard. He seems to think he can do anything with impunity by calling it treason.

74 ACOK 1 Prologue: Renly has the love of the banners that should be Stannis's. "But if Renly should die..." -19 All Stannis has to do is let Selyse convince him he's entitled to execute Renly for the treason of crowning himself over his older brother. But she'll go a step further and convince him he's the chosen one.

78 ACOK 5 Bran I: The Frey game teaches children to be Lord of the Twins, but with questionable morals. The lord can hit anybody with a stick, even if he's granted crossing, and the other players spend all their time justifying and making oaths to win crossing

82 ACOK 9 Tyrion II: Tyrion intends to be a just Hand, but now realizes he can't actually effect the problems he'd like to as they're caused by people he can't touch, specifically Cersei. What's the point of making "a mummer's show of justice by punishing the sorry likes of Janos Slynt and Allar Deem, while his sister continued on her savage course." -129 Worse still, his own men are worse than the ones he's replacing.

85 ACOK 12 Theon I: "my lord father once told me that hard places breed hard men, and hard men rule the world." -166

86 ACOK 13 Daenerys I: The red waste deaths are diminshed by calling the fallen "weak."

"Weak children, wrinkled old men, the sick and the stupid and the heedless, the cruel land claimed them all." -190

Dany's handmaidens make excuses for the deaths. They must be hardened or risk weakening in grief and dying, too. Contempt for weakness and might makes right attitudes seem explained by passage through such a harsh landscape.

93 ACOK 20 Arya V: Who will carry the children when the good men are slain? Kurz took an arrow in the shoulder closing the trap during battle. He's the one who has them grind acorn paste. He would have stayed with the orphans to help them all survive, but he dies. Lesser men abandon the children and worse men take them as slaves.

96 ACOK 23 Catelyn II: Sometimes the winner of a brute force contest is not a brute. Brienne of Tarth wins the melee at Bitterbridge and Renly has the numbers to be king, despite being only adequate at arms.

98 ACOK 25 Theon II: Seabitch. Asha has to remind Theon that the iron islands don't hold to greenland laws but make their own, especially where inheritance is concerned. He might be able to convince geenlanders that he's a prince, but not the people of Pyke. Asha does walk Lordsport as prince of Pyke, but her philosophy is of respect, not entitlement. She knows the true princes of the iron islands are the shipwrights, as she attempt to explain to Theon as she susses him out.

99 ACOK 26 Tyrion VI: Tyrion poisons Cersei to sit the throne so he can send away her personal guard. Worse man ! Worse man!

103 ACOK 30 Tyrion VII: Rule is making Tyrion a worse man. To hold Cersei at bay, he feels he must play her way. 450. She's provoked him to war with Lancel's late night visit. So Tyrion makes Lancel his spy, blackmailing him with Robert's death & Cersei's bed, threatening to tell Joffrey, who is far worse than Tyrion.

105 ACOK 32 Catelyn III: Renly must have overwhelming numbers, but Stannis is still confident he can annihilate him. When its a matter of force, the least scrupulous may consider himself justified in defiance of conscience.

107 ACOK 34 Catelyn IV: "Stannis had won all with a single evil stroke." 506 While Renly waited until dawn, the agreed on hour, a shadowsword struck him down. Catelyn doesn't know Stannis was sleeping.

116 ACOK 43 Davos II: Renly's lord who came over to Stannis are discussed as seeking glory over principle.

"But these lords who flocked to my brother's banners knew him for a usurper. They turned their backs on their rightful king for no better reason than dreams of power and glory" 612

Though wars may have some of the qualites of elections, those most passionate among the bannermen are likely those most thirsty for battle rather than those most principled. They gather to the presumed winner who is the one seen to have rhe numbers already because they seek a false glory: to be on the wining side and share in victory without risking in the name of principle, which

120 ACOK 47 Bran VI: Loyal defenders of the smallfolk must protect them, making their actions predictable, even promptable, as we see in Tywin's tricking Edmure into scattering his forces. Meanwhile, those without such good intentions may reave and conquer. They'll do so with impunity if there are not enough defenders. So, armies must stay in ther regions of origin or tempt would be conquerors.

123 ACOK 50 Tyrion XI: Tyrion's busy schedule leaves him no time for long term thinking, but requires him to make appearances, even pointless ones. Taking council is a second choice every time and the most important matters come via raven. It's easy to see why any Hand would stay at his desk and only attend ceremonies, sending complainers to stand before the king. It's easy to see how petty power struggles might consume his thoughts and how the welfare of his people would be neglected entirely. What's the point of a Hand, then? To ensure rule by the worst?

124 ACOK 51 Theon IV: Though we won't learn it until later, Reek is Ramsay Snow. His plan to aid Theon in his recovery of the Stark boys is actually a trap to ruin Theon's hold on the north through Winterfell. It may seem that Theon's conquest by force was ill done, but Ramsay's conquest by treachery bodes worse. When men take what they may, it's the treacherous who take most.

125 ACOK 52 Jon VI: Those who build fires and sit with screening from the wind make themselves vulnerable to those who would seak up and kill them, ensuring none any comfort and making it unlikely any survive, let alone grow a village.

126 ACOK 53 Sansa IV: The Hound shares his cynical atheism and philosophy of the sword: "If there are gods, they made sheep so wolves could eat mutton." 757

128 ACOK 55 Tyrion XII: War makes men worse. Tyrion only means an empty threat when he threatens Tommen, but Cersei knows she can't accuse him of not meaning it so has to take him deadly seriously. He later realizes he might have to consider making good on his threat, though he'd never have in any other context. Any escalation is real and the one willing to be worse likely wins.

134 ACOK 61 Sansa VI: The paranoia instilled in a monarch provokes them to heavy handed brutality and violence. The worse man succeeded to the throne is also made worse by it.

135 ACOK 62 Tyrion XIV: When the most dutiful men throw themselves at danger to protect the group, who is left to inherit what they've saved but the worse?

138 ACOK 65 Arya X: When Qyburn says

"Terrible times breed terribly things, my lord." Bolton showed his teeth in what might have been a smile. "Are these times so terrible, Maester?"

"Summer is gone and there are four kings in the realm."

"One king may be terrible, but four?" He shrugged.

It seems Qyburn means to subtly terrorize Roose and is sharply confronted. Bolton sees these times as opportune and mean to profit. He goes out hunting predators. When there is no centralized power, rogues may operate without fear. Four kings are too busy fighting each other to notice the crimes and subtle power grabs of men of lesser rank.

140 ACOK 67 Theon VI: Ramsay Bolton takes Winterfell by treachery and burns it, shredding the remains of the defending northern armies to do so. His methods are unconscionable and his intentions are the worst. Yet, what city or castle can stand without being vulnerable to treachery?

141 ACOK 68 Tyrion XV: The early waves of bravest soldiers died, leaving the victory to those who stayed back the claim credit.

143 ACOK 70 Bran VII: The meaner wolf dominates, as does the more treacherous house, the self-serving, the false friend.

150 ASOS 7 Sansa I: Olenna rules through Mace, scapegoating him for every appearance of impropriety or ambition. That these are figureheads and behind the scenes powers seems a bad thing.

153 ASOS 10 Bran I: As a warg, if Bran doesn't choose the difficult path of growth, he'l become more and more a wolf. As Summer, he stole a kill from a pack and it made him more open to theft as a policy in his own life as well. It's easy to be worse, so it should be assumed more will choose it.

154 ASOS 11 Davos II: Seeing red, Davos's mission to muder Melisandre is making him a worse man. He's drawing irrational conclusions and risking all for his duty to his king--a duty that king will call treason--when he should be considering his duty to his wife and children to stay alive.

155 ASOS 12 Jaime II: The poor state of the riverlands means all survivors must be suspicious of strangers. This means more pointed questioning, more lying, and worst of all, ganging up to prey on travelers and smaller groups.

CONTINUE ASOS NOTES