(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Tywin Lannister is the one character on Game of Thrones that marked me the most. Forget the fact that the man accused his own son of killing his wife at childbirth. Forget that the man sentenced his own son to die after a baseless murder accusation and a kangaroo trial. Forget that the man slept with his own son’s lover and met his demise in the most undignified manner. Forget about all of that for a minute and let’s talk about the man, and his firm one firm conviction in life.
Tywin Lannister believed in one thing, and one thing only; LEGACY.
Everything he did and plotted to do resided in preserving the family name. We are first introduced to the character late in the first season. The 7th episode precisely. A glimpse of his power is shown in the scene. He is skinning what seems to be a dead reindeer and giving a talking-to to his son, Jamie. Proud Jamie, tall and handsome, Captain of the King’s guard, feared and respected by many in King’s Landing.
Jamie stands behind his father, erect, quiet, his helmet under his arm, daring not to raise his voice as his father talks to him. It is at that moment that Tywin tells Jamie what I realised was his motivation for everything he did thereafter.
“I’m giving you half of our forces. 30,000 men. You’re going to ride to Catelyn Stark’s girlhood home (to retrieve your brother) and remind them that the Lannisters pay their debt… he’s a Lannister. He might be the lowest of the Lannisters but he is one of us. And every day that he remains a prisoner the less our name commands respect… If another house can seize one of our own and hold him with impunity, we are no longer a house to be feared.
“Your mother’s dead. Before long I’ll be dead. And you, and your brother, and your sister and all of our children. All of us dead. All of us rotting in the ground. But it’s the family name that lives on. It’s all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honour, but family. Do you understand?
“You are blessed with abilities that few men possess. You are blessed to belong to the most powerful family in the kingdoms. And you are still blessed with youth. And what have you done with these blessings? Hein? You have served as a glorified bodyguard for two kings. One, a mad man, the other, a drunk. The future of our family will be determined in the next few months. We can establish a dynasty that will last a thousand years. Or we could collapse into nothing as the Targaryens did. I need you to become the man you were destined to be. Not next year. Not tomorrow. Now”
This speech also reminds me a little of a speech made by General Maximus Decimus, the character played by Russel Crowe in the movie “Gladiator.” One of the things he said in that speech was “what we do in life echoes in eternity.”
In a way, it is asking us what we want to be remembered for. What is the legacy we want to leave for ourselves after we leave this Earth?
Tywin Lannister believed in one thing; which is the family and the family name. He is perhaps the one character that really understood the concept of power and how to play the Game of Thrones in such a manner that kept and preserved that power; the power which in turn was to do one thing and one thing only; Keep the Lannister name alive for thousands of years to come. He believed in generational wealth and passing that on to the children and grandchildren. He also knew that money, knowledge and power walk hand in hand and he needed to preserve all three.
And he assumed the full weight of what he believed in and took on the role to make sure that was done. He was a tall, and authoritative man. Everyone knew that he was not king, but he was the real ruler. He had both the money and the name. We are talking here about a man who sent the King to bed before supper.
He believed in it so much that he made his children marry people that HE decided they would marry irrespective of their thoughts on the matter. Tyrion to Sanza and Cersei to Lores Tyrell. There was something quite admirable about the man. And even when Arya was in his service as a cupbearer, you could tell that she had come to admire the man herself. The man responsible for her own father’s arrest.
I remember one of my uncle’s drivers telling us the story about his brother who had stayed all his life in the village. The driver told us mockingly that the only thing his brother had done in this life was to have children. He said that even an airport, his brother had not seen.
It was really funny the way he said it and I remembered how all of us there that day laughed. I want to think his brother is a good man who is doing all he can to raise good kids. Cheers to him. But this story and that of Tywin Lannister somehow highlights why it is important to live for something. Not just anything, but something great and which has an impact.
What do you live for? What contributions are you making to society? How will you be remembered? These are legitimate questions that I think we should start asking ourselves. I don’t think these have to be necessarily big things. Even in your immediate community you can believe in something great and altruistic and work towards that. Dr SEA for example (God rest her soul) has left us with medical knowledge in a language that uneducated people can understand.
And you? What do you believe in? What legacy do you want to leave to your kids? How are you working towards it? How will your name echo through eternity?
- Wandji Wilfred.