This reminds me of the riddle that Varys tells Tyrion Lannister in the ASOIAF books.
A King, a priest, a rich man and a sellsword are in a room. Those three men tell the sellsword to kill the other two. Who lives and who dies?
The conversation continues in another chapter:
“The king, the priest, the rich man - who lives and who dies? Who will the swordsman obey? It’s a riddle without an answer, or rather, too many answers. All depends on the man with the sword.’
‘And yet he is no one,’ Varys said. ‘He has neither crown nor gold nor favor of the gods, only a piece of pointed steel.’
‘That piece of steel is the power of life and death.’
‘Just so … yet if it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, why we pretend our kings hold the power? Why should a strong man with a sword ever obey a child king like Joffrey, or a wine-sodden oaf like his father?’
‘Because these child kings and druken oafs can call other strong men, with other swords.’
‘Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they? Whence came their swords? Why do they obey?’ Varys smiled.
[…]
Tyrion cocked his head sideways. ‘Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?’
Varys smiled. ‘Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more no less.’
I don’t joke when I say the books were what turned me left more than anything else (there’s literally an allusion to The Conquest of Bread in ACOK). He wrote the peasant struggle really well. It’s a shame that he seems to have forgotten that aspect of the books, and now just writes Targaryen nobility fanfics.
The whole purpose of buying the crown in the first place was to get the plebs nice and tipsy so we can take 'em to a nice comfortable place in the fields and, you know, they can’t refuse, because of the implication.
This reminds me of the riddle that Varys tells Tyrion Lannister in the ASOIAF books.
The conversation continues in another chapter:
Oh I remember when GRRM used to write GoT. Those were the days.
I don’t joke when I say the books were what turned me left more than anything else (there’s literally an allusion to The Conquest of Bread in ACOK). He wrote the peasant struggle really well. It’s a shame that he seems to have forgotten that aspect of the books, and now just writes Targaryen nobility fanfics.
I read your abbreviation as IASIP and was thinking that this was pretty deep compared to their usual content.
The whole purpose of buying the crown in the first place was to get the plebs nice and tipsy so we can take 'em to a nice comfortable place in the fields and, you know, they can’t refuse, because of the implication.
Hah
Danny DeVito as both Tyrion and Daenerys. 😭
(I only know of IASIP through the memes.)
“stick 'em with the pointy end”