Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, but does the same apply to one who sits on a throne?Just ask Mike Ross, 37, who won a $30,000 life-size replica iron throne at a recent Game of Thrones fan event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.The custom chair, which is designed to mimic the seat of kings in the Seven Kingdoms, can be purchased from the HBO website for a staggering $30k. But Ross just happened to be seated in the right place at the right time when Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin announced his winning seat number before a screening of the season four premiere and a panel discussion with the cast.“My initial reaction was shock,” Ross tells Parade. “The event was filled with a bunch of surprises, including George R.R. Martin, himself. And when he announced that there will be an iron throne giveaway to a lucky seat holder, the place went nuts. First he read the section number of the winner – I started cheering and joking around with my wife. Then he read our row number – I got a little nervous, but very excited.
And when he read my seat number and a spot light hit me in the face, I was absolutely stunned. I eventually made my way up to the stage to meet Mr. Martin and the four cast members, and take a seat in the Iron Throne. The next thing I knew, George was declaring: ‘All Hail, King Mike! King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm!’“After the sheer excitement and shock wore off, someone off-stage came to retrieve me off the throne and I took a moment to shake hands or hug each of the cast members. I also took the opportunity to thank George and politely remind him that we are all eagerly awaiting his sixth book, The Winds of Winter. In which he responded, ‘King Mike has commanded me to finish the next book!'”Ross hasn’t received the throne just yet. He’ll soon be setting up a delivery time and place with HBO, but it’s not looking likely that he’ll have it delivered to his apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey.“As much as I would LOVE to have it in my apartment, my wife and I are pretty certain a 7ft tall 350 lbs chair is not going to fit in our Hoboken apartment.
It may be possible if we rearrange a few things, like get rid of our kitchen table! But I think, for now, it might have to go into storage until we get a house. Then I’ll have to build a Throne Room around the chair!” So what does his wife think about their new piece of furniture?“She is still in disbelief,” Ross says. “I do have to thank her, though. She is a very big fan too and found out about the fan event by following Game of Thrones on twitter. If it wasn’t for that, we would have never gone. As for the monstrosity itself, I think we’ll have to wait to get a house before we start matching paint colors and flooring the throne. I’m sure she’ll come around on our little ‘conversation piece.'”One thing is for sure, Ross and his wife will be tuning in come April 6 when the fourth season of Game of Thrones premieres on HBO.“We are both huge GOT fans — not quite to the level of cos-play, but close! I’ve read all the books and own/re-watch the first three seasons.
I actually didn’t start reading the books until the third season. So watching seasons one, two, and three was full of surprises. Now that I’ve finished all of the available books, I’m really looking forward to seeing the onscreen version of all the events in season four.“As for what I love most, it’s the level of detail that George R.R. Martin puts in the books and the show creators stay loyal to in the show. The character development certainly stands out the most for me, as I read and watch the transformations of Arya, Jamie, and John Snow. My other favorite thing has to be Tyrion, both his dialogue and Peter Dinklage are exceedingly entertaining. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to watch the new season on the iron throne — unless I bring a TV into my new storage unit or my parent’s garage!” he says.Season 5 of the epic saga that is Game of Thrones is winding down, with a mere two episodes left — and only two seasons to go after that. Viewers of the show, and readers of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire, are almost in the same place with roughly the same information when it comes to understanding the big political picture in Westeros.
So it's a good time to reconsider the show's (and the books') most vital question — one that often gets buried under its many, many dense layers of plot and character. The question, hidden in plain sight in the title, is: Who wins? See also: All 53 episodes of 'Game of Thrones,' rated and reviewed Our definition of victory here is pretty simple: If a character sits on the Iron Throne or its equivalent when the show ends, they win. We're not talking about the power behind the throne, which throws up its own set of questions; we're talking about the actual monarch. (Tommen Baratheon is currently winning the game, regardless of the fact that the Lannisters and the Tyrells are at war over who gets to manipulate him.) Look at it this way, and the number of possible winners is significantly reduced — partly because so few people actually want the job, or have any kind of claim to it. For example, we know that Varys is a master manipulator, but we also know he's on Team Daenerys.
Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon may have a claim on the North, but none of them have shown any Robb Stark-like desire to attack the rest of Westeros. Here, then, are our picks the eight most conceivable occupants of the Iron Throne in a couple of seasons' (and a couple of books') time, in reverse order from least likely to most likely. Let us know in the comments. Yes, he's a real outside chance. As things stand at the moment, Jon is preoccupied at the Wall and doesn't even want to rule from Winterfell as Warden of the North, let alone the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, there's something that book readers know about Jon's story that may or may not prevent him from taking the crown. On the other hand, there's a distinct sense that Jon is being prepped for much greater things — not least because of the whole R+L=J theory. We'll likely have more to say on this matter when Season 5 ends. Here's another curveball George R.R. Martin and the showrunners may be preparing to throw. The Faith Militant is resurgent in King's Landing.
It has already imprisoned Cersei Lannister, Margaery Baratheon and Loras Tyrell — two Queens and the heir to one of Westeros' most powerful families. We could be seeing a religious coup in progress, a kind of slow-motion version of the Iranian revolution of 1979 that ousted the Shah and brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power. If the High Sparrow ends up destroying the regal system in the style of Iran's mullahs, he'd sooner melt down the Iron Throne than actually sit on it. But the net result would be the same — the Sparrows would be the unchallenged, dictatorial leaders of Westeros. If King's Landing accepts the legitimacy of Tommen — and that's an increasingly big if — then his sister Myrcella is next in line. Currently she's in Dorne, in love with Trystane Martell, refusing to leave with her "uncle" Jaime, the subject of a failed plot by the Sand Snakes who want to torture her as a way of getting back at the Lannisters. Again, there's a little bit more of the book storyline that may yet be played out in the show, but we'll just point out one thing: Under Dornish law, an older sister should inherit the throne before her younger brother — and Dorne's leaders might be able to use that in some kind of power play for the throne.
King Robert's rightful heir is at the crux point of his campaign. All he need do is take Winterfell and the North will be his, give or take a few Ironborn. He has the Iron Bank on his side. What could possibly go wrong? Well, he could be stuck in the snows outside Winterfell, for one thing, mired as solidly as Napoleon was outside Moscow. Winter is coming: We've heard it for five seasons now, but apparently Stannis didn't get the memo. Winter brings snow, and deep snow is so impossible to fight in that most medieval armies basically took the winter off, even in the middle of campaigns. Stannis' red lady, Melisandre, is suggesting Stannis could yet take the city if he sacrifices his daughter to her god — and we've been given good reason to trust that her magic is legit. But even if he takes this devil's bargain, Stannis has a problem. He is inflexible and unloved — and recent history has shown those are not the two greatest traits if you want to hang on to the Iron Throne.
Don't be too quick to dismiss the ineffectual wimpy kid. For one thing, he represents the last best hope of two of the realm's most powerful families, whether he ends up being ruled by the Lannisters (via Cersei or Ser Kevan) or by the Tyrells (via Margaery). The two great houses are locked in a kind of Cold War, thanks to Cersei's reckless revenge on the younger Queen, but neither has a better candidate to actually sit on the throne while they duke it out. Also, inertia and incumbency are pretty powerful things. Having the crown already is far easier than fighting for it. If there's one thing the show has taught us, it's that it takes an awful lot to seize the Iron Throne by force — and no one has managed it since the days of the Mad King, decades in the past. Don't look at Littlefinger's current position, though Lord Protector of the Vale is nothing to sniff at. Instead, look at his trajectory. Littlefinger began as a member of a relatively poor family; his nickname refers to a tiny, rocky island he owns.
That gave him a hunger for more land and power that hasn't been sated since. The brothelkeeper became Master of Coin, then the nominal owner of Harrenhal, then one of the two secret co-conspirators in the killing of King Joffrey Baratheon. He's been making audacious moves in the shadows for quite some time. And now, thanks to a certain incident at a certain Moon Door, he's the leading Lord of the Eyrie, commanding a powerful and disciplined set of banners. Clearly, Littlefinger has his sights on Winterfell next. He maneuvered Sansa Stark into a horrific marriage pact with the Boltons, then told Cersei he was going to swoop in and pick up the remains of Winterfell when Stannis and the Boltons were done fighting — no doubt with Sansa as his bride. With the North and the Vale on his side, he'll be more powerful than any Stark ever was. That's a lethal combination of traits: Cunning, skullduggery, and the brains to not fight any battles until he's already won them. Baelish thrives on disruption, as he told Varys in a famous scene — "Chaos isn't a pit.
Chaos is a ladder." He's on the middle rung of that ladder already, and he's barely lifted a finger. King Petyr Baelish has quite a ring to it, don't you think? She's the obvious candidate — too obvious, given the way things work in Martin's dark fantasy world. Still, Dany has the troops (8,000 Unsullied plus unspecified numbers of Dothraki), she has the dragons, she has the strongest claim to sit on the Iron Throne (if you accept that the Targaryen claim is the original one), and she's developing the steely will to rule for decades in true Elizabeth I style. All she needs is the right advisor to help her unite the former slave cities, control her dragons and plot a course for the invasion of King's Landing, and she now has that in Tyrion Lannister. As the man who once masterminded the defense of King's Landing, Tyrion is perfectly positioned to capture it. Even if his preference is for Daenerys to stay in Mereen, it seems likely Tyrion would throw himself into invasion planning if it were a done deal — especially if the Khaleesi threw in a few crates of wine as a reward.
Remember Dany's vision at the House of the Undying in Season 2, with the snow-covered Iron Throne in a ruin? Yeah, that's most likely where we're heading. (Especially since Bran Stark had the same vision in a later episode.) From the frozen north, the White Walkers are approaching — and we saw last week how they can lay waste to a whole village in mere minutes, and grow their ranks exponentially by reanimating their victims. The Wall and Castle Black may detain them for a little while, but only a little. The rest of the realm is as disunited and disbelieving over the existential threat as we are about our own climate change, which appears to be the entire series' deliberate metaphor. If they've got their ironic timing right, the White Walkers should reach King's Landing just about the same time as Dany's dragons burn it down. And there you have the song of ice and fire, ending on a downbeat requiem for all the characters we've lost — which may very well include all of the above by this point.