Fate of the Seven as seen in Secondary Characters

Watching American Gods and Game of Thrones at the same time is interesting on my brain. It's allowed me to evaluate some of the things happening within Westeros that I never considered before. Specifically, how the New Gods are playing their part in determining how things will play out.

The Faith of the Seven is the major religion in the southern kingdoms, but for most of my time with GRRM's work, I've not paid that much attention to them. Compared to the old gods of the North, the fire god of the East, or even the drowned god of the Iron Born, the Seven just came off as something people made up. It felt fake. Then I realized that perhaps these gods were being, but a necessity, more subtle than the others. After all, as the dominant religion in an area, how things play out for them will have the greatest impact on the day to day lives of their people. Unlike the other gods (who seem to be concerned with the Epic Matter at Hand), the Seven are more connected to their people. Whatever they do is going to affect the common person, though that makes it no less important.

What is happening in the books (and the show) is more than just good versus evil, living versus the dead. That is happening too, of course, but on a fundamental level, this is a reality shift. That shift is happening due to certain people taking on archetypal roles and playing out narratives used to determine the course of events. On the grand scale, people like Jon, Dany, Bran, and the Night King are battling to control the fate of the world. But what about the fate of the everyday person in the Seven Kingdoms?

The gods of the Seven are busy too, fighting a series of subtle battles to see how they will be viewed when this crisis comes to an end. You'll note when we first see the various roles set down by the Seven, they are usually rigid, corrupted, or exploited. Fathers (also male leaders) are either neglectful (Robert), domineering (Tywin), or evil (Walder, Craster). Mothers are mostly seen as overly protective to a point of insanity (Cersei, Lysa, and later after she comes back, Kat). Warriors are either broken or brutal. Maidens are held to strict standards based on little more than virginity. Crones mostly get viewed as crazy old women. Smiths are exploited workers. Basically, everyone is miserable under the current paradigm and it needs to change.

So as this story unfolds we begin to see many of our secondary characters taking on aspects and faces of the Seven. Interestingly, we don't just see SEVEN characters who do this, because in the struggle to readdress how the archetype will be viewed, many faces are put forth.

Hmm. This is getting long. I think it's going to be a several part blog post. I'll start with the Father tomorrow and discuss how Davos is really one of the most important parts of this story.