In ACOK Tyrion II, Varys brings up the
riddle. There's a brief exchange as Tyrion goes over the options and says the swordsman has power over life and death. Varys asks, why does he follow the king, then? Tyrion points out that the king has many more swordsmen at his disposal.
Varys offers his take:
"Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they? Whence came their swords? Why do they obey?" Varys smiled. "Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baelor's Sept, our godly High Septon and the lawful Queen Regent and your ever so-knowledgeable servant were as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed Eddard Stark, do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command? Ser Ilyn Payne, who swung the sword? Or . . . another?"
Let's go over that again.
- First he suggests the sword is power.
- Then knowledge.
- Then that power comes from the gods.
- Then from the law.
- Then he asserts that law, gods and knowledge are as powerless as the smallfolk...
- ... under the wrong king...
- ... and the use of his might.
From ADWD Epilogue:
"Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be (1), but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry (2, 4). A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them (3). He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need (5). He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right (6). Aegon knows kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them (7)."
Pretty good match, right?
"Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?"
"Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less."
"So power is a mummer's trick?"
No, it's a mummer's dragon.
i dont believe in the least bit that daario is actually euron but there were some more interesting points brought up such as whether euron might have been around slaver's bay when dany sacked astapor and i also didnt see the connection between pyat pree and the 3 warlocks = the 4 warlocks euron captured. interesting shyt.
i cant wait to read that fukkery.
New bad ass guy on that come up and then GRRM throws him in the bushes. 
did she not see how he lied about arya and got her wolf killed? did she not just see that jory was killed and her father was attacked and hurt? if i have daughters i really hope they are more like arya.
