The Scene Tywin Tricked Them All Into Revealing Their True Nature
Synopsis
A close reading of one small council scene, in which the seating arrangement is the reveal. Tywin Lannister takes the head of the table and the others sort themselves around it, and where each one chooses to sit tells you what each one wants. The video’s larger claim is that true power does not require proximity, i.e. the person who does not need to be near the throne is the person who already has it.
Where I land
I like the observations and I like the show, and I do not have much criticism of either. George R. R. Martin has an excellent grasp on how to make a political drama into a gripping cinematic (or literary) story, with interlacing historical context. The backdrop becomes progressively more magical and fantasy-based as the series progresses.
My own observation is about the setting rather than the scene. Westeros has a monarchy and a medieval European type of system, whereas Essos appears to be a collection of city states. The two continents are running different political technologies, and a lot of the plot is what happens when someone carries the assumptions of one into the other.