The bastard and the dwarf

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not.  Make it your strength.  Then it can never be your weakness.  Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”  Tyrion Lannister, a character in Game of Thrones gives this counsel to Jon, another character, who is a bastard.  

Tyrion Lannister

Lannister is a dwarf and all dwarfs are bastards according to his experience.  “All dwarfs are bastards in their father’s eyes,” he says.  No man likes to admit that he has sired a dwarf.  It is better to cast aspersions on his wife. Since his mother died giving birth to him, he could not ask her who his real father was, says Lannister sardonically.  He goes on to say that “All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.”

Jon is a bastard.  But he has great qualities which make him better than many other people.  It is only the fact that he is a bastard that deters him from discovering his own greatness.  As long as he keeps fighting that fact he is going to remain just there: fighting an unalterable fact.  Come on, Jon, you are a bastard, admit it, let the whole world call you that, the world will, the world has no better sense, the world loves to poke your wound, rub salt on it and then watch you writhe in pain.  That’s what Lannister is saying without saying it.  Jon understands.  He understands that he doesn’t have to be apologetic for being a bastard.  How can that be his fault anyway? 

The world loves to put on your head other people’s faults.  You are a girl, let us say.  You happen to be walking along the road a little late in the evening.  You are raped.  Then it becomes your fault.  Why did you walk on the road so late in the evening when you know, or should have known, that a woman’s place is home at such hours?  Why did you wear such a dress that drew the attention of the boys?  Don’t you know that boys are boys?

Being poor is a crime too.  You don’t have a right to choose your food if you are poor.  Your children may die in the hospital if you are poor.  Belonging to certain religions can be a crime too.  Anything can be a crime, in fact, depending on which side you are. 

The biggest criminals may be perceived as the greatest heroes.  Depends on which side they are. 

So what do you do?  Forget that you are a bastard.  And just be the bastard.

Jon understood what Lannister was saying.  For a moment Tyrion Lannister the dwarf stood tall as a king before Jon the bastard.