Best Player of The Game of Thrones?

[Archibald Big Man]

I tend to sway towards Varys over LF, but that's just a matter of opinion. Though I would definitely put them 1st and 2nd. Euron seems to be a player, though we don't know how good he will be yet.

[WhiteOwl18]

We won't know until the game is over.

[Jon of the Dead]

Euron is not getting enough love in here. He became king in record time, married Asha to Anvil-Breaker to prevent her from having a strategic marriage, sent Victarion to do the dirty job of bringing the dragons/Dany to him and poor Vic is most likely going to end up killed by the horn or the dusky woman. And, most importantly, Euron turned the game on its head by attacking the Reach, which started to destroy the alliance of the Iron Throne

The Tyrells are excellent as well. Their only potential mistake in the game so far has been trusting Randyll enough to give him custody of Margaery. I think that will probably backfire.

And I know I always talk shit about Doran, but for all his shortcomings he actually managed to hoodwink Varys himself. I don't think Varys knew of the plan to send Quentyn to Dany, since it threatened the Dany-Aegon marriage

But Varys is still one of the best. I remain convinced he has pieces placed in strategic positions, like Darkstar in Dorne and the Mad Mouse in the Vale

[houseHB]

Benjen Stark

[Ours if the Fury]

I think there are 6 or 7 who stand out above the rest and out of those 6 or 7 one who is better then all of them.

Varys!!!

then

Olenna Tyrell

Little-Finger

Tyrion Lannister

Tywin Lannister

Roose Bolton

Doran Martell

[ladytiger]

Varys/Illyrio

Little finger

Tyrells

Doran Martell

Euron Greyjoy

And I must say, as much as people bash Ned, hiding Jon's identity for nearly 18 years is impressive (since Jon is almost 18 at the end of ADWD).

[Iona]

Has anyone mentioned Qyburn? I've always been highly suspicious of him so conveniently finding that old house Gardner dragon from Rugen's room and telling Cersei the stories of Olenna's shopping habits. His spy network might not be as extensive as Varys', but he seems to have friends in high and low places and is undoubtably up to no good with all his experiments and stuff.

[coil]

Euron is not getting enough love in here. He became king in record time, married Asha to Anvil-Breaker to prevent her from having a strategic marriage, sent Victarion to do the dirty job of bringing the dragons/Dany to him and poor Vic is most likely going to end up killed by the horn or the dusky woman. And, most importantly, Euron turned the game on its head by attacking the Reach, which started to destroy the alliance of the Iron Throne

(snip)

Euron is smart on the short term but terrible on the long distance, imo.

Hightowers are completely untouched up to this point, and he declared war against an Iron Throne that may be weakened, but not dead yet.

Euron has absolutely no way to keep what he'll eventually conquest, and still conceives war in the ironborn way: pillaging without using politics.

"The North is already an enemy, let's attack the Throne as well" works up until winter comes, but then again he has nor the men to hold positions, nor the means (look at the westeros map and tell me how in the seven hells he can keep holding a territory so vast).

He can conquer those, sure. To then abandon them. And in any case, he has made enemies for life.

To top it all, he cannot even keep a grasp over his own men as well so he plays the old "divide et impera".

So far, his worst enemies are in his own ally list: the drowned men faith (and there are even people who think he may have murdered Aeron), his commanders (Victarion, Harras Harlaw, Botleys, etc.) and Asha (heir in the line), who may be married but since the marriage hasn't been consumed it isn't valid.

Watch out as he keeps fragmenting his allies/enemies' best men, thus dissipating and dividing his whole army.

The back up plan? Relying on a far away woman and a supposed magical horn.

All in all, to me it looks like Euron has drunk too much shade of the evening - which is different from saying that he is a complete idiot. Still, the "cool" thing about Euron are his one-liners, not his plans.

[Aerys Ahai Reborn]

Howland Reed

[deepelemblues]

i have a more favorable view of olenna, she doesn't seem to be playing the game of thrones to win so much as jumping in at opportune times to protect and strengthen the Tyrells. of course not being fully in means that varys killing kevan and pycelle, which is going to make cersei lannister no. 1 in KL and set the lion and the rose after each other, olenna can't do much about it. she has limited influence because she doesn't want to get in too deep, but other players can do things that indirectly really screw you up without you being able to stop it.

i'd say stannis or tywin = best player. both have their eyes on the main chance and a solid grasp of what matters: swords, how many do you have and how many can you expect to get. littlefinger plays his parlor games and builds his empire on sand. he's played himself into the corner of relying solely on sansa stark remaining submissive to him, which he will screw up sooner or later, sooner now with only 2 books left. tywin concentrated his forces and rested them until the opportunity arose for a decisive engagement. he tried west and failed then smashed stannis. what does he do then but add 50,000 more potential soldiers to his army by allying with higharden. he eliminates the most bold threat to the lannisters, the starks, by arranging for the freys and boltons to betray them. saving his soldiers the need to defeat the starks (and many of them to die) in battle.

stannis went south to get soldiers and he got them. he lost them at the blackwater then what does he do. go north, to get more swords and to rest what army he has left. he goes to the wall and has the NW house and feed his soldiers - pretty smart even without the whole go north save the world gig melisandre has tossed on him. he then tries to get ed stark's bastard to say he's lord of winterfell to get the north behind him. failing at that, he goes out to get the north behind him personally. he's got davos out getting the manderlys, the strongest house in the north after the boltons, on his side. he's made a deal with the iron bank of braavos and sent massey as his agent to go hire him a ton of mercenaries to sail over to westeros. he went to the mountain clans to get men as soon as jon snow showed him the good sense of it.

all the other players were inexperienced and foolish or are more of the varys / LF style players who in the end depend on other men who can control the men with swords they need to win. they arrange things so they have the swords at the times they need them, and go through long stretches of time without too much protection. personally, they don't have the character to keep men standing by them. they don't have real leadership of the stick the pointy end in the other guy variety. stannis and tywin get the swords first and then go about accomplishing their goals.

[juanml82]

Bloodraven expended years in the Black Cells only to be banished to the Wall on release - doesn't strike me as the making of a great player. He is a defeated player who soldiers on.

LF is chewing more than he can get. He should have stopped with the marriage with Lysa. His gambit with Sansa and the death of Lysa is causing him to juggle to many balls - at least one of them will fall eventually. Had he stopped gambling, he'd be Lord Protector of the Vale and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands having started with only good education, connections and a title only word it's weight on paper.

Euron has kicked a lion on the teeth and is waiting for an unreliable brother to bring him an unreliable Targaryen ally and possibly unreliable dragons to save his ass.

Varys is at the top, or near the top for sure.

I'll also give Roose Bolton a lot of credit. He undermined Robb's war efforts without getting blamed until the RW. He made two serious mistakes in being tied to the RW instead of keeping his hands clean and Ramsay is weighting him down. He probably should have sent him to fight Stannis, or maybe he has similar plans.

Other than that, his position as ruler of the North is, as far as he can tell, very secure: He can't know or count with Alys spilling the beans to Jon and, absent that, he would have defeated Stannis. He also can't count with Manderly having been able to get his hands on Rickon. And even with the Karstark betrayal revealed, he can still defeat him. Once Stannis and Ramsay are dead, what's stopping him in claiming the North?

[King Brandon Ice Eyes]

I also agree that Olenna is overrated. The only indication that we have that she is playing the game IIRC is from Littlefinger and even that doesn't mean she is on his league. For what is worth the PW was masterminded by Petyr and Olenna only went with it to protect Margaery from Joffrey. Seriously, I can't remember anything in the books that proves she is that capable, only smart and witty.

[King Brandon Ice Eyes]

Qyburn and Mance Rayder are very underrated. Both guys are very competent.

[King Brandon Ice Eyes]

And I know I always talk shit about Doran, but for all his shortcomings he actually managed to hoodwink Varys himself. I don't think Varys knew of the plan to send Quentyn to Dany, since it threatened the Dany-Aegon marriage

IIRC GRRM confirmed that in an interview.

[Leif]

Littlefinger by far. Varys comes close.

[Atropis the Elf]

Tywin, by far.

[Muggle]

Little Finger is the only guy who has gained so much with losing so little. Honestly i don't think he has lost anything. Only gained

Varys was forced to give up his position of power in KL and is now forced to hide in the walls and shadows. He lost a huge position to place whispers in peoples ears for his goals.

Where LF is now in charge of a whole region of Westeross

Its easily LF who is currently ahead. Then the others by leaps and bounds

[grand old duke of stark]

It depends on what the Game is.

If it's becoming King of the hill, Littlefinger has traveled that path brilliantly. Consolidating his wins as he nears his goal and simultaneously out-maneuvring his opponents is going to be very hard. It doesn't help that he's primarily a cynical opportunist. If opportunities don't arise, he can't rise much either. That means that if he intends to press on and win the IT, he'll have to create opportunities, which will be dangerous.

If it's installing and controling the King, Varys is the best player. He (plus Illyrio) has been planning for fAegon's conquest for over a decade, making opportunities as more active players have risen and fallen. They even had Viserys/Dany as a backup. Up till now he's been able to work mysteriously and safely in the background, but his post-Tywin death 'disappearance' and the necessity of personally killing Pycelle and Kevan means that he's taking more chances. Still, his dual surprise of elements nobody anticipated (fAegon and the Blackfyre angle) will set back all the other players and bring some into his camp. Varys is currently in control of and has knowledge of more variables than anyone does, but plenty remain beyond his control. That even includes fAegon, who is showing signs of immaturity and impetuousness that could scupper the whole plot later, if not sooner.

If it's being passive about the Game, but active in acquiring knowledge, experience, power, allies plus having the right bloodlines, and not seen to be playing but also being in the right place at the right time, it's Jon Snow.

And if it's merely surviving but keeping power and integrity and involvement with players, it may well be Davos.

[Roose The Weddingcrasher]

Eddard Stark. He fooled everybody into thinking he is dead. Ha!

[Petyr Patter]

Illyrio Mopat.

Here is what you need to know.

• His first job was that of a sell sword. Think about how many sellswords we've seen. Most end up dead.
  
• He is now RICH, RICH, RICH. Seriously, the guy seems to have more money than some Lord Paramounts.
  
• Littlefinger is probably rich, but still lacks an army. Mopat just went out and bought one of the best armies in the known world.
  
• Now, undoubtedly some of his accomplishments are linked to Varys, yet this was a friendship he cultivated.
  
• He is about to overthrow the King of Westeros... while having no known support in Westeros besides Varys, whose only value is his network of spies.
  
• And here is the real kicker, he is going to replace that king with his own chosen pawn.
  

If he fails? He will be forced to live the rest of his days in gluttony and luxury.