Entertainment

Hillary Clinton Is Not Daenerys or Cersei, She Is Olenna Tyrell 

'Game of Thrones' comparisons are inevitable in this election cycle. Here's why Hillary is not the character everyone usually uses. 

Because it’s illegal parse the American political circus without invoking Game of Thrones at least 20 times, Hillary Clinton has naturally earned many comparisons to characters like Cersei and Daenerys. Both make sense: Cersei is cold and calculating and rocks short blonde hair while giving zero fucks. She does not have time for you to be upset about things like emails or that time she killed King Robert, because she will not let anything get in the way of getting things done, damn it. Cersei’s greatest bitterness is that she was not born a man. And, with the “I will take what is mine with fire and blood,” motto, comparisons to Daenerys are also inevitable.

But there is one important character Hillary is most like, and it’s neither of these women. It’s the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell.

Cersei might have some Hillary-esque qualities, but she clearly didn’t think her coup through. Otherwise she would have prevented Tommen’s suicide, and she would be better prepared to lead a land that must be deeply suspicious of her ascension to the Iron Throne. Daenerys also might have some Hillary qualities, but she’s too incompetent and unseasoned to be like a woman Obama has called “the most qualified presidential candidate ever.” Even with Tyrion at her side, Daenerys has no idea what she’s walking in to. She’s also got too quick a temper to sit cooly through hours of Benghazi hearings; neither Cersei nor Daenerys possess patience.

But you know who is as shrewd as these women but far more patient? Oleanna. It’s no coincidence that her granddaughter Margarey would have done a better job of leading Westeros than Daenerys or Cersei. When her family members are captured by the High Sparrow in Season 5, she thinks through her approach to getting them back.

She’s a seasoned veteran at this game, and she enjoys the political dance with everyone from the High Sparrow and his Berni-Bros to Tywin Lannister (who, let’s face it, is too shrewd for a modern day parallel and is therefore a combination of Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon).

Oleanna is a realist. She does not have time for dreams and fancies and sees no need for false modesty. She’s been in the game a long time, she gets shit done, and she doesn’t care if you like her. She’s damn patient.

Hillary is often discussed for her hawkish ways, but her patience is an aspect that’s just as present. She has been waiting an entire lifetime for this job, and she is up against the least-qualified candidate in American history. She has to pretend to take him seriously as an opponent, but is she saying, “let me remind you fuckers who I am?”. Well, if she’s Olenna, then yeah, she probably is in private while Bill plays with balloons. Like Hillary, Olenna has played the game her entire life, and neither hell nor high water makes her falter – or give a fuck. Hillary Clinton is not Cersei or Daenerys: she is the Queen of Thorns.

Related Tags