The Game of Thrones Guide to Love, SRK Ishtyle
These five love affairs from HBO’s Game of Thrones will give you some serious relationship goals to follow!
Recently, when Khaleesi (Emilia Clarke) and her ‘sun and stars’ Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) met at the Paris Fashion Week and later posted photos on Instagram, their fans went on a ‘liking’ frenzy. It seems no one has forgotten the sizzling chemistry they shared on Game of Thrones.
But they aren’t the only GoT couple with swag; the show features some riveting pairs who give us serious relationship goals. Take a look!
Khal Drogo and Khaleesi
This was easily GoT’s ‘ek chhoti si love story’.
Daenerys Targaryen was sold to the Dothraki warlord at a tender age, and we’d be putting it mildly if we called this an arranged marriage. From the initial shock of how the new family behaves (violently in this case) to having a very uncomfortable ‘first night’, this relationship did not begin well.
But slowly, the mean Khal Drogo mellowed and learned to listen to his kind wife before taking decisions – sometimes at the cost of his subordinates’ ire (joru ka ghulaam much). The couple, who did not speak a common language, communicated well – er, in a manner best known to them – under the stars and on silk rugs.
While Daenerys ultimately learnt to take the lead in more than just the bedroom (she impressed him by eating a horse’s heart), the Khal showed his approval by killing her wicked brother Viserys for attcking her while pregnant.
The final test? The Khal caught a fatal infection and the Khaleesi killed him with her own hands to spare him the misery he was suffering.
This one’s as passionate as any relationship you will get!
Jon Snow and Yggrite
Remember Shah Rukh Khan telling Kajol, “Kuch kuch hota hai Anjali, tum nahi samjhogi?” Meet their GoT equivalents Yggrite and Jon Snow.
She is a feisty wildling while he belongs to the Night’s Watch that protects the realm from the wildlings. They meet in perfect Bollywood ishtyle – he pretends to have joined the large wildling army and she, suspicious at first, eventually warms up to him. She teaches him the ways of her lawless world, protects him from jealous wildlings and even makes him forget the vow of celibacy he took by making love inside a cave.
However, just like any masala film, misunderstanding tears them apart. While Jon is famous for “knowing nothing”, he sure knew Yggrite was his love. As she once declared, “You’re mine and I’m yours. If we die, we die. But first, we’ll live.”
Tyrion and Tysha
It’s possible that this remind you of SRK again – but a rather sloshed and discredited SRK. Tyrion and Tysha’s story is very close to Devas and Paro’s in the epic tragedy of Indian cinema.
Tyrion Lannister, the Devdas of Westeros, is known for drinking and whoring – but he wasn’t always this way. Ages back, he had met Tysha, fallen in love and gotten married. But Tyrion’s father, Tywin, had cruelly separated them by cooking up a tale that Tysha was a whore who had been paid to fall in love with him. The rest of the tale is pretty much Devdas revisited – Tyrion became the rich and lonely guy who never got over his Paaro. He even found his Chandramukhi in Shae the prostitute, and later went on to marry Sansa Stark, but it was Tysha who made and destroyed Tyrion the lover.
Jaime and Cersei
We know, we know. Just like the High Sparrow, you will take the higher moral ground and call it incest. But strip this relationship of its controversial bearings, and it becomes a passionate love story of two people who turned the proverbial rulebook on its head.
As Cersei once put it, “We shared a womb together”. Yes, it’s twisted, but sample this – Cersei had three of Jaime’s babies and kept it a secret from the entire kingdom, while he joined the Kingsguard simply to stay close to her. Forget the incest for just a moment, will you, and take a look at how fiercely loyal they are to each other?
Petyr Baelish and Catelyn Stark
This one raises a toast to unrequited love. Petyr Baelish aka Littlefinger was just a small boy when he fell for his lord’s daughter, Catelyn Tully. They grew up together and while he fell madly in love with with her, Catelyn pretty much ‘friendzoned’ him. Littlefinger even went to the extent of duelling with her suitor Brandon Stark – only to end up defeated and injured. His love remained consistent even as the woman of his dreams married and had five children. He eventually married Catelyn’s sister Lysa whom he went on to throw off a trapdoor, saying – “I have only loved one. Only Cat..”
Er, in the realm of unrequited love, you might be better off going the Severus Snape way....
(Runa Mukherjee Parikh has written on women, culture, social issues, education and animals, with The Times of India, India Today and IBN Live. When not hounding for stories, she can be found petting dogs, watching sitcoms or travelling. A big believer in ‘animals come before humans’, she is currently struggling to make sense of her Bengali-Gujarati lifestyle in Ahmedabad.)
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