The Truth About King’s Blood – Magic or Myth？

So, Tom asked me why is there power in King's blood, and I gave him the usual response, I don't have the faintest f***ing idea my friend, but we could get a video out of such theorising. Mel's words are a rather interesting topic, because a king is technically an artificial social construct, and magic in the world of Ice and Fire, as best we can tell, is a naturally occurring arcane force. So, how does it know who is a king and who isn't, and why would it prescribe more power to their blood than that of a filthy normie? Well, let's put on our theorising caps, right after we plug our new channel. There is no escape. It's basically these guys doing the same old ----, but about Star Wars instead. Check out the world of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, today. The first thing we've got to acknowledge is the elephant in the room. It's important to remember that this statement comes from a woman. Woah, let me finish my sentence first. A woman, who whilst clearly an adept wielder of magic, and is demonstrably knowledgeable of the higher mysteries, is not infallible. In short, Mel could be talking Balon. There may not be any power in King's Blood whatsoever, that isn't found in normal blood, and there are instances in the series that seem to promote this idea. We do see blood magic performed without the need of King's Blood, a couple of notable examples being Mirri Maz Duur, Maggie the Frog, Dani, and Mel herself, and they all seem to achieve the desired results. In fact, Mel herself thinks she can get the same result from Davos as she does from the Manus. Puh, good luck. Now, with Mirri and Dani, I know there's maybe the argument that it's Dani who fuels both rituals, as Dani is both descended from royalty and unquestionably magical herself. But I think the way to unburst the balloon is Mirri's familiarity with the ritual she performs. She speaks of it as if she's done it before, and Targaryen princesses aren't exactly a dime a dozen in Essos. And with Dani's spell, she technically doesn't sacrifice her blood, but that of Drogo and Mirri. Though I'll be honest, that one specifically is a little more open to interpretation, as it may still be the power of Dani's blood that births the dragons, rather than the blood sacrificed. But let's assume Mel is indeed not talking Balon. Why would there be power in King's Blood? The question you've got to ask is, what defines a king to the forces of the arcane? It's a social construct. A title often given to the guy with the most friends and the biggest hitting stick. Not a divinely given right, unless of course you're the menace. How does the forces of the arcane distinguish the blood of a king from the blood of a filthy disgusting muggle peasant? Well, here are our half-baked, I mean best, and thoroughly researched ideas. The first and most prominent reason King's Blood may have more POWER than normal blood is because kings are more likely to be descended from innately magical individuals in general. Here's the thing, guys. If you have a grasp over the arcane, you are often very powerful. People who are often very powerful will, not all the time, but most of the time, exert that power onto others in an effort to dominate them. Over time, these powerful individuals will come to be known as kings, and thus over time, the concept of magical power gets conflated with the socially constructed position of a king. Most will jump to Valyrian heritage as a prominent example, specifically the Blood of the Dragonlords. Before being called kings, they were the most prolific sorcerers in the known world, and seemed to be just an innately magical people. Or, there are rumours they in fact made their blood magical by dabbling in blood rituals. Kind of like the fantasy equivalent of genetic modification. But, either way, magic blood. This could be the primary reason for Mel's belief that there is power in King's Blood. The Valyrian Dragonlords, all the way up until bobbered Chad Raffian decided to show the world that hammer beats breastplates, were the predominant rulers in much of the known world, and they were very fond of dabbling in blood magic. After THE DOOM, they weren't outright sorcerers and lost a bunch of control, but they could still control dragons, which of course spoke to innate power in their blood. This is why the Targs tried to keep it in the family, if you know what I mean. And if you don't, well then the reason they fucked their brothers and sisters was in fact in an effort to preserve the perceived power within their blood. Sure it was, George. But it's not just beholden to the Valyrians. The idea of innately magical people taking positions of power also holds true for places practically bereft of Valyrian influence like the ******* nerf. The First Men also seem to be a magical people, with their wargs, skinchangers, and greenseers, along with their associations with the children of the forest. The Starks can trace their lineage directly from the First Men, and all the Stark children, including that bastard Jon Snow, are all wargs. And whilst it's never confirmed if Ned is, that gift likely came from his bloodline. And that's why it's important to mention Jon, because well, he's got some Stark blood in him regardless of theories. The Starks were in fact Kings before Aegon showed up, and this may have also reinforced the idea that there is POWER in King's blood. Which brings us back to Mel. It's never outright stated, but it seems she can sense magic within people, evidenced with the people she's drawn to, and takes a deeper interest in. There's Stannis, obviously, but she also takes a keen interest in Jon and Mance Rayder, whom she actually goes out of her way to avoid burning, which is very unlike her. Almost like she's saving his blood for something special, eh? What do these three people have in common? They've all got strong Valyrian or First Men blood ties, with potentially a mix of both for Jon and Mance, which in turn means strong magical ancestry. The Mannis has a reasonable amount of Dragonlord blood in him, as the Baratheons have generally been one of the more frequented houses when the Targs needed to diversify the gene pool. In terms of pure Valyrian blood, it's not quite a quarter like his family tree would suggest, as the Targs had been diluting their purebreed status long before this, but it's likely to be a stronger blood tie than most other houses. Especially if you believe the rumours about Orys Baratheon, the house's founder, being Gagon the Conqueror's half-brother. Mance, being a wildling, will mean a lot of First Men blood in him, which means, potentially, some strong Greenseer lineage. And depending on who his ranger father was, he could potentially have some Targaryen blood in him too. I won't say it's an ironclad theory, because it's not, but Mance could be about the right age to have been fathered during Bloodraven's time on the wall, so Mance and his son are at least half, but might be double dipped on the magical lineage. And of course, Jon is hard confirmed to be a warg, which 100% means some Greenseer ancestry in there, and if theories are to be believed, he might also be double dipped like Mance, which means a fair dose of Valyrian and Dragonlord blood running through his veins. This seems like the most probable explanation. It's not king's blood, but just magical lineage in general that yields more potent results, and Mel's just merely conflating the two. Mystery solved, case closed. However, it's not a fandom video if we don't take the position of the fence-sitting dickheads we often are, and as such, there are some things to note. I wouldn't say any of the following points are deal-breaking, but they do contest certain aspects of what we've just discussed, and encourage further investigation into the topic. Firstly, the idea that only those descended from Valyrian Dragonlords have a unique magical power to bond with dragons is not closed off from the lenses of scrutiny. Exhibit A, the Dance of the Dragons, with the Dragonseeds and their attempts to claim the fire-breathing lizards. Some of the failures had hard-confirmed Targaryen ancestry, and some of the successes were a little more Jeremy Kyle in their heritage, if you catch my drift. The starkest example is Nettles and her unique approach to taming Sheepstealer. In the books, the Velaryons and the oft-forgotten-about Celtigars do not have dark skin as presented in the show. In fact, they share the same physical characteristics as the Targaryens. This is important because Nettles in the books does have dark skin and none of the traits that suggest Valyrian heritage, in contrast to the other confirmed Dragonseeds. Their Targaryen lineage is questionable, but definitely plausible due to their physical features. But with Nettles, it seems almost impossible. And if there is, it's going to be so far down the line that the amount of Dragonlord blood would be a couple of drops. A bit like trying to claim Aragorn is somehow elvish because he has an absolute sliver of elven blood in him. Nettles fuels the possibility that the Dragonlords were merely gatekeeping the secrets to dragonbonding, and it is indeed accessible to anyone with the patience, and perhaps more importantly, bravery, and doesn't require special blood at all. There is also minor contention with the idea that all Targaryen blood is innately magical. We've got at least two confirmed instances of a Targaryen trying to perform blood magic and failing horribly. The first is Aerion with the dickhead thinking he could become a dragon by drinking wildfire, and the second is Aegon V, more affectionately known as Egg, who attempted to hatch dragon eggs through a suspected fire and blood magic ritual and yielded jack ----, and got poor Dunk killed in the process. Seriously Aegon, I like you, and I like all the things you stood for, but **** you for getting sweet old Dunk killed. Now, in fairness, I think you could simply write off both these instances as the practitioners not knowing what they were doing or understanding the process. This does of course make sense, as logically it can't just be about the blood. There has to be some element of correctly performed ritual to the proceedings or you'd have to explain why something miraculous doesn't happen every time a Targaryen dies or has their blood spilled in some manner. This is definitely the weakest pushback, but still noteworthy. Finally, there is also pushback in the form of Mance. The whole idea of him being a secret Targ is super thin on the ground. It's genuinely supported solely by the idea of, yeah there's an argument that the timing sort of, kind of, if you really wanted to make it fit by having Mance be the oldest he could possibly be based on his physical description, match with Bloodraven's time at the Wall. It's not impossible, but it's a reach. But hey, there's still this potential freesia ancestry that someone writes. Well, yes, absolutely there is. Along with the other 100,000 free folk with him, many of which have actually demonstrated tangible magical abilities like skin changing, which Mance has never done. So why is Mance and his son singled out as having powerful blood? Because he's a king. But again, assuming the Mance equals Targ theory is bollocks, which it likely is, we're back to the question. What makes him a king? Well, this actually leads us on to another factor as to why king's blood might hold more power than normie blood. It could be simply people's mere belief in it. To quote our favourite spider, power resides where men believe it resides. To explain what I mean, we'll take a quick portal from Westeros to the grim dark reality of the 41st millennium for a brief comparison. Tom, which discord- I mean willing offerings shall we give to Mel to open the portal up? Hmm, yes, those names look good. I'll go get the firewood. So, for those uninitiated, in the grim dark of the 41st millennium, there exists a being known as the Emperor of Mankind. Basically, a home-brand bargain bin version of the Manus. In his physical form, he was a very powerful dude, and could do all sorts of crazy things the uninformed eye might interpret as magic. Anyway, to cut a long story short, this Manus wannabe eventually becomes too much of a hassle to some elder gods and they force him into a golden lawn chair, and over many years of boredom from being sat in this chair, his mind wanders and starts to meld even more with the source of quote-on-quote magic. But something else also happens. See, this Stannis Pretender had a staunchly atheistic view, and ran his kingdom thusly. But without the Stannis Pretender around to spank them when they did it, the people who saw the Stannis Pretender, who in life had all the characteristics of a god, as a god, started to worship him as a god. Their sheer faith and raw belief in his divinity caused the already powerful but not as powerful as the Manus Emperor to actually attain a state that could be considered godhood. No wonder they ask us to do 40k videos, Tom, when our coverage of the lore is so damn eloquent. Anyway, back to Westeros, Mel. Oi you bitch, don't leave me here! Eventually I'm going to get bored of killing these 8ft tall guys in their weird armour. Ooh, it is fun though, it's like fighting multiple mountains. Though, it's starting to get a bit tedious. Oi, guys, wait up! There could also be a similar phenomenon in Westeros in regards to King's Blood, where belief is what enhances its power. It might not be special at all, but it's merely the collective belief that it's special that fuels the potency of it. This especially holds true for Mance. He isn't a king because of any known lineage, he's a king simply because his people believe him to be so. That and, y'know, he kicked a lot of ass. This idea of belief could also be scaled down to an individual level where almost blind faith in the concept causes the sorcerer to have greater confidence in their own magic, which in turn powers their conviction, which in turn creates more impressive results. The forces of magic are perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the world of Ice and Fire. There isn't much understanding of it, how it's brought forth, what powers it, and how to channel it. Even the most experienced wielders of the arcane like Mel can sometimes appear to be merely stabbing in the dark with what they are doing. Perhaps it really is just a case of mind over matter. The final area I wanted to cover which may contribute to explaining why magic can distinguish a king's blood from that of a filthy disgusting peasant's is my favourite idea simply because it opens up the door to some Lovecraftian shenanigans. And that's the idea that magic, particularly blood magic, isn't an ambient force of nature, but rather the workings of entities that exist on different planes to our own. I'll be totally honest here, I'm grasping at one quote from George and Mel's religious belief in the Lord of Light and his apparent tangible responses to come to this conclusion. But it does make sense. A mindless sea of arcane energy would not have the capacity to distinguish a king from a normie. But a sentient entity would. Not to mention there is a highly transactional nature to blood magic. Unlike the other forms of magic to be found within the world of ice and fire, like nature magic and fire magic which seem to be called on for instinctive ability, blood magic is always a matter of sacrificing something in exchange for something else. In its rawest form, it's essentially a bargain being struck between two parties. So who's on the other end of that bargaining table? Perhaps this is why there is power in king's blood. Maybe these entities find it amusing to make mortals jump through hoops to strike deals. Or perhaps they do sincerely acknowledge the blood of a king as a more worthy offering. Or perhaps this links with theory number two and they just revel in toying with their plaything's belief and mocking the idea of mortals ascribing titles of importance to what is, in the eyes of these entities, meaningless and pointless lives. What a wonderfully depressing note to end on, Tom. This is where the line between divinity and magic blurs. While the faith of the seven seems to be utter balon, other gods in the series, particularly R'hllor and the old gods, are not so easily dismissed, and could be otherworldly entities that mortal men have simply mistaken for the divine. Who knows though? Personally, I think it may not be one singular idea here, but a combination of the three as to why there is power in king's blood, all carrying different degrees of importance. But this is just one opinion, and topics are fun only if you have a whole bunch more. So, let's get your thoughts.