The thing that gets me is that this is a classic case of idealism.
You don't "identify as a Lannister". If you were a Lannister at heart then the absolute last thing you'd do is announce this to anyone. Ever.
They're renowned for being cunning, hence the myth of Lann the Clever, founder of House Lannister. What does a cunning person do? Why, they proudly announce to the whole world that they are one crafty individual, of course!
This is tantamount to people who claim to be excellent liars; I'm not suspicious of the people who fancy themselves as good liars. I'm suspicious of the people who seem to be terrible liars because that's the group where you're going to find the absolute best ones blending in. A bad liar thinks they're getting away with it when they aren't. A good liar knows how to keep track of their lies. A great liar knows how to provide a pretext that is completely plausible. But an excellent liar is someone who knows how to embody the lie that they are a bad liar so that when they actually want to lie there's no way that anyone would suspect a thing. Likewise, the most cunning people are the ones who appear to lack any guile at all.
The thing that gets me is that this is a classic case of idealism.
You don't "identify as a Lannister". If you were a Lannister at heart then the absolute last thing you'd do is announce this to anyone. Ever.
They're renowned for being cunning, hence the myth of Lann the Clever, founder of House Lannister. What does a cunning person do? Why, they proudly announce to the whole world that they are one crafty individual, of course!
This is tantamount to people who claim to be excellent liars; I'm not suspicious of the people who fancy themselves as good liars. I'm suspicious of the people who seem to be terrible liars because that's the group where you're going to find the absolute best ones blending in. A bad liar thinks they're getting away with it when they aren't. A good liar knows how to keep track of their lies. A great liar knows how to provide a pretext that is completely plausible. But an excellent liar is someone who knows how to embody the lie that they are a bad liar so that when they actually want to lie there's no way that anyone would suspect a thing. Likewise, the most cunning people are the ones who appear to lack any guile at all.
It's like a real life reflection of the James Bond problem: he's a famous spy in the fiction, which makes him absolutely incompetent at his job.
Or John Gotti being a famous mob boss
[dropping my coffee mug in realization and as it falls I see that "Kobayashi" is printed on the bottom]