The Mr. Robot characters Whiterose and Philip Price are like Littlefinger and Varys from Game of Thrones, but Mr. Robot did a better job making such a relationship matter to the endgame.

The post-credits scene at the end of Mr. Robot‘s first season established that Whiterose and Philip Price were the real power players. They were the real 1 percent of the 1 percent that Elliot Alderson hated so much, the ones pulling the strings and treating the rest of the world like their sandbox to play with as they pleased.

The following seasons revealed the deep-seated tension between the two characters and how they were frequently trying to manipulate, undermine, and outdo one another through their actions and in conversation.

The ultimate example of this is in season 3 when Whiterose bombs E Corp facilities to essentially just prove a point to Price for not immediately doing what Whiterose wanted. When Price demands to know why so much destruction was necessary, Whiterose says, “Because, Philip, I had to ask you twice.”

This dynamic is strikingly similar to the dynamic between Littlefinger and Varys in Game of Thrones. The first season reveals them as two of the game’s most powerful players, from Littlefinger sparking the War of the Five Kings to Varys aiding the resurgence of House Targaryen. House Lannister taking control of the Iron Throne, their alliance with House Tyrell, the Purple Wedding, the rise of Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Stark’s future, and much more were largely influenced and controlled by Littlefinger or Varys. A constant game of one-upmanship and sharp-tongued banter between them is all too similar to Whiterose and Price.

What Mr. Robot ended up doing better than Game of Thrones is that it made the Whiterose-Price relationship more integral to the show’s endgame. In the latest episode, Price helped pull off the Cyprus National Bank hack, a move that crippled Whiterose and the Deus Group. This is the culmination of Price’s character arc, of a character who in the end cared more about blowing up the system so he could fight for what his daughter Angela believed in instead of continuing to aid an unjust system from which he profits.

After all their games, after all the vicious ways Whiterose undermined Price, his story ends with him outdoing Whiterose and having the last word, with savage banter that rivals both Littlefinger and Varys. The entire show has been building to this moment from the first episode and every Whiterose-Price scene was a crucial step to getting there. The success of the Cyprus National Bank hack is one of the last pieces to the Mr. Robot puzzle and one that will greatly influence the final four episodes.

The difference with the Littlefinger and Varys relationship is that it didn’t end up being that important to the endgame for Game of Thrones. In the earlier seasons they were creating and influencing many of the key events and conflicts. In the later seasons, they were largely relegated to the sidelines and were no longer the formidable power players they once were.

Another issue is that their relationship ceased to matter. They never saw each other again after season 3 episode 6, and their rivalry had little to no bearing on the major events that would unfold later on with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Littlefinger made it to the season 7 finale and Varys made it to the series’ penultimate episode, but the conclusion of their arcs had nothing to do with their rich and fascinating relationship, nor did the conclusion of the entire series.

Whiterose, Philip Price, Littlefinger, and Varys are all incredible characters and their respective relationships are a huge piece of what makes both Mr. Robot and Game of Thrones such phenomenal shows. In the end, though, Mr. Robot understood how to weave such a relationship more effectively into the endgame.