Through the trail of battered bodies and wreckage left by the three-year, three-day Labor leadership struggle, Anthony Albanese has been the great survivor.
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Ministers became collateral damage in every major battle of the war between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. Throughout it all, Albanese kept his job despite openly backing Rudd. Now he is poised to become deputy prime minister.
Widely respected and regarded as essential to the Labor fight, Albanese not only hung onto his dual roles of cabinet minister and chief parliamentary tactician under Gillard, he earned her heartfelt praise even after declaring his support for Rudd in the first challenge in February last year.
Albanese, Gillard said at the time, was a ''great Labor man with a great Labor heart''.
''I can't imagine a government I lead without Anthony Albanese fighting beside me,'' she said at the time.
The second, aborted leadership challenge in March forced the resignations of Chris Bowen, Simon Crean, Kim Carr, Joel Fitzgibbon (as chief whip) and more. Again, Albanese kept his cabinet post as Transport and Infrastructure Minister, as well as his job as Leader of the House.
Last night saw the resignations of Wayne Swan, Greg Combet, Peter Garrett and Craig Emerson - and reportedly Stephen Conroy and Joe Ludwig. Around Parliament and on Twitter, the references to the gruesome TV show Game of Thrones were flying fast.
Swan's resignation as deputy prime minister cleared the way for Albanese, who has long been tipped as Rudd's favourite has his number two.
So what's Albanese's power? As the former Labor federal minister and party powerbroker Graham Richardson put it on Wednesday night on Sky News, Albanese is ''the one unifying figure Labor has, the one person who's able to talk to both sides in this''.
