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Episode 77: A CLASH OF KINGS, TYRION I: "The New Boss" SHOW NOTES!
🕑 Added 2019-09-02 14:01:00 +0000 UTCHello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.
And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.
Welcome to the seventy-seventh episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “The New Boss: An Analysis of ACOK, Tyrion I,” in which everyone’s a gangster until a gangster walks in the room.
This episode is brought to you by our Small Council:
- Hand of the King WolfmanZack
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- And we have a brand new member of the small council, but they would prefer to remain anonymous. So, thank you, anon for joining up. We know who you are, even if the world doesn’t!
Spoiler warning: All published books - 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!
Question
Lady Hannah B, a Sworn Sword patron, asks:
Hi guys, new Patreon here after being super impressed by your work analysing the climax of AGoT. I have just completed a reread (well, a relisten!) to all five books and going through each book one after the other made me realise that, while there is a consistent tone and shared ideas, certain themes are more prominent in some books than others. For instance, I feel like ACoK really deals strongly with leadership and AFfC engages with religion/faith more than any other book to date. So my question (finally): what would you say are the most distinct/defining themes for each book?
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Synopsis
Bouncer Ser Mandon Moore, described as “a corpse in a shroud” stands in front of Tyrion like an off-duty cop outside of a Baltimore Bar, saying I can’t go in which is bullshit, because my name is totally John Doe, born June 9, 1969. Tyrion protests that he’s got a letter from Tywin, the fuckin’ hand of the king. But Moore repeats slowly to Tyrion as if he’s an idiot that Cersei doesn’t want to be disturbed.
Jaime had once told him that Moore was the most dangerous of the Kingsguard - excepting himself, always - because his face gave no hint as what he might do next.
Tyrion, though, wants to know what he’s thinking now. And sure, he could have Mandon Moore killed, but he’d rather not. I think Mandon Moore has a different take vis a vie Tyrion on this though. Guess we’ll find out! Still, if he does nothing, he’ll be shown up as a hollow suit. So, he decides on a threat. He asks Mandon if he knew Ser Vardis Egen. He did. Well, this guy, he points to Bronn, fucking killed him. Mandon Moore makes no response for a while, and then he stands aside. But only Tyrion can enter.
A small victory, Tyrion thought, but sweet.
Tyrion thinks he’s passed his first test as he enters the chambers. And inside are five members of the small council. They all stop talking when Tyrion walks in.
“You,” his sister Cersei said in a tone that was equal parts disbelief and distaste.
“I can see where Joffrey learned his courtesies.”
Cersei asks Tyrion why he’s here, and mailman Tyrion says he’s only here to deliver a letter from Tywin. Varys takes the letter and declares it genuine, leading to Cersei snapping the letter from Varys’ hands. She reads, and Tyrion notices that she’s sitting in the king’s seat. Tyrion judges that Joffrey did not attend council business much like his, um, father. So, Tyrion takes the Hand’s seat.
“This is absurd,” the queen said at last. “My lord father has sent my brother to sit in his place in his council. He bids us accept Tyrion as the Hand of King until such time as he himself can join us.”
Pycelle, a moron, says they should welcome Tyrion. Janso Slynt, another moron, agrees. Besides, it’s a damn, dirty town, and they need Tyrion to help clean the city up. Cersei says yeah, wonder why that is. Aren’t you the fucking cops, Janos? As for Tyrion, he should be out on the battlefield doing war shit. Oh no, Tyrion’s done with battles. Uh-uh. Okay, Tyrion. But y’know all the war shit was charming compared to the Vale of Arryn.
Littlefinger laughed. “Well said, Lannister. A man after my own heart.”
Tyrion smiled at him, remembering a certain dagger with a dragonbone hilt and a Valyrian steel blade. We must have a talk about that, and soon. He wondered if Lord Petyr would find that subject amusing as well.
Tyrion then asks to be put to work, and that he’ll be a good servant. Cersei asks Tyrion whether he brought any of them sword fightin’ bros with him. And yes, Tyrion did. A few hundred. Well, that’s going to do fuck-all when Renly or Stannis come to the city. And according to Cersei it’s goddamn rude for Tywin to send you in his place without Joffrey’s consent. Take that up with him, Cersei, Tyrion sort-of replies. He’s at Harrenhal. But regardless, Tyrion wants a private word with his sister.
So, each of the counsellors get to their feet, Varys doing the weird obsequious shit he loves to do, Janos, who BTW, Jon Snow will behead in ADWD, also leaves. Pycelle gets up ponderously. Littlefinger strides over and wonders whether Tyrion wants chambers in Maegor’s Holdfast. Nope, he wants the Tower of the Hand.
“You’re a braver man than me, Lannister. You do know the fate of our last two Hands?”
And just pause here. Like, what the fuck, Littlefinger? Everyone seems to think Cersei had Jon Arryn killed when in fact, it was YOU who killed Jon Arryn along with Lysa Arryn. So, what are you doing, you moron? Regardless, Tyrion says it’s not two. It’s the last four hands of the king. Sure, Ned Stark and Jon Arryn, but also the pyromancer hand died during the sack quite mysteriously. Who could have possibly killed him? Then there was the other one that Aerys burned. And two more before them that died in exile and will have no further impact on the story.
“Fascinating,” said Littlefinger. “And all the more reason I’d sooner bed down in the dungeon.”
Perhaps you will get that wish, Tyrion thought, but he said, “Courage and folly are cousins, or so I’ve heard. Whatever curse may linger over the Tower of the Hand, I pray I’m small enough to escape its notice.”
Janos laughs, Creepyfinger smiles and Pycelle bows.
Alone now with Cersei, the two siblings or cousins (It’s still up for debate!) who get along so, so well begin immediately bickering. Cersei is annoyed by Tyrion’s history lesson. Tyrion tries joking around. Cersei is annoyed by her father’s letter, asking why Tywin wanted to inflict Tyrion on her. He should have come himself. Cersei had commanded it through Joffrey.
“And he ignored you,” Tyrion pointed out. “He has quite a large army, he can do that. Nor is he the first. Is he?”
Cersei threatens to call the letter a forgery and toss Tyrion into a dungeon, and Tyrion realizes that he’s in a precarious position. He says that no one would care, especially Tywin if he got thrown into a dungeon. But, really, Cersei. Why would you do that? Tyrion is only here to help! Cersei doesn’t need his help. She required Tywin’s presence. But she wants Jaime, Tyrion points out.
His sister fancied herself subtle, but he had grown up with her. He could read her face like one of his favorite books, and what he read now was rage, and fear and despair.
Tyrion says he’ll free Jaime. Cersei asks how, and he says he’ll trade the Stark girls for him. Girl, Cersei corrects. They only have Sansa. The other one got away when Syrio, a hero, got in Meryn Trant’s way. Cersei thinks she’s dead which, so sad to say, Cersei. You’re wrong. Tyrion was hoping for both Stark girls, but one would do.
“Tell me about our friends on the council?”
Cersei looks at the door and asks what about them. So, Tyrion recounts how Tywin doesn’t like them and wants their heads if they’re disloyal. Cersei asks what Tywin knows, and Tyrion states that Tywin knows nothing. He suspects rather. And why does Tywin suspect? Good question.
“He knows that your son’s short reign has been a long parade of follies and disasters. That suggests that someone is giving Joffrey some very bad counsel.”
Hm, I wonder who that individual could possibly be. Well, according to Cersei. No one. Joffrey has received only the best council. He’s just so hard-headed. Yeah. Sure.
So, Tyrion asks what the fuck happened with Ned Stark, and Cersei does her grimacing act, recounting how everything had been worked out, but then, suddenly, suddenly Joffrey decided to give the crowd a show. And my god, the projection is so strong here, and I never saw that before. All the same, the High Septon thinks they profaned the Sept of Baelor, which, yeah. You all done fucked that one up. Can’t imagine that having any consequences down the road …
Then Tyrion asks after Harrenhal and why Janos Slynt, some goddamn commoner, was given the castle, and Cersei reports that Littlefinger made the arrangements. And did you know that Ned Stark had tried to name Stannis as rightful heir to Robert. The nerve. Thankfully, Sansa had told Cersei of the timing of Ned’s plans. This surprises Tyrion, but Cersei, ever the lady, says that Sansa was “wet with love” for Joffrey. She would have done anything for that little shit.
Okay, all well and good. Well, not really. But let’s move on for now. What about Ser Barristan. How could Cersei have let that happen? That bit of work came via Varys as Joffrey wanted someone to blame, and Varys suggested Ser Grandfather. It worked out well. Jaime is now Elsie of the Kingsguard. So, too, Sandor Clegane. Besides, they had offered Barristan some lands, and he rejected it. The nerve of him.
“Ser Barristan was the Lord Commander of Robert Baratheon’s Kingsguard,” Tyrion reminded Cersei pointedly. “He and Jaime are the only survivors of Aerys Targaryen’s seven. The smallfolk talk of him in the same way they talk of Serwyn of the Mirror Shield and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. What do you imagine they’ll think when they see Barristan the Bold riding beside Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon?”
Ah, well Cersei hadn’t thought of that. Tyrion states that Tywin thought of that, and that’s why Tyrion is here. To bring Joffrey to heel. Good fuckin’ luck at that, Cersei sort-of says. But Tyrion says he has the power to actually threaten Joffrey with harm.
Cersei’s eyes narrowed. “If you believe I’d ever allow you to harm my son, you’re sick with fever.”
Tyrion sighs, thinking that Cersei is missing the point as she always does. He tells her that Joffrey needs to feel insecure, but he’ll be safe with Tyrion. Besides, Joffrey needs Tyrion in order to stay seated on the Iron Throne. Tyrion reaches out and touches Cersei’s hand.
Cersei is shocked that Tyrion would touch her and tells Tyrion that she’ll only let Tyrion stay on as Hand if he’s her Hand. And that he has to share plans with Cersei at all times. Tyrion understands. But more than understand, Cersei asks if Tyrion agrees.
- “Certainly,” he lied. “I am yours sister.” For as long as I need to be.
Now that the two siblings are getting along famously, Tyrion declares they should have no more secrets. So, who murdered Jon Arryn. Cersei yanks her hand back and declares she doesn’t know. Tyrion reports that Lysa thought Tyrion murdered Jon Arryn, and he’s deadly curious where she came by that notion.
Cersei is all like, yeah, I’m a fuckin’ villain, but I got standards. She never killed Jon Arryn -- despite Ned Stark suspicions that …
“That were you were fucking our sweet Jaime?”
She slapped him.
“Did you think I was as blind as Father?” Tyrion rubbed his cheek. “Who you lie with is no matter to me … although it doesn’t seem just that you should open your legs for one brother and not the other.”
She slapped him.
“Be gentle, Cersei, I’m only jesting with you. If truth be told, I’d sooner have a nice whore. I never understood what Jaime saw in you, apart from his own reflection.”
She slapped him.
His cheeks were red and burning, yet he smiled. “If you keep doing that, I may get angry.”
Sorry, just had to read all that. Imagine the gleam in Martin’s eyes while he writing that, my god.
Cersei stops hitting him then and asks why she should care if Tyrion gets angry. Ah, well, as to that, Tyrion’s got a ton of new friends. And Cersei is not going to like them one bit. Anyways, how did you kill Robert, Cersei?
Well, as to that, Robert kind of did that himself. They only helped by having Lancel keep fetching Robert strongwine while he went off to hunt the boar. Cersei reports that they cooked the boar, and it was delicious.
“Truly, sister, you were born to be a window.”
Sure, Tyrion had liked Robert Baratheon, but that may have only been because Cersei hated him or that he loved to drink. One of the two. Regardless, Tyrion’s off to go do … stuff. What stuff in particular? Free Jaime maybe? Well, sure. At some point, but he needs to figure out how to do that first. First things first, he’s going to take measure of the city. Also, Cersei, please do not harm Sansa Stark. Whatever you do. Look at me, Cersei. Eye contact. Don’t. Harm. Sansa.
Outside of the small council chambers, Tyrion meets up with Bronn who tells Tyrion that Timett has gone on to explore the city. Tyrion sighs and states that he sure hopes Timett doesn’t muder anyone important in the city. But Bronn, you should probably go and find Timett and get the rest of the mountain clansmen into some sort of barracks or buildings or something before they kill the shit out of each other. As for Tyrion he’s on to ride to the Broken Anvil, and no, Bronn, he doesn’t want you for an escort. He’ll take the captain of Cersei’s household guard. It’s a power play, you see.
An hour later, Tyrion rides from the Red Keep with Captain Vylarr and a half dozen Lannister red cloaks who I’m assuming had nothing to do with murdering Ned’s men in the throneroom … Ahem. Underneath the portcullis, Tyrion notices the heads mounted on spikes high above the walls, and he tells Vylarr to get those heads off the wall and give them over to the Silent Sisters. You see, some proper niceties of war have to be observed.
When Vylarr protests that Joffrey has ordered the heads to stay up on the walls, and that the two empty spikes are for Renly and Stannis, Tyrion says, dude, he’s 13. Get those fucking heads down or your head will mount one of the spikes reserved for Renly or Stannis.
Tyrion’s purpose in riding around the city to take measure for it is only half a lie. He’s got something else in mind, but he does take stock of what he sees, and it ain’t good.
The streets of King’s Landing had always been teeming and raucous and noisy, but now they reeked of danger in a way that he did not recall from past visits. A naked corpse sprawled in the gutter near the Street of Looms, being torn at by a pack of feral dogs, yet no one seemed to care. Watchmen were much in evidence, moving in pairs through the alleys in their gold cloaks and shirts of black ringmail, iron cudgels never far from their hands.
And now the price of goods was high. The only good food seems to be rats. When Tyrion asks about the food, Vylarr reports that the Tyrells aren’t shipping food in from the Reach. When Tyrion then asks what Cersei’s been doing, Vylarr states that the city watch has been tripled. Stone masons are also at work strengthening the walls while carpenters are making scorpions and catapults. And meanwhile, some weirdo alchemist guild was making pots of wildfire. This gives Tyrion pause. Sure, he’s pleased that Cersei hasn’t been completely idiotic. But wildfire could turn King’s Landing into a fiery maelstrom. Mm hm. And how has Cersei found the money for all this? Well, Lord Littlefinger has been helping so very helpfully. In fact, Littlefinger has imposed a tax on people coming in from the kingsroad.
“Yes that would work,” Tyrion said thinking. Clever. Clever and cruel.
Tens of thousands were running to King’s Landing, and they would give over every penny for the safety from war behind the walls. But they might have second thoughts if they knew of the wildfire.
Tyrion comes up to the inn of the broken anvil and dismisses Vylarr and his men, stating that he’s spending the night at the inn. When Vylarr warns Tyrion that it won’t be safe, Tyrion happily replies that he’s left his own mountain clansmen here. He’ll be fine, though not entirely safe given his guests.
Pushing his way through a myriad of dungeons and dragons players inside the inn, he hears Shae before he sees her. He moves in the direction of her voice and sees what he thinks is an innkeeper talking with her. But as Tyrion approaches, Shae calls out Tyrion’s name, and the man turns, and it’s QUAITHE, wait, shit. Not Quaithe. It’s VARYS.
Tyrion stumbled. “Lord Varys. I had not thought to see you here.” The Others take him, how did he find them so quickly?
Varys does his fake apologetic “sorry to bother you” bit, but he was just so, so taken with wanting to meet this young lady. Shae says that Varys is half-right. She’s young. Tyrion thinks about Shae and how she’s all his and how possessive he feels about her which … um … Tyrion. This is not good, bro. All the same, Tyrion apologizes insincerely to Varys for intruding on him which leads to Shae talking about how Varys complimented Chella on the ears she’d taken, but no, no. She hadn’t taken it off corpses. That’s dishonorable.
“Braver to leave the man alive, with a chance to cleanse his shame by winning back his ear,” explained Chella.
They joke around for a bit, and then Varys asks if Tyrion wants to take some wine. Of course he does, alcoholic that he is. But he also knows what’s up now.
Varys was delivering a message. When he said, I was taken by a sudden urge to meet your young lady, what he meant was, You tried to hide her, but I knew where she was, and who she was, and here I am.
Tyrion wonders who betrayed him, and Varys seems to answer by telling Shae about how he loves to come through the gate of the gods, because the eyes carved on the gate are so expressive, following people around. Tyrion realizes that Varys is bragging about his own eyes, and that’s how he knew when Tyrion came in and who he came into King’s Landing with.
Varys warns Shae to be safe given the amount of lawless armed men about and how he even he feared to come to this inn, and Tyrion interprets Varys for the readers (Thanks, Tyrion!) by thinking that Varys was bragging about being able to move about unarmed and unspotted. Shae says that Chella will take an ear if anyone tries to come for Shae, and Varys laughs so, so loudly, but the laughter isn’t in his eyes when he turns to Tyrion.
“Your young lady has an amiable way to her. I should take very good care of her if I were you.”
Tyrion intends to take good care of Shae.
“Any man who tries to harm her -- well, I’m too small to be a Black Ear, and I make no claims to courage.” See? I speak the same tongue you do, eunuch. Hurt her, and I’ll have your head.
Varys then says he needs to get going to do … stuff. But he’s happy Tyrion is here, and oh BTW, seen that comet that every POV character in this story we’re both in is talking about? Why, yes. Yes, he has.
“They say it comes as a herald before a king, to warn of fire and blood to follow.” The eunuch rubbed his powdered hands together. “May I leave you with a bit of a riddle, Lord Tyrion?” He did not wait for an answer. “In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him to slay the other two. ‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me -- who lives and who dies?”
Varys bows and leaves. Chella says, “The rich man lives”, but Tyrion is a bit more reflective. Maybe that guy lives. But who knows. Really depends on the sellsword. He tells Shae they need to mount the stairs, on their way to to Tyrion’s high tower. Get it, because Tyrion IS A SECRET HIGHTOWER Stop, giving me that look, Emmett.
Anyways, Shae teases Tyrion, saying that he’ll miss her when she’s up in the Tower of the Hand, and Tyrion admits that yeah, he will. But he doesn’t want Shae to get her ass captured by one of Tywin’s goons. His ‘father’ had promised to murder the next sex worker Tyrion encountered. So, Tyrion was willing to be defiant, but only to a point.
Then Tyrion and Shae go play hide the cannoli which is a euphemism for ... you know what. Go ask your parents.
“My lion,” Shae whispered when he broke off the kiss to undress. “My sweet lord, my giant of Lannister.”
After they’re done doing “mommy-daddy wrestling”, Tyrion thinks about Shae, realizing how fucking stupid he is for falling for her.
Will you never learn, dwarf? She’s a whore, damn you, it’s your coin she loves, not your cock. Remember Tysha?
But then he looks at her body, touches it, and he’s so fuckin’ stupid.
Shae stirs and looks at him asking what he’s going to do now that he’s Hand of the King.
“Something Cersei will never expect, “ Tyrion murmured softly against her slender neck. “I’ll do … justice.”
And that is ACOK, Tyrion I. You know, when we did our patreon end-of-AGOT episode, I said that my favorite chapters in doing the NotACast pod-cast review of AGOT was those latter Tyrion chapters VII-IX, in particular. And you really see why here in Clash as the tone spills over from AGOT. And like our latter Tyrion chapters from AGOT, the relationships are complex! Tyrion’s relationship to Shae, Cersei, Varys, Joffrey, Sansa. Complex! And there’s the politics and the balancing act Tyrion attempts (and fails in part! But we’ll get to that eventually) between his lust for power and wanting to do good for the people.
But there’s something else which makes me gravitate to Tyrion’s chapters in ACOK. They’re so much fun!
And given how much fun Martin is having with writing Tyrion in Clash, does George see him as the protagonist? Even more important than whether George sees Tyrion as the protagonist, Emmett, do you see Tyrion as the protagonist?
Depth
Tyrion Lannister is the protagonist of A Clash of Kings. This is so not just because he has the most chapters in the book, nor because he’s taking over as Hand of the King from Ned Stark, the protagonist of book one. It’s because this is a book in large part about the decision-making process behind power, the thoughts behind the public face, and nowhere in ASOIAF do we focus more on thoughts and decisions and power than in Tyrion’s ACOK chapters.
That sounds like it might be kind of dry. This is high fantasy, after all, not Robert Caro! But nothing could be further from the truth; it’s so exciting to sit back and just watch Tyrion think. And beyond medieval fantasy and historical fiction, I look at this storyline through the lens of organized crime: Tyrion as Michael Corleone, every bit as much as Richard III.
Part of Tyrion’s appeal as a character is how out of sorts he is in the narrative. Having modernistic sentiments (He’s a religious skeptic! He loves science! He loves reason! He has a physical disability which makes us sympathetic to him!) works to contrast him to those he interacts with in ACOK. But Tyrion, as you put so well, Emmett, has a bit of Michael Corleone going for him. Sure, he holds some genuinely good views, but ultimately the same weakness held by Tywin, Cersei and to a lesser extent Jaime ends up being his downfall. He lusts for power. And by the end of ASOS, he’s calling himself “Tywin writ small.”
Now, and this is important, what’s fascinating about Tyrion is how the narrative drives him to this point. While darkness has been present in Tyrion since AGOT (E.G. wanting to reduce the Vale to a smoking wasteland), the steady declination of Tyrion to darkness is kind-of sympathetic in no small part because it’s driven largely by his reaction to external factors. King’s Landing rejects him, because of his physical deformity, and this leads him to rejecting the city. Joffrey hates Tyrion, and Tyrion smacks Joffrey around twice in the books. And then falsely tells Jaime that he murdered Joffrey. Shae “betrays” Tyrion, but only because he’s endangered her by bringing her to this city. And then Tyrion murders her in a sickening act of intimate partner violence.
These stimuli and responses of Tyrion’s are the building blocks for Tyrion’s overall arc and driving him forward inevitably to “He’s the villain, of course” in Martin’s parlance.
But all of that is over-arching meta-narrative stuff. Before we get there, it’s important that we set Tyrion as ACOK political archetype against his AGOT political archetype.
- Compare and contrast to Ned’s arc
- Before we dig into the chapter itself, I think we should start by comparing and contrasting Tyrion’s arc in ACOK to Ned’s arc in AGOT
- George clearly means for us to do so--they’re both Hands of the King, they have the most POV chapters in their respective books, 15 chapters each specifically
- There are even parallels between given chapters:
- Eddard I: Ned reunites with his foster brother, is named Hand
Tyrion I: Tyrion reunites with his sister, is accepted as Hand - Eddard IV: Ned meets the Small Council
Tyrion IV: Tyrion manipulates the Small Council (“one, two, three”) - Eddard IX: battle in the streets of King’s Landing
Tyrion IX: riot in the streets of King’s Landing - Eddard XII: showdown with Cersei
Tyrion XII: showdown with Cersei - Eddard XIV: betrayed and brought down in the throne room
Tyrion XIV: betrayed and brought down on the battlefield - Eddard XV: fevre dreamin’ in the black cells
Tyrion XV: fevre dreamin’ in a field hospital
- Eddard I: Ned reunites with his foster brother, is named Hand
- Yet while the structure is practically identical, the tone and focus are very different
- As I said in AGOT, the politics of Ned’s chapters didn’t interest me as much as the personal emotional elements RE Lyanna, Robert, etc.
- In part that’s because while we here at the NotACast defend Ned’s decision-making for the most part, he wasn’t an especially complex politician
- Tyrion is, and the sheer density and speed of his political mind is what makes these chapters so damn delightful to read
- If the first book was all about the fall from grace, than it makes perfect sense that as book two opens, we’ve gone from the idealistic Ned to the cynical Tyrion
- That’s not to say Tyrion lacks all conscience, as we’ll get into as we go, but that his conscience is filtered through what happened to Ned. Per the show:
- “I don’t mean to follow Ned Stark to the grave.”
- So much of what Tyrion is doing in ACOK, though, is rooted through that cynical, pragmatic worldview. So, I’m curious: do you find the politics more compelling than the personal for Tyrion?
- First test: Mandon Moore
- Even before we get to Varys’ riddle, this chapter is all about what it means to have power--specifically, how you act on potential power to make it actual
- Tyrion is nominally the Hand of the King, but like Ned before him, he’s relying on a piece of paper from someone who isn’t present (dead Robert v. absent Tywin)
- And before he can even step foot in the council chamber to present said paper, he has to get past Mandon Moore, who could not possibly give less of a fuck
- If Arys Oakheart’s place in Sansa I was all about how mediocre people fit into bad systems, Ser Mandon is about how hollow people fit into bad systems
- He has no discernable personality and is an instrument of his bosses’ will
- Hence him being described as a corpse in a shroud--he’s a wight, basically!
- So Tyrion has to establish himself as a boss on the level of Cersei and Joffrey
- He does that not purely with an appeal to his father’s seal, nor purely through his clever tongue, nor purely through a show of force, but a combo of all of the above
- Bronn and Timett could likely kill the knight if it came to swords, but it would scarcely bode well if he began by slaying one of Joffrey's protectors. Yet if he let the man turn him away, where was his authority?
- The threat of Bronn and Timett works, too, because Tyrion is using pinpoint precision against Mandon Moore
- As Valeman, Mandon Moore would be aware of the “savagery” and violence that the mountain clansmen are known for in the mountain passes.
- And Timett son of Timett as a Burned Man is the fiercest warrior and man among the fiercest mountain clans.
- And then introducing Bronn as the man who killed Vardis Egen also works. Oh, this guy killed the best knight in service to Jon Arryn. Hmmm. Do I want to go mano y mano with him? Probably not.
- As Valeman, Mandon Moore would be aware of the “savagery” and violence that the mountain clansmen are known for in the mountain passes.
- Right away, we see that Tyrion is putting his well-honed multi-track mind to work
- Of course, we also see his biggest vulnerability: his self-consciousness about his stature, which convinces him (as with Tysha) that he cannot truly be loved
- “I would only be a small disturbance, ser.”
- He had passed his first test. Tyrion Lannister shouldered his way through the door, feeling almost tall.
- Second test: the Small Council
- Remember these knuckleheads? Last time we saw them, they were utterly failing to prevent the execution of Ned Stark (except for Littlefinger, who arranged for it)
- Now here they are trying to pick up the pieces, and as Janos Slynt acknowledges, they’re in desperate need of some help
- “We have sore need of you, my lord. Rebellion everywhere, this grim omen in the sky, rioting in the city streets…”
- Of course, the fact that Slynt admits that reveals what a shoddy politician he is, as well as being terrible at his job of keeping the peace in King’s Landing
- Janos Slynt being shit at his job is an enduring feature all the way back to his introduction back in AGOT, Eddard VI where Janos arrives at the small council, complaining about crime in the city:
Lord Renly Baratheon was less sympathetic. "If you cannot keep the king's peace, Janos, perhaps the City Watch should be commanded by someone who can."
- Janos Slynt being shit at his job is an enduring feature all the way back to his introduction back in AGOT, Eddard VI where Janos arrives at the small council, complaining about crime in the city:
Stout, jowly Janos Slynt puffed himself up like an angry frog, his bald pate reddening. "Aegon the Dragon himself could not keep the peace, Lord Renly. I need more men."
- There, Janos couldn’t keep the peace with all the people coming into King’s Landing for the Hand’s Tourney. Now, with refugees pouring into the city, it’s a similar issue.
- Speaking more to his incompetence is that Janos blames the lack of men for his shortcomings back in AGOT. Yet now the gold cloaks have had their numbers tripled per Vylarr in this chapter, but the city is still a den of crime and corruption.
- It’s almost, almost as if the problem isn’t that there are too few cops in the city. Almost.
- Immediately, Tyrion zeroes in on Slynt as “a smug frog who had gotten rather above himself,” and also takes note of Pycelle’s ponderous beard...
- After all, he was sent to deal with this motley crew, and while Ned was more perceptive than his rep suggests (he knew which were the flatterers and which the fools), Tyrion is prepared to weaponize his insights far more effectively
- He knows not to trust Littlefinger, even if he can’t afford to get rid of him
- Littlefinger, meanwhile, mentions the fate of the last two Hands, which he himself arranged! A subtle unspoken threat, yet also a weakness: letting a powerful person know you’re their enemy, while still leaving them in position to retaliate
- Varys, meanwhile, oozes about unctuously, waiting to make his own claim on Tyrion’s attentions in private
- Equally important as who is here, however, is who isn’t here, which as Tyrion notes is Barristan Selmy
- Ned respected Barristan’s honor, but he didn’t seem aware of this public aspect of it--the way Barristan lent honor to whomever he served. Tyrion knows it well.
- Cersei didn’t, and that’s how Tyrion makes the case that she needs him on the council
- Third test: Cersei
- I love the Tyrion-Cersei dynamic; it’s one of my favorite relationships in the series, and I honestly think it’s more interesting than the Jaime-Cersei dynamic
- I had forgotten until we reread AGOT what an ice queen Cersei is in book one. We don’t really see the fiery attitude we associate with her character because our primary POVs on her are the Starks, her enemies, in front of whom she’s fronting
- But she drops that pretense when her eternally obnoxious little brother comes in
- She rants, he snarks; she slaps him physically, he slaps back verbally
- It’s similar to the Tyrion-Tywin dynamic in terms of the years of poison always working their way to the surface and preventing any genuine cooperation
- But the power dynamic is totally different here, and fluid at this specific moment
- We’re in sibling territory now; the stakes and tone are different than parent-child
- Tyrion and Cersei can’t stand each other, and indeed as of Feast/Dance they both want the other dead more than anything in the world
- But they’re also so familiar with each other that they’re never in a hurry to end their conversations, which sprawl on and on--in a good way, a realistic way
- It’s like slipping into an old comfortable armchair whenever they fight, and while they’re not exactly enjoying it, they just understand each other so well
- Tyrion knows that he’s not the Lannister man Cersei was hoping would walk through that door, so he leverages the other two: Dad sent me, I’ll save Jaime
- Cersei, meanwhile, looks at him the way Catelyn looks at Jon when Robb decides to name him heir: a traitorous termite climbing the ladder of chaos
- Both of them are claiming to be the center of Lannister power in the capital; is this town big enough for the two of them?
- Tyrion doesn’t need Cersei to help him run things day-to-day, but he does need her to not lock him up right away, and she has useful info RE the end of AGOT
- Once again, it’s not that Ned’s naivete is being replaced by pure power politics
- Tyrion understands that you need to make use of every tool in your toolbox, applying pressure on this pedal and then that one as needed in the moment
- The paper shield matters not because it’s equivalent to force, but because it gets his foot in the door so he can then acquire that force
- He has to agree to be her Hand, lying through his teeth, until he can acquire a monopoly on violence in the capital over his next few chapters
- There’s a real sadness at the core of this dysfunctional codependent dynamic, because they could’ve been powerful allies against the patriarchy
- Tyrion takes endless shit for his stature, Cersei takes endless shit for her gender; you can easily imagine them growing up as a mutually supportive team
- But instead, as so often happens with people who are marginalized in different ways, they turn on each other, wrestling for scraps of Dad and society’s approval
- Of course, we later learn about how Cersei treated Tyrion as a child, and I don’t think he’s fully joking about wanting to have sex with her
- Yup.
- Whatever she would have of me. Sage counsel, savage wit, a bit of tumbling. My cock, if she desires it. My tongue, if she does not. I will lead her armies or rub her feet, as she desires. And the only reward I ask is I might be allowed to rape and kill my sister." (ADWD, Tyrion VII)
- So I don’t put all of this on Tywin; there’s more than enough dysfunction to go around!
- The Joffrey question
- Joffrey doesn’t appear in this chapter, but his presence looms large nonetheless
- The BLAH boys argued that Tyrion in ACOK doesn’t have a clear throughline like Ned’s investigation in AGOT, but I disagree; this is the throughline:
- "He knows that your son's short reign has been a long parade of follies and disasters. That suggests that someone is giving Joffrey some very bad counsel … That is why he sent me. To put an end to these follies and bring your son to heel."
- And while Tyrion plays the game quite effectively regarding the Small Council and even Cersei (for the most part), Joffrey is his Achilles heel
- He can fire Janos Slynt, he can throw Pycelle in jail, he can offer Myrcella to the Martells without consulting Cersei, but he can’t remove Joffrey from power
- That’s a problem not only because Joffrey is a sadistic little shit who instigates riots and has valuable prisoners beaten, but because he hates Tyrion’s guts
- Unlike Cersei, he can’t be persuaded that he needs Tyrion’s help to stay in charge, so the ground will never be secure under Tyrion’s feet as long as Joffrey is king
- Bronn, of all people, anticipates the Tyrells’ move when he notes that Tommen would be far easier to control, but Tyrion can’t let himself go there...not yet.
- He will by ADWD, but right now Tyrion is in this liminal state where he can see so clearly that Joffrey is the worst, and is more enraged by it than Cersei or the Council or the Kingsguard
- And he acts on that disgust--slapping, threatening, saving Sansa from him
- Yet at the end of the day, every move Tyrion makes is to ensure that Joffrey’s butt stays on the Iron Throne
- As with Littlefinger, he’s letting a powerful person know he’s their enemy without reducing their power, and so long before Mandon Moore tries to kill Tyrion, we can glimpse the source of his downfall
- Varys’ riddle
- We only get the question here, with Varys’ answer coming in Tyrion II; for this chapter’s purposes, there are two important points to make
- One is that George is setting up ACOK as being a book about not only power, but competing conceptions of where power comes from and what it even is
- AGOT touched on that, but by design, it couldn’t dig deep because it was about the scales falling from one’s eyes--power came from outside more than inside
- We’re supposed to ponder Varys’ riddle throughout the book, not just in Tyrion’s chapters--it applies to Stannis and Renly, Arya and Jaqen, Dany and her dragons
- We see idealized visions of where power comes from (the Reeds’ oath to Bran), cynical takes (the “lord of the crossing” game), and in between (Sandor, Jaime)
- The second important point is that Varys is even bothering to pose this riddle at all, and specifically that he’s posing it to Tyrion
- He never got this philosophical with Ned until the very end, in the black cells
- Varys thought he could make use of Ned in terms of keeping Robert alive until his Targaryen restoration was ready to go, but on the whole, he (like Cersei) saw the Starks as unexpected interlopers upsetting all his carefully laid plans
- By contrast, Varys seems to regard Tyrion right from the start as both a worthy opponent and a potentially valuable asset
- Sure, he turns the information he starts acquiring here against Tyrion at his trial, but I don’t see any indication that betrayal was his plan all along
- We gotta consider what Varys’ priorities are right now; having failed to keep Robert alive, his new priority is preventing the Baratheons from re-uniting Westeros and thus being able to stand firm against his “perfect prince”
- He might’ve been expecting Tywin or Kevan or Addam Marbrand to show up to take the lead...but Tyrion is a lion of a different color, and Varys needs to get a sense of him
- The very fact that he’s trying to get Tyrion to think critically about power suggests that Tyrion has passed the test and Varys will be working closely with him
- And for all that Tyrion bitterly curses and threatens Varys in the privacy of his own mind here, he comes to trust Varys more than he does Pycelle or Littlefinger
- It’s not just an alliance of convenience, or Varys wouldn’t reveal his backstory
- Tyrion and Shae
- This is the closest we get to a personal emotional element in Tyrion’s ACOK chapters to match those in Ned’s, and while it’s not nearly as moving, I don’t think it’s meant to be
- Instead, George uses the Tyrion-Shae relationship to expose the massive blind spots in the former’s worldview, and how they get dark and violent over time
- What will Tyrion do to hold onto Shae? I would say you should go ask Symon Silvertongue, but well, you can’t.
- We’re also getting a further sense of Tyrion’s toxicity in terms of his feelings of ownership over Shae as we talked about back in AGOT, Tyrion VIII.
- It should be painfully clear that Shae is viewing this relationship as one between her and her john.
- And Tyrion knows!
Fool, he thought to himself afterward, as they lay in the center of the sagging mattress amidst the rumpled sheets. Will you never learn, dwarf? She's a whore, damn you, it's your coin she loves, not your cock. Remember Tysha? - But he can’t help but fall for Shae as he once did Tysha
Yet when his fingers trailed lightly over one nipple, it stiffened at the touch, and he could see the mark on her breast where he'd bitten her in his passion. - This is a signal to the reader that despite Tyrion’s penchant for reason, he isn’t an emotional void.
- The problem is that Tyrion chooses to fix his emotions on someone who he consciously knows doesn’t love him back
- It all goes back to Tysha: the girl he fell for when he was a teen and Jaime’s “reveal” that she was only a sex worker who didn’t love him for anything more than his money.
- So toxic especially when Tyrion learns the truth at the end of ASOS from Jaime.
- And as we’ll find in Tyrion’s final ASOS chapter, it’s a trait that Tyrion and his father or father share.
Foreshadowing/Groundwork
In the chilly white raiment of the Kingsguard, Ser Mandon Moore looked like a corpse in a shroud.
I’ll bet he does, given that he’ll try to make a corpse out of Tyrion at the Blackwater before ending up one himself, his cloak indeed serving as his shroud as he sinks in the river. Love that George sets this up from the very first line of Tyrion’s very first chapter in the book! See also:
Jaime had once told him that Moore was the most dangerous of the Kingsguard—excepting himself, always—because his face gave no hint as what he might do next. Tyrion would have welcomed a hint.
Tyrion says he’s done with battle, but ohhhh no he’s not! Not only will he fight in the Battle of Blackwater at the climax of ACOK, but he’s present for the Battle of Fire at the start of TWOW.
“Aerys Targaryen’s last Hand was killed during the Sack of King’s Landing, though I doubt he’d had time to settle into the Tower. He was only Hand for a fortnight. The one before him was burned to death. And before them came two others who died landless and penniless in exile, and counted themselves lucky.”
This qualifies as our first mentions of Rossart the Pyromancer, Qarlton Chelsted, the Merryweathers, and most importantly of all, Jon Connington. Bag ‘em and tag ‘em!
Tyrion’s short tour through King’s Landing has him observing that the city is on the brink of starvation which nicely sets up the “food riot” (which I’ll argue in about a year or so was not entirely an organic uprising) which we’ll see again in Tyrion VIII
The eyes on the gate show up again at Qarth
WILDFIRE
Theory/Discussion
Maybe a bold statement: I think Seasons 2-4 do a better job on the whole with Tyrion’s dialogue than ACOK and ASOS.
Background to casting Peter Dinklage:
- Dinklage was the first choice to play Tyrion and the first person officially cast for GoT:
From the beginning, Dinklage was the first choice for the role of Tyrion, according to Benioff and the show’s co-creator, Dan Weiss, who observes that Dinklage’s “core of humanity, covered by a shell of sardonic dry wit, is pretty well in keeping with the character.” - NY Times, 2014
- George himself said in 2009: “And playing Tyrion Lannister will be Peter Dinklage, who was almost everyone's "dream casting" for the role (he certainly was mine)”
- Interestingly, as of 2014, Peter Dinklage had not read ASOIAF, a confession he made on a panel he was at with George RR Martin who allegedly did not take it well, ha.
So, that’s a little background as to Peter Dinklage’s casting as Tyrion Lannister. But, Emmett, I’m curious: you say Tyrion in Seasons 2-4 is better than ACOK and ASOS? Why is that? And remember, you have 3 million people watching you right now on youtube who will all hold you to account!
- Doing Varys’ riddle in a single scene rather than spreading out the question and his answer over two scenes in two different chapters
- “I’m not questioning your honor, Lord Janos. I’m denying its existence” > “What honor is that?”
- Tightening the “one-two-three” scene thanks to the magic of editing
- Changing Tyrion’s fake offer to Varys in that sequence to offering Myrcella to the Greyjoys, which makes more sense than sending Tommen to Dorne to be betrothed to...who, exactly? Arianne? She’s not mentioned here
- Being shocked and horrified when Tywin proposes that he wed Sansa Stark (allowing Cersei to delight in his suffering before Tywin drops the hammer on her as well)
- “I wish I was the monster you think I am” > “You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, but there it is”
But then...it starts to fall apart when he leaves Westeros in Season 5, and nosedives with the “drink and knows things” improv sessions of Season 6. Why is that?
In a 2015 Entertainment Weekly interview, David Benioff said (and this in the context of Tyrion and Daenerys meeting):
“Creatively it made sense to us, because we wanted it to happen. They’re two of the best characters of the show. To have them come so close together this season then have them not meet felt incredibly frustrating. Also, we’re on a relatively fast pace. We don’t want to do a 10-year adaptation of the books, we don’t want to do a nine-year adaptation. We’re not going to spend four seasons in Meereen. It’s time for these two to get together. It’s hard to come up with a more eloquent explanation, but this just felt right. [Varys] puts Tyrion’s mission out there [in the season premiere] and the mission ends in Meereen.”
So, the rationale was to speed Tyrion’s journey to Daenerys in the show. It is understandable in one sense: the show knew that they were working to 7 or 8 seasons max at the time when Benioff said this. (Turned out it was 8 seasons). But at the same time, there were real losses in hustling the narrative to the point where Dany and Tyrion intersect. And we start to see some of those losses when we compare what we saw in Seasons 5-8 with what George ended up doing with Tyrion in ADWD and his early TWOW chapters.
Because in ADWD, George did something I think is brilliant: he dismantled the appeal of Tyrion’s crackling dialogue by having him use it as a blunt instrument, cruel instead of witty, a weapon against the world that has rejected him. For a variety of reasons (as we’ve covered before), the show never went there with Tyrion, and so could only fall back on a pale imitation of earlier seasons. They got the construction right, better even than George did, but neglected the deconstruction, and so Dinklage’s Tyrion never fully became the complex, challenging character he could have been.
Conclusion
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