Tony Black counts down to the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere…
Imp. The Half Man. Master of Coin. Tyrion Lannister has almost as many titles as the Mother of Dragons he eventually covets, yet there’s an argument that the black sheep of the Lannister family is both Game of Thrones most tragic victim and its greatest hero in waiting.
Born the son of Tywin Lannister, staunch patriarch of Casterly Rock in the Westerlands and the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms, Tyrion was not only born a dwarf but his mother Joanna, Tywin’s beloved wife and cousin, died in childbirth. The younger brother of siblings Jaime and Cersei, it was a tragedy Tywin would never forgive him for, punishing and humiliating his son repeatedly across his life, including robbing him of a lowborn woman he loved and made his wife. Tyrion grew up not only suffering the scorn of Cersei and the cold rejection of his father, he grew up considered a freak, an aberration, by all around him in the highborn courts he still frequented due to his name. Perhaps only his younger brother Jaime truly cared for him in the way Tyrion still cared for his siblings and father. He may well have become a brothel visiting drunk, but he remained true to being a Lannister.
Upon Robert’s Rebellion, and the new King Robert’s subsequent marriage to his sister Cersei, Tyrion became part of the royal family of the Seven Kingdoms. He frequently invokes the ire of Queen Cersei while treating her children appropriately, unafraid to punish cruel Prince Joffrey such as when he slaps him in the face while on a state visit to Winterfell. Tyrion importantly visits Castle Black and the Wall, keen to see the wonder the world, meeting a young steward named Jon Snow. It’s the founding of a mutual respect which may, much much later, serve both of them well.
Tyrion nonetheless soon finds himself a victim of the changing political tides of Westeros – held hostage by Catelyn Stark after her husband Ned is imprisoned following the death of King Robert, Tyrion is imprisoned at the Eyrie and given a show trial by Lysa Arryn, Catelyn’s sister and mother of new young Lord of the Vale, Robin. A true Lannister, he manages to buy and cheat his way to freedom with the help of a wily sellsword named Bronn, and Shagga, son of Dolf, of the Mountain clans around the Vale. They accompany Tyrion into battle.
You see by this point, the War of the Five Kings has begun in earnest. Tywin Lannister has a large host taking on the forces of Robb Stark, who has ridden south with an army upon learning of Ned’s imprisonment. Tyrion fights valiantly for Lannister forces (getting no reward in the bargain) before Tywin, following Joffrey’s accession to the Iron Throne, sends Tyrion to act as Hand of the King in his stead. At Kings Landing, Tyrion immediately sets about upsetting everyone around him by publicly rebuking Joffrey, winding up Cersei and sending Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Ser Janos Slynt, to the wall, replacing him with Bronn.
Before Stannis’ invasion of Kings Landing and Tyrion almost being killed by a Lannister assassin at the Battle of the Blackwater, he does at least get hold of the stores of wildfire long hidden under the Sept of Kings Landing and in a crucial moment of strategy, triggers a weapon which prevents Stannis taking over the city. Wounded in battle, Tyrion’s reward is for Tywin to ride in, assume his role and relegate him to the lowly position of Master of Coin.
Tyrion has, while back at Kings Landing, fallen in love with a whore named Shae, who also serves as Sansa Stark’s handmaiden. Given Tywin’s obsession with securing the family legacy, as he plots to wed Cersei to Loras Tyrell in order to secure the Reach, he marries Tyrion to imprisoned virgin Sansa, a union which doesn’t serve to last long. As ‘Joffrey’ wins the War of Five Kings following Robb Stark’s death at the Red Wedding, his lavish wedding to Margaery Tyrell ends up with him poisoned to death and Tyrion chief suspect, following numerous threats to destroy his young nephew.
Locked in the Red Keep, Tyrion is vouched for by Jaime—convinced he’s innocent—but betrayed in a show trial by Shae, whereby he angrily declares his disdain for the royal court and demands a trial by combat. Cersei names Ser Gregor ‘the Mountain’ Clegane to fight for her and Tyrion, when Bronn refuses to help this time, considers himself doomed – until Dornish Prince Oberyn Martell, the ‘Red Viper’ for formed part of his trial council, volunteers his services.
Oberyn, intending to kill Clegane for the historic murder of his sister Elia and her children in Kings Landing at the end of Robert’s Rebellion, is murdered by the Mountain and Tyrion loses. Condemned to be executed, Tyrion is freed in the night by Jaime, who refuses to let his brother simply die. Lord Varys, the spymaster, intends to shepherd him away but Tyrion first exacts his own vengeance – strangling Shae when he finds her in Tywin’s bed and shooting his father dead on the privy, an ignominious end to a titan of a man.
Having committed patricide, Tyrion escapes Westeros in the crate of a ship, brought by Varys to the shores of Pentos across the Narrow Sea where his fate his revealed – Varys wants him to serve Daenerys Targaryen, who’s restoration he has spent decades working towards. Tyrion, devastated and drunk, undertakes this course with no other option – having lost faith in everything.
While in the free city of Volantis, Tyrion is abducted by Ser Jorah Mormont, late of Daenerys’ service after being exposed a spy sent by Robert Baratheon to watch her. Jorah sees Tyrion as the captive prize he needs to regain Dany’s graces and they undertake a journey across Essos whereby they gain a grudging respect for the other – while battling Stone Men as they journey through the Smoking Sea of haunted Valyria & captured by slaver pirates.
Ultimately, they end up in Daenerys’ circle and Tyrion very quickly finds himself a shrewd, if not trusted, counsel to Daenerys – with knowledge of Westeros and the tools she will need to fight his family. Seeing Dany’s dragons as they destroy the invaders of Meereen at Slavers Bay, Tyrion finds a reason to go on in Daenerys, and once she disappears on her dragon Drogon, it’s left to him and sly accomplice Varys—also in her service—to try and govern Meereen while she’s gone.
Once Dany returns with a Dothraki army and a new sense of purpose, Tyrion joins her on the voyage back across the ocean toward Westeros, to begin her long-planned invasion of the continent. What role will the lost Lannister play in her intended restoration? With sister Cersei swearing vengeance upon him should she ever find him, and Jaime’s loyalties conflicted between them, can Tyrion find a way to restore Lannister honour while aiding Daenerys’ claim to the Iron Throne? And should she succeed, what then for the half-man who has come so far?
Many theories abound but only one thing is certain – Tyrion has a significant role to play in the great war to come.
Tony Black
