Episode 121: A CLASH OF KINGS, TYRION X: "The Old Powers" SHOW NOTES! (Patreon)

Hello 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 one hundred and twenty-first episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “The Old Powers: An Analysis of ACOK, Tyrion X,” in which Tyrion meets the extremely impactful character Symon Silvertongue and learns about Varys’ supervillain origin story.

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack 
• Grandmaester Timbob, troubleshooter of systems and designer of circuit boards
• Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N. 
• Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves, Captain of the war galley NIGHT WOLF, the ship that stalks the Seven Seas, and Wielder of the Valyrian Steel trident SUMMONER, the blade that brings the Deep Ones
• Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
• Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Micah, The Quilled Lion, Warden of the West, Herald of the Golden Tooth, Master of the Banefort and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• The High Bearded Priest
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen's Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Ser Jasper the Cruel, the King’s Justice
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Kelly, Warden of the East and Mistress of (Old) Bay of Crabs
• Steven the Steadfast, Master of Hounds
• The Blue Winter Rose Knight of Highgarden
• Lady Stephanie
• Lord Anonymous
• Lord Carlos
• Lord Andrew the Restless, a Priest of the Drowned God
• The King's Cook, Nolly (No-lee) Olly (Oh-lee), Master of Cannoli
• Ser Sourcedelica 
• Prince Matthew of House Targaryen - Proud Soy Boy of Summerhall, Defender of the 5th Book and Swing Dancer with Dragons
• Ser K.W. Dent, Elsie of the Blackwood Guard, and Batman of the Seven Kingdoms
• Lord Penchant for Nostalgia
• Queer Alex, Rainbow Commander of the They-des and Gentle-thems (ladies and gentlemen)
• Lord Clint, Esq., Master of Absolutely, Positively NOT Serving As A Spy for Several Unnamed High Lords and Ladies In Order to Further the Secret Blackfyre-Style Conspiracy to Overthrow The Oppressive Small Council
• Haldivar, The Waiter for TWOW
• A-a-ron Damphair Prophet of the Forsaken and High Priest of Euron Crows Eye
• Lieutenant Glenn Lord of H town
• Vanerys of the House Colgaryen, the First of Her Name, Princess of Dragonstone, Mistress of Art, The Overworked, Queen of the Pencils, the Eraser and the First Draft, Queen of Monochrome, Devotee of the Great GOT, Portraitist of the Realm, Lady Realist of the Seven Kingdoms, Blender of Paints and Maker of Drawings
• Seanwell the Slayer
• Lord Adam T
• Lady Alexandra of Tarth
• Ser Kristoph Logas, Bloody Scorpion of the Red Field, Defender of the Letter of Kin, and the Wolverine of house Qorgyle
• Lady Elizabeth, Mistress of Horse (Faced Lesbians)
• Ser Josh Snow Bastard Bounty Hunter of the North
• Ser Veyor, Chief of Parties in the Frozen Wastes
• Lord Peter
• Lady Ashley
• The Dead Sheppard Reborn, Preacher of the Poor Fellows
• Marshall Harrison—Absent, shipwrecked in the Jade Sea
• Grave-Robb Stark, the Cadaver King and Horror of Harrenhal
• Olaf, proponent of establishing a feudal, pseudodemocratic system of Great Councils, wherein every count votes
• Ser Tim: The Knight Who Was Guided By Voices
• Lord Nick
• Thucydides, Lord of Plagues
• Ser Jack, Lord of Ser Arthur Dayne and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s Sad Prophecy Boys Club
• Lord Gene the Splendid, Master of Coin, Warden of Tampa Bay 
• Lady Anna, The Lovely Castellan
• Pat Yronwood, the bloodroyal and guardian of the Boneway
• Lord Charles Tyrell of Highgarden, Lord Paramount of the Mander, Defender of the Marches, High Marshal of the Reach, Warden of the South, and The Heir of House Tyrell
• Luke, Lord of Lone Leaf & The Pillar of Autumn
  
  

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

Ser Eric Y, a Sworn Sword patron, asks:

Hey guys! Right after the Bells aired I had a thought of how we might see it in books. I keep coming back to Jon Connington watching it happen with the bells driving him mad. It would be a perfect downfall for an aspiring Tywin. Good or bad theory?

Synopsis

“The queen intends to send Prince Tommen away." They knelt alone in the hushed dimness of the sept, surrounded by shadows and flickering candles, but even so Lancel kept his voice low. "Lord Gyles will take him to Rosby, and conceal him there in the guise of a page. They plan to darken his hair and tell everyone that he is the son of a hedge knight."

"Is it the mob she fears? Or me?"

"Both," said Lancel.

Thus begins the most thrilling subplot of A Clash of Kings: how Tommen Baratheon gets to Rosby! The suspense, the drama. 

Tyrion hadn’t known about this plot from Varys, and he wonders if Varys was playing him false. He thanks Lancel for the information, and then Lancel turns around and asks if Tyrion will give him what he wants. What does he want? Why, he wants his own command in the upcoming battle. Tyrion thinks this is an excellent way for Lancel to die and dismisses Lancel, saying he’ll think about it.

Tyrion lingered after his cousin had slipped away. At the Warrior's altar, he used one candle to light another. Watch over my brother, you bloody bastard, he's one of yours. He lit a second candle to the Stranger, for himself.

Tyrion is GOOD.

He summons Bronn to his chambers later in the night and gives him a letter to give to Jacelyn Bywater to tell him to scout the roseroad for Stannis. But hey, wait, Stannis would come up the kingsroad, Bronn points out. Yeah, exactly. Disregard the written instruction. Instead, Tyrion wants Bronn to tell Jacelyn to go north and ambush Lord Gyles along the Rosby Road. Take Tommen into custody. To be brought back? No. He can keep going onto Rosby, but once everyone gets there, the Rosby garrison must be expelled and replaced by gold cloaks, and Tyrion will reward Jacelyn with a lordship if he accomplishes this task.

"Lord Bronn would sound better. I could grab the boy for you just as well. I'll dandle him on my knee and sing him nursery songs if there's a lordship in it."

"I need you here," said Tyrion. And I don't trust you with my nephew. Should any ill befall Joffrey, the Lannister claim to the Iron Throne would rest on Tommen's young shoulders. Ser Jacelyn's gold cloaks would defend the boy; Bronn's sellswords were more apt to sell him to his enemies.

Bronn asks what Jacelyn should do with the old lord, and Tyrion says whatever. Just don’t kill him. Also, there should be a kingsguard involved. Bronn was unconcerned, thinking that Sandor Clegane was the only white cloak worth a damn, and he’d stay by Joffrey’s side instead of go with Tommen.

"If it comes to killing, tell Ser Jacelyn I won't have it done in front of Tommen." Tyrion donned a heavy cloak of dark brown wool. "My nephew is tender-hearted."

"Are you certain he's a Lannister?"

"I'm certain of nothing but winter and battle," he said. "Come. I'm riding with you part of the way."

Bronn asks if they’re going to Chatayas, and they are. They move through dark, mostly empty alleys — mostly empty because the curfew he imposed had been extended by the small council. As they ride, Tyrion feels impatient, turns quickly around to see if anyone is following him and then throws caution to the wind and races down the streets on his horse, racing for love.

At the manse, he hears music and one of the Ibbenese waves him in. Tyrion asks who’s making the music, and the Ibbenese bro says it’s some fat singer.

Tyrion had never been fond of singers, and he liked this one even less than the run of the breed, sight unseen. When he pushed open the door, the man broke off. "My lord Hand." He knelt, balding and kettle-bellied, murmuring, "An honor, an honor."

"M'lord." Shae smiled at the sight of him. He liked that smile, the quick unthinking way it came to her pretty face. The girl wore her purple silk, belted with a cloth-of-silver sash. The colors favored her dark hair and the smooth cream of her skin.

"Sweetling," he called her. "And who is this?"

The singer raised his eyes. "I am called Symon Silver Tongue, my lord. A player, a singer, a taleteller-"

"And a great fool," Tyrion finished. "What did you call me, when I entered?"

Big mistake, my man. He blubbers for a bit before Tyrion tells him that he should have said nothing and pretended not to recognize him. But now that Symon knows who Tyrion is, his habits and Shae, what’s he to do with her? The man swears he’ll tell no one, and Tyrion agrees before telling him good night.

Tyrion takes Shae up the stairs, and she teases him about putting the fear of god into him, and then tells Tyrion that she likes his singing and please don’t hurt him. Tyrion agrees going for some boobs so long as Symon stays close and doesn’t spread tales. 

Tyrion covered her mouth with his own. He'd had talk enough; he needed the sweet simplicity of the pleasure he found between Shae's thighs. Here, at least, he was welcome, wanted.

Afterward, he eased his arm out from under her head, slipped on his tunic, and went down to the garden. A half-moon silvered the leaves of the fruit trees and shone on the surface of the stone bathing pond. Tyrion seated himself beside the water. Somewhere off to his right a cricket was chirping, a curiously homey sound. It is peaceful here, he thought, but for how long?

But then Tyrion smells something bad. He turns and finds Shae at the door with a begging brother behind her. Shae announces that it’s Varys, and the Begging Brother blinks at her. Meanwhile, Tyrion laughs and asks how Shae knew when he didn’t. She knew, because he was only dressed different, and even though he smelled and walked different, sex workers always knew, or else they turn up dead in some alley.

Tyrion asks if Shae could bring them wine, and she leaves. When she’s gone, Varys reports that there’s bad news to report..

"Ser Cortnay Penrose is dead. Storm's End has opened its gates to Stannis Baratheon."

Dismay drove all other thoughts from Tyrion's mind. When Shae returned with the wine, he took one sip and flung the cup away to explode against the side of the house. She raised a hand to shield herself from the shards as the wine ran down the stones in long fingers, black in the moonlight. "Damn him!" Tyrion said.

Varys asks whether Tyrion would like to damn Cortnay or Stannis, and he replies both. But how did this happen? Varys asks if they can talk privately, without Shae, but she’s not scared. Regardless, Tyrion is going to speak with Varys alone. He asks that Varys wait for him in the stables. He’ll ride back to the Red Keep with the eunuch. When Varys leaves, Tyrion sits down with Shae and tells her that she’s not safe. Sure, she has sellswords here who like getting paid, but they probably wouldn’t die for Tyrion’s money. Besides, the riot had claimed a house much like the one Shae is staying in. And the mob had killed the High Septon, raped Lolly Stokeworth and bashed Ser Aron Santagar’s head in. They would do similar with Tyrion’s lady if they found her.

"The Hand's whore, you mean?" She looked at him with those big bold eyes of hers. "Though I would be your lady, m'lord. I'd dress in all the beautiful things you gave me, in satin and samite and cloth-of-gold, and I'd wear your jewels and hold your hand and sit by you at feasts. I could give you sons, I know I could . . . and I vow I'd never shame you."

My love for you shames me enough. "A sweet dream, Shae. Now put it aside, I beg you. It can never be."

"Because of the queen? I'm not afraid of her either."

"I am."

Shae says, uh, why not, uh, kill the queen. Tyrion doesn’t love Cersei anyways. Tyrion says and says, nice idea, but kinslaying is very bad, and Jaime and Tywin hold Cersei dear. Fact-check: uhhhhh. Anyways, Tyrion doesn’t want to face Jaime with a sword anyhow.

Shae starts to badger Tyrion and says that Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon don’t scare him; so why be scared of Jaime or Tywin? But Tyrion is scared of Robb and Stannis. Regardless, his power rest with House Lannister. If he fights his father or brother, he’ll have nothing to go on. Shae says that Tyrion will have her, and she starts kissing him. Tyrion starts sprouting a chubby, but he pushes her off him. He hs a plan.

"I think I might be able to bring you into the castle kitchens."

Shae's face went still. "The kitchens?"

"Yes. If I act through Varys, no one will be the wiser."

She giggled. "M'lord, I'd poison you. Every man who's tasted my cooking has told me what a good whore I am."

Tyrion says that they have enough cooks, butcher and bakers. Shae would pose as a scullion or pot girl. Maybe that’s how Tyrion would like to see her, Shae teases. Not-really-subtext: you wanna do some roleplay, Tyrion? But no. He wants to keep Shae alive. Anyways, she can’t wear silks and velvets in the kitchens. 

"Has m'lord grown tired of me?" She reached a hand under his tunic and found his cock. In two quick strokes she had it hard. "He still wants me." She laughed. "Would you like to fuck your kitchen wench, m'lord? You can dust me with flour and suck gravy off my titties if you . . . "

"Stop it." The way she was acting reminded him of Dancy, who had tried so hard to win her wager. He yanked her hand away to keep her from further mischief. "This is not the time for bed sport, Shae. Your life may be at stake."

Her grin was gone. "If I've displeased m'lord, I never meant it, only . . . couldn't you just give me more guards?"

Unfortunately, that’s not to be. Tyrion can replace the gems and give her new gowns. And though the Red Keep isn’t safe, it’ll be safer than here. Hm. About that. 

Shae’s voice grows flat as she repeats incredulously that Tyrion wants her in the kitchens. Tyrion attempts to reassure her that it’ll only be for a short while. But then Shae says that her father attempted to make her a kitchen wench. She ran off.

"You told me you ran off because your father made you his whore," he reminded her.

"That too. I didn't like scouring his pots no more than I liked his cock in me." She tossed her head. "Why can't you keep me in your tower? Half the lords at court keep bedwarmers."

"I was expressly forbidden to take you to court."

"By your stupid father." Shae pouted. "You're old enough to keep all the whores you want. Does he take you for a beardless boy? What could he do, spank you?"

He slapped her. Not hard, but hard enough. "Damn you," he said. "Damn you. Never mock me. Not you."

Oh boy. Tyrion is not GOOD, guys.

Shae doesn’t speak for a moment, but then she begs Tyrion’s pardon and says she didn’t mean to be “impudent.” Tyrion didn’t mean to slap Shae. He didn’t? Hm. Is he turning into Cersei? No. Tywin. But we’ll get to that. He says what they both did was ill-done. And then Tyrion tells Shae the story of Tysha and why he’s trying to keep her a secret. I won’t repeat the story here, save for one detail that gets added from AGOT, Tyrion VI. Here, Tyrion says that when Tywin ordered Tyrion to go last, his cock betrayed him, and he raped Tysha.

Tyrion asks that they not talk about the manse or the kitchens anymore, but Shae says that her hands will be raw and cracked from the hot water and soap. Will Tyrion still want her hands on him? More than ever. Tyrion’s not sure whether Shae believes him, but she states that she’s his to command. Tyrion takes that as a positive sign and leaves her.

In the stables, he finds Varys, and they ride out in silence. He wonders why he told Shae the story of Tysha and thinks that some things should never be spoken of. He wonders what he wanted from Shae. Forgiveness, maybe? Why did she look at him the way that she did?

Did she hate the thought of scouring pots that much, or was it his confession? How could I tell her that and still think she would love me? part of him said, and another part mocked, saying, Fool of a dwarf, it is only the gold and jewels the whore loves.

His elbow throbs, and he wonders about getting a potion for it, but he doesn’t trust the maesters — especially after what he did to Pycelle. Finally, he tells Varys about bringing Shae into the castle. Varys says he’ll play his role, but there’s some major hiccups. Everyone will ask questions, and she’ll have to lie about her origins and how she ended up in King’s Landing. And she’d also be the fancy of bakers and other kitchen workers. They’d be feeling her up and trying to sleep with her.

"I'd sooner have her fondled than stabbed," said Tyrion.

Varys rode on a few paces and said, "It might be that there is another way. As it happens, the maidservant who attends Lady Tanda's daughter has been filching her jewels. Were I to inform Lady Tanda, she would be forced to dismiss the girl at once. And the daughter would require a new maidservant."

Tyrion thinks this is a decent idea, thinking about how Shae would wear good clothes and even a jewel or two. Besides, she’d probably be safe from Cersei’s visits as Cersei thought Lady Tanda “tedious and hysterical” and Lollys “a bovine lackwit.” Gee, it’s as if our condemnation of the Lannisters from last week was completely warranted.

Meanwhile, Lollys was timid and trusting and would accept Shae. And she’d be close by if Tyrion wanted to go to bone town. But Tyrion thinks that Shae entering the Tower of the Hand would draw suspicious eyes as the tower is watched. Well, Varys might, just might have a solution to this. A hidden door maybe?

"A secret access? To my chambers?" Tyrion was more annoyed than surprised. Why else would Maegor the Cruel have ordered death for all the builders who had worked on his castle, except to preserve such secrets? "Yes, I suppose there would be. Where will I find the door? In my solar? My bedchamber?"

"My friend, you would not force me to reveal all my little secrets, would you?"

"Henceforth think of them as our little secrets, Varys." Tyrion glanced up at the eunuch in his smelly mummer's garb. "Assuming you are on my side . . . "

"Can you doubt it?"

"Why no, I trust you implicitly." A bitter laugh echoed off the shuttered windows. "I trust you like one of my own blood, in truth. Now tell me how Cortnay Penrose died."

Varys reports that Cortnay threw himself from a tower. Tyrion immediately thinks this isn’t true, but Varys replies that no one saw anyone go into his chambers. Well, maybe someone hid in his room, or maybe the guards were lying. Maybe the guards did it. So many possibilities. Varys sarcastically says, sure, kid. Tyrion picks up on this and asks how it was done.

For a long moment Varys said nothing. The only sound was the stately clack of horseshoes on cobbles. Finally the eunuch cleared his throat. "My lord, do you believe in the old powers?"

"Magic, you mean?" Tyrion said impatiently. "Bloodspells, curses, shapeshifting, those sorts of things?" He snorted. "Do you mean to suggest that Ser Cortnay was magicked to his death?"

"Ser Cortnay had challenged Lord Stannis to single combat on the morning he died. I ask you, is this the act of a man lost to despair? Then there is the matter of Lord Renly's mysterious and most fortuitous murder, even as his battle lines were forming up to sweep his brother from the field." The eunuch paused a moment. "My lord, you once asked me how it was that I was cut."

Tyrion remembers and thinks that Varys didn’t want to talk about it. True enough, but maybe now’s the time.

"I was an orphan boy apprenticed to a traveling folly. Our master owned a fat little cog and we sailed up and down the narrow sea performing in all the Free Cities and from time to time in Oldtown and King's Landing.

"One day at Myr, a certain man came to our folly. After the performance, he made an offer for me that my master found too tempting to refuse. I was in terror. I feared the man meant to use me as I had heard men used small boys, but in truth the only part of me he had need of was my manhood. He gave me a potion that made me powerless to move or speak, yet did nothing to dull my senses. With a long hooked blade, he sliced me root and stem, chanting all the while. I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier. The flames turned blue, and I heard a voice answer his call, though I did not understand the words they spoke.

"The mummers had sailed by the time he was done with me. Once I had served his purpose, the man had no further interest in me, so he put me out. When I asked him what I should do now, he answered that he supposed I should die. To spite him, I resolved to live. I begged, I stole, and I sold what parts of my body still remained to me. Soon I was as good a thief as any in Myr, and when I was older I learned that often the contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse.

"Yet I still dream of that night, my lord. Not of the sorcerer, nor his blade, nor even the way my manhood shriveled as it burned. I dream of the voice. The voice from the flames. Was it a god, a demon, some conjurer's trick? I could not tell you, and I know all the tricks. All I can say for a certainty is that he called it, and it answered, and since that day I have hated magic and all those who practice it. If Lord Stannis is one such, I mean to see him dead."

Helluva story, Varys. They ride in silence for a time, and then Tyrion says he’s sorry. Varys sighs and says that Tyrion doesn’t believe him. Maybe, Varys was drugged and in pain. He very obviously dreamed the voice.

"I believe in steel swords, gold coins, and men's wits," said Tyrion. "And I believe there once were dragons. I've seen their skulls, after all."

"Let us hope that is the worst thing you ever see, my lord."

Tyrion agrees and thinks maybe Stannis hired an assassin to kill Cortnay. A very skilled assassin, Varys replies. Maybe a Faceless Man — like the one Tyrion wanted to send after Cersei when he was a kid? Varys ignores this and says that Storm’s End has fallen, and now Stannis is coming. Tyrion asks whether the Dornishmen might invade the Marches? Nope. Any word from Tywin? No word, though the Oakheart and Rowan sigils were north of the Mander. How about Littlefinger. Any word? Nope. But Varys has heard that Randyll Tarly, the snivelling penis has murdered a bunch of Florents while Lord Caswell is shut up in his castle.

Tyrion threw back his head and laughed.

Varys reined up, nonplussed. "My lord?"

"Don't you see the jest, Lord Varys?" Tyrion waved a hand at the shuttered windows, at all the sleeping city. "Storm's End is fallen and Stannis is coming with fire and steel and the gods alone know what dark powers, and the good folk don't have Jaime to protect them, nor Robert nor Renly nor Rhaegar nor their precious Knight of Flowers. Only me, the one they hate." He laughed again. "The dwarf, the evil counselor, the twisted little monkey demon. I'm all that stands between them and chaos."

And that is ACOK, Tyrion X! A month of Catelyn. A month of Davos. And a near-month of Tyrion. When this chapter gets going, I really like it. What did you think, Emmett?

Depth

Tyrion X has a difficult job to do. Tyrion IX paid off a lot of the tensions rising in the background of his earlier chapters in the book, while also setting up the next wave of tensions that won’t really pay off until AFFC. Meanwhile, the true climax of the book, the Battle of Blackwater, is beginning to take shape...but the ramp up to it won’t get into gear until Tyrion’s next chapter. Tyrion X has to act as a bridge between these two major events in King’s Landing, as well as checking in with the more personal character dynamics that will by necessity be sidelined during the battle itself. 

As such, the chapter takes shape as a quiet breath before a storm: dark rooms and dark words, an unexpectedly intimate spill of words from both Tyrion and Varys. It’s not one of my favorite Tyrion chapters like Tyrion IX, but it builds to something powerful and memorable by the end.

The first half of this chapter deals with the internal conspiracies and schemes and threats to King’s Landing and Tyrion while the latter half of this chapter deals extensively with the external threats to King’s Landing and Tyrion. Stannis has taken Storm’s End. Tywin’s location is unknown. The Reachmen are moving but to where and why? It’s easy to think that there is a clean narrative break between the halves of the chapter, but I don’t think so!

I think George does a really good job linking these narratives cleanly together, talking about how Tyrion’s supposed help on the outside (Tywin and Jaime) would crush him if he harmed Cersei — a Cersei who is both his ally and enemy on the inside. Meanwhile, Tyrion’s relationship with Shae is threatened by both the external forces of Stannis Baratheon, but they’d only be threatened if the sellswords Tyrion hired gave up her location: something Tyrion thinks they’d do. The internal and external threats to Tyrion loops into each other, and so it’s fitting that this chapter starts with classic Cersei slapdash to get Tommen out of King’s Landing — just not too far away.

• Lancel and the Tommen gambit
  • As I said, there’s an unexpected intimacy to this chapter after the widescreen action and rhetoric of Tyrion IX. It unfolds in a sept, in an isolated manse, between two people on a quiet road. It’s a palpable change in tone
  • In part, of course, this is just to create a dynamic reading experience, plunging ups and downs to keep us refreshed and excited for what comes next
  • But it also reflects decisions being made by our characters--a curfew is being enforced, Tyrion is taking the intimate pleasures denied him in Tyrion IX, and in this opening scene, the underhanded conspiracies of the elite unfold in whispers
  • It’s just the two Lannister men, a chamber drama that could unfold on stage. Glimmering candles are our only light source; they speak tersely and quickly
  • We didn’t see much of Cersei’s reaction to the riot, and that’s what Lancel has come to tell us about. She intends on squirreling Tommen away to safety
  • Tyrion then reminds us of the multilayered stakes of the situation, personal and political tensions combining. Is it the mob she fears, or me? Both.
  • Tyrion won’t threaten Tommen for another couple of chapters, but it’s clear that Cersei is responding to Myrcella being sent to Dorne as a threat to her power
  • She’ll never let Joffrey leave her side, but the spare has to get away while he can, lest the mob kill him or Tyrion use him to solidify his own power
  • This isn’t pure paranoia on Cersei’s part. As Tyrion himself admits, sending Tommen away is a good idea, because it makes Stannis’ job more difficult
  • Even if he takes King’s Landing and executes Joffrey, Team Lannister will reorganize around King Tommen Baratheon, First of His Name, instead
  • Rosby is one of the few non-Westerlands families to stick with the Lannisters, so they can probably be trusted. Disguising Tommen also displays good sense
  • All Tyrion changes about this plan is taking charge of it himself, asserting his authority over Cersei’s, the Hand over the Regent, the brother over the sister
  • There is definitely political logic to this move. Tommen is not only Tyrion’s nephew, he’s the heir to the Iron Throne, a valuable political resource
  • The very fact that Cersei is hiding Tommen away from Tyrion is what motivates Tyrion to take charge of Tommen, lest he lose influence, fall a step behind her
  • Before the riot occupied Tyrion’s thoughts for a while, he was dwelling on how he and Cersei have dueling conspiracies going with the Kettleblacks
  • Cersei doesn’t view Tyrion as a legitimate authority, and they’ve taken every opportunity to cut each other down in this book. Tyrion has an incentive to act on his power at every turn, otherwise it will not be functionally real vis-a-vis hers
  • So this is not Tyrion acting irrationally and cruelly. However, simply by doing so, he ensures that the race to the bottom between the Lannister siblings continues, and Tyrion alone will not pay the price for that--Alayaya will as well
  • The temporary political alliance the Lannister siblings made for about 15 minutes after the riot is effectively undone by this act.
  • This is where the small plots of the story snowball into full-blown major storylines.
  • From here, Cersei will abduct Alayaya, and then threaten Tyrion with her.
  • And then Tyrion will say that if anything happens to Alayaya, he’ll respond in like-fashion — beatings and rapes.
  • Tyrion promises to hurt Cersei someday down the road.
    • And you’ll know that the debt is paid.
  • This, then, will factor into Tyrion’s trial in King’s Landing when Osney Kettleblack testifies in the trial and repeats Tyrion’s words about hurting Cersei and paying his debts.
  • It’s enjoyable how George does his setup and payoff through small plot points exploding into larger ones.
  • Moreover, Tyrion is happy to concede that violence may be the price for taking over Cersei’s conspiracy, insisting only that Tommen be kept unaware of it
  • Bronn’s response is loaded: are you sure the kid’s a Lannister? That’s quite a bold thing to say to a Lannister, that being a Lannister means loving violence!
  • But it’s not an insult. It’s meant as a compliment, and Tyrion takes it as one. That’s the point being made about how these two men think about violence
  • Tyrion wants to spare Tommen that. The innocent one, the tenderhearted child who might get out of this with his soul intact, unlike we broken men
  • But the family business demands otherwise; Tywin’s precious golden hierarchy is enforced in blood, and all the power and paranoia ultimately turns inward
  • Tyrion cannot possibly imagine Cersei’s response to this move is going to be positive, and it’s not clear what his plan ever was when Tywin comes to town
  • Even as Tyrion takes steps to secure the Lannister regime against Stannis, the leaders of that regime, the members of the crime family, turn on each other
  • How ironic that Stannis is not among the threats motivating Cersei to send Tommen away! It’s only internal threats: the people and brother she despises
  • The Lannister hive is honeycombed with mutual deceit and distrust, and so rots from the inside out. Even after their glorious victory over Stannis, these internal rivalries grow worse and worse, culminating in Tyrion killing Tywin 
  • The fact that Lancel is informing on Cersei to Tyrion speaks to this toxic dynamic, and Bronn trying to hustle his way into possession of Tommen extends it outward
  • As Tyrion thinks, he does not trust Bronn to keep Tommen safe. Everyone’s just trying to grab this tenderhearted little kid for their own political advantage
  • The very moves that keep their family safe tear their family apart. The Lannister family is infected with a terminal case of tragedy, and cannot escape their cage
  • The one flickering moment of renewal is Tyrion lighting a candle to the Warrior in honor of Jaime, a structuring absence so far in this book, frequently discussed but unseen
  • But even then, we have the contrast of Lancel, Cersei’s substitute Jaime so eager to be a warrior and die in battle. Tyrion’s own candle is for the Stranger
  • The outsider, the pariah, the messenger of death. This is how Tyrion has always been made to feel within his family and his world, and is now embracing it
  • This is one of the most interesting moments in Tyrion’s story, because this is Tyrion acting/being religious?
  • Tyrion has met with his spy Lancel in a sept, and Martin is conducting some fun paralleling with Cersei using religion (her visits to the Great Sept of Baelor) as cover for her cloak-and-dagger mission to meet up with the Kettlebalck Brothers.
  • Still, there’s no crowd that Tyrion has to play-act religiosity for.
  • There’s only him alone with the gods. And he lights candles to two of them: the Warrior (for Jaime) and the Stranger (for him).
  • Was it genuine religiosity for Tyrion? Was it ceremonial and performing the ritual from instinct?
  • I think this is Tyrion growing a little desperate.
  • This is a nice turn on Martin’s part that shows how dire circumstances are getting for the Lannisters without coming out and saying that “It’s going to shit for us.”
• Riding to Shae and meeting Symon Silvertongue
  • From there, Tyrion sets out to Chataya’s in order to visit Shae. We get some exposition about the state of play on the streets of King’s Landing post-riot
  • The small council has instituted a curfew in Tyrion’s name, leaving the streets empty as they ride, as if the city has died...but in truth, it’s lying dormant
  • Varys says the people are cursing Tyrion’s name all the more. Tyrion thinks they ought to be thanking him for reducing the amount of corpses per day
  • Tyrion’s not wrong on the facts, but he is once more failing to consider perspectives and situations other than his own, limiting his ability to do justice
  • He has not dealt with the causes of the riot, both the material and symbolic disenfranchisement of the people, the sources of their suffering
  • What led to that pile of bodies in the first place? As long as Tyrion avoids the answer to that question, his peace is skin-deep, ready to fall apart with a nudge
  • Factor in that Tyrion considers himself an exception to the rule, and the anger feels justified.
  • The curfew reads as dusk to dawn “after the evening bells ring”, and there’s no exceptions to the policy except for essential personnel (is all of this sounding familiar? I hate it here)
  • But Tyrion considers getting some essential work (It’s not), and so he’s an exception.
  • When the gold cloaks confront him and Bronn, they quickly apologize and let them pass.
  • But if we recall last week and Jacelyn Bywater’s statement that the gold cloaks drink in the same bars, eat the same food and live in the same neighborhoods as the people of King’s Landing, this is bad!
  • Word will get around that Tyrion is flaunting his own quarantine, and this will mean either: 
  • a) people won’t take the lockdown seriously ala Bill De blasio going to a NYC gym after ordering all gyms closed or 
  • b) Get pissed off again about how the entire system seems like “rules for thee but not for me” when it comes to the Lannisters.
  • Of course, this is objectively what’s occurring in the greater scheme of things. The system is designed to reward the aristocracy and punish the smallfolk.
  • But Tyrion shouldn’t make it so obvious that he’s flouting the law that he instituted and extended?
  • Maybe then the goddamn city won’t erupt into occasional bouts of rage … or long-term periods of religious fanaticism.
  • Tyrion’s political perspective, however, is clouded at the moment by just how horny he is. His frustrated sex drive reaches its boiling point in this scene
  • Precisely because the streets have been made empty, it’s hard for Tyrion to keep in mind the first rule of King’s Landing politics: someone is always watching you
  • He’s sick of caution; he gives in and takes a risk. George writes it as a romantic moment, a sudden exception to the caustic tone of these Tyrion chapters
  • Tyrion is clattering down moonlit streets, flying to his love! In his head, he’s become a hero out of the stories and songs, something always denied him
  • That’s how he arrives at Shae’s manse, and I love how George manages this transition. Tyrion arrives like a character in the songs...to hear singing from within
  • Suddenly, the tone shifts again, back to cynicism. Tyrion wanted to be in charge of this moment; he wanted to be writing his own story as the protagonist
  • Now he finds someone else in charge of the narrative, literally singing the song; it’s another man keeping Shae company, his love in the moonlight
  • Tyrion only believes in romance, the songs and stories, as long as he can be in control of the narrative, because as soon as he’s not, you get Tysha’s fate
  • His fear of losing what little love he has in his life leads Tyrion to grasp it too tightly, to prowl the borders of his happiness too violently, to the ruin of all
  • As he says, he’s never liked singers, and this one least of all, sight unseen. It’s a very meta moment--Tyrion wouldn’t like George as much as George likes him!
  • So Tyrion walks in, and the song breaks off; the romantic structure of narrative has faded, and we’re left with the bare dynamics of paranoid power
  • Shae is framed as pure poise and beauty, dressed in purple silk with a cloth-of-silver belt. Tyrion loves the “quick, unthinking” way she smiles at him
  • Why does he put it like that? Because if she’s smiling quickly, without thinking, then it’s not a performance, feigned love, a show put on to get his money
  • That money, the core of the transactional relationship at work here, is represented by the silk and the silver. Tyrion wants, needs the smile to be real
  • He needs to believe that their romance is genuine, like something out of the songs. But the presence of the actual singer makes that fiction impossible to sustain. It forces Tyrion to look behind the curtain, recognize the constructed performed nature of his relationship with Shae, and he cannot stand that
  • He tells Symon that Symon should have done a better job of playing along. You should have pretended not to recognize me as Tyrion Lannister, Hand of the King
  • After all, isn’t that why he keeps Shae around? To have a place where he can forget about his last name, about all the corruptions that go with power?
  • As he says: he wants the “sweet simplicity” of sex, the sensation that here at last he is “welcome, wanted,” that the world outside the manse can melt away
  • Shae smells clean to him, Tyrion thinks as he buries his face between her breasts, unlike this “reeking sty” of a city. She is his distraction, his dreamworld
  • Symon threatens that pocket universe with his presence; Tyrion threatens him to keep it safe. I wouldn’t have believed you if you pretended not to know me...but you should have tried. Doesn’t that also define his relationship with Shae?
  • Her love is not genuine, and at some level Tyrion knows it, but she pretends very well--her smile comes quickly to her face, as if unthinking. She does her job well!
  • By contrast, Symon’s silver tongue turns to lead in the face of Tyrion’s threat. Suddenly, the song doesn’t work too well--reflecting how Tyrion’s briefly romantic mindset has crashed on the iron realities of power at the sight of Symon
  • Symon isn’t a favorite character of mine. His dialogue and Tyrion’s dialogue with him are blunt and obvious; it’s spelled out too clearly what’s happening here. Regardless, Symon is structurally useful within Tyrion’s story, pricking his pride
  • Tyrion threatens Symon’s life to both Symon’s face and to Shae after they go upstairs. When Shae protests, Tyrion literally silences her with a kiss
  • His self-contained romantic story with her is no more free of the structures of power than his equally self-contained romantic story with Tysha
  • After having sex, Tyrion goes downstairs to the yard. Here is an oasis of the quiet natural world, life murmuring sleepily to itself, so different from the dust and deprivation of the streets. This is an oasis, but it is a fragile one
  • Tyrion knows this peace cannot last, but he will do anything to make it last as long as he can, and bloodshed flows from that like an open wound
  • I agree RE: Symon Silvertongue that the dynamic between him and Tyrion is too on the nose and lacking subtlety.
  • Of interest for me here though is how we’re again seeing Tyrion’s lack of concern for someone of a different class than him.
  • He dismisses him to leave, meaning that he potentially damns Symon if the singer is caught by the gold cloaks trying to get home.
  • Symon doesn’t have the fierce sellsword Bronn with him. He doesn’t bear a noble last name.
  • He’s a singer, and recalling last week Tyrion’s order about the lockdown: Any man found on the streets after the last peal of the evenfall bell will be killed.
  • Tyrion may be hoping that Symon meets up with a gold cloak on the way home.
  • Regardless, the dynamic of implied violence from Tyrion to Symon works to set the tone of every encounter between the two: implied violence.
  • That implied violence is set against Tyrion’s sexual inadequacy.
  • You’re absolutely right that he seeks genuine love from Shae. He’s always searching for the same looks he received from Tysha before Tywin found them.
  • But what happens if there’s a sexual competitor in the mix?
  • Notice how Tyrion zeroes in on Symon’s physical defects as soon as he sees him: “balding and pot-bellied.”
  • Tyrion picks apart Symon’s physical inadequacies, because he’s projecting his own self-loathing (yet again) on something external.
  • It’s a thought that makes him feel better to think that Shae wouldn’t screw some fat, balding bro, and even if he plays in a band.
  • This is quite a juvenile way of viewing sexuality, and it speaks to how broken Tyrion was by what happened to Tysha.
  • In the past, he’s only found love with sex workers, “knowing” that he’s unable to be loved.
  • But now with Shae, he’s made her his paramour, his new Tysha, and Symon threatens to steal her away.
  • And if the Tysha subtext hasn’t been emphasized enough, when Tyrion sees Shae after their sexing, she’s wearing a gown that reminds him of a verse from “Seasons of Our Love”: the song that Tysha sang to him.
• Varys’ arrival and Tyrion v. Shae
  • The return of the “reeking sty” world of the city to claim Tyrion is signaled by--what else?--a bad smell that breaks Tyrion’s reverie in the garden
  • Shae stands behind him, and Tyrion directly compares her to a woman out of the songs, an ideal of humanity and femininity of sort Symon likes to sing about
  • This is the life Tyrion wants to live...and she’s standing next to a herald of death, Varys disguised as a begging brother, stinking of the lethal news he brings
  • The two halves of Tyrion’s life, the two forces feeding on each other in the wider world. Yet these expressions of core elements are themselves masks to be worn
  • Like Tommen at Rosby, Varys comes in disguise, to avoid giving away Shae--precisely the caution Tyrion abandoned, risking Shae’s life in the process
  • Varys doesn’t succumb to eros like Tyrion, because he is thanatos--the god of love v. the god of death, an important dynamic in Tyrion’s story
  • Varys is also pretending at poverty, cloaking himself in the image of humility and mortality, by coming here thusly. It fools Tyrion, but it doesn’t fool Shae
  • This is probably my favorite Shae moment in the story, because she’s upending both our expectations and those of the characters, offering a distinct insight
  • Moreover, she’s deepening the themes and issues at play in this chapter. These songs, these performances, these ruses--she sees through them. She has to
  • In order to survive as a sex worker, Shae has to be able to see through both literal and figurative disguises. She has to be able to get a sense of her clients
  • If she doesn’t, she will die for it, because the combination of financial motive, physical intimacy, and societal condemnation of her job leave her vulnerable
  • The same dynamic was at work when Stannis asked for Davos’ advice, and only Davos’, because “a smuggler must be a fair judge of men.” The consequences are simply more real for someone like Shae. She can’t afford to be romantic like Tyrion, saying “bugger it” to the consequences and riding romantically to his love
  • Shae has her own naive moments and blind spots, and the cruel irony of this moment on reread is that while Shae sees Varys clearly, she misreads Tyrion, and dies for it
  • But in the moment, she disarms Varys himself, the Spider suddenly looking like a clown. He overcompensated with this disguise; a pawn saw through a player
  • Of course, this moment of levity quickly fades. As Tyrion recognizes before he even hears the news, there’s no good reason for Varys to come visiting
  • Tyrion jokes that Varys should come disguised in black feathers instead, and there is definitely something to the image of Varys as not only a raven but a feasting crow. It reminds me of Gandalf, who often came disguised as a beggar, and was associated with the bad news he came to ward off--characters who dislike him call him a Stormcrow (sounds familiar…)
  • Of course, Varys’ relationship to power--especially the magical kind--is very different, as we’ll get into at length later in the episode. Onto his bad news: Cortnay Penrose is dead, and Storm’s End has surrendered to Stannis
  • It’s the payoff to the mindblowing ending of Davos II, the confirmation that the shadowbaby did its job. We won’t check in with Davos again until the Blackwater
  • For Tyrion, however, pure dismay drives all other thoughts from his mind. As in Tyrion VIII, his political mind skips past the question of who and how (for the moment) and zeroes in on why: Stannis is now free to march on the capital
  • When Shae arrives with the wine Tyrion requested to deal with Varys’ bad news, Tyrion takes one drink and throws the flagon against the wall to deal with his fury
  • I understand his panic, of course--the odds of his faction surviving the war just got a whole lot worse. As he thinks to himself, he was counting on Storm’s End pinning Stannis in place until his father had time to deal with Robb Stark
  • Now it appears to Tyrion that Tywin and his army will be trapped in the west, leaving Tyrion on his own to hold King’s Landing against Stannis
  • It’s a good visual to have Tyrion throwing the wine against the wall and letting the fingers come down black.
  • It reminds us of what Davos saw under the walls of Storm’s End and the “black fingers coiling around Melisandre’s thighs.”
  • There’s also a nice bit of literary foreshadowing for the Blackwater and the wine/blood similarity.
  • Wine and blood are usually red, but here, in the dark, they both appear dark.
  • And the wine/blood will flow against the walls of King’s Landing during the battle. 
  • As rereaders, we know that it will take a precise domino effect to bring Tywin (and his new allies, the Tyrells) to the city just in time to defeat Stannis
  • Tyrion has no such foresight, and while he does have some tricks in his back pocket to hold out against Stannis, he has reason to think they are doomed
  • Tyrion’s violent anger in response to this situation, however, is still revealing about his character. George makes sure to note that he has put Shae in danger; she has to duck away from the glass shards. It’s a microcosm of their relationship
  • She brought him the wine, fulfilling her part of the deal they worked out back in book one. In response, Tyrion puts her in danger to work out his urges
  • He has repeatedly put Shae in danger simply by bringing her with him to the capital and keeping her there as things get worse. She consents for financial reasons, to move up the ladder, but she also doesn’t fully know the danger
  • Tyrion immediately regrets throwing away the wine, as he regrets the slap. But his instincts are what they are, inherited from his society and his family
  • He sends Varys to await him in the stables, and turns to talk to Shae about that danger. It’s not that Tyrion is unaware of it, but that he can’t bear to face the truth
  • The truth is that the ultimate source of danger to Shae is not the mob, but Tyrion and his family. They are the powerful hemming in the powerless at every turn
  • Tyrion and Shae’s conversation about how to keep her safe hinges on class, the yawning power gap between them, as well as the fragility of her rise in station relative to the people on the streets
  • She has sellswords and walls to keep her safe, she says. The material signifiers of class power, luxuries unaffordable to most in the city
  • But as Tyrion says, the sellswords might decide there’s more security to be had in robbing Shae than protecting her. Lannister power looks fragile; Jacelyn Bywater made no promise as to how long they can hold the city
  • Power resides where people believe it resides; what happens when they stop believing it resides with Tyrion and his family? They won’t protect Shae
  • As for the walls, they might serve to reassure Shae as the walls of the Red Keep reassured Tyrion in his previous chapter, but they won’t stop a determined opponent. Tyrion tries to scare Shae with stories of what the mob did to his own party, as well as a goldsmith who had a manse just like hers, who died--as Tyrion puts it--for the crime of having a full larder
  • It’s so telling that this is how Tyrion thinks about it. Like many responses to modern American protests, he thinks about the structure of property as the state of nature, rather than a system created and maintained with violence
  • Where does the gold come from that this man smithed? Who buys it? The people who work in his employ--how much of the fruits of their labor do they actually get to see? Do they get a full larder? No, they do not
  • This is not to valorize violence, nor to suggest that the goldsmith suffered any less as he died for his wealth. Rather, this is to say that these riots are an inevitable response to abuses of power and wealth in King’s Landing
  • To say otherwise is to suggest that the impoverished should have simply gone on accepting their lot until some better system emerged, on its own, peacefully, at some vague undetermined point in the future
  • That might seem preferable to the goldsmith, but it is not preferable to the people who killed him for his full larder. It is not the full larder itself that is a crime, but everything it represents, everything denied to the city’s people
  • Like Lollys Stokeworth, the goldsmith is an imperfect avatar for the people’s suffering, and so it’s hard to frame this as just. But there is no clear available alternative that the rioters are simply ignoring out of spite
  • To double down on the point, the Red Keep was created by blood and does not offer Shae protection anyhow.
  • The sellswords at the manse are untrustworthy as their loyalty was paid with Tyrion’s gold.
  • This is so much different from the people who work in the Red Keep and work as Lannister retainers.
  • And that’s to say nothing about Tyrion and his willingness to use violence against Shae as we’ll get to in a moment.
  • Tyrion himself conceded the righteousness of the riot as a response to the High Septon’s conduct in particular, so it’s clear that he is simply using these stories as scare tactics to keep Shae in line, depending on him
  • But Shae does not buy into this narrative, because unlike Tyrion, she was raised in a similarly impoverished state as these smallfolk
  • She knows that if Tyrion really wants to bring her into the Red Keep and keep her safe from the mob, all he’d have to do is make her his lady
  • That is why I’m in danger--not because I belong to you, but because I don’t. You have kept me in this perilous in-between state on purpose
  • If this bubble universe we’ve created where we pretend we’re at peace and I’m your lady isn’t safe anymore, then you need to pop the bubble!
  • Tyrion really ought to send Shae away for her own safety, but doesn’t want to lose her, and she doesn’t want to lose his money
  • If he’s not going to do that, the second-best move is to bring her to court openly and keep her safe that way. But he won’t do that, because Tywin forbade him to bring her to court. That’s the real problem here, not his scare tactics about the mob. Tyrion cannot rise against his family
  • Against Robb, against Stannis, against his opponents in the war as Joffrey’s Hand of the King, Tyrion is powerful. Against his family, he has nothing, so he has to try and bring Shae in through the kitchens instead
  • This is a spot where I think Tyrion is acting very Ned Stark-like in not taking full advantage of the office of Hand of the King.
  • Tywin is a long ways away, fighting in the Riverlands. He is acting in Tywin’s stead, yes, but he’s not Tywin’s agent insofar as he’s not taking explicit direction from Tywin.
  • Tywin told Tyrion “not to bring that whore to court”. Okay, fine. Tyrion can make Shae his paramour, or even his betrothed and eventually his wife.
  • He can proclaim it loudly, issue an official royal proclamation declaring Shae noble and grant her lands and titles.
  • This is a very different circumstance than what happened with Tysha. Tyrion has real, tangible power.
  • But he refuses to wield it in defiance of his father. On one level, he knows that Tywin and Jaime hold the allegiance of the swords that support House Lannister.
  • And when they return, Tyrion does not want to face them — especially if he’s crossed them.
  • That’s Ned Stark-like insofar as when Robert was away, Ned was only willing to go so far in using his office without Robert’s consent.
  • It ended up being part of about three hundred reasons why Ned Stark failed and was killed.
  • For Tyrion, he’s losing at the ability to craft a narrative out of fear, and I sympathize.
  • Tyrion was abused by his own father and scarred by what happened with Tysha. So, he tries to keep Shae secret, promising that he’ll get her a manse again once Stannis is defeated.
  • How? How would this possibly work — especially with Tywin coming back.
  • Even if Tywin Lannister hadn’t arrived at the Blackwater, he would return to King’s Landing to assume his tenure as Hand of the King.
  • How would Tyrion get away with putting Shae up in a manse after Tywin returned? The whole plan is not a good one on Tyrion’s part, and I think Shae gets that at an intrinsic level.
  • Shae’s response to this plan is complicated; again, I think she gets her most effective characterization here. Keep in mind that Shae must constantly juggle her real thoughts with the face she wears for Tyrion
  • Both come out in this scene, on and off, back and forth, as Shae tries to suss out how genuine Tyrion is being and whether this is her best move
  • As she said earlier: a sex worker has to be able to see the man, not the garb. She has to see past figurative masks even as she wears them
  • At first, Shae’s face goes still. This is her instinctive reaction as she tries to figure out whether this is something she wants, and also figure out how to convey the sexy girlfriend persona to Tyrion while she solves the former
  • To do so, she giggles and tries to dodge the plan via self-deprecation, saying that she’s a terrible cook compared to her skills at sex
  • Tyrion then tells her that she’d be entering the kitchens at the bottom of the social pyramid: as a scullion, “a pot girl in scratchy brown roughspun”
  • Shae does not like this plan one bit, because the whole reason she entered Tyrion’s service is to live in the lap of luxury relative to her old life
  • She has that with her manse, as far as she’s concerned. Yet she doesn’t want to outright defy Tyrion if she doesn’t have to, because said life in the lap of luxury depends on Tyrion approving of her, enjoying her company
  • So instead, she filters her objections to his plan through appeals to Tyrion’s sexuality. Do you really want to see me in such rough clothing?
  • Tyrion responds that he wants to see Shae alive, and she can’t scour pots and pans in rich clothing. On the one hand, he’s demonstrating his good intentions. On the other, he’s unthinkingly exposing the power gap at work
  • Shae is Tyrion’s servant, one he treats like a lady. If she has to go work in the kitchens, they can’t pretend she’s not his servant
  • Shae keeps her strategy going by framing that new more severe class dynamic as a kink. Oooh, daddy, you want me to play peasant girl??
  • Tyrion tells her to stop, not because she’s failing to arouse him, but precisely because she is succeeding. He doesn’t want to have sex right now, and she’s reminding him of Dancy, who wanted to win her wager
  • Why is that uncomfortable for Tyrion? Because thinking about Dancy makes him think about how Shae is only arousing him for money
  • It’s not genuine. Which is fine! I’m not criticizing Shae, she’s doing what she has to in order to survive, to keep her hustle going as long as possible
  • Tyrion is the one who can’t deal with the two-faced nature of their relationship, and so he yanks her hand away from his crotch
  • Shae’s grin fades, and she asks that if Tyrion is really concerned about her safety, if he’s not just playing a game, can’t she have more guards?
  • Tyrion says that he doesn’t care about the jewels, about the fine silk clothes. Here’s the thing, though: she does. It’s what she’s here for
  • Shae doesn’t love Tyrion, and we can presume his cock isn’t any more special than Theon’s. She is in this for the money. If Tyrion takes away the trappings of wealth and luxury, why should she stick around?
  • As such, her voice is flat in response. You want me in the kitchen? Scouring pots? That’s why I ran away from my father!
  • Tyrion notes that she had told him she ran away from her father because he had begun raping her. She says it was both, rape and forced labor
  • They go hand in hand. Economic exploitation and sexual exploitation always reinforce one another. As Varys tells Tyrion, Shae would be powerless to stop endless sexual harassment in the kitchens
  • To be clear, rich women like Cersei also suffer rape; Lollys Stokeworth just suffered a gangrape. But what George is getting at with Shae’s backstory is that for many poor women, their only currency is their body
  • Shae’s father enslaved her, exploiting her labor in both the kitchen and the bedroom. Tyrion is handsomely rewarding Shae for her services; she’s an entrepreneur with more economic agency. But he’s still in charge here
  • Yet while Tyrion is in charge with Shae, in charge with the men under his command, he is not in charge with his family, which is why he must keep Shae’s presence a secret. Shae points that out...and Tyrion loses his shit
  • Tyrion slaps her because he cannot stand being mocked. He cannot stand being reminded of his liminal position, half in power and half not, Hand of the King yet also runt of the pack, hated by the mob and his family alike
  • When Shae mocks him, he hears behind her words the mockery of his father, his sister, an entire world that has rejected him for his stature
  • He lashes out, not at her exactly, but at the terror of recognition. “Never mock me. Not you.” I keep you around in order to be the one person who never mocks me, because everyone else does, even though I’m in power
  • I keep this oasis, the trees, the crickets, your available body, as an exception to the rule. A place (as he says) where I am welcome, wanted
  • How dare you take that exception away from me? I understand, emotionally, where Tyrion is coming from. He’s not a sadist like Joffrey
  • But this slap is still an unacceptable act of violence against a woman who has done nothing to Tyrion except fail to live up to his unrealistic image
  • Tyrion believes that the money he has, the surname he bears immunizes him from his real status towards Shae.
  • Tyrion is a John, a wealthy one, yes, but his status to Shae is as her patron.
  • And Tyrion recognizes this back in AGOT, Tyrion VIII when he presents the bargain to Shae:
    • "I am a Lannister. Gold I have in plenty, and you'll find me generous … but I'll want more from you than what you've got between your legs, though I'll want that too. You'll share my tent, pour my wine, laugh at my jests, rub the ache from my legs after each day's ride … and whether I keep you a day or a year, for so long as we are together you will take no other men into your bed."
  • Shae accepts back then, and she’s kept her side of the bargain. 
  • Tyrion has not. He is thinking internally of Shae as his “love”, and it’s clear in this chapter that Shae is treating Tyrion within the boundaries that he set.
  • She laughs at his jests, jests back and tries to be the sexy girlfriend.
  • Here’s something crucial too: I think Shae was honest with Tyrion about what she thought about him sniveling to his sister and father, because at most times, Tyrion would rather have honesty from Shae.
  • Tyrion desires authenticity and genuine affection from Shae. Emotional intimacy, even. And that kind of intimacy is found in honesty.
  • The problem is that Shae was being too honest. Or perhaps it’s more true to say that Tyrion’s subconscious feeling of how everyone sees him are being vocalized.
  • Last week, it was Jacelyn Bywater giving Tyrion the cold, clean water of truth.
  • But Tyrion couldn’t strike Jacelyn for voicing truth, despite Jacelyn being a man in Tyrion’s direct employ.
  • Shae is also in Tyrion’s direct employ, but she’s a woman, smaller than the guy who lost his arm fighting in the Greyjoy Rebellion.
  • Shae’s vulnerability and status as sex worker and woman allows Tyrion’s hand to fly, and this gets at something about Tyrion worth bearing a repeat.
  • Tyrion has a strong streak of Lannister misogyny running through him. It rears its head every now and then in the first two books (like here). It roars in Storm, Dance and Winds.
  • Silence reigns. That cricket from earlier chirps; it’s the classic cricket joke, as well as a reminder that this peaceful oasis has been spoiled
  • It wasn’t the mob who spoiled it, nor Stannis. It was Tyrion. Shae apologizes for being “impudent,” but her voice is wooden. It is now clearly a performance; Tyrion cannot pretend that they are truly in love
  • Tyrion thinks to himself that he is turning into Cersei. Indeed, Cersei is a few steps farther down the same stairway to hell: she has given up on love
  • He says that this conversation was ill done on both of their parts...but how has Shae done wrong? She doesn’t know about Tyrion’s backstory
  • Tyrion seems to realize that all at once. Unlike in the show, Tyrion didn’t reveal the Tysha story to Shae as well as Bronn. He does so now
  • As Tyrion thinks, these are words he never meant to speak, but here they come, like mummers from a hollow horse. Interesting Trojan Horse reference! What’s the implication there?
  • I think George is suggesting that for Tyrion, this confession is a trojan horse for the destruction of his relationship with Shae. He is breaking the rules, shattering the careful in-between intimacy that makes this work
  • Shae has to pretend to be in love with him, and Tyrion has to pretend that he’s not using that feigned love to fill the hole Tysha left behind
  • But now Tyrion has gone too far, assumed too much of the power always lurking in the corners of their relationship, and so she stops feigning love
  • In order to win her back, Tyrion feels the need to be honest, to explain why he lost his temper, and why he believes he cannot defy Tywin
  • The consequences of me defying my family will not be borne by me, a mere slap on the wrist from one noble to another
  • The consequences will be borne by you: the powerless person caught in the middle, the whipping boy suffering so the powerful don’t have to
  • I know this, because it happened before, with another sex worker with whom I grew close enough to call it love. It was all taken away
  • Of course, Tyrion leaves out a crucial part of the story, reserving it for his thoughts. Tywin did not only have his guards rape Tysha--he had Tyrion take part. And Tyrion could have refused, but his cock betrayed him
  • He had sex with Tysha one last time--lacking consent, lacking love, lacking the escape from a hateful world that had defined their relationship
  • He joined the rapists, his desire stronger than his fear, and so knuckled under to Tywin’s worldview. Tywin believes that there could not have been any genuine love between his son and a lowborn woman
  • That threatens his entire worldview, so he must reinforce it violently. He has Tyrion take part in order to cement that worldview in Tyrion’s head
  • Tyrion knows he is not an exception to the rule. When push came to shove, he chose the side of the monsters in order to slake his lust
  • But he does not tell Shae that, because it gives away the truth. Not only can Tyrion not protect her from his family, he will join in the violence
  • Tyrion holds that back, because while he wants to impress the danger on Shae, he still wants her to feign affection for him
  • Does it work? Partially. Seemingly. On the surface, which is ultimately all Tyrion (and the reader) has access to, because Shae is not a POV
  • Shae’s eyes have gone wide, but Tyrion cannot tell what lies beyond them. He desperately wants to know the truth, he desperately wants intimacy and togetherness, but he also furiously rejects that truth
  • She asks the question that must be burning inside her: will you still want me when my hands are red and cracked from washing pots all day long?
  • The intimate dynamics of love and lust cannot be made separate from the power dynamics of society at large. Shae only looks so perfect to Tyrion because he has made it so that she doesn’t have to work for anyone else
  • In order to keep her safe, he has decided that she must be made to work. Will he still want her if she looks as poor as she is, if he can’t pretend she’s noble-born like him? If we reveal power nakedly for what it is?
  • Tyrion says he’ll love her more than ever, because she will have been so brave. It’s an attempt to reach out to her on a personal, equal level
  • But as she says, she is his to command. That’s what it ultimately comes down to between them: power. Tyrion has not solved it, and can only leave
  • As he leaves, Tyrion is suddenly terrified by what he has done, the reservoir of intimacy he has cracked open and cannot now hide again
  • Some secrets a man should take to his grave, he thinks. But he couldn’t bear Shae to hate him. Instead, he’s left with ambiguity
  • Did I want her forgiveness? Did she give it to me? Can she redeem me for Tysha? Or did that story make me irredeemable in her eyes?
  • I told her that story so that she could still love me after I hit her. But did that story make it impossible for her to love me, exposing my true face?
  • This is a spot where I, again, have to express my disappointment with how the show handled Tyrion’s storyline.
  • By and large, most fans (including me) are pleased with most of what occurs with Tyrion in the early seasons of the show.
  • But there are moments in the early seasons where Tyrion gets some airbrushing of his worst deeds.
  • As you were saying, they moved the timeline of Tyrion telling Shae about Tysha to Season 1
  • And that meant that this scene where Tyrion slaps Shae is entirely absent in Season 2. 
  • Game of Thrones cut the sequence of events to get Shae from the manse into the Red Keep gets condensed with most of the plotting left on the cutting floor.
  • Whether that’s due to time constraints or narrative reasons is beside the point. This scene isn’t in the show, and the show suffers as a result.
  • When I talk about the show airbrushing some of Tyrion’s worst misdeeds out, it’s not that I want to see Tyrion slapping Shae or later, threatening to have Tommen raped.
  • It’s that these moments build towards major plot payoffs
  • But they also build towards major character and thematic payoffs for Tyrion. 
  • In the show, Shae truly loves Tyrion back as is explicitly revealed in Season 4.
  • The John to sex worker relationship between Tyrion and Shae is absent.
  • So, too, the dynamic George talked about in 2015:
    • The Shae in the books is a manipulative camp-follower prostitute who doesn’t give a s–t about Tyrion any more than she would any other john, but she’s very compliant, like a little teenage sex kitten, feeding all his fantasies; she’s really just in it for the money and the status. She’s everything lord Tywin thought Tyrion’s first wife was that she actually wasn’t. So there are all layers of complexity going on here. They’re the same character, but they’re also very different characters, and I think that’s going to lead to very different resonances playing out in the TV show than in the books. 
  • Interestingly, George says he prefers the show version of Shae than the book version, and he couches a lot of that in the performance of Sibel Kekilli. 
  • So, voice of god on that one, but I disagree in that Shae works at Tyrion’s darkness and shows us what’s beneath the surface of our japing, fun-loving dwarf.
  • Where Tyrion comes down is that Shae does not love him at all, but only loves his money. He’s a fool of a dwarf if he thinks otherwise
  • This is the truth at last, but Tyrion frames it in such a way that he cannot take any peace from it. Rather than thinking “this is a transactional relationship, so I should stop projecting onto it,” he cannot help but project his lost love with Tysha all over Shae. This is how I get that love back
  • That way leads to doom for so many reasons. Shae isn’t Tysha and can’t be; the pretense of love between them is just that, a pretense; Tyrion’s family will not leave this relationship alone, as he knows very well
  • As he leaves, Tyrion thinks that maybe he should see a maester for his elbow pain...but he doesn’t trust maesters after Pycelle
  • It’s the same corrosive lack of trust along power lines that infects his relationship with Shae, and in both cases, they’re left only with pain
• Tyrion v. Varys
  • This chapter comes down to Tyrion and Varys, two lifelong mummers trying to work their way to the truth about what’s happening in Westeros
  • They start by talking about Shae. As Varys points out, Tyrion is being as naive as he thought Shae was being earlier. You are not taking into account the nature of power, the endless performance required of us all
  • The odds of Shae being caught in a lie dramatically increase in such a context. She’s good at acting for her clients, but this is a different game
  • Varys also impresses upon Tyrion, in lavish detail, the likelihood that Shae would come into sexual contact--albeit unwanted--with other men 
  • Varys is a eunuch, as this chapter is about to remind us at great length, and it’s interesting how he dwells on Tyrion’s potential sexual jealousy
  • Varys is testing Tyrion with these details to see if he can arouse Tyrion’s rage (so to speak). He wants to see if Tyrion can really play this role
  • Tyrion passes that test by saying he’d rather she be fondled than stabbed. Again, even as Tyrion takes steps to try and ensure Shae’s safety, he accidentally ends up exposing the rot inherent in their power dynamic
  • Whether she wants to tell all these lies and put up with this fondling is entirely immaterial to Tyrion. He’s keeping her safe like a possession
  • Varys isn’t exactly an empathetic man, but his vision is less clouded on this count than Tyrion’s, and so he comes up with a different plan
  • Let’s get Lollys’ maid fired and Shae hired in her place! This plan is indicative of both Varys’ spy network and the power structures at play
  • Varys has a reservoir of intelligence from which to draw that outstrips Tyrion, let alone the common folk. He has something on everyone, strands of blackmail along his spider web that tremble at his lightest touch
  • We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg here; one wonders how high up you’d have to go to find someone Varys can’t have replaced 
  • After all, he had Jacelyn Bywater installed. Varys can certainly be confounded by other planners (just look at Ned’s execution), but his network allows him to reshape their plans at will when they need him
  • In this case, his little birds have made him aware of theft being committed by Lollys’ maid, who no doubt thought she was alone in the room
  • Varys sat on this information until he could find a use for it. If he never did, she’d probably have gotten away with it. It’s so telling that no one has noticed yet--because these people have so many jewels to begin with!
  • Tying this back to Varys not informing Tyrion about Cersei’s plot to get Tommen out of King’s Landing and the greater conspiracy at work
  • As with the riot, Varys treats the wants and needs of the smallfolk as pawns in the game to be redirected at his will, never actually addressed
  • That’s not to compare stealing jewelry to demanding bread; one of these is clearly more urgent than the other. But at every turn, we’re seeing a struggle over access to wealth, the great signifier of power
  • Shae wants to hold onto her jewels and gowns; Tyrion likes Varys’ plan because it will allow her to do so, which life in the kitchens would not
  • This other woman will lose her job not because of her crime, but because her spot was needed by a more well-connected woman; the crime is an excuse, and that’s something to keep in mind when discussing crime IRL. Already there is a cost mounting to Tyrion’s need to keep Shae with him
  • Of course, this access to power has to be tempered with distance from power if the plan is to work, reflecting how Tyrion, Shae, and their relationship are all endangered by having one foot in and out of the tent
  • Shae would be closer to power in the form of money and nice things as Lollys’ maid, but also far away from it in terms of Cersei’s attention
  • Still, Tyrion is concerned that Cersei (always watching, like Varys, like Shae herself) will notice if Lollys’ maid starts paying calls on him
  • Varys again offers the use of his intelligence network by bringing Shae into the Tower of the Hand via a secret tunnel
  • Tyrion is more annoyed than surprised by this; he’s not ignorant of the nature of power, but he struggles to reconcile it with his personal life
  • Why else, as he says, would Maegor have everyone who worked on the castle executed, if not to hide such tunnels? The Red Keep is red with their blood; the very foundations of this place scream silently of the hideous abuses of power that also define life under the current regime
  • Varys uses the resulting secrecy of those tunnels as the foundation of his own power. The Targaryen regime has fallen, so they belong to him
  • It’s a metaphor for the secrets of the powerful, the lives and histories swept under the surface, used here only for Tyrion’s sexual escapades
  • Varys is willing to lend his power for such a surface, but never part with it. Tyrion wonders, yet again, if Varys is truly on his side…
  • ...and then he realizes, yet again, that it doesn’t matter. He needs Varys to protect himself and his family from Stannis, and as this chapter is about to elaborate, Varys needs Tyrion for the same reason
  • Moreover, as Tyrion admits, it’s not like he can trust his own family. Why would he be wounded by Varys’ own untrustworthiness? He says the same about Bronn: he was always a rogue, that’s what I liked about him
  • Tyrion is so isolated from the rest of humanity and so accustomed to the taste of his own alienation that even as he longs for something more nourishing, more genuine, more real, he can’t really conceive of it
  • Tyrion feels more alone than ever. His bitter laugh echoes off shuttered windows; a locked-down city and a lonely heart, both about to be under siege
  • And so the conversation turns to Varys’ news, the growing stormclouds on the southern horizon. How is it that Cortnay Penrose came to die?
  • According to Varys’ reports, he threw himself from a tower. This comes as a surprise to the reader, who is otherwise better informed than Varys
  • That’s not how the first shadow killed Renly--it slit his throat. I think George changes this up so the deaths resonate differently
  • Renly’s death felt like a sacrifice: a throat slit on an altar to R’hllor. Cortnay Penrose’s death feels more mundane, but also symbolic of The Fall
  • Cortnay Penrose wasn’t exactly a knight of summer, but he followed the same king they did, and his weathered ideals have now given way
  • Bran went through the most obvious and iconic incarnation of The Fall in ASOIAF, and I think George might be calling back to that here
  • The practical effect of killing Cortnay this way is that, unlike with Renly, the cover story can now be that Cortnay killed himself out of despair
  • No one would ever have bought that story with Renly...yet Tyrion doesn’t buy it with Cortnay, as Cortnay didn’t buy the cover story with Renly
  • Tyrion offers practical rejoinders to this cover story: the killer hid, they climbed down a rope, or it was the guards themselves (as with the cover story about Renly). There is plausible deniability, as Stannis and Mel know
  • Varys pretends to agree. Tyrion thinks that Varys is being smug, the superior Spider flaunting his knowledge like armor over everyone else
  • How Varys learns details: Varys spies in Renly’s camp join with Stannis
  • But that, it turns out, is the last hurrah of Varys’ mask. He entered this chapter disguised, yet as it goes on, something like the true self wins out
  • He thinks something else happened at Storm’s End, and it disquiets him. So he asks the question he has been dreading: do you believe in magic?
  • As I’ve been saying ad nauseam, the overall structure of ACOK is that of political and magical expansions that intertwine and infect each other
  • That’s how the book starts: Cressen staring down the red eye in the sky, trying and failing to reassure himself with his hard-earned secular wisdom
  • That’s how the book ends: Bran walking away from Winterfell with his third eye open, looking back to perceive its enduring strength in both worlds
  • In between, we see countless examples of this structure, from Arya relying on a Faceless Man to navigate the Lannister occupation of Harrenhal to the multiple sorcerous elements hovering around the edges of LC Mormont’s military expedition. And of course, we saw it at Storm’s End
  • The clash of kings, the showdown between the crowned stags, was resolved by something that Varys’ political intelligence can’t explain
  • Here, at the heart of political power, in the wake of a thoroughly secular political phenomenon (the bread riots), politics must reckon with magic
  • As George said, he doesn’t want to create a world in which magic makes political action moot; that seems lazy to him, and I agree
  • Magical power is filtered through political power. We saw that on the Dothraki sea with Dany and MMD; we’ll see it again with Beric and Thoros
  • But the flipside of that is that political power must face down the consequences of magical power. It cracks these schemers open
  • Varys refers to magic as “the old powers,” which resonates given how much time this story and especially this part of the story dedicates to examining the nature of power. Where does power come from?
  • Well, if you go back far enough in the mists of time, the nature of power is the power of nature. Ice and fire, water and stone, faces in the trees. Gods
  • The vanished/vanishing world of magic, of the Elves, longed for with such memorable ache in LOTR. A lot of fantasy written in its wake dwells on the cost of trying to bring that world back to overtake the new one
  • Melisandre’s shadowbirth felt like the creation of something new, but also the return of something ancient; Varys is addressing that wheel of time
  • Tyrion, reddit atheist that he is, responds with derision and scorn to this concept. He’s the one that calls it “magic,” a childish word for him
  • Bloodspells, curses, shapeshifting--Tyrion believes not in these. We’ve already seen that in this book with regards to the zombified wights. Tyrion’s the protagonist of a book about the clash of kings, about politics!
  • Snarks, grumpkins
  • Tyrion has already put forth with what seem to him like reasonable explanations for Cortnay’s death. Magic seems like a stretch to him
  • But Varys points out that Cortnay’s death did not occur in a vacuum. There is also the matter of Renly’s death to consider, most fortuitous for Stannis
  • The common denominator here is unexpected fortune for the last Baratheon, who keeps getting his way through mysterious accidents
  • However, Varys clearly recognizes that Tyrion is not merely denying the use of magic in this specific instance. He is denying magic’s existence
  • And so Varys feels the need to make Tyrion understand that this is the age of wonder and terror, that the fiery ladder is real. He has seen it at work.
  • He volunteers to tell the story of how he was castrated, which he had refused to tell Tyrion before. The stakes have changed; they’re higher now
  • Varys takes us back farther than we might’ve expected, all the way back to his boyhood, as an orphan apprenticed to a traveling folly
  • Varys might’ve lacked parents, but he seemed to love this life, fondly describing the “fat little cog” on which they sailed from port to port
  • It all ended one day in Myr, when “a certain man” attended their performance and made an offer for young Varys to good to refuse
  • Varys said this story was about “the old powers,” about his relationship to magic, but the first power of which he is a victim in this story is money
  • He was sold like an object by the only parental figure he had, and his surrogate family just kept moving without him once he was gone
  • It’s the life Tyrion might’ve led had he not been born a Lannister: a dwarf in a travelling troupe like Penny, potentially suffering a grim fate like Groat
  • This would’ve been a hideous life-changing moment for Varys even if he hadn’t been mutilated, even he had somehow managed to escape first
  • There is no safe refuge. There is no sheltering power. There is no family. The stage upon which I strutted, my shadow on a wall, gave way to the real thing. And the real thing was “the old powers,” claiming my body. Secular and sorcerous exploitation work together toward inhumanity
  • At first, Varys feared that the man intended to use him sexually, but just like how Euron goes from molestation to sorcery, the man who purchased Varys had his eyes set higher. Yet the common thread is Varys’ body
  • The sorcerer did intend to use and abuse Varys’ flesh, but not sexually. Instead, he cuts off Varys’ penis and testicles and sets them on fire
  • It’s among the more skin-crawling scenarios in a story hardly lacking for them. The details make it all the more vivid: Varys was given a drug that immobilized him but did not dull the pain. He had to sit still and take it
  • One can imagine how that became the foundation for wearing a mask at all times in his political career. He had already stayed stone through pain
  • Varys had to watch part of his body burn, hearing the sorcerer chant, and then the flames turned blue (like ice), and then a voice spoke back
  • That’s all we get, because it’s all Varys got. We don’t know any more about it than he does. Was the voice real? Was it R’hllor? Who knows!
  • He brushed up against something real, the power of nature driving the nature of power, but then it brushed past him and was gone forever
  • All he knows for certain is what it took away from him, the price paid by innocents not only in the game of thrones as he said to Ned, but in climbing the fiery ladder. He was sacrificed for the power of another
  • When it was over, he asked the sorcerer what he should do. The sorcerer said that he supposed Varys should die. He hadn’t given thought to it! Such was his worldview: men are meat, you served your purpose, now rot
  • To spite him, Varys resolved to live. Every breath he took after that was in defiance of how the world works, the interlocking structures of abuse
  • Varys begged. Varys stole. Varys sold what body parts remained to him. And Varys lived. As he grew, he came to realize the power of intelligence, and he founded his own vast political power on that revelation
  • Yet in the night, in his dreams, when he is all alone at the center of his spiderweb, all that power does not matter. It does not protect him
  • He is a child again, staring helplessly at the fire as it consumes his flesh and spits out in return a voice speaking a language he doesn’t understand
  • It is the voice that haunts him. Varys has long since let go of the memory of his penis, and unlike the show, this isn’t about revenge on the sorcerer
  • But what haunts him is that he does not know how it was done, and he knows all the tricks. Knowing all the tricks is what sustained him. It’s what allowed him to rebuild his life anew: the political world of spycraft
  • Magic represents the limit of his knowledge, the limit that robbed him, reduced him. He is haunted by the unknowability of what’s beyond him
  • Varys has declared war on the silence, and now when he looks to the horizon, he finds Stannis Baratheon waving the banner of gods and fire. Varys despises magicians, and if Stannis is one, Varys will see him dead
  • Tyrion, for once, shuts up for a minute and just takes all that in. George doesn’t give us his thoughts, allowing us to tease out what he thinks from what he says. Tyrion is conflicted on how to feel about this
  • On the one hand, as he says, it’s a harrowing tale, and he needs time to absorb it just like the audience does. So much evil in so little time!
  • On the other, Tyrion does not believe this story happened the way Varys says it did. The castration is undeniable; the voice in the fire, not so much
  • As with Alliser Throne describing what the powers of ice are up to, Tyrion is shaken by the revelation of magic, but ultimately unconvinced by it
  • As he says, he believes in money, violence, and man’s ability to navigate those tempting traps with one’s wits. That’s the world of secular power
  • And, he concedes, he believes there once were dragons. He’s seen their skulls, after all. Physical proof, material reality; he can’t deny it
  • But Tyrion, like Maester Luwin, believes that they live in a world in which magic died, rather than one in which it was laying dormant, as is the case
  • Still, he is sorry for Varys. Not only for what he suffered then, but for how he has suffered since by repeating this false story (as Tyrion thinks of it) to himself. Varys has cracked himself open to Tyrion as Tyrion did to Shae
  • Varys admits that he can’t prove any of this. Time and distance have set their snares in him like anyone else, and he was a mere mortal in pain
  • That’s how we see gods and their powers: as through a mirror darkly, unsure of what we have truly witnessed, knowing only our own suffering
  • All they can do is move on, back to the world they know and can lay hands on. Tyrion tries to paper over this messy gap in the conversation by suggesting that Stannis sent a Faceless Man after Cortnay Penrose
  • But the very existence of the Faceless Men speaks to the magical world and how it is inextricable from political power; we see that at Harrenhal
  • Moreover, Tyrion brings up the Faceless Men in the context of having wanted to use Lannister wealth to send one after his sister
  • Back we go to how Team Lannister is crumbling in on itself; Tyrion has no secure family any more than Varys did as a young man in Myr
  • Meanwhile, Stannis is on the march, and one by one, Varys nails shut the exits, the last possibilities for Team Lannister to save itself
  • Can we convince the Dornish to actively assist us? No. The alliance is skin-deep, and Doran will not commit forces to save Tywin’s family
  • What about Tywin? When last we saw him, he was marching west in response to Robb’s raids. Varys says he hasn’t won across the Red Fork yet, and may be trapped by Reach forces north of the Mander
  • On reread, we know that George is setting the stage for those forces to join Tywin, but on first read, the walls really seem to be closing in
  • Littlefinger will be crucial to making that alliance happen, but Varys lacks information on what happened to him. He might have died at Bitterbridge
  • After all, when Randyll Tarly returned to the castle after Renly’s death, he massacred thousands of soldiers who serve the lords who went over to Stannis, chief among them the Florents
  • It’s easy to skip over this, as George quickly moves on and it doesn’t come up again. But this is the payoff for what we were saying with Lady Gwyn back in Catelyn II about the threat lurking under the playtime surface of Renly’s army. Bitterbridge has yet again been soaked in blood
  • The growing divisions of the civil war are claiming more and more lives, from the camp outside Bitterbridge to the streets of King’s Landing
  • All signs point to the downfall of House Lannister at Stannis’ unmerciful hands. And in the face of annihilation, what can Tyrion do but laugh?
  • Varys is thrown off his game as he was by Shae recognizing him earlier. Same dynamic here: Tyrion has seen through all shadows to the truth
  • Stannis is coming with fire and blood, and whatever other powers he has, the point is that Tyrion will stand alone in his way. Tyrion is terrified, but as so many do, he finds a wild exhilaration, some courage, in suicidal despair
  • All the characters from the stories and songs, all the shining tall handsome men next to whom Tyrion has always felt lesser: none of them are here
  • Jaime’s not here. Robert’s not here, Renly’s not here, Rhaegar’s not here. The people’s beloved Loras isn’t here. Only me, the one they all hate
  • The irony is spectacular, and will feed heavily into Tyrion’s arc going forward. He feels his fall from power in ASOS all the keener because he is being rejected by the people he saved in spite of their hatred of him
  • Or, that’s how he thinks about it, anyway. In truth, Tyrion is once more allowing his self-loathing, the image of the “monkey demon” he has internalized, to blind him to the realities of power all around him
  • “I’m all that stands between them and chaos,” says the man whose regime just provoked a citywide riot. Chaos is already upon them
  • That’s not to handwave away the inevitable consequences of Stannis attacking the city. There’s no doubt the people would suffer from it
  • But Tyrion is also feeding the fire--quite literally, in terms of the wildfire. How ironic is it that Stannis will send Melisandre away before the battle, making no use of sorcery, while Tyrion relies on the fiery ladder
  • There really is no good side here, as both Stannis and Tyrion began committed to justice only to allow power to corrupt their ideals
  • Both make gestures at law and order, at securing peace for the people, but are ultimately motivated by their own personal fears and desires
  • They both believe they cannot be loved, and set out to secure their power in defiance of that belief. In truth, both will lose the Battle of Blackwater
  • “The old powers” refers not just to ancient powers in the world, but the forces that grip individuals rooted in their own history, their own past
  • For Varys, the old power is that voice in the flames. For Tyrion, the old power is humiliation, resentment, alienation, pride, all inherited from Dad
  • It is to those powers, as much as to wildfire, that Tyrion sacrifices his beliefs, his men, and ultimately himself, as we approach the climax of ACOK. You can feel it all building at the end of this chapter, ready to blow
  • How the chapter could have been (filler to advance plot towards more exciting things) vs what it is (good)

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Bronn tells Tyrion that he likes the sound of “Lord” Bronn, and this sets up Bronn being rewarded with a lordship in ASOS.

Tyrion has this malicious tendency to slap women who get under his skin. Come TWOW, Tyrion II, Tyrion will slap Penny for reminding him of Shae. 

Lots of foreshadowing for the Reach to arrive on the scene at the Blackwater with Reach houses sighted north of the Mander. This is likely the Reachmen moving in the direction of Tywin’s host after Littlefinger struck the bargain with the Tyrells. We can figure this, because we also hear about Randyll Tarly executing Florent men.

Tyrion uses the tunnel into the Tower of the Hand to kill both Tywin and Shae in ASOS.

Theory/Discussion

What’s the real truth behind Varys’ backstory?

• Does he have an incentive to lie? Hard to think of one
• Tyrion is already dedicated to fighting Stannis for his own reasons, and as a skeptic, he’s unlikely to believe this story on the merits
• Moreover, Varys’ tone of voice is different, and he doesn’t try to break Tyrion of his doubt when he’s done telling the story
• This backstory also fits the themes of the story as a whole--and ACOK specifically--so well that I don’t think Varys is inventing it out of whole cloth
• Rather, I think he is being selective in what truths he reveals, just as Tyrion doesn’t lie to Shae about Tysha, but nor does he tell her everything
• Varys is conveniently leaving out Illyrio, Young Grift, and the entire Blackfyre subplot that is actually motivating him to keep Stannis out of power
• Varys might also be leaving out his own Blackfyre/Brightflame roots, which could have been the sorcerer’s motivation for seeking him out to begin with
• As Varys himself admits, he’s not sure if the voice in the fire was real or not. I think it probably was, but the ambiguity is deliberate on George’s part
• This sorcerer was not a mentor figure like Melisandre or Jojen Reed. He saw Varys as raw material, part of a larger pattern, not a central POV in his own right
• As such, there are no answers to be had for Varys. I think George is commenting on the hopeless longing for answers, which has implications for the reader...

Conclusion

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