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Episode 56: A GAME OF THRONES, TYRION VII: "The Lion's Den" SHOW NOTES!
🕑 Added 2019-04-01 14:01:01 +0000 UTCHello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish. And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn. Welcome to the fifty-sixth episode of the Not A Cast, entitled: “The Lion’s Den: An Analysis of AGOT, Tyrion VII,” in which Tyrion is finally reunited with Tywin Lannister, beloved father, friend to the smallfolk, and our very favorite character. This episode is brought to you by our Small Council:
- Hand of the King WolfmanZack
- Grand Maester Timothy W
- Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N.
- Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves
- Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers
- Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws
- Jancy O, Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch
- Lord Gene Master of Coin
- 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 Baby the Onion Baby
- Lord Blackheart the Defiant, Master of Zorse
- and … our THREE newest members of the small council. You heard that right! THREE!
- Lord Micah Warden of the West and the Kraken’s Bane
- Lady Roxane C
- Lord the Jim that was Promised.
Thank you councillors very much! And welcome to Micah, Roxane and James!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!QuestionSnark Knight, a Sworn Sword asks:
Hi Guys,
As we step closer to Tywin being on-stage, do you have anything to say about the extra content in the World of Ice and Fire sample chapter on the Westerlands which features a few deleted scenes from Tytos and Tywin especially on the war crimes against House Reyne?
The extended Westerlands sample chapter is still available on George RR Martin’s website to read. So, if you’ve never read it before, go ahead and get on it!Tywin’s war crimes in the chapter:
- Beheads Lord Walderan Tarbeck and his sons for rebellion which okay, fair enough. But then:
- Kills Tarbeck’s cousins, nephews and son in law
- Kills every person wearing the Tarbeck sigil on their surcoat
- Impales their heads on Tarbeck sigils and marches on Tarbeck Hall to frighten the castle into surrendering
- Takes Tarbeck Hall and then hangs Lady Tarbeck and her children
- His men toss down Rohanne (Lady Elyn’s daughter’s) three year old son down a well
- Burns Tarbeck Hall to the ground
- At Castamere
- Seals all the people that Reynard Reyne inside caves under the castle after they refused to surrender
- Redirects a stream to drown every last man, woman and child in the mines. 300 people in total
- Burns Castamere to the ground afterwards
SynopsisR’hllor grant me strength: I’m about to re-introduce you all to Captain Dies Shitting Himself: Tywin Lannister.Tyrion Lannister arrives at the camp of one of the two Lannister armies we might have mentioned last week. Ah, but he’s not alone. He’s arriving in style with Bronn and an entourage of classy clansmen come down from the Vale of Arryn. (Is ‘classy clansmen’ problematic? I should workshop that line a bit more.)Anyways, as I was saying: Tyrion’s arrived with three hundred merry companions in the form of the Stone Crows, Moon Brothers, Black Ears and Burned Men. Meanwhile, Tyrion left Gunthor behind to raise the rest of the clans. And Tyrion wondered what his lord father, the richest man in Westeros, would think of these mountain clansmen. Maybe it’d be best if he goes down alone, right guys? No.
Best for Tyrion son of Tywin, said Ulf, who spoke for the Moon Brothers.
Shagga son of Dolf agrees, stating that if Tyrion means to cheat them, he’ll cut off Tyrion’s manhood … and feed it to the goats, Tyrion finishes for him. Tyrion tries his best “you would question my honor” spiel, but the clansmen aren’t having it. They’re going to go with him. Well, not all of them. Tyrion specifies that he’ll only take a select few with him to the camp: Chella, Shagga, Conn, Ulf and Timett: representatives from each clan. And then they’re off.As Tyrion rides down the hill, he thinks about how absurd the clan system of governance was. Everyone participated in council session, even the women. How absurd. Besides, that’s why they hadn’t been able to rise up and take on the Vale, amirite bros!? It’s because of the women having a voice and not the violent abrogation of land rights by the government and strict racialist delineation of “good” Valemen and “bad” Valeman and how that political infrastructure strangely, strangely resulted in the bad Valemen being forced on up into the mountains and away from the good, fertile valley floor.Did I do a good enough mix of libertarian and socialist talking points, Emm? Anyhow, Bronn decides to tag along with Tyrion, because it’s fucking Bronn. Whatever. Tyrion then thinks back to the clansmen trailing him, thinking through each of the clansmen, before finally reflecting on Timett son of Timett, a war chief of the Burned Men. Now normally, these clansmen were regarded as fearsome creatures who mortified their flesh with fire, because okay. That sounds really painful. But okay. But Timett? Timett distinguished himself by taking a white hot knife and burning out his eye, because oh my god. And then they made him their war chief.The party progresses down to the encampment, and soon Tyrion comes up to the earthen embankment just out of way of any crossbow bolt. Hm, crossbow bolts. I wonder if we’re going to be seeing a lot more references to this weapon as we progress through Tyrion’s arc. Anyways, Tyrion shouts up asking for the captain, and Ser Flement Brax shows up and is fucking astonished that it’s Tyrion. He hesitantly allows Tyrion and his party to pass on into the encampment.Inside, the commoners sleep out in the open while the knights and lords erect smaller and lesser pavilions respectively. It’s 20,000 men or near enough as makes no matter, and Tyrion, somewhat similarly to Catelyn, makes notice of all the Westerlands sigils affixed to the larger, lordly tents: the red ox of the Presters, the brindled boar of the Crakehalls, the burning tree of the Marbrands, the badger of Lydden. It’s just your regular, old army of war-criminals.Men-at-arms and knights shout greetings and Tyrion and his curious party, but Tyrion has his eye on the prize: his father’s encampment. And where has his father, that motherfucking war criminal, set shop up? Why, at the Inn at the Crossroads with the burned out remains of the nearby structures surrounding the inn. And what better way to symbolize the type of real asshole that Tywin is than to also have a gibbet where he has someone hanging and being eaten by crows. And who is this mysterious person? None other than Masha Heddle whose “crime” was, uh, nothing. She didn’t do anything wrong, Tywin, you fucking asshole. But that’s not the way that Tyrion sees it:
A room, a meal, and a flagon of wine, that was all I asked, he reminded her with a sigh of reproach.
I don’t know, Emmett. That seems a little harsh especially given that the poor woman had no ability to effect fucking anything and then was subsequently murdered by Lannister goons?Ahem.Tyrion leads the party into the stables, and we get some hijinks between Shagga and the stableboy about whether the stableboy will steal Shagga’s horse and how he’ll cut off manhoods and feed it to goats and such, and then we’re on towards our first meeting with Tywin Lannister.Tyrion asks that he goes into the inn alone, and the Lannister guardsmen usher Tyrion into the inn to find Tywin in war council, and because I think this is just crisp, excellent writing on George’s part, I’m going to read our first full description of Tywin:
Tywin Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West, was in his middle fifties, yet hard as a man of twenty. Even seated, he was tall, with long legs, broad shoulders, a flat stomach. His thin arms were corded with muscle. When his once-thick golden hair had begun to recede, he had commanded his barber to shave his head; Lord Tywin did not believe in half measures. He razored his lip and chin as well, but kept his sidewhiskers, two great thickets of wiry golden hair that covered most of his cheeks from ear to jaw. His eyes were a pale green, flecked with gold. A fool more foolish than most had once jested that even Lord Tywin's shit was flecked with gold. Some said the man was still alive, deep in the bowels of Casterly Rock.
Just, damn George. Way to set up a scene with a physical description and backstory brilliantly.Oh, and that other war criminal Kevan Lannister who is fat, has a beard and is balding is there too. He sees Tyrion first. He’s quite shocked to see Tyrion, but Tywin? No. He just stares at Tyrion before:
I see that the rumors of your demise were unfounded.
Thank you, Tywin “Twain” Lannister. I see you, George.Well, Tyrion is all sorry to disappoint dad by not being dead, and oh no, don’t get up and greet me. But thanks for going to war for me, father. Least you could. It’s all sardonic from here on out from Tyrion’s end.Well, in Tywin’s estimation, he didn’t go to war for Tyrion. He went to war, because the family honor was at stake. So, how’s the war going? Well, it’s been a victorious romp of cascading war crimes according to Kevan Lannister. Tywin and Kevan have marched in turn, burning out the riverlords east of the Green Fork while Jaime smashed the riverlords at the Golden Tooth and brought the war all the way to the doorstep of Riverrun. Ser Edmure was taken prisoner while Lord Hoster Blackwood took the survivors from the battle and brought them within Riverrun itself to hold out against Lannister siege.It’s a bang-up, easy Lannister victory … SO FAR. They just gotta get the Mallisters to surrender at Seagard and Walder Frey to capitulate like a coward. There’s also the Pipers and Vances that are attacking Lannister supply trains in the rear of Jaime’s army. And Lord Beric Dondarrion in the rear of Tywin’s army. Oh, and there’s that small, minor matter of Robb Stark at Moat Cailin. Shouldn’t be an issue though. The Lannisters hold Sansa and Ned as hostage. And besides, Robb is just a kid. He’s not real threat. The real threat is Stannis, according to Tywin, not some kid who should be playing with wooden swords and probably only loves the sound of war horns. He doesn’t the stomach for real war: butcher’s work. Amirite!? No, you’re not. Can’t fucking wait to get to Tyrion VIII and Catelyn X!And now, Tyrion, Tywin and Kevan need you to put a small force together to deal with Beric Dondarrion’s party annoying the Lannister rear.
Father, is warms my heart to think that you might entrust me with … what, twenty men? Fifty? Are you sure you can spare so many? Well, no matter. If I should come across Thoros and Lord Beric, I shall spank them both.
But first though, Tyrion has some promises to keep. He needs swords, helms, hauberks, pikes, spearheads, maces, battle-axes, gauntlets, gorgets, greaves, breastplates and wagons to … The door crashes open behind Tyrion, and a Lannister guardsman goes flying across the room like a vaudeville comedy act. In walks Shagga, breaking the Lannister guardsman’s sword across his knee telling him that the next time that Lannister dope attempts to bare steel against him, it’s knives, dicks and … oh, not goats this time. The dick would go into the fire.In burst in the rest of the clansmen along with Bronn who gives his customary whatever, dude shrug at Tyrion. Tywin asks who they are, and Tyrion again with sardonic says that they followed him and can he keep them? No one laughs, because it’s not funny. Kevan Lannister asks why these savages are intruding on their war council, and the clansmen are like, we’re not fucking savages, you oppressive, aristocratic little-dicks. We’re free-men, and free-men fucking belong on war councils. By rights. Sass the Lannisters! Sass them! Sasssssssssss!Okay, enough. Well, Kevan’s all about to draw his sword, but Tywin stops him and y’know give Tywin credit for one thing: he knows how to manipulate people really well. He tells Tyrion to introduce the clansmen to him. Tyrion does and then introduces Tywin to the clansmen as Tywin, son of Tytos of House Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West, Shield of Lannisport and once and future Hand of the King. That last bit about once and future Hand. You think maybe Tywin gnaws on grievance much? Anyways, continuing in his manipulation, Tywin deftly maneuvers the clansmen towards joining up with the them, saying that the prowess of the clansmen is well known in the west. But what brings you down from your strongholds?
Horses, Shagga says in perhaps the most understated hilarious line in AGOT.
But they also want silk and steel. And Tyrion is just about to tell Tywin how he wants to murder the shit out of the asshole nobles of the Vale as well as all the innocent smallfolk in the Vale but then the door crashes open again. It’s a messenger from Ser Addam Marbrand who reports that the Starks are marching down the causeway from Moat Cailin. And then we get Tyrion’s observation of Tywin’s reaction:
Lord Tywin Lannister did not smile. Lord Tywin never smiled, but Tyrion had learned to read his father’s pleasure all the same, and it was there on his face. “So the wolfling is leaving his den to play among the lions. Splendid. Return to Ser Addam and tell him to fall back. He is not to engage the northerners until we arrive, but I want him to harass their flanks and draw them farther south.
Kevan urges Tywin to hold out here at the Inn at the Crossroads -- a strategic point where Tywin could defend from Stark attack or move to help Jaime, but Tywin, like a moron, disagrees and says that they’re going to march forth and take on Robb Stark’s army so as to lure the boy lordling into battle. Kevan meekly backs off like a coward, and Tywin turns back to clansmen and manipulation:
It is said that the men of the mountain clans are warriors without fear.
Why yes, everyone says that, thank you for acknowledging this universally-known truth, Lord Tywin, the clansmen kind-of say. Well, Tywin wants the clansmen to ride with him against Robb Stark, and then they’ll have all the gold and weapons they could ever want. Ah, yes, about that. Thanks but no thanks, you scheming piece of shit. You’re gonna have us fight for you after we were already promised money and weapons by Tyrion. Sorry, wasn’t the bargain. But Tywin has a bit more manipulation up his sleeve, talking about how the northmen were made of ice and iron and his own men feared to face them in battle. How about now? Fight for us now? Yeah, sure. Now that you flattered us. We’ll wipe the floor with these northmen. Shagga adds in his dicks, knives and goats line. But Chella has something else in mind.
We will ride with you, lion lord, but only if your halfman son goes with us. He has bought his breath with promises. Until we hold the steel he has pledged us, his life is ours.
Lord Tywin turns his gaze back on Tyrion.
Joy, Tyrion says with a resigned smile.
And that is AGOT, Tyrion VII. I gotta admit, Emmett. Tyrion chapters may be the most fun to write synopses for. It always feels like George has the most fun in writing the chapters, and you can feel that fun on-page. So, it makes my job easier. And, this is a really fun chapter, y’know minus the war crimes, hangings, dick-chopping-offs and of course Tywin Lannister himself -- who I hate to admit: gets a stunning introduction in this chapter. Probably the best yet for a major character!DepthObviously, we’re introduced to a lot of characters in this first book! Starks and Baratheons and Targaryens and other Lannisters have all shown up before Tywin, but yes, the Lion Lord gets for my money the single best introduction in the entirety of AGOT. GRRM does an excellent job of establishing how Tywin has cut his way to the top by showing his political skills with the clansmen and his military skills in terms of bringing the forces of the Westerlands to bear so quickly. But what matters more for the whole of Tywin’s characterization, especially in terms of his relationship with Tyrion and how that relationship ends, is that this chapter focuses long and hard on what it feels like to be an ant under Tywin’s boot. From Masha Heddle’s corpse swinging in the wind to Tyrion feeling acutely aware of all his shortcomings under his father’s gaze, Tyrion VII frames Tywin as the ultimate authoritarian. Illyrio will say in a much later Tyrion chapter that Westerosi lords are far too arrogant about their sigils--cage up a Lannister with a real lion, and they’d learn the difference soon enough! But while Tywin thinks of himself as a lion because they’re proud and majestic, I think you can see GRRM framing him as a lion in the predatory sense, surrounded by what’s left of his prey and hungry for more...
- The mountain clans, aka the Rousseau libertines of our socialist dreams
- We ended Tyrion VI on a cliffhanger, but GRRM doesn’t keep us in suspense, letting us know immediately that Tyrion’s gambit with the clans worked
- Already, he’s working the clans in both a military (using them as scouts) and political (forcing them to accompany him) sense
- The clans are awed by the sheer size and strength of Tywin’s army, but they’re not stupid, nor are they intimidated by the man himself
- Conn insists that all free men have a right to sit war councils, an admirable stance that dovetails with both Ned and Stannis...and not at all with Tywin
- Far more telling, though, is that bit at the beginning about democracy and egalitarianism and all that, and how Tyrion hates that stuff
- This, more than anywhere else in book one, is where GRRM tips his hand as to the darkness under Tyrion’s fun snarky surface
- Tyrion not only considers democracy to be backwards and childish (as men of his class would for a very, very long time), but wants to eliminate it so that he can unleash the clans on the Vale
- The sheer amount of You Are A Villain boxes ticked off there, ye gods!
- Introducing the Army of the West
- 20,000 strong; so, outnumbers Robb Stark’s 18,000 at Moat Cailin
- Positioned at the Inn at the Crossroads. Why is this important?
- Tywin can march north to confront any Stark army coming down the kingsroad
- If Robb marches on Jaime, Tywin can cross the Trident and move west towards Riverrun to aid Jaime’s army besieging army.
- Army reflects Tywin’s elitist view
- Steals property out from under the people living in the Riverlands.
- Inn at the Crossroads is taken violently away from Masha Heddle, because Tywin has a monopoly on violence
- Lord Paramount Tywin encamped in the permanent structure of the inn itself, Lords with their great pavilions, knights with their tents, common soldiers sleeping in the mud.
- Is this much different from Robb’s army where the greater lords had towers at Moat Cailin, lesser lords had tents and common soldiers slept out under the stars?
- One caveat is that Catelyn notes in the last chapter that Robb’s scouts lead the Manderlys to high ground and away from the mud. I don’t know if that’s significant or not!
- It’s an interesting question how armies on the march both reproduce and flatten the distinctions of their society
- On the one hand, Tywin doesn’t have the Rock anymore--a nice tent is still a tent. On the other hand, look at how much Renly packs into that tent!
- Here’s where we get into the extensive parallels between this chapter and Catelyn VIII, which really stood out to me on this reread
- Most obviously: we’re seeing two armies preparing to meet in battle, the forces of North and West gathered together under Stark and Lannister
- The heart of both chapters is a parent-child relationship, mediated at first by someone else in the room noticing our POV’s entrance
- Our POV turns up with a bunch of companions who join the army
- We get a mix of hard military and political strategy with more character-focused dialogue between the parent and child, who haven’t seen each other since the plot really kicked into gear
- At chapter’s end, our POV unexpectedly joins their family’s forces on the march
- But what really makes this comparison work is that everything is inverted tonally
- Catelyn’s companions were welcome, indeed anticipated; Tyrion’s companions are unanticipated and largely unwelcome
- Catelyn sticks with Robb of her own volition; Tyrion is basically blackmailed by the clan representatives into marching with Tywin
- Above all else, of course, Catelyn’s relationship with Robb is warm and loving, albeit strained in this perilous context; Tywin’s relationship with Tyrion is this hideous hateful thing that ultimately poisons them both
- So while it’s definitely too simplistic to say that Stark v. Lannister is Good Guys v. Bad Guys, we are being presented with a hopeful v. cynical take on a lot of the same themes and tropes
- What we’re seeing is the reason House Stark will endure beyond Robb’s death, and the reason House Lannister will crumble starting with Tywin’s
- Lion and cub
- The relationship between Tyrion and Tywin Lannister is one of the central dramatic elements of ASOIAF, and one where the storytelling fundamentals are as rock-solid as they could possibly be
- It climaxes with Tyrion staring his hated father in the face, knowing at last what he’s done, and pulling the trigger despite seeing himself reflected back.
- Because he sees himself reflected back! Far from the family-destroying Oedipal-adjacent desires so many in Tyrion’s family and environment ascribe to him, Tyrion acts not to conquer House Lannister, but commit symbolic suicide
- That’s some heavy shit, and it only lands because it’s earned. We’ve built up to Tywin effectively, especially with the story about Tysha; now it starts to pay off
- I call this the best introduction in AGOT because of how well GRRM embeds the beginning of that arc in every detail of this chapter, starting with Masha Heddle
- This is a truly brutal, wretched act of violence; like Vayon Poole, Masha was a noncombatant, but unlike Vayon, she was in service to neither side of the conflict
- Her life, her home, her neighbors, her entire world--ash and dust, because she had the ill fortune to be present when something bad happened to a Lannister
- None of that means anything to Tywin, not compared to his pride
- Yet let’s dig deeper than that. How exactly does this satisfy Tywin’s pride?
- This is not a cold machiavellian calculus about using the “spectacle of fearsome acts” to ensure that Lannisters won’t be threatened in this way again
- After all, Masha had nothing to do with this! She merely urged Catelyn to take the dispute elsewhere. Instead, she has to pay for it
- So what’s the message being sent? What’s the lesson being learned by the enemies of House Lannister that would supposedly justify this murder?
- None. To borrow from Schindler’s List, Tywin is setting no rules that you can live by. His behavior would be reprehensible even if it lived up to the image in his head, but GRRM is making it plain right here from the outset that it doesn’t
- Tywin is a brute for a purpose in his mind, but his hypocrisy reveals the hollowness of that purpose; that’ll come out in full, of course, with Shae
- So, too, will how Tyrion imitates the father he hates. Look at how dismissive he is of poor Masha’s fate!
- Speaking of Shae, the way GRRM frames Tywin’s intro with a murdered woman’s body points not only forward to Shae’s death as the fallout of the murderous dynamic between father and son, but back to Tysha...and Joanna
- Those are the ghosts Tywin and Tyrion bring to the table any time they talk, their ultimate inner ammunition against the other. Of course, Tyrion’s hatred is justified, Tywin’s is not
- As soon as Tywin’s eyes are on him, Tyrion feels small, weak, lesser. Which is exactly what Tywin intends--this is the full brunt of their toxic dynamic coming to bear in every little interaction
- Immediately, Tywin is holding Tyrion responsible for his own kidnapping
- Jaime is the shining model, of course, but what would he have done, gotten himself killed?
- He walks right into Robb’s trap at the Whispering Wood, after all, just as Dad will at the Green Fork. So maybe Tywin should rethink things, huh??
- Just look at how nastily Tywin tries to give Tyrion a command…
- ...compared to the respectful conversation Robb and Catelyn had last week!
- Another ghost here is Tytos; Tywin fears his son will become his father, and that drove him to be so brutal RE Tysha (and later Alayaya)
- But ironically, Tywin has made Tyrion in his own image, which just reveals how Tywin and Tytos had things in common no matter what the former tells himself
- The commonality among Lannister men leads not to bonding, but alienation and ultimately destruction. Tyrion cannot bear being his father, but who else can he be?
- So it’s as if they’re one person, arguing inside one head--the hatred is self-hatred, the oppression is repression, the murder is suicide.
- One more ghost before we get to Jeff’s beloved strategy session: the Rock.
- As Tyrion will say to himself when he finally confronts Tywin on this subject two books from now, he’s always known at some level that he will be disinherited
- One thing I wondered on this reread is how the Westerlands political class deals with the uncertainty regarding who, exactly, will be following in Tywin’s footsteps
- Tyrion is neither pariah among them nor the center of attention, suggesting that they don’t know how powerful he’ll be, but that they know he’s not the heir
- That’s the kind of unspoken tension that can destroy a family. And does.
- So there are so many layers of dysfunction at work--Tywin and Tyrion, Tywin and Tytos, Tywin and the Westerlands, Tywin and the unlucky civilians in his path…
- It’s a Greek-tragic house of cards, designed to collapse at this exact pressure point, as it does at the end of ASOS and over the course of AFFC/ADWD
- Buildup to battle
- Alright. It’s time yet again to let my freak flag fly and talk some more war shit! But, I’m going pare this down a bit, because I think last time, I let my freak flag fly too high and got too war nerdy. More importantly, I get more than enough monologue time in the synopsis, and mea culpa, I don’t want this podcast to become the BFish Battle Hour. Too bad, it is now
- So, instead of going through MDMP, I think it’s important to talk about Tywin’s build-up to the battle and his war-planning in context of how GRRM characterizes Tywin. And how does he do this?
- Tywin is arrogant "No sword is strong until it's been tempered," Lord Tywin declared. "The Stark boy is a child. No doubt he likes the sound of warhorns well enough, and the sight of his banners fluttering in the wind, but in the end it comes down to butcher's work. I doubt he has the stomach for it."
- Tywin is overconfident "Frey only takes the field when the scent of victory is in the air, and all he smells now is ruin. And Jason Mallister lacks the strength to fight alone. Once Jaime takes Riverrun, they will both be quick enough to bend the knee. Unless the Starks and the Arryns come forth to oppose us, this war is good as won."
- Tywin doesn’t listen to advice "We are well situated here," Ser Kevan pointed out. "Close to the ford and ringed by pits and spikes. If they are coming south, I say let them come, and break themselves against us." "The boy may hang back or lose his courage when he sees our numbers," Lord Tywin replied. "The sooner the Starks are broken, the sooner I shall be free to deal with Stannis Baratheon. Tell the drummers to beat assembly, and send word to Jaime that I am marching against Robb Stark."
- Contrast Tywin’s statements to the last Catelyn chapter and Robb who:
- Recognizes the fault lines in his army and the potential plans laid before him.
- Is unsure whether he’ll win in the field and scared that regardless if he loses that his family will die.
- Listens to his lords bannermen on developing his scheme of maneuver, crafts his own plan, but then adapts when Catelyn advises that the Greatjon may not be the best commander of the infantry.
- All of this works to suggest that Tywin as some uber-commander akin to your Baelor Breakspears, Stannis Baratheons and Aegon the Conquerors is wildly, wildly overstated.
- Tywin on the whole is a better politician than general, and even in the former case, his pride and penchant for terror backfires on him as the series goes on
- Worth noting that the first time through, though, we’re scared for Robb and of Tywin
- That’s what makes it cathartic and exciting when Robb’s gambit works perfectly
- Couple more notes: gotta love Tywin recognizing that Stannis is the true threat, though I’m curious as to what “dealing” with him at this point would look like. Amphibious assault on Dragonstone? How’d that work out for Loras in AFFC, going up against a much smaller garrison than Stannis has in AGOT?
- Also, as mentioned, props to Tywin for immediately realizing how to manipulate the clans to his advantage, and (unlike Kevan) keep his cool. We can say nice things!
- But, never forget how this deal with the clans works out; when Tywin arrives in KL, the clans are driven away despite their service and heroism
- Tywin Lannister did not, in the end, pay his debts
Foreshadowing/GroundworkThe introduction of Tywin is an uncanny mirror of Stannis’ in ACOK:
Stannis Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone and by the grace of the gods rightful heir to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, was broad of shoulder and sinewy of limb, with a tightness to his face and flesh that spoke of leather cured in the sun until it was as tough as steel. Hard was the word men used when they spoke of Stannis, and hard he was. Though he was not yet five-and-thirty, only a fringe of thin black hair remained on his head, circling behind his ears like the shadow of a crown. His brother, the late King Robert, had grown a beard in his final years. Maester Cressen had never seen it, but they said it was a wild thing, thick and fierce. As if in answer, Stannis kept his own whiskers cropped tight and short. They lay like a blue-black shadow across his square jaw and the bony hollows of his cheeks. His eyes were open wounds beneath his heavy brows, a blue as dark as the sea by night. His mouth would have given despair to even the drollest of fools; it was a mouth made for frowns and scowls and sharply worded commands, all thin pale lips and clenched muscles, a mouth that had forgotten how to smile and had never known how to laugh. Sometimes when the world grew very still and silent of a night, Maester Cressen fancied he could hear Lord Stannis grinding his teeth half a castle away.
Same motifs of hardness, tightness, discipline. No smiles, no laughter. The similarities and differences between Stannis and Tywin, the way the former teeters between becoming the latter and improving on him, is a major theme of ASOS. The In the end Tywin Lannister did not shit gold from Tyrion’s final ASOS chapter gets its first reference here in AGOT:
A fool more foolish than most had once jested that even Lord Tywin's shit was flecked with gold. Some said the man was still alive, deep in the bowels of Casterly Rock.
In 2001, GRRM stated that the story Tyrion relates was deliberate set up for Tywin’s death:
Questioner: Were circumstances and timing of Tywin's death something you planned for a long time or another case of characters "taking initiative", like with Cat?
GRRM: That scene was largely written even before A CLASH OF KINGS was published. Hell, I'd been setting up that "Lord Tywin shits gold" line since his very first appearance in A GAME OF THRONES.
Tywin mentions Beric and Thoros dismissively in passing as “a pair of Ned Stark’s afterthoughts,” but they’ll only grow in prominence from here! Given what a thorn they’ll be in the Lannister side, it works so well that Tywin underestimates them here, just as he does Robb. Tywin briefly mentions how they took Raventree Hall from the Blackwoods while Tytos Blackwood was mustered at the Golden Tooth and then Riverrun. In Tytos Blackwood and Jaime’s conversation in ADWD, Tytos reveals what that actually meant:
“Your Mountain stole my harvest and burned everything he could not carry off. He put my castle to the torch and raped one of my daughters. I will have recompense."
Tywin and Kevan’s casual recounting of Raventree fell at once, and Lady Whent yielded Harrenhal for want of men to defend it. Ser Gregor burnt out the Pipers and the Brackens always, always minimizes the specific type of terror and war crimes the Lannisters commit in the Riverlands, and it’s good that we get a fuller reporting of the monstrosity of the Lannister war effort. Tyrion’s right: Bronn and Tywin do get along famously come ASOS! A little too famously for Tyrion’s liking, as it happens...Theory/DiscussionTyrion never gets to tell Tywin how exactly he intends to convert the Vale into Mordor, but what might he have said? How would you convert the Vale into Mordor, Jeff? I know you hate talking military scenarios, but maybe you’ll indulge me...
- How quickly do you escalate from guerilla strikes?
- I’m so glad you asked, allow me to introduce you to two of the greatest practitioners of guerrilla warfare: Che Guevara and Ronald Reagan!
- "Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery."
- Mountain clansmen as oppressed people/social reformers (lol)
- In a bad spot, always, always get a bigger power on your side to supply you with weapons and training, c.f. The Afghan Mujahideen/Contras vs. the Soviet Union/Sandinistas in the 1980s and the Reagan Doctrine
- The Lannisters arm the badly outgunned clansmen to put them on military par to the Knights of the Vale
- Do you try to lure massed knights into a trap, and if so where?
- The fundamental problem with conquering the Vale is that there’s one way in and one way out: the Bloody Gate. You have to overwhelm the defenders there, get the gate open and proceed into the flat grounds of the mountain valley, and then it gets hard as any massed army of clansmen would meet the heavy horse of the Vale on open ground. The clansmen lose in that scenario.
- So, instead, let’s get Mongol all up in here.
- The Mongols were famous for their feigned retreats. Where their force would confront an enemy army and then wheel around after first contact with the enemy and ride like hell away. Enemies pursue, and then at an ideal terrain, the Mongols would wheel back around as the enemy extended their line too far forward or overexposed their position away from their supply line, perhaps then, you’d spring up a hidden forces to surround your enemies.
- So, how does General Timett do this with the Vale?
- First, you have to take the Bloody Gate. There’s no way around that. That’s a hard task, except as we learn from the Alayne TWOW sample chapter: The competitors came from all over the Vale, from the mountain valleys and the coast, from Gulltown and the Bloody Gate, even the Three Sisters.
- Perhaps the Bloody Gate will be undermanned and might be easier to overwhelm.
- Then if I’m Timett, I push a small but significant portion of my army forward into the valley very, very loudly, get the Knights of the Vale to mount up and confront them.
- Upon first contact, feign a retreat back to the Bloody Gate, with the vain, arrogant Knights of the Vale in pursuit.
- At or near the Bloody Gate, with the mountains all around, force the Vale Knights into the constricted terrain, cut off retreat from the rear and massacre the Knights en masse.
- Raid Gulltown? Or use a raid on Gulltown as a diversion??
- Seize and hold Gulltown. It’s the economic thru-way of the Vale. With the valley in chaos, the Vale needs to rely on food import to stay afloat. Hold this town, and you cut the Vale off from resupply from sea.
- What would Tyrion do with the Vale afterwards? Does this perhaps reflect a desire to carve out a place of his own to rule, knowing at some level he’ll never have the Rock?
Conclusion
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Comments
Ser Fif Whoresbane
More intimidating than ramsey??? How bout the f’n mountain that rides
Keith Johnson
Great work guys, there was a LOT to unpack in this episode and you covered it well. The mental/psychological analysis of Tyrion and Tywin was absolutely excellent. This may have very well been your best episode to date, in my humble opinion! Keep up the good work!
