Episode 89: A CLASH OF KINGS, TYRION IV: "Hat Trick" SHOW NOTES!

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 eighty-ninth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Hat Trick: An Analysis of ACOK, Tyrion IV,” in which Tyrion’s just gonna need you to sign this NDA. Boilerplate, nothing to it, he swears. Would he lie to you? 

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack 
• Grand Maester Timbob
• 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 Micah: Warden of the West and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• The High Bearded Priest
• The Blue-Ringed Octoling
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Hedrigal, Captain of the Air Ship Arrogance
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Ser Jasper the Cruel, the King’s Justice
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Richard, Sealord of Braavos
• 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 Wryinn
• 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
• And our newest member of the small council: Ser Sourcedelica who has been promoted from being a high lord to a member of the small council!

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

Lord James the Jim Who Was Promised, a small council patron asks:

What has watching the show and reading the books demonstrated to you about the relative power of the different media?  And in BFish’s case Listening to the books?   For me the visuals dominate despite multiple re-reads.  I’m curious on your take.  Let’s throw out LOTR and the Fever Dream graphic novel while we are at it.

So, thank you to Lord James the Jim Who was Promised for the question. If you’d like to ask us questions that we’ll answer here on the NotACast pod-cast, you are welcome to subscribe as a Sworn Sword of higher patron at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF.

Speaking of our patreon, our next patreon-only episode: our full-out analysis of the Greyjoy Rebellion with thematic analysis of Ironborn culture, the short, stupid history of history’s greatest dum-dum Lord Reaper of Pyke Balon Greyjoy, lots and lots of Emmett’s Euron analysis and me getting into my war shit feels about all the battles from the Greyjoy Rebellion is coming everyone’s way on Thanksgiving week starting with our small counselors on Monday, November 25th, high lords and ladies and kingsguard on Tuesday, November 26th, Sworn Swords on Wednesday, November 27th and Poor Fellows on Thanksgiving day, Thursday, November 28th!

But enough about patreon. Onto Tyrion IV. When we last checked in with the protagonist of ACOK, Tyrion Lannister had just started a great chain and chilled with Varys in Tywin Lannister’s tunnel. Let’s see what type of shit Tyrion Lannister gets into in this synopsis of ACOK, Tyrion IV! 

Synopsis

Grand Maester Pycelle apologizes to Tyrion for the early morning meeting. But you see, he’s an old idiot, and he’d rather be up and about than lying in bed, feeling anxious about who he’ll betray next. Breakfast is brought and Pycelle states that it’s plain, because of all the starvation going on in the city. Tyrion thinks this commendable as he takes a bite of egg. But Tyrion’s view is a more epicurean one: 

“If there is food I eat it, in case there is none on the morrow.”

Tyrion then asks if the ravens get up early, and Pycelle says that they do. But why ask? Does Tyrion want Pycelle to write a message to send somewhere, maybe? Tyrion says nah, he’s got already written the message, but they need to talk in private. 

Pycelle dismisses his servant, and Tyrion informs Pycelle that he has two copies of an urgent letter for Prince Doran Martell, and he’ll need Pycelle’s fastest birds to fly to Dorne to deliver the message. Tyrion hands Pycelle the paper and asks him to hustle his ass up to go send the bird to Dorne.

The Grand Maester shuffles off slowly with the messages, and Tyrion notices that the Grand Maester’s chain doesn’t have many of the common metals. Instead, it’s all blinged out with gemstones, silver, gold and platinum. Pycelle ends up walking so slow that Tyrion is able to finish his entire breakfast, and with all this free time, Tyrion can take a little ol’ peek at the “maze of shelves” that Pycelle has in his maester’s chambers. He sees hundreds of vials, milkglass bottles, jars, all well-labeled. He spies a couple of medicines/poisons, and then he grabs one little bottle off the top of the shelf, smiles and slips it up his sleeve.

When Pycelle returns from, um, totally delivering the messages, the Grand Maester tries to pry out what was in the messages, but Tyrion’s not about to tell Grand Maester Pycelle anything. Well, maybe Tyrion will tell the small council? No to that too. The small council advises the king. Also, no. Tyrion also won’t be telling Cersei either. She’s just so burdened by having to rule. 

“Ah,” the old man muttered into his plums. “Doubtless you have the right of it, my lord. It is most considerate of you to … spare her this … burden.”

“That’s just the sort of fellow I am. Considerate.”

Pycelle drones on about how Cersei is frail because she’s a lady, and Tyrion’s like uh, yeah, sure, my dude. So frail. But Tyrion must be going, you see. And if you get any message back from Doran, be sure not to inform anyone but Tyrion, okay, Pycelle? The Grand Maester says of course. He will only tell Tyrion.

One, Tyrion thought.

Tyrion walks out to the lower bailey of the Red Keep and meets up with a Bronn who’s observing some knights and men-at-arms training with blunted weapons. When Bronn doesn’t even notice some hot serving girls passing by, Tyrion teases Bronn about being too intent on the fighting which leads Bronn to say he’ll go purchase a sex worker for a copper if he wants to. 

“But one day my life may hang on how close I’ve watched your louts.”

You see, Bronn’s still training people to fight on Tyrion’s behalf, and he’s most impressed by this kid named Ser Tallad: a hedge knight. The problem is that Tallad fights with a rhythm, and that’s going to end up getting the knight killed one day down the road -- especially if Tallad ends up fighting Bronn. 

They head off across the bailey with Bronn looking #dank as the kids say and Tyrion feeling small and weird as he often does. Tyrion asks how many people have come to beg his audience, and Bronn says thirty. And to keep us on a brisker pace for this synopsis, let’s bullet-point who everyone is and what they want:

• Lady Tanda Stokeworth wants to have dinner with Tyrion in order to persuade Tyrion to wed her “slow-witted” daughter Lollys. Tyrion declines.
• A moneylender from Braavos wants to get repayment on a loan. Tyrion sends him onto Littlefinger.
• A riverlord’s come down to swear his allegiance to Joffrey and ask for more peasants after Lannister war criminals killed all his. Tyrion will see him tomorrow.
• Bakers, butchers and greengrocers demand that Tyrion provide them protection after a baker was killed by a mob which included gold cloaks. Tyrion says to send them off with his regrets.
• And then finally, Ser Alliser Thorne has arrived in King’s Landing bearing a rotten hand in a jar. Tyrion, who doesn’t like Ser Alliser, says to put him up in the worst room in the Red Keep, and he won’t see him anytime soon.

In the outer yard, Tyrion encounter Cersei who seems none-too-pleased to see her brother. Still, Tyrion thinks Cersei looks hawt this morning which … yeah,  those Lannister are fucked up like a football bat when it comes to their sibling relationships. She’s there with two kingsguard knights as well as Gyles Rosby, Hallyne the Pyromancer and Lancel Lannister: her cousin and new favorite who’d been recently promoted to knighthood. 

Tyrion asks where everyone’s off to, and Cersei says she’s going to go inspect the scorpions and spitfires on the walls, because she’s very keen on seeing the city defended unlike Tyrion. She states that Renly is on the march from Highgarden, moving up the kingsroad, and Tyrion’s like yeah, Varys told me too. Still, Tyrion’s not all that concerned about Renly. Sure, he’s got a massive army, but he could end up going to meet Tywin or Robb in battle, and he’s not going to be arriving anytime soon.

“Were I he,” Tyrion says. “I would do much as he is doing. Make my progress, flaunt my power for the realm to see, watch, wait. Let my rivals contend while I bide my own sweet time. If Stark defeats us, the south will fall into Renly’s hands like a windfall from the gods, and he’ll not have lost a man. And if it goes the other way, he can descend on us while we are weakened.”

Cersei isn’t happy about this. She demands that Tyrion demand that Tywin come back from Harrenhal. But Tyrion knows that’s stupid. Besides, Tywin wouldn’t listen to Tyrion or Cersei. But Cersei wants to know how and when Tyrion is going to free Jaime since he’s worth a hundred Tyrions which leads to Tyrion deflecting that question for a future subplot in ACOK. This then leads to Cersei thankfully riding away with her entourage chasing after her.

With Cersei gone, Tyrion thinks about Renly, and strangely Tyrion thinks Renly isn’t the greatest threat. He’s young and green -- having never been in battle. The greater concern is Stannis. Hell yeah. But Tyrion has no idea what Stannis is doing on Dragonstone. None of the spies Tyrion sent to Dragonstone returned, and Varys’ little birds in Stannis’ court had grown strangely silent too. But there had been sightings of Lysene war galleys off the coast, and there was word of sellsails gathering with Stannis on Dragonstone.

If Stannis attacks by sea while his brother Renly storms the gates, they’ll soon be mounting Joffrey’s head on a spike. Worse, mine will be beside him.

Tyrion thinks this a distressing thought. He’ll work to get Shae out of the city if that comes to pass. 

Back at his solar, Tyrion runs into Podrick Payne who stares at the ground when talking with Tyrion, telling the Hand of the King that Littlefinger is in his chambers. After teasing the boy a bit, Tyrion walks in and finds Lord Petyr “Sansa is gonna get you, sucker” Baelish sitting at a window seat watching Joffrey attempt to do some small animal murder for sport. Littlefinger states that Joffrey is terrible at doing murder on small animals and invites Tyrion to come watch with him, and the two observe Joffrey missing hares over and over again with crossbow bolts. Littlefinger tells Podrick that he should invest in pots as the castle will be overgrown with rabbits in the coming months due to all the ones that are evading Joffrey’s crossbow bolts.

Tyrion asks if Podrick can get Littlefinger some refreshment, but Littlefinger says no.

“Drink with the dwarf, it’s said, and you wake up walking the Wall.”

Have no fear, my lord, Tyrion thought, it’s not the Wall I have in mind for you.

Tyrion compliments Littlefinger on looking elegant today, but the Master of Coin fakes having his feelings hurt, saying that he should look elegant every day. And then Tyrion makes a rapid shift in the conversation:

"That's a handsome knife as well."

"Is it?" There was mischief in Littlefinger's eyes. He drew the knife and glanced at it casually, as if he had never seen it before. "Valyrian steel, and a dragonbone hilt. A trifle plain, though. It's yours, if you would like it."

"Mine?" Tyrion gave him a long look. "No. I think not. Never mine." He knows, the insolent wretch. He knows and he knows that I know, and he thinks that I cannot touch him.

The problem is that it’s not just that Littlefinger thinks Tyrion can’t touch him. Tyrion himself thinks that as he explains Littlefinger’s post-Tully backstory:

If ever truly a man had armored himself in gold, it was Petyr Baelish, not Jaime Lannister. Jaime's famous armor was but gilded steel, but Littlefinger, ah . . . Tyrion had learned a few things about sweet Petyr, to his growing disquiet.

Ten years ago, Jon Arryn had given him a minor sinecure in customs, where Lord Petyr had soon distinguished himself by bringing in three times as much as any of the king's other collectors. King Robert had been a prodigious spender. A man like Petyr Baelish, who had a gift for rubbing two golden dragons together to breed a third, was invaluable to his Hand. Littlefinger's rise had been arrow-swift. Within three years of his coming to court, he was master of coin and a member of the small council, and today the crown's revenues were ten times what they had been under his beleaguered predecessor . . . though the crown's debts had grown vast as well. A master juggler was Petyr Baelish.

So, wait, if they’re bringing in so much cash, why is the realm in such obscene debt, this fiscal conservative wants to know. Hmmmmm. And Tyrion’s investigations of the present show Littlefinger working to enhance the crown’s finances cleverly investing the crown’s gold in textiles, grain, ships, etc. And he’d put his own men into government jobs:

The Keepers of the Keys were his, all four. The King's Counter and the King's Scales were men he'd named. The officers in charge of all three mints. Harbormasters, tax farmers, customs sergeants, wool factors, toll collectors, pursers, wine factors; nine of every ten belonged to Littlefinger. They were men of middling birth, by and large; merchants' sons, lesser lordlings, sometimes even foreigners, but judging from their results, far more able than their highborn predecessors. 

Still, Littlefinger seemed so harmless. He had no major lords for patrons, no armies, no holdings, no prospects of a great marriage. And Tyrion doesn’t think he can touch him! Even if he is a traitor! Tyrion! C’mon man. You absolutely can. Regardless, Tyrion thinks he’ll maybe take the moderate move and remove some of Littlefinger’s dudes and replace them with his own men.

But Tyrion’s thoughts are interrupted by Littlefinger commenting that Joffrey finally killed one of the hares. Tyrion takes that opportunity to get to business. He asks how close Littlefinger is to the daughters of Hoster Tully, and Littlefinger’s all like, super fucking’ close, emphasis on the fuckin’. He totally super banged both Tully sisters like the hot dick that he is. Tyrion thinks that Littlefinger is lying about banging Catelyn, but maybe Cat was lying? No, Tyrion. Wrong. Catelyn is pure. 

All the same, Tyrion knows that Catelyn and Lysa don’t love him. So, he wants Littlefinger (who was so close to the Tully sisters) to pass on a proposal on his behalf. He tells Littlefinger that he wants Lysa to be brought back into the king’s peace. And in exchange for that, he’ll tell Lysa who Jon Arryn’s true killer is.

Littlefinger, suddenly feeling his pits going moist, gets all fidgety. Oh, oh, uh, well, uh, who could that possibly be!? But Tyrion’s not going to tell Littlefinger that. He needs Lysa’s friendship and her swords first. Littlefinger reports that Lysa’s got worries of her own. All those mountain clansmen are raiding in force and with good weapons.

“Distressing,” said Tyrion Lannister who had armed them.

But maybe Tyrion could help in exchange for Lysa swearing to Joffrey and ... Littlefinger cuts in and is like I know what you’re about to say, and there’s no fuckin’ way Lysa is going to march against Riverrun. But that’s not what Tyrion means. He’d rather have Lysa helping out against Stannis and Renly. And then she’ll get Jon Arryn’s killer and relief from the mountain clansmen. Hell, Tyrion will even throw in having Sweetrobin named as Warden of the East. Okay, fine, he’ll marry Sweetrobin to Myrcella too. There, what a bargain.

Littlefinger is surprised by this. Does the queen know? Tyrion shrugs grinning. Littlefinger laughs and says that Tyrion is a dangerous dude. Maybe he’ll do all of this for Tyrion. But what’s his reward? 

“Harrenhal.”

It was interesting to watch Littlefinger’s face. Lord Petyr’s father had been the smallest of small lords, his grandfather a landless hedge knight. Harrenhal was one of the richest plums in the Seven Kingdoms, its land broad and rich and fertile, its great castle as formidable as any in the realm … and so large as to dwarf Riverrun, where Petyr Baelish had been fostered by House Tully, only to be brusquely expelled when he dares raise his sights to Lord Hoster’s daughter.

Littlefinger pretends to be bored, saying that Harrenhal is cursed. But Tyrion’s like well just destroy it and repair it. You’ll have the cash for that. You’ll have the fealty of the river lords after all -- even the Tullys.

Littlefinger looked like a boy who had just taken a furtive bite from a honeycomb. He was trying to watch for bees, but the honey was so sweet.

Littlefinger tries to express skepticism, asking why Tyrion would make Littlefinger the greatest lord in Westeros. Well, because Littlefinger served so well “in the matter of the succession.” Ah, but Janos Slynt ‘served well” too. Yeah, yeah. But Tyrion didn’t need Janos. He needs Lysa. And he’d rather Petyr have Harrenhal than Renly have the Iron Throne.

Baelish says that he’ll have to go do the sex with Lysa again. But then he gives that wonderful line from AGOT. Remember the one:

“I once told Ned Stark that when you find yourself naked with an ugly woman, the only thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it.”

Littlefinger seems to make up his mind and asks for a fortnight to finish up his things in King’s Landing before he sails for Gulltown. He gets up to depart, thinking that this has been such a wonderful morning. Profitable even. He bows and leaves.

Two.

Tyrion heads up to the bedchamber to await Varys and thinks the eunuch better hustle his powdered ass up as he wants to go see Shae tonight. So, when Varys shows up an hour later, Tyrion is pleasantly surprised that the eunuch has arrived early.

As soon as Varys walks in, he jokes around with Tyrion saying that he was cruel to not tell Pycelle what was in the letter he dispatched. Tyrion says that’s ironic for you to say. But you wanna hear what my message to Doran was all about? No need. Varys already knows from his little birds. Doran Martell has called his banners but hasn’t done anything else. Maybe he’ll join up with Renly. Tyrion will want to prevent that, Varys says with the confidence of a CNN analyst.

Tyrion’s all like, duh. So, Varys wonders what Tyrion offered Doran Martell given that the Prince of Dorne still mourns for his sister Elia. Ah, well, Tyrion has offered up the empty small council seat so recently vacated by Janos “Edd fetch me a block” Slynt. Varys wonders if that’ll be enough to bring the Dornish to heel. But Tyrion has another notion for that. He’s going to give Doran Martell his sister Elia’s killers -- alive or dead after the war.

This piques Varys’ interest. The master of whisperers knows who it was that killed Elia, and Tyrion knows too. It was an open secret at Casterly Rock that Gregor Clegane was the culprit. And even though Gregor is Tywin’s man, Tywin will so totally make the rational call and exchange Gregor for 50,000 Dornish spears. Varys considers this and muses that Doran may want the blood of the lord who gave the command. What about that?

“Robert Baratheon led the rebellion. All commands came from him, in the end.”

“Robert was not at King’s Landing.”

“Neither was Doran Martell.”

Varys says huh. So, you’re going to give blood and a council seat for the Dornish to join up with the Lannisters. But will Doran take you up on the offer? He might want more. A token of good faith? 

Tyrion sighed. “You know, don’t you?

“Sine you put it that way -- yes. Tommen. You could scarcely offer Myrcella to Doran Martell and Lysa Arryn both.”

Tyrion, doing some great acting here, says that he’s irritated that Varys cheats at these games. He wants to get Tommen away from Cersei and Joffrey. He’s a good boy. He can grow to be a good man if he gets away from them, Varys remarks. Maybe even a good king, yeah? But Tyrion’s not there yet. Joff is still the king to him. But Varys knows Tommen is the heir, and he’s so very sweet and tractable.

The problem, as Varys points out, is that Cersei won’t want to part with Tommen or Myrcella. Tyrion can’t send both away. Ah, but Cersei can’t know. And that’s why you can’t tell her, Varys. And if he does tell Cersei, Tyrion will know Varys to be his worst enemy.

When Varys giggled, Tyrion thought, Three.

And that is ACOK, Tyrion IV! Call me crazy, but last week’s chapter on Bran II was full of wholesome good faith/hard-nosed northern politics with lords jostling for position and power. But ultimately, everyone is working together (save for the Boltons). There’s a level of trust. Here, oh no. This is gangster land, and you gotta be a gangster to make it out of here alive. What’d you think, Emmett? 

Depth

All these early Tyrion chapters are great, but this is the best of the best. Tyrion IV is the Led Zeppelin IV, if you will, where all the elements from the previous chapters coalesce perfectly and attain new heights of political intrigue and intricate plotting. We could spend hours just praising the structure of it, as George keeps us dancing with specifics throughout the chapter before pulling the rug out at the very end with the reveal of what Tyrion’s been up to all along.

But every detail along the way is notable in its own right, which is what allows this chapter to hold up so well on reread. It’s not just the gotcha at the end, it’s the context around that gotcha, and the density is key to making that context work. The accumulation of details at a take-no-prisoners momentum is what keeps me coming back to Scorsese’s gangster pictures as a reference point (including now The Irishman), but this approach is common to most of the art I love in general. It’s both overflowing with details and hurtling ahead at lightspeed!

That level of granularity in Tyrion’s chapters is what makes them fun reads but what also makes them places where we need to not let our eyes glaze over. George plants seeds for larger plot movements with small mentions. In Tyrion II, we saw that with Varys doing the listicle of small matters that Tyrion needs to address as Hand of the King. In Tyrion IV, we have Bronn fulfilling the role, listing off seemingly smaller matters here that will payoff down the road. 

This is George’s skill as a writer at work: there are no unimportant matters. All of them have direct, fully-imagined consequences down the road, or they work as seedlings for George to garden into full-blown future plot-points -- plot-points which won’t germinate into full grown gardens until later books. It’s similar to Bran II from last week and how George seeds future story points that won’t manifest themselves until ADWD and even TWOW. But those aren’t the only parallels between Tyrion and Bran.

• Tyrion v. Bran as political POVs
  • It’s wild coming to Tyrion IV after Bran II, because they have so much in common terms of structure but are so different in terms of the POV character arc
  • In both cases, George takes us through a series of political figures, each with their own angle on the ever-shifting power plays of Westeros at war
  • Bran talks with Lord Wyman, Lady Hornwood, the Umber Uncles, etc. and Tyrion talks with Pycelle, Littlefinger, Varys, etc.
  • And in both cases, we have this fledgling regime trying to hold onto its legitimacy and secure needed allies, while also determining who is and isn’t trustworthy
  • But while Bran is a good lad struggling to reshape his identity in a complex hostile world, Tyrion is an ambiguous figure working to stay atop said complex hostile world
  • Bran has on his side Ser Rodrik and Maester Luwin, who are well-intentioned patriots who love him, even though (as we said with Steven) their decisions aren’t always the best
  • Tyrion has on his side Bronn, a merciless killer, and Podrick Payne, who can’t even meet his gaze
  • Rickon may aggravate Bran, but he’s nowhere near as much trouble as Cersei for Tyrion!
  • But of course, the primary difference is the age of our POVs and how that determines their level of engagement with the political maneuvering around them
  • Bran is just starting out, and so we see Winterfell politics through the eyes of someone longing for his childhood dreams to be restored instead
  • While Tyrion hasn’t had anywhere near this much power before, he’s old enough to have read quite a bit and observed players at work, especially his father
  • This is his dream, reading people like his favorite books and moving them around on the board, proving he can master the society that has rejected him
  • And while Bran, like Luwin and Rodrik, is locked into a reactive mode of thinking, Tyrion is on the offense, weaponizing intelligence and using his pawns’ strengths and weaknesses against them
  • If Bran’s chapters filter the politics through coming-of-age tropes, Tyrion’s chapters at their best burn right through Robert Caro to John le Carre, all in service of George showing us how adults handle political power
  • Last week, we emphasized how George is dispelling this notion of northern politics as pristine, everybody works together for the common-good of the realm.
  • Still, when we flash over to King’s Landing in the very next chapter, we do get the strong sense of a different type of game being played.
  • And while it is worth emphasizing that the playing of the game of thrones in King’s Landing requires a degree of cunning, deception and mistrust that Winterfell doesn’t at least automatically require, it’s more than just the locations, histories and cultures at work in why the game feels different. 
  • It comes down to Bran and Tyrion’s individual POVs on the game of thrones.
  • Bran: Bran had never asked to be a prince. It was knighthood he had always dreamed of; bright armor and streaming banners, lance and sword, a warhorse between his legs. Why must he waste his days listening to old men speak of things he only half understood?  Because you're broken, a voice inside reminded him. A lord on his cushioned chair might be crippled—the Walders said their grandfather was so feeble he had to be carried everywhere in a litter—but not a knight on his destrier. Besides, it was his duty. "You are your brother's heir and the Stark in Winterfell," Ser Rodrik said, reminding him of how Robb used to sit with their lord father when his bannermen came to see him.
  • Vs Tyrion: It is real, all of it, he thought, the wars, the intrigues, the great bloody game, and me in the center of it . . . me, the dwarf, the monster, the one they scorned and laughed at, but now I hold it all, the power, the city, the girl. This was what I was made for, and gods forgive me, but I do love it . . .
  • We need to consider: why these two are playing the game of thrones.
  • Bran views his role as Prince of Winterfell in Stark terms: as a duty while Tyrion loves the game for its own sake and for how it compensates for his physical disability, making him feel powerful, loved and respected: a very Lannister perspective as we learn from Tywin and we’ll see in action come Cersei in AFFC.
• Playing politics with Pycelle
  • We begin, appropriately, on the bottom, with the least impressive member of the Small Council now that Tyrion has gotten rid of Janos Slynt
  • At every turn in this scene, Tyrion sees right through Pycelle, manipulating him with such ease that he allows his mind to drift to the food, whereas with Littlefinger and Varys his internal monologue stays focused on them
  • And while he makes fun of them as he does of Pycelle, he also expresses a reluctant respect for their abilities. Not the case here! Tyrion has pure contempt for Pycelle, and enjoys fucking with him on that basis
  • I wonder if part of this is that Tyrion knows Pycelle is Tywin’s toady, and is passing on his hatred for his father
  • If Tyrion is Tywin writ small, mayhaps this is how Tywin views Pycelle too.
  • Oh sure, Pycelle is a total Lannister toady, counseled Aerys to open the gates to Tywin, helped Cersei bring down Ned Stark, etc
  • But Tywin seems none too fond of Pycelle, sarcastically deriding him as the “venerable Grand Maester” back in AGOT, Tyrion IX and otherwise acting like Pycelle is a nuisance in the spots that they’re together in ASOS.
  • Regardless, it’s fun for us to read Tyrion mocking Pycelle’s hypocrisy, his shallow sentiments, the transparency of his desire to get access to privileged information
  • Of course, it also reveals how cynical Tyrion is--hence his comment about eating whatever food is available now, lest it not be on the morrow
  • This entire chapter takes place in the context of the Lannister regime’s fragility, of the possibility that this will all collapse around them very soon
  • Tyrion hurries Pycelle away from his table with the specter of Stannis and Renly, both of whom haunt this chapter, ready to crash down on the Lannister crew
  • Pycelle pushes back in the name of Cersei and Joffrey, but Tyrion deftly dodges him with a definition of power that puts him in charge: the council is subordinate to the king, who by virtue of his age, is subordinate to his Hand
  • You could easily reach a different definition, one that puts Cersei in charge, but Tyrion bowls right over Pycelle (not even letting him finish a sentence) and gives him a blast of the ol’ mismatched eyes to intimidate him
  • He also takes advantage of Pycelle’s misogyny while internally disagreeing that Cersei is a “frail dove” (see also Catelyn using Cersei as a counter-example to Rickard Karstark’s claim that women are “the gentler sex” 
  • Plotwise, all we learn from this is that Tyrion is sending some kind of message to the Martells; unlike his proposals later in the chapter to Littlefinger and Varys, we don’t learn the details, because this is the real one, so we’ll learn more later
  • But Tyrion also has to keep the details secret because he specifically needs to know if Pycelle is outright reading messages, rather than just passing on hearsay
  • Amusingly (and skipped over in the synopsis tbh), Tyrion observes a black bird flying away. So, Pycelle sends one raven away to keep up the pretense that he’s doing as Tyrion bids
  • But maybe Tyrion should have known that Pycelle immediately betrayed him by the fact that it was one bird, instead of two: Pycelle moved so slowly that Tyrion had time to finish his egg and taste the plums—overcooked and watery, to his taste—before the sound of wings prompted him to rise. He spied the raven, dark in the dawn sky
  • Remember: Tyrion had two copies of the letter and wanted two birds sent out: "One letter, in two copies. Send your swiftest birds. The matter is of great import."
  • So, for all of Tyrion’s cunning, we get a small hint that Tyrion may not be as great a player as he imagines himself to be.
• Power walk with Bronn
  • Before Bronn brings Tyrion up to speed, we get the lil comic moment with Bronn choosing to watch the swordplay rather than hit on the ladies
  • As with Pycelle and food, there’s this contrast of the needs of the war with the flesh-bound needs of the individual; Bronn knows where his bread is buttered
  • He’s even more cynical than Tyrion, watching the men train not so he can help out the Lannister side, but because he knows that in a civil war, he could easily end up on the other side of the war from them
  • His West Wing walk-and-talk meeting with Tyrion gets at what we’ve talked about before: ACOK is not only about power, but about different conceptions of power and how they compete both in-universe and for our attention as readers
  • Comic interludes about marriage prospects for Tyrion exist alongside reports of starvation inside the city and war crimes outside it, and the point is that for Tyrion and Bronn, there’s no difference; all are items on the agenda with no moral valence 
  • George makes you understand why Tyrion has adopted this mindset without necessarily excusing it; he takes you through the logic of the decision-making while also making you aware of the callousness of many of these decisions
  • His response to his father’s string of atrocities in the Riverlands? “I believe they call that war.” This is the same mindset that led Tyrion to plan on reducing the Vale to a smoking wasteland to work out his private vendetta with the Arryns
  • He also has no concern whatsoever about the people starving, nor the mobs they’re forming to work out brutal justice on those withholding food from them
  • There’s always a short-term crude-Machiavellian logic to Tyrion’s moves here
  • Tyrion’s Tywin-esque machiavellianism as his moral center here in ACOK works as terrific foreshadowing for what Tyrion will become in ADWD.
  • There’s no machiavellian “greater good” dynamic at work in Tyrion’s cyvasse game with Young Griff where he manipulates the boy to invade Westeros without Daenerys or her dragons. 
  • Instead, as you’ve written, Tyrion plays Young Griff for nihilistic kicks, enjoying the game for its own sake -- quite the Littlefingerian move as you and folks like Adam Feldman have pointed out.
  • One of my appreciations for ACOK is noticing George working at the margins of Tyrion’s story to make his future villain turn palatable.
  • This is how good character twists work: making a sympathetic character have little wrinkles in their outlook that you side-eye for the moment but push aside, because Tyrion is our protagonist in ACOK! 
  • But it’s all setup for the future dark turn George had in mind for Tyrion in ADWD.
  • He’s the villain after all as George said in a 1999 interview right around the time ACOK was published.
  • He’s not wrong that compliant riverlords have their uses, that Littlefinger can deal with creditors better than Joffrey, that feeding the mob today guarantees a bigger one tomorrow, etc.
  • But every step along the way, George is pointing out the long-term effects of this way of approaching politics, and none of them are good
  • The starvation gets worse, the gold cloaks are joining the mob, Joffrey being a loose cannon who always has to be managed is bad news in the long run…
  • ...and above all, right at the end of this scene, Tyrion brushes off word of the apocalypse, because he doesn’t like the messenger
• Cersei, too, is here
  • Speaking of petty personal ego swamping all other concerns, here’s Cersei!
  • She’s not as involved in what’s happening as she will be in the next few Tyrion chapters, but we still get that great Tyrion-Cersei dialogue, where they immediately piss each other off and start poking at wounds
  • That’s not to say they’d ever be allies--as Tyrion notes, Cersei was never going to be happy about how he handled Janos Slynt
  • But that they’re constantly at each other’s throats is bad for the Lannister cause in general, and I can’t exactly say Tywin makes it any better in ASOS
  • I do like the pattern of Cersei constantly being a step behind Tyrion in terms of intelligence gathering; Tyrion will do something or learn something, and Cersei will react to it a chapter or two later
  • This produces comic moments like Cersei telling Tyrion she’s more concerned about the defenses than him, while we know on reread about the chain
  • To give Cersei credit, she’s right that taking the Redwyne hostages was a significant contribution to the Lannister cause
  • But as Tyrion notes, Loras Tyrell was the bigger fish to fry, and everywhere else, he’s on a deeper level: he knows it’s dumb to bring Tywin’s army to KL, he understands Renly’s strategy, and also knows why Stannis is more of a threat
  • Again, Martin us is immersing us in his understanding of politics via Tyrion
• Playing politics with Littlefinger
  • Littlefinger is introduced in the most over-the-top villainous fashion, with his plum doublet and yellow cape, sitting back to watch the king kill animals for fun
  • Ain’t that Joffrey in a nutshell--pointless bloodletting, and not even effective at it in a Maegor sort of way. He almost castrates one of his own Kingsguard!
  • As with Tyrion’s jarring lack of concern for the hellscape we’ve seen up close in Arya’s last chapter, this frames the politicking; even as George draws us into the details of Tyrion’s plans, he never wants us to forget the king it’s all supporting
  • Littlefinger’s response is the most Littlefinger thing ever: invest in pots. Monetize the rot! Always be closing, even as Rome burns! Castles are for winners!!
  • And Littlefinger is someone who always thinks through the double-implications of his words--hence “True killer? I confess, you make me curious”
  • So this opening statement of ideology is his shot across Tyrion’s bow, his way of differentiating himself from someone like Pycelle: I am not to be trifled with!
  • And Tyrion knows it, even as he goes on to manipulate him
  • After all, this is personal, not just business; Tyrion knows that Littlefinger framed him, and Littlefinger knows Tyrion knows, and isn’t concerned in the slightest
  • Part of this is the thrill Littlefinger gets from courting disaster; part is, to be honest, George’s thumb on the scale keeping Tyrion from executing Littlefinger
  • But it’s also grounded in the material realities of government in King’s Landing, in which Littlefinger has invested so much (literally and otherwise) over the years
  • To come back to the comparison to Bran II: this is Littlefinger playing the Wyman Manderly role, the modern financial thinker out to vertically integrate the state
  • The crown’s money will not simply sit in the vault like a dragon’s hoard, no! The crown must become lender, landlord, speculator, a central cog in all industries
  • And this is indeed how a federal state can evolve into an early modern one
  • The problem is that Littlefinger is going considerably farther than Wyman’s benign patriotic profiteering; he’s rigging the entire government to explode
  • Nothing in his books is reliable (as Tyrion learns in ASOS) because all the people who would tell on him owe him their jobs, and knowing him, their lives
  • Wyman wants to help his new kingdom grow and become secure; Littlefinger wants to be able to cripple the central government at will on behalf of his new patron, which by the time of TWOW is to be Queen Sansa of North and Vale
  • As we’ve said before, it’s a gruesome take on rags-to-riches stories in fantasy, with the scrappy intelligent lower-class kid working his way to the top, but with no aim beyond destruction and jealous possession
  • Something I’m curious about is what was Littlefinger doing between 282 and 289 AC.
  • We only know that Littlefinger went back to the Fingers after Hoster Tully sent him away from Riverrun, and we know he wrote Catelyn a letter at some point in between these years, but we have no idea what else was going on.
  • But then he suddenly reappears in 289 AC when Lysa entreats on Jon Arryn to summon him as a customs officer in Gulltown.
  • And he turns out to be an economic prodigy.
  • My theory: driven by his burning hatred of Hoster Tully and the nobility, he makes a grand study of the nobility and determines that the nobles are shit at finance.
  • Then he finds people who were talented in these arenas and puts them into positions of power, making them his allies, using monetary corruption as his leverage point:
  • They were men of middling birth, by and large; merchants' sons, lesser lordlings, sometimes even foreigners, but judging from their results, far more able than their highborn predecessors.
  • I wonder whether these men are aware that they are co-conspirators with Littlefinger’s plan to bring Westeros crashing down on the nobles or are kind of like the mob from The Dark Knight: Guys who are just interested in enriching themselves off a rotten system who don’t realize who or what they’re dealing with.  
  • And he’s made sure along the way to make himself indispensible to his current patrons by a) being the only one to understand finance and b) presenting himself as unthreatening, lower class, disreputable...the kind of guy who knows finance
  • By the time someone with a more jaundiced eye than Cersei or Tywin comes along, it’s too late, especially with a war on...a war Littlefinger helped instigate
  • All of which goes to explain why Tyrion feels he cannot touch him
  • Instead, he hopes to make use of him, but he’s not going to be a pushover like Pycelle; here we find Tyrion shifting his strategy to meet this new target
  • Where Tyrion cut Pycelle off, he spars with Littlefinger; where Tyrion’s mind wandered while Pycelle blathered, he runs over Littlefinger’s dossier constantly
  • That’s how he’s able to zero in on Lysa and Harrenhal as the keys to Littlefinger’s compliance; I love how George describes Tyrion’s awareness of Littlefinger’s tics
  • Both are extremely cynical; neither is considering Lysa as a person, both are lying throughout and Tyrion feigns distress about his own guerillas’ activities
  • We’ve moved on from Pycelle’s false pieties to a showdown of pure snark
• Playing politics with Varys
  • And now we arrive at the top of the mountain, the greatest player of them all
  • With Varys, we see Tyrion once more shifting his strategy: he bowled over Pycelle, he sparred on even terms with Littlefinger, but he goes blank for Varys
  • He knows that Varys will already have spied out the offers he made via Pycelle and Littlefinger, and rather than coming up with a false story Varys will see through, he allows Varys to reach his own (false) conclusion
  • This is so smart because it uses Varys’ primary advantage against him
  • Even with that deceit, there’s a certain candor here, more so than with Littlefinger and much more so than with Pycelle; many Tyrion chapters in ACOK have this structure, wherein he starts off with the mask intact and it gradually slips over the course of the chapter as he gets more frustrated and full of doubts and regrets
  • Here, he finally exposes his aim all along as the chapter ends: he wants to see who’s more loyal to Cersei than to him
  • It’s a brilliantly executed plan, and necessary given how Cersei conducts herself politically, as George helpfully reminds us in this chapter
  • But at the same time, you come back on reread and see how Tyrion is setting himself up for failure here
  • Pycelle will remember this, and it will prompt his damning testimony at the trial
  • Littlefinger, too, will act with renewed vengeance to bring Tyrion down, and ironically sets out to ensure that he still gets Harrenhal and Lysa’s hand
  • Even Tyrion’s genuine offer to the Martells, smart as it is, opens up a huge can of worms we’re still seeing unfold into the released chapters of TWOW
  • And again, it’s all against the backdrop of Joffrey as sadistic child king and the threat of the Others going ignored. How much good is Tyrion doing?

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Tyrion will use that poison on Cersei a couple chapters from now, and it will come up in his trial in ASOS. Tyrion’s plot in King’s Landing seems pretty well plotted out from the start of ACOK.

The lack of food coming into King’s Landing will pay off in a big way with the bread riots in Tyrion IX!

The Stokeworth plot also crops up again there with the fate of poor Lollys, which then is used to motivate Bronn during Tyrion’s trial and throughout AFFC. Along the same foreshadowing line, there’s also this line Tyrion says to Bronn in reference to marrying Lollys:

"Perhaps you should eat the goose and marry the maid.”

Do you think GRRM had the idea that Bronn would marry Lollys in mind when he wrote ACOK?

The Braavosi moneylenders also return with a vengeance in AFFC, though it’s not the Iron Bank just yet.

Ser Tallad is another element that George introduces here and makes use of later, as Shae’s escort and then as one of those accused of being Margaery’s lovers.

Theory/Discussion

As good as this chapter is, let us praise the scene on the show, which is even better. Gasp!

Conclusion

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