Episode 42: A GAME OF THRONES, TYRION VI: "Blood Debts" 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 our forty-second episode of the Not A Cast entitled: “Blood Debts: An Analysis of AGOT, Tyrion VI,” in which Tyrion reveals his brutal backstory to his new friend Bronn before making a bunch of new friends among the locals. This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: Hand of the King WolfmanZack, Grand Maester Timothy W, Jancy O, Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch, Lords Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N, Lord Travis the Investigator, Master of Ships, Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes, and Ragged Michael, Warden of the North. Thank you ladies and gentlemen! 

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! Also, this chapter has frank discussions of sexual assault and rape in it. We will endeavor to treat these matters with the sensitivity they require, but we don’t want anyone to get blindsided by our discussion of it.

Question

Ser Josh B, a Sworn Sword asks:

Hey Guys, I just got caught up with the current episodes over the holiday, and I wanted to expand on Manu’s question about the Battle of Ice & the Battle of Fire in TWOW that you answered at the beginning of episode 39. I think there are two of three other conflicts that need to be looked at also. First we have Aegon & the Golden Co battle for Storms End (probably in Jon Con chapter between Arianne I & II). Next there is the sea battle between Euron / the Ironborn vs. the Tyrells / Redwynes (hinted at in the ADWD epilogue & the Forsaken chapters). Lastly we may see (as I think you have discussed before) in the TWOW prologue a battle in the Westerlands between the Lannisters escorting Edmure T. & Jayne W. to Casterly Rock vs. Brotherhood w/out Banners / Stoneheart / the Blackfish (the wolf pack? etc) I think you covered a lot of this in the Patreon episode about why (you think)TWOW was delayed. Have you seen the analysis of what TWOW might look like done but AdmiralKird in his video: “How Can The Winds of Winter fit into The Winds of Winter.?” regarding the limits of keeping TWOW to one book. If we can agree on the general analysis he does and if we have approximately 79 chapters to play around with . . .

How many chapters will be spent on these 4 to 5 battles (including published preview chapters)???

(ICE: 3-5?; FIRE: 6+?; Storm Lands: 3-5?; Euron’s Sea Battle: 2-4?; Westerlands: 1) That could be a quart of the book without any POVs from our “main characters” all of our various Starks / Lannisters/ Danny (& supporting cast: Sam / Davos/ Mel / Areo). (I’m sorry this is probably way too big of a topic for a regular show question, but I’ve been thinking a lot about what to expect in TWOW & Manu’s question got me thinking.)

• Riverlands Prologue/Potential Ambush: One chapter
• Battle of Storm’s End: One chapter, probably JonCon’s first chapter
  • Originally, the Battle of Storm’s End was going to occur off-page, but at Worldcon 2011, GRRM stated that the battle “really should be seen”, but he hadn’t written that chapter yet.
• Battle between Reachmen and Golden Company: Two to four chapters (Mixture of Arianne and JonCon POVs)
  • Okay, so this is a little confusing. So, bear with me as I get a bit into the weeds on things. 
  • In 2010, GRRM indicated that the two Arianne chapter he wrote for ADWD would be cut to TWOW. He also stated that now he didn’t have write Arianne’s third chapter or another partially-written chapter from another POV that would complement Arianne’s third chapter.
    • So, that’s confusing, but the two Arianne chapters are the ones we got as samples in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
    • As for that partially-written complementary chapter is almost certainly a JonCon chapter (a different one from his Battle of Storm’s End chapter -- remember, George is writing this entry in 2010. He decides to write a Battle of Storm’s End chapter in 2011). And then Arianne’s third chapter after that.
    • My guess is that the chronology would go something like this:
      • Arianne I
      • JonCon I (The Stormlord): Battle of Storm’s End
      • Arianne II
      • Jon Con II: And here, I think JonCon would meet Arianne before she met Aegon and determine that she presented both opportunity and a huge problem for Aegon. Sure, she could bring Dorne onto the side of Aegon, but Connington’s pretty set on Aegon marrying Daenerys in ADWD
      • Arianne III: Aegon and Arianne meet. Aegon gets smitten over Arianne. Maybe they bang. Maybe Aegon promises to marry her if she brings Dornish spears to Aegon’s side. JonCon would be all angry and JonCon-like. Also figure we’ll see a war council over what to do now that Mace Tyrell and his army are marching against him.
      • JonCon III: Westerosi Agincourt
• Battle of Blood: One chapter, Damphair’s final chapter in ASOIAF
  • GRRM confirmed that “The Forsaken” would not be Aeron Greyjoy’s only TWOW chapter. I think his next one is his final one. RIP to our moist priest.
  • And from there, Sam takes over as our POV on Euron’s movements. Gotta imagine he gets 3 or at most 4 chapters in Oldtown before then, though he has plenty to cover
    • Sad that we’ll never get our Willas or Garlan Tyrell POV chapter tho as GRRM stated as recently as 2016 that he hasn’t seen the need to expand his cast of POV characters. But you never know!

Summary

Tyrion and Bronn take refuge off the high road and prepare for a long, cold night in the mountains. But Tyrion is acting all Tyrion-like, gathering firewood for the evening. And Bronn is acting all Bronn-like wondering what the fuck Tyrion is doing thinking to start a fire. He wants to survive the journey, not get himself killed by the Mountain Clansmen.

And how do you hope to do that, Tyrion asks, looking for more firewood.

Well, Bronn hopes to sneak his way through the high road, riding hard by night and sheltering during the day. Sounds like a good plan, right? Ha, no. Tyrion retorts that they’ll end up taking their horses over cliffs or killing them in the process. And they aren’t going to last long on foot. Oh, and the clans almost certainly know they’re here. So, Bronn, you’ll end up dying, and Tyrion won’t bury him if he dies. So, go hunt Bronn and bring back some supper, will you?

Bronn threatens to abandon Tyrion by his fire, but Tyrion is unalarmed. While Bronn would let Tyrion die if he saw profit in it, the dwarf is much more valuable alive. In essence, if Bronn lets Tyrion die, he won’t get paid. And Bronn’s gotta get paid. Tyrion saw that when Bronn stood for him at his Trial by Combat. 

Duty, honor, friendship, what’s that to you? No, don’t trouble yourself, we both know the answer. Still, you’re not stupid. Once we reached the Vale, Lady Stark had no more need of you... but I did, and the one thing the Lannisters have never lacked for is gold. When the moment came to toss the dice, I was counting on your being smart enough to know where your best interest lay. Happily for me, you did.

Bronn grumbles a bit before saying, okay, sure, yeah. He’s Tyrion’s man, but he ain’t no toady. Of course you aren’t Bronn. But if Bronn was ever tempted to betray Tyrion by selling him out, the dwarf would match the price any of his would-be enemies would offer him.

Bronn heads off to hunt and returns with a goat. The boys roast it over a fire and enjoy it. Oh, and Tyrion, BTW, what’s your plan for keeping us alive when the Mountain Clansmen come? Oh, about that. Tyrion doesn’t have a plan. He just has a hope. He’s going to roll the dice again with their lives as the stake. And what if they somehow survive their journey? What will Tyrion do then?

“Oh, a whore and a featherbed and a flagon of wine, for a start.” Tyrion held out his trencher, and Bronn filled it with meat. “And then to Casterly Rock or King’s Landing, I think. I have some questions that want answering, concerning a certain dagger.”  

Wait, Tyrion wasn’t behind the dagger attack against Bran? Of course he wasn’t, you puddle of illiteracy. 

Tyrion wonders where the clansmen are, and Bronn thinks they suspect a trap. So, Tyrion starts to whistle The Seasons of My Love. You see this was a tune that Tyrion was intimately familiar with. The first girl he ever slept with sang the song to him. And now, we get perhaps the most significant part of Tyrion’s backstory: his marriage to Tysha. 

Some thirteen or so years before Tyrion was on the high road with Bronn, Jaime and Tyrion were riding in the Westerlands when they came across a girl who was under attack by men. Jaime chased the men off and rode after to pursue. Meanwhile, Tyrion comforted the girl, bathing and feeding her in a nearby inn. There, he learned her name. Tysha: a crofter’s daughter. And he lost his virginity to her. She lost hers to him too. And after, she sang Seasons of My Love.

And then the bombshell. Tyrion didn’t just bed Tysha. He married her. Bronn is in disbelief. A Lannister of Casterly Rock married a crofter’s daughter? Absurdly enough, Tyrion did, having bribed a septon to officiate. But then Tywin found out, he meted out a horrific punishment on Tyrion for his “crime.” And because I am firmly in the camp that believe that Tywin is one of the worst people in all of ASOIAF, and that his crimes too often get overlooked by the fandom. And furthermore, I believe that crimes of Tywin’s magnitude should not be papered over, here’s Tyrion’s full-account of what happened:

“First he made my brother tell me the truth. The girl was a whore, you see. Jaime arranged the whole affair, the road, the outlaws, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman. He paid double for a maiden, knowing it would be my first time. After Jaime had made his confession, to drive home the lesson, Lord Tywin brought my wife in and gave her to his guards. They paid her fair enough. A silver for each man, how many whores command that high a price? He sat me down in the corner of the barracks and bade me watch, and at the end she had so many silvers the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling on the floor, she...” The smoke was stinging his eyes. Tyrion cleared his throat and turned away from the fire, to gaze out into darkness. “Lord Tywin had me go last,” he said in a quiet voice. “And he gave me a gold coin to pay her, because I was a Lannister, and worth more.”

It’s so utterly wretched and evil what Tywin did Tysha. We’ll talk a bit more about Tyrion’s more complex role in this awful affair, but Tywin: fuck you from the bottom of both Emmett’s and my heart. 

But now Tyrion is sleepy. Bronn says he’ll take first watch. As Tyrion sleeps, he has a nightmare about the sky cell. He awakens to Bronn’s urgent, low voice. Shadows approach from around the campsite. The Mountain Clansmen have arrived.

Tyrion offers to share the goat that they’re eating, but one of the clansmen tells Tyrion that it’s their goat, their mountain. Tyrion asks who they are.

When you meet your gods, say it was Gunthor son of Gurn of the Stone Crows who sent you to them.

The clansman draws his knife, and Shagga, son of Dolf, joins the other clansman. Tyrion introduces himself, stating that he’ll pay the clansmen for the goat. They have silver. Well, that silver belongs to the clansmen though and so too the horses, their armor and swords. They only have their lives to pay with. And how would Tyrion like to die?

In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden’s mouth around my cock at the age of eighty, Tyrion snarks.

Gotta hand it to Tyrion. He is brave. And the clansmen recognize his bravery and wit. They’ll keep Tyrion alive, but Bronn will die. Bronn prepares to defend himself, but Tyrion starts talking again, talking about how the clansmen aren’t brave, and their weapons are shit. His father’s blacksmiths can shit better steel than they currently own.

Shagga gets pissed at Tyrion, threatening to chop off Tyrion’s manhood and feed it to the goats (we will hear Shagga say this a time or two), but Gunthor would hear Tyrion out. Will Tyrion give the clansmen swords, lances and mail?

All that and more, Gunthor, son of Gurn. I will give you the Vale of Arryn.

And wham-bam that is AGOT, Tyrion VI: talk about a fucking knock-out of a chapter. Really, Tyrion’s best chapter yet. And maybe, just maybe I’m changing my mind a little. It may be my favorite Tyrion chapter in AGOT. But we’ll see when we get to Tyrion VIII. I do love a good ASOIAF battle chapter. What did you think, Emmett?

Depth

So, yeah, this is probably my favorite Tyrion chapter in AGOT. I loved the last one in the Eyrie, we got the Tywin intro and the Battle of the Green Fork coming up in later Tyrion chapters, but there’s just something about the tone of Tyrion VI that puts it over the top. Or rather, tones, because for me this chapter is a great example of how to shift between tones. It starts off very jocular and fun, with Tyrion and Bronn trading banter as they await the clans, but then it turns very dramatic and ugly and sad with the Tysha backstory. The confrontation with the clans that closes the chapter could be said to combine the two, as the dialogue is once again humorous but the stakes have been raised considerably. I love how GRRM balances all this, demonstrating how comfortable he is with Tyrion’s headspace. 

• Gold for iron
  • The first issue Tyrion VI has to settle is the question of his relationship with Bronn
  • The latter saved the former’s life, but the author stresses repeatedly that this does not make them instant BFFs a la Jon saving Sam at Castle Black
  • Quite the opposite, as Bronn promptly threatens to abandon Tyrion to his death
  • Tyrion appeals not to mercy or friendship or even spiting Lysa; he appeals to cold hard cash, the gold that defines the Lannisters (in coin and appearance)
  • He contrasts himself with the Starks, who would’ve found a coin or two for Bronn but care far more about their servants being upstanding men like the Cassels
  • Tyrion is instead offering Bronn a job: a permanent bodyguard, motivated by keeping the money train going (as far as Bronn getting land, which is interesting…)
  • And while they aren’t friends, there’s an honesty of purpose here that you won’t find with the more haughty hypocritical nobles that we saw in the Vale 
  • Tyrion seems to think he has something in common with Bronn, that the latter’s un-sentimentality regarding Chiggen means the two are kindred spirits
  • As such, he can expose his cynicism about the entire feudal structure and be sure that Bronn, unlike the nobles of the Vale, will agree with him
  • At the same time, he’s mocking both Bronn and himself as “scum” who have abandoned the higher principles that the Starks etc. aspire to
  • Here, we see the struggle between the Tyrion who shook Jon’s hand and helped out Bran v. the Tyrion who will kill Symon Silvertongue to keep Shae a secret
  • In the background, you have a nice bit of business about setting a fire that grounds this dynamic in the day-to-day realities of feudal service
  • Tyrion needs a replacement for the guys who used to make his fires, and Bronn needs someone who will pay him to make that fire
  • As such, Bronn starting the fire symbolizes him accepting Tyrion’s offer
• Seasons of my love
  • With that tension out of the way and Tyrion’s next step on the table (“I have some questions that want answering, concerning a certain dagger”), we now turn to another pressing question: why is Tyrion Lannister like this?
  • What made him so cynical about everything and so determined that the only relationships he can have are those mediated by Lannister gold? (See also Mord)
  • We get our answer in the form of the Tysha backstory, which has to be talked about with precision, because it’s a brutally difficult scene to read but it couldn’t be more important to both Tyrion’s character and the themes of the series
  • This is Tyrion’s equivalent to Jaime’s story about Aerys and the wildfire; in both cases, a Lannister man is unburdening himself to a ferocious fighter keeping him safe (Brienne for honor, Bronn for money) despite not knowing them that well, just out of the need to get a story off their chest that fundamentally changes how we see them as a character
    • Interesting that Tyrion tells the story to two people of inconsequential birth and low social standing: Bronn in AGOT and Shae in ACOK.
      • And it’s only when Jaime reveals the truth about Tysha in ASOS, does Tyrion reveal what Tywin did to her. He lashes out at Jaime with the story and then follows up by lashing out at him physically by slapping his formerly beloved brother.
  • GRRM segueways into the story with a discussion of a song, OF COURSE, because that’s how he always frames the loss of innocence
  • We’ve mostly been discussing the latter theme RE the young Starklings, but this is where it starts to apply to the somewhat older Tyrion
  • What really makes this work emotionally, as I always say, is the precise structure
  • As a first-time reader, you don’t know at first that this is a sad story; the only clue is “it was a clear cold night and the stars shone down upon the mountains as bright and merciless as truth.”
  • So at first, it’s just a heroic romantic story of the Lannister boys protecting a vulnerable young women from her cruel attackers
  • Jaime is all in a lather to hunt them down to demonstrate the Lannister monopoly on violence; seems like a parallel to the Liddle’s line about how the Stark-in-Winterfell is a promise that a maiden can stroll down the road naked
  • Tyrion confesses to having fallen in love with her, and Bronn’s bemused “you????” speaks for all of us. This cynical sarcastic guy was ever in love?
  • The first sign that it all went wrong is when Tyrion says he married her, because we’re in the present day and have seen no mention of a Lady Tysha Lannister 
  • Bronn points out the obvious class disparity, and of course, that applies to him and Tyrion as well; Tysha being Tyrion’s wife is as absurd as, well, a lowborn sellsword like Bronn becoming a knight and lord...but he will!
  • Tyrion bribes the septon, but the septon eventually goes to Tywin, encapsulating how Tyrion’s wealth can’t save him because it’s Tywin’s at the end of the day
  • Tyrion had this tiny oasis of happiness with Tysha, a cottage made of song
    • Per Gravity’s Rainbow: “It is marginal, hungry, chilly - most times they're too paranoid to risk a fire - but it's something they want to keep, so much that to keep it they will take on more than propaganda has ever asked them for. They were in love. Fuck the war.” 
  • And then Tywin steps in. Put yourself in Tysha’s shoes. The horror, the horror
  • The punchline: “Because I was a Lannister, and worth more.” That’s Tywin’s mindset, and this is what that mindset looks like in practice
  • Tywin sacrifices his son’s happiness, his daughter-in-law’s well-being, and the ideal of love itself on the altar of pride
  • This has convinced Tyrion that he can’t be loved and that everything is forever mediated by class and wealth; it’s another brick in the wall
  • Even the cold hard Bronn is horrified!
  • It led not to Tyrion learning a “sharp lesson,” but being determined to kill his father:
    • He dreamt of the sky cell. This time he was the gaoler, not the prisoner,  big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father, driving him back, toward the abyss…
  • Tyrion is certainly plays the role of a bit of a victim. However, however, and I guess let’s get controversial here for a second. Tyrion’s recollection of the event here, as horrifying as it is, perhaps doesn’t speak to what was going on in Tyrion’s head at the time as he thinks to himself while telling Shae the story in ACOK:
    • “And to take her one last time, after the rest were done. One last time, with no trace of love or tenderness remaining. "So you will remember her as she truly is," he said, and I should have defied him, but my cock betrayed me, and I did as I was bid.
    • So in Tyrion’s later recollection, it wasn’t that he was forced to participate in Tysha’s rape. His “cock betrayed him.”
      • Now, it’s important to note in the second wretched telling that Tyrion is indicating he had a choice in it, but how much was this his choice and how much is his guilt causing him to think it’s a choice when it really wasn’t is … it’s at least worth considering -- without excusing Tyrion’s role in it.  
• Meeting the mountain men
  • Flashback to the Prologue: shadows emerging from the woods to surround our valiant foolish swordsman 
  • The clansmen, as we’ll get more into in Tyrion’s next chapter, exist outside the social structure that trapped Tyrion and Tysha
  • They have a different structure: “Our mountain. Our goat.” 
  • “The halfman would pay us with our own coin,” because everything on the mountain is there
  • Tyrion jokes with them at first, but now we know the pain that lingers behind every sarcastic quip
  • In the end, he falls back on the same Lannister gold and name that he was just bemoaning; there is no way out
  • Much of this chapter is Martin’s continued window into Tyrion as a grayer character than the one we knew in his first four chapters.
    • In Tyrion V, we see Tyrion using his standing as the son of a great lord to get himself a favorable circumstance where he can prove his innocence.
    • In Tyrion VI though, Tyrion’s promise to the Mountain Clans of weapons, gold and “the Vale of Arryn” should make us do a double-take, because we’re seeing another side of Tyrion: his pride was wounded in the Vale -- both by the circumstances in which he made it up the mountain (Bronn carried him), but also in how Lysa and the rest of those monkey moron idiot Vale nobles treated him.
      • So, he’s willing to arm a violent faction to overthrow the existing political order in the Vale to satisfy his need for vengeance. And I really don’t think this was Tyrion just throwing the dice here.
        • My read is that he already has the clansmen in his pocket with his promise of gold and weapons. Tyrion promising the clansmen the Vale is Tyrion’s vindictive side coming out. And that has consequences.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

In ACOK, we see the fallout of Tyrion’s decision to arm the Mountain Clansmen when at a small council session, Littlefinger reports on what’s happening in the Vale:

Littlefinger stroked the neat spike of his beard. "Lysa has woes of her own. Clansmen raiding out of the Mountains of the Moon, in greater numbers than ever before . . . and better armed."

"Distressing," said Tyrion Lannister, who had armed them.

It’s not that I have any real love for Lysa, but who are the victims of Tyrion arming the Mountain Clansmen? Not Lysa and her toadies. They can sit high atop the Giant’s Lance, doing their foolishness in the Eyrie. 

No, it’s the smallfolk and travelers moving through the high road that are casualties to Tyrion’s need for vengeance as the villagers will tell Sandor and Arya in ASOS:

“There's the clans as well. The Burned Men are fearless since Timett One-Eye came back from the war. And half a year ago, Gunthor son of Gurn led the Stone Crows down on a village not eight miles from here. They took every woman and every scrap of grain, and killed half the men. They have steel now, good swords and mail hauberks, and they watch the high road—the Stone Crows, the Milk Snakes, the Sons of the Mist, all of them.” 

And of course, there’s that theory that Emmett and I are both fond of: that there will be an attack on the Vale at some point in TWOW when the clansmen try to take the prize they were promised by Tyrion. Damn, Tyrion. Just damn. When the high lords play their game of thrones, right?

Bronn snorted. “You have a bold tongue, little man. One day someone is like to cut it out and make you eat it.”

“Everyone tells me that.”

Shout out to our buddy Hamfast and the Quiet Lion theory!

“I’ve no doubt you’d betray me as quick as you did Lady Stark, if you saw a profit in it. If the day ever comes when you’re tempted to sell me out, remember this, Bronn—I’ll match their price, whatever it is.”

But of course, Tyrion can’t match Tywin’s price, because Tyrion gets his money from Tywin.

In-depth Discussion

Will we ever meet Tysha in the narrative? Is she the kind of backstory character that is bound to pop up in the modern day at some point (like Howland Reed), or the kind that remains firmly in the backstory (like....Ashara Dayne oh god is chloe listening)?

• Some people have said that the Sailor’s Wife is Tysha. This theory is, to put it charitably, stupid and ugly. The “sailor” in question is in all likelihood Tyrion’s favorite uncle Gerion. 
• Tyrion himself starts off ADWD wondering about “wherever whores go” as if it’s a clue
• It’s not, of course; it reflected not only Tywin’s lack of concern about humans outside his class, but also the universality of Tysha’s story. She’s everyone, and no one
• By the time Tyrion is himself clapped in chains, first by Jorah and then by the Yunkai’i, this mantra drops from his thoughts
• As such, I think Tysha faded into the crowd and will not be seen in ASOIAF
• I mean, I freaking hope not. The girl has already seen enough horror visited on her. Meeting up with Tyrion in the state that he’s in by the end of ADWD would be unhealthy at the very least for both of them.
• HOWEVER, back in 2015, GRRM said that Tyrion will find out “where whores go”. Whether this alludes to Tyrion meeting Tysha again or more a thematic touch remains to be seen.
• If you need a sympathetic character to keep these themes in Tyrion’s story and reflect how far he’s fallen, well...that’s what Penny’s there for, surely? She might be his daughter by Tysha, but that’s a discussion that will have to wait until ADWD!

Conclusion

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