Tyrion Lannister

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  • Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in HBO Game of Thrones

• General Notes
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    The youngest son of Tywin Lannister, the powerful Lord of Casterly Rock, Tyrion is known far and wide as the “Imp” or “Halman”.  Bearing the shame of being a misshapen dwarf, Tyrion makes up with wit and intelligence what he lacks in good looks or strength.  Tyrion’s legs are stunted and twisted, making walking for extensive periods painful, but his arms are surprisingly strong. His forehead bulges unflatteringly, and his eyes are mismatched, one the Lannister green and the other nearly black. His hair is a mixture of gold and platinum strands.
    
    Overall, Tyrion is a classical quick-witted trickster figure, intelligent, and a man who offers an observant perspective on the Court, his family, and other characters.  He is also prone to dark moods and depressions, however, as well as melancholy – which he often masks with wit and humorous cynicism.  His father, Lord Tywin, loathes Tyrion, and only their shared blood keeps Tywin from banishing or disowning Tyrion.  At various times, Jaime and (especially) Cersei Lannister have believed that they have a great deal of their father, Tywin Lannister, in their personalities, but it is in fact their brother, Tyrion, who is most like their father. This similarity in personality is deeply ironic, given Tywin's contempt for his son (and vice versa). Just before his father's death, when Tywin finally disowns Tyrion, Tyrion acknowledges their great similarities with a faux merriness, proving that Tywin is wrong: "I am you writ small, father."
    
    Tyrion is hated by Lord Tywin Lannister, who believes Tyrion’s dwarfism is a punishment from the gods for his sins, and who blames Tyrion for the death of his mother when she gave birth to him.  Tyrion also shares his father's talent for political maneuvering, yet he receives little respect from Lord Tywin because of his deformity, sharp tongue, and penchant for whoring.  Tyrion is detested by his sister, Cersei.  Ser Jaime has always treated him well, however, and the two have a mutual love and respect for one another.  Tyrion is capable of cruelty to his enemies, but he also has great sympathy for fellow outcasts and the mistreated.
    
    Early in life, Tyrion found himself ostracized from regular family life, and he sought his own entertainment. When he was 13, he and Jaime rescued a crofter's daughter, Tysha, from a compromising situation. Tysha found Tyrion pleasing, and they wed in secret. When Lord Tywin learned of this, he told Tyrion that she was a prostitute whom Jaime had hired for Tyrion's benefit. As punishment for the wedding, Lord Tywin then ordered Tysha to be gang-raped by a barracks of his guardsmen before Tyrion's eyes; after, he  forced Tyrion to do the same.  While each of the guards paid Tysha a silver coin, Tywin gave Tyrion a gold piece instead, because he "was a Lannister, and worth more."
    This incident scarred Tyrion mentally, but also brought him closer to his brother Jaime, the only person who ever showed kindness to him.
    
    Tyrion joined the royal family on their fateful trip to Winterfell, after which he visited The Wall with Jon Snow, Eddard Stark's bastard son. Jon and Tyrion came to be unlikely friends during this time, brought together by their common lot in life as outcasts.  Notably, while Tyrion was at the Wall, Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, tried to persuade Tyrion to join their brotherhood, stating that they could use a man like him.  Maester Aemon (well over 100 years old and blind, but still highly respected for his wisdom and ability) furthered this sentiment by referring to Tyrion as a true "giant". These statements surprised Tyrion, hinting that only a select few can appreciate Tyrion's true worth.
    
    On Tyrion's return south, he met Catelyn Stark at a roadside inn. She arrested him on suspicion of the attempted murder of her son Bran Stark, because the dagger used by the would-be assassin had once belonged to Tyrion.  Catelyn brought Tyrion to the Eyrie, seat of the deceased Jon Arryn and his widow, Lysa, Catelyn's sister. There, Lysa put Tyrion on trial for the attempted murder of Bran, as well as the murder of her late husband Jon Arryn – although Tyrion was innocent of both crimes.  Certain that he would not receive a fair trial, Tyrion escaped punishment with the victory of his champion, the sellsword Bronn, in a trial by combat.
    
    After leaving the Eyrie, he was accosted on the road by the mountain clans of the Vale, whom he recruited into his service with promise of steel and glory. Tyrion recruited his army because, traveling back to court at King's Landing, he knew that he would need his "own men" as personal protectors and insulation against his deceptive and hateful family members.  Tyrion recognized that, having these men (and some women) in his service was all that stood between himself and possible assassination attempts at the hands of Cersei while Tywin was away from King's Landing and at war with Robb Stark. Along with his new troops, Tyrion participated in the Battle of the Green Fork against Roose Bolton, Commander of Stark forces.
    
    Soon after the battle, Lord Tywin made Tyrion his temporary replacement as Hand of the King, but forbade Tyrion from indulging in his penchant for prostitutes. Tyrion disobeyed him, secretly taking the young prostitute, Shae, into his service.  Tyrion begins to fall in love with Shae, much to his own sense of shame and regret -- he equates his feelings for Shae with his feelings for Tysha, whom he still believed to be a prostitute as well.
    
    As Hand of the King, Tyrion almost immediately entered a bitter power struggle with Queen Cersei.  Much to her fury, Tyrion consistently outplotted her. He arranged the wildfire-filled ships and massive chain boom that helped to devastate Stannis Baratheon's fleet during the Battle of the Blackwater and greatly contributed to the victory against Stannis.  Also during this battle, several of Stannis' men broke through the defense of King's Landing and attempted to breach a major city gate, which would have likely turned the tide of battle unalterably in Stannis' favor.  Sandor Clegane, of the Kingsguard, had come inside the fortress from battle and refused to return to the battlefield, clearly terrified of the uncontrolled burning of wildfire beyond the city walls.  (Indeed, soon after, Clegane deserted the city altogether).  Tyrion alone seemed to appreciate the gravity of the situation; he suited himself for battle and led a sortie beyond the walls to clear Stannis' men from the gate and secure the area once again. Riding a horse and wielding a dwarf-sized battle axe, Tyrion was enormously successful in this effort, leading his men in the killing of nearly all of the men at the gate.
    
    In the heat of the fighting, Tyrion recalled something Jaime had told him about the experience of "battle fever," in which the warrior falls into a frenzy such that his moves become especially quick, effective, precise, and deadly. Tyrion was surprised and pleased to experience this feeling himself. Later in the battle, he attempted to secure the mouth of the Blackwater River and took a severe facial wound (the loss of most of his nose) in an assassination attempt.  He spent a great deal of time recovering from this life-threatening wound, and suspected (correctly) that Cersei was to blame for the attempt on his life. The only reason he survived was because his squire, Pod, arrived on the scene to push Tyrion's would-be assassin into the Blackwater to drown under the weight of his armor.
    
    Upon the return to court of Lord Tywin, Tyrion found himself demoted to Master of Coin and forced into a political marriage with Sansa Stark. At the wedding, Tyrion's potential greatness is again noted briefly when Garlan Tyrell encourages Sansa to be more hopeful about her marriage, telling her Tyrion may be a "larger" man than she suspects. Though they were married for over a month, and though Tyrion grew to care for his unwilling bride, he never forced consummation on Sansa, making him an object of scorn and jest in court. The two were eventually accused of the murder of King Joffrey, both having plausible motives for the act -- yet both were innocent of killing Joffrey.
    
    Because Sansa had fled Kings Landing, only Tyrion stood trial. His jury included Tywin Lannister, Mace Tyrell and Prince Oberyn Martell.  During the trial, Tyrion was falsely accused and deeply humiliated by a string of witnesses, including his prostitute, Shae.  At Cersei's direction, Shae offered intimate and devastating details about their sex life. During the trial, Tywin sent his brother, Kevan, to Tyrion's chambers to inform him that, should he confess, he would not be executed but rather sent to the Wall - consistent with his strong sense of pride and justice.  Tyrion refused. Also during the trial, Cersei made clear that Gregor Clegane would be her champion, in the event that Tyrion picked trial by combat, to forestall any attempt Tyrion might make to evade a conviction.  However, this only served to entice formidable duelist Prince Oberyn Martell to champion Tyrion so he could revenge himself against Gregor Clegane. 
    
    Clegane managed to kill Prince Oberyn and was ruled the winner, with Tyrion condemned to death.  Clegane later died himself, in agonizing fashion, as Oberyn had applied manticore venom, which had been thickened with sorcery to prolong death, to the tip of his spear.  With the loss of his champion, Tyrion was declared guilty and placed in a Black Cell in the third sublevel of dungeons in Maegor's holdfast (where Ned Stark had also been kept).  Late on the first night of this captivity, Tyrion was secretly freed from his prison cell by his brother, Jaime, and a reluctant Varys.
    
    During their escape, when Tyrion thanked Jaime, Jaime revealed that he had owed this to Tyrion. In his explanation, Jaime recalled that their father had made him lie about Tysha being a prostitute, and that she was exactly what she seemed: a crofter's daughter who had genuinely loved Tyrion. Jaime suggested that Lord Tywin rationalized this brutality and deception by saying that Tysha was poor, and to wed a Lannister was tantamount to whoring herself for the family's wealth. This news devastated Tyrion unlike any insult or act of aggression he had suffered at his family's hands. Tyrion abandoned Jaime, promising retribution if they ever met again. To hurt Jaime, he also revealed that Cersei was "a lying whore" who was "fucking Lancel, Osmund Kettleblack, and Moon Boy”, and (falsely) claiming that he had indeed poisoned his nephew, Joffrey.
    
    Tyrion’s comments shocked Jaime and may have led to the first significant doubts and feelings of contempt he began to feel for his sister. Before leaving the castle, Tyrion visited his father's room via the secret tunnels and, to his horror, found Shae naked and alone in his father's bed, wearing his own chain of the office of the Hand around her neck. When Tyrion confronted her, she begged his forgiveness for betraying and humiliating him at the trial. Tyrion strangled her (with the Hand's chain) nonetheless. He then set out to look for his father. Before leaving the bedchambers, Tyrion took a crossbow from the wall and loaded it. He found his father sitting on the privy and confronted him (aiming the crossbow at him), demanding that he tell him what became of Tysha, his wife and love. Tywin asserted that he had not killed her but sent her away with her earnings. Tywin referred to her repeatedly as a "whore", leading Tyrion to warn his father that his next use of that word would mean his death.
    
    Even then, Tywin would not take his son seriously, saying "You do not possess the courage".  After Tyrion's repeated efforts to learn Tysha's whereabouts, Tywin said dismissively that she had gone, "wherever whores go."  With that, Tyrion fired at his father's chest just as he began to stand from the privy, and the bolt stuck him in the bowels. With his last words, he disowned Tyrion as his son. Tyrion escaped the way he had come, to a ship that awaited him on the river, which Varys had prepared for him.  Cersei Lannister has put a bounty on his head, resulting in the indiscriminate murder of dwarves and ugly children.
    
    

Pictures

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  • Sibel Kekilli as Shae in HBO Game of Thrones

Pictures

• Picture Notes
  • Sophie Williams as Sansa Stark in HBO Game of Thrones