| NOTE: This page only contains information about the book version of Tyrion as the show version doesn't do anything particularly heinous, thus only information and crimes about the book version are allowed. |
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | The future is shit. Just like the past. | „ |
| ~ Tyrion's nihilism. |
Tyrion Lannister, also known as The Imp, is one of the main protagonists of the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.
He is the last-born child of Lord Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock and his wife Lady Joanna, and also the younger brother of Jaime and Cersei. Born a dwarf, from the moment he was born, Tyrion was deeply despised by his own family, mainly his father and his sister Cersei, for causing the death of Joanna, Tywin's wife and Cersei's mother, causing them and a lot of the other people from Westeros to look down on him and wrongly think that he is an evil Hellspawn. Fortunately, however, Tyrion also received love and affection by his older brother Jaime and his uncles.
While he has a mostly heroic reputation among the fandom due to his many heroic moments and good deeds throughout the series, he can still be viewed as a villain because he has also committed some terrible crimes and often times takes out his bitterness (which is caused by the abuse he has suffered) on other people. Author George R. R. Martin has both described Tyrion as 'the villain' and one of the grayest characters in the series.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In general[]
- Despite having decent morals and a sympathetic backstory, Tyrion is still a selfish, petty hedonist who's motivated by his desire to be accepted by his morally bankrupt family or his desire for revenge on anyone who's ever slighted him.
- He dismisses the war crimes ordered by his father against the population of the Riverlands as "war", which pointedly includes Ser Gregor's war crimes, something Tyrion acknowledges but dismisses.
- He spitefully monologued to the hanged Marsha Heddle, who sold him out, that he simply wanted wine and bed, although his reaction is understandable.
- Likewise, while he was the only person holding Joffrey's rule together during his tenure as Hand, it's important to remember that he was helping secure the reign of his sadistic, psychotic, ineffectual and illegitimate nephew against the legitimate claim to throne by Stannis and the legitimate grievances of Robb Stark - against whom he engages in bad faith diplomacy. And after his downfall and exile, he becomes much darker and more apathetic than ever before.
- An example that shows Tyrion prioritising pragmatism over justice is when he punishes Janos Slynt and Allar Deem for infanticide, despite the culprit being Cersei.
- Tellingly, whilst shocked by the Red Wedding, he doesn't shoot down or argue with Tywin's argument, "why it is more noble to kill ten thousand men in battle than a dozen at dinner", showing that he agrees with the Red Wedding to an extent.
- An example that shows Tyrion prioritising pragmatism over justice is when he punishes Janos Slynt and Allar Deem for infanticide, despite the culprit being Cersei.
Specific[]
- He crushed the musician Marillion's fingers out of spite,
- Though it's very hard to feel sympathy for Marillion with hindsight of his jerkishness, future serial sex offences, and sycophancy.
- He took revenge on Lysa Arryn for imprisoning him by arming the mountain clans with new weapons and armours and then goaded them into attacking the villages of the Vale. While those raids are not shown, from what is described in the books by other people and what is presented about the mountain clans, it is still clear that they were devastating for the people of Vale. When informed of this, he merely snarks that the news is "disconcerting".
- Tyrion himself even thought about how intended to propose a plan to reduce the Vale to "a smoking wasteland" which further shows the destructive nature of his plan.
- This also points to his pettiness; it is not Lysa Arryn who suffers, and is unlikely to care about the smallfolk's suffering beyond pragmatism, but the smallfolk themselves.
- Pointedly, Tyrion notes that the Hill Tribe forcibly wed, if not rape, women, as he notes Catelyn Stark will likely still be able to birth children for the tribes during their attempts to kidnap her on the way to the Eyrie.
- This also points to his pettiness; it is not Lysa Arryn who suffers, and is unlikely to care about the smallfolk's suffering beyond pragmatism, but the smallfolk themselves.
- Tyrion himself even thought about how intended to propose a plan to reduce the Vale to "a smoking wasteland" which further shows the destructive nature of his plan.
- He replaced Allar Deem with Bronn, someone who is just as amoral. When asked if he would kill a baby without question, Bronn replied he wouldn't kill one without asking how much.
- Relating to this, he has no qualms employing "brutal beasts", one of whom is pointedly mentioned to be Chella, who has a necklace of mutilated ears, or Timett, who burned out his own eye and literally tore out a man's throat with his bare fingers.
- He threatens to have Lancel revealed as Cersei's lover to Joffrey, which would have undoubtedly led to vicious consequences. He apathetically muses who will kill Lancel first; Jaime or Cersei.
- He is, in fact, so uncaring of the boy's fate, that he is even implied to be sexually aroused by his power and goes straight to Shae for sex and monologues on his capabilities.
- When Cersei had a prostitute Alayaya captured, Tyrion threatened that any harm that would come to the prostitute, including rape, he would inflict upon Tommen who is his nephew and a child. When he hears that the prostitute had been whipped bloodily (which was actually done by Tywin, but at the time Tyrion thinks it's Cersei), he thinks with (admitted discomfort) as to how he would return the threat to maintain his own credibility, even if he later denies having any such intention to Tywin, which heavily indicates his threat was actually true.
- Additionally, he is very reckless with Alayaya's life, as he could have corrected Cersei but didn't want to "give the game away", choosing to leave Alayaya in Cersei’s custody so Shae will be safe.
- When Varys informs him that a large group of men called the Antler Men were planning to sabotage the defenses of the city and let Stannis conquer it, Tyrion has them all arrested and gives them to Joffrey to be brutally tortured and killed. Joffrey nailed antlers to their heads and then shot them with trebuchets against the enemy forces and Tyrion doesn't seem to feel any remorse about it.
- Even though he knew his nephew Joffrey is not the rightful heir to Robert Baratheon and would be a terrible and cruel king, he still supported his claim to the throne and organized the defense of King's Landing against Stannis' forces. His plan to use wildfire to destroy Stannis' fleet which killed many of the sailors, including Davos' four sons, and his management over the defense of the city is what ensured that Joffrey would remain in power.
- He ordered Bronn to kill a singer who was trying to extort him. He then ordered him to get rid of the body by giving it to an inn to be cooked into a stew which was then fed to the poor people of King's Landing who didn't even suspect they were eating human flesh.
- When he learned the truth about Tysha, he swore revenge on his entire family, including Jaime, who loved him. He even lied about killing Joffrey and confessed that Cersei is cheating on Jaime, just for the sake of hurting him.
- Although this is an understandable reaction after everything that they have all done to him.
- While he was escaping from execution, he killed his former lover Shae on his way for giving false testimony against him.
- This act is presented as more heinous than it is in the show, because in the books Shae doesn't try to kill him (hence why in the show the writers made Shae attack him with a knife), but instead starts apologising to him and says that she was forced to testify against her will by Tywin and she was too afraid to refuse but Tyrion kills her anyway.
- He shot his father, Tywin Lannister, with a crossbow and killed him
- Although this is decidedly not a despicable action, considering how monstrous Tywin himself is and his personal villainy to Tyrion, it is considered heinous in that he only killed his father owing to his actions towards Tyrion, as opposed to his innumerable atrocities towards others.
- After his kills his father, he takes a drastic turn for the worst, becoming more cynical and bitter than ever.
- He often fantasizes about hurting his family, often of him raping and strangling Cersei to death. He also fantasizes about Jaime and Cersei's heads on spikes.
- In the fifth book, he goes into a brothel, and even after learning that the girls there are sex slaves who were kidnapped from their homelands and forced to please men against their will, he still forced himself on one of them even after he saw that she is uncomfortable with it.
- He also threatened to rape another sex slave in Illyrio's mansion as he commented that he is going to claim her after his dinner with Illyrio. He even threatens that if he kills her, her master wouldn't mind because Tyrion is more important to him than some sex slave. The only reason why Tyrion threatens her like that is because he enjoys seeing her afraid of him.
- It is never made clear, however, whether he forced sexual relations with the slave, beyond just terrorising her.
- He also threatened to rape another sex slave in Illyrio's mansion as he commented that he is going to claim her after his dinner with Illyrio. He even threatens that if he kills her, her master wouldn't mind because Tyrion is more important to him than some sex slave. The only reason why Tyrion threatens her like that is because he enjoys seeing her afraid of him.
- He manipulated Jon Connington and Young Griff to attack Westeros early, leading to more war and death in Westeros.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is too tragic to be NPE for several reasons:
- His mother died during childbirth.
- He was born with dwarfism and his body was incredibly deformed and ugly which in Westerosi society caused other people to view him as a Hellspawn and either be afraid of him, look down on him or pity him. He also has difficulties due to his twisted legs which don't allow him to walk normally and his size which doesn't allow him to perform the activities that other people do.
- He was abused by his father, Tywin, and his sister, Cersei. Cersei pinched him on one occasion and on another she pulled his penis both while he was still a baby because she blamed him for her mother's death and also insulted him when he was older. Tywin also showed his disgust for him and on one occasion when he discovered that Tyrion had married a common girl, he forced a 12-year-old Tyrion to watch as she was gang-raped by an entire garrison of his soldiers, and then Tyrion himself was forced to participate which left him traumatized for the rest of his life.
- Throughout the series he constantly gets blamed for things that are not his fault. He gets blamed that he "killed" his mother when she died giving birth to him. He is also gets accused of the attempted murder of Bran and of the murder of Joffrey even though he didn't do either of those things. This also makes him a scapegoat.
- In the third book, Jaime reveals to him that he had lied to him about Tysha being a prostitute which causes Tyrion to feel betrayed and lose the last shreds of fate in humanity left in him and become completely nihilistic.
- Before their falling out, he greatly cared about his brother, Jaime, as he was one of the few people who showed him any love.
- He also held some begrudging care for Cersei, despite everything she does to him, as he attempted to comfort her when she unexpected wept at the prospect of her children dying before Stannis' attack.
- He fell in love with a girl named Tysha and the two of them got married. Years later, he avenged her gang rape by killing his father.
- He suffers from constant insecurities that he is evil and ugly and no one will show him love and that he is weaker than most other people.
- He has numerous Pet the Dog moments:
- He sympathized with Jon Snow and his struggles as a bastard and gives him some advice on how to deal with it.
- He sympathized with the struggles of the Night's Watch, started like them when he was their guest, and promised to do whatever he can to help them.
- When he sees that Bran is crippled and can't walk anymore, he gives the designs for a special saddle to the people of Winterfell, so Bran can at least ride a horse again.
- Even though Catelyn kidnapped him and unjustly blamed him for the attempted murder of her son, Tyrion still saved her life when two wildlings tried to kill her.
- He fell in love with Shae and frequently visited her. Even though he killed her when he felt betrayed by her, he later feels bad about it and admits that he misses her.
- He starts liking the mercenary Bron after the latter saved his life and the two of them form a friendship.
- He likes his nephew and niece, Tommen and Myrcella.
- Whilst extremely back-handed, he still felt some pity for Lancel for being a young and naïve boy caught in the court intrigues of King's Landing.
- He likes his uncle, Kevan, and desperately tried to convince him that he is not the one who killed Joffrey because he is hurt by the thought that his uncle would have a low opinion of him.
- He sympathized with Sansa's situation as a hostage and on a few occasions, he defended her from Joffrey. He also respected her during their marriage and told her he would not touch her without her consent, even though he wanted to.
- For a moment, Tyrion felt some sympathy for Joffrey while he was choking and dying when he remembered that despite the things Joffrey has done, he is still a 13-year-old boy.
- On some occasions he feels moral disgust at the crimes committed by other people, most notably Allar Deem and Janos Slynt's murders of children and a woman, Tywin Lannister orchestrating the Red Wedding and killing Ellia and her kids, and Joffrey tormenting Sansa.
- He feels sympathy for his fellow dwarves, most notably Penny and her brother. He thought about paying a lot to them when he sees that they have been hired to give an embarrassing performance where they would be laughed at. Tyrion also feels bad for Penny about losing her brother and feels that it's partially his fault. He took her with him and tries to protect her from the dangers they face.
- Despite raping her to begin with, he still felt bad about raping the sex slave and after he vomited on the carpet, he gave money to her owner and tried to explain the situation to make sure that the girl wouldn't be unjustly blamed and punished for ruining the carpet.
- Even though Jorah Mormont had previously kidnapped him and mistreated him, he still felt sympathy for him when he sees him in a cage as a slave and decided to rescue him.
Trivia[]
- To drive home how complex he is, the author of the series (George R. R. Martin) says he is a villain, but a good villain and that he is his favorite character and greatly identifies with him.
External Links[]
- Tyrion Lannister on the Villains Wiki.
- Tyrion Lannister on the Heroes Wiki.
- Tyrion Lannister on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
- Tyrion Lannister on the Wiki of Westeros.
- Tyrion Lannister on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki.
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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