Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion Lannister is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where he is portrayed by American actor Peter Dinklage.
Introduced in A Game of Thrones, Tyrion is a prominent point of view character in the series, having the most viewpoint chapters in the first five published novels. He is one of a few prominent characters not included in A Feast for Crows but returned in A Dance with Dragons, and is confirmed to appear in the forthcoming sixth novel The Winds of Winter. Tyrion developed from a character concept Martin had while writing the 1981 novel Windhaven. He is Martin's favorite character in the series.
Tyrion is the youngest child of Lord Tywin Lannister, the patriarch of House Lannister, the wealthiest family in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. A dwarf whose birth killed his mother, he is despised by Tywin and his sister Cersei. Tyrion soothes his perceived inadequacies with wit and self-indulgence, also using his status as a Lannister and the support of his brother Jaime to better his own position.
Tyrion has been called one of the author's finest creations and most popular characters by The New York Times. The popularity of the character led Martin and Bantam Books to publish The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister, an illustrated collection of Tyrion quotes from the novels. Dinklage has received widespread critical acclaim for his performance as Tyrion. He won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. He is the only Game of Thrones actor to win an Emmy award and the only actor to receive a nomination for each season.
Character
Description
In A Game of Thrones, Tyrion is introduced as the third and youngest child of wealthy and powerful Tywin Lannister, the former Hand of the King, and Joanna Lannister, who dies giving birth to him. Tyrion's elder sister, Cersei, is the Queen of Westeros by virtue of her marriage to King Robert Baratheon, and Cersei's male twin, Jaime, is one of the Kingsguard, the royal bodyguard. Described as an ugly, malformed dwarf with different colored eyes, green and black, Tyrion possesses the white-blond hair of a Lannister but has a complicated relationship with the rest of them. While he is afforded the privilege and luxuries of his family, he is treated as a "second class noble" because of his stature. Tyrion's mother, Joanna, died giving birth to him and Tywin and Cersei loathe him because they blame him for her death. While Tywin bears no affection for Tyrion, he nevertheless feels a sense of duty to his son, raising him in the Lannister fold and extending Tyrion a share of the family wealth. In contrast to Tywin and Cersei, Jaime has great affection for Tyrion and treats him with kindness, respect, friendship and love. Lev Grossman of Time wrote in 2011:Tyrion is intelligent, witty, well-read, and shares his father's skill for business and political maneuvering. Grossman described the character as "a bitter, cynical, high-born dwarf", calling him "Martin's Falstaff". David Orr of The New York Times called Tyrion "a cynic, a drinker, an outcast and conspicuously the novels' most intelligent presence". As an outcast, he displays sympathy for other outcasts and the otherwise mistreated; the TV series version of the character commiserates with the illegitimate son of Ned Stark by saying, "All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes." Still, he is usually seen for his deformities and vices, rather than his virtues and good deeds. Tom Shippey of the Wall Street Journal wrote that other characters underestimate Tyrion: "His dwarf-status acts as a kind of protection, because—though he is probably the most intelligent character in the whole cast list—no one takes him seriously." Acknowledging that Tyrion's wit, humor and cunning are his survival mechanism, actor Dinklage told The New York Times that "He knows he has no skills with the sword and this is a world that is really deeply violent. Military rules. He would not be able to survive in that world, given his own strength. So he beats people to the punchline—he's entertaining."
Creation and overview
In 1981, Martin was collaborating with Lisa Tuttle on a trio of novellas that would be published as the novel Windhaven:Tyrion is a prominent point of view character in the novels, and both David Orr of The New York Times and Lev Grossman of Time called him one of Martin's "finest creations." Noting the character to be one of Martin's most popular, Dana Jennings of The New York Times called Tyrion "a bitter but brilliant dwarf whose humor, swagger and utter humanity make him the star of the series". Thomas M. Wagner wrote in 2001 that the character "may very well be the strongest antihero in all of contemporary fantasy". Dan Kois of The New York Times also noted in 2012 that "for fans of the novels, Tyrion is among the most beloved among the scores of kings, warriors, wenches, slaves, queens and monsters that populate George R. R. Martin's world". Martin said, "My readers identify with the outcast, with the underdog, with the person who's struggling rather than the golden boy".
Martin himself has singled out Tyrion as his favorite character in the series. Asked why, Martin said in a 2000 interview:
Tyrion appears first in A Game of Thrones, and then in A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. He is one of a handful of "sorely missed" major characters that do not appear in 2005's A Feast for Crows, but on his website in 2006 Martin released a sample chapter featuring Tyrion from his next novel A Dance with Dragons. In advance of the publication of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Martin confirmed Tyrion's presence in the novel and called him one of "the characters people have been waiting for". Grossman concurred, writing of A Dance with Dragons, "Now the camera has swung back to the main characters: Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister." James Poniewozik of Time added that the return of these "favorite characters" gave A Dance with Dragons a "narrative edge" over A Feast for Crows. In April 2012, Martin read a Tyrion chapter from his forthcoming The Winds of Winter at Eastercon; a second Tyrion chapter was read at Worldcon in August 2013 and later released in the official A World of Ice and Fire iOS application on March 20, 2014.
In 2013, Bantam Books published The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister, an illustrated collection of Tyrion quotes from the novels.
Development
As A Game of Thrones begins, Tyrion is a witty, hedonistic curiosity, protected by his family status but still the object of subtle derision. He is perhaps the most intelligent member of his family but is consistently underestimated and marginalized. Tyrion embraces the advantages of being a Lannister but at the same time is all too aware of its negative aspects and his own place as the embarrassment of the family. Initially he is the one Lannister remotely sympathetic to the Starks but he is soon caught in the middle of the conflict between the two Houses. Taken prisoner and put on trial for his life, "all of his skills at conniving must be brought to bear simply to stay alive". With the Starks and Lannisters fully at war, Tywin tasks Tyrion to manage affairs at King's Landing, recognizing that his son is intelligent and has inherited his skills with statecraft. In A Clash of Kings, Tyrion relishes his new power but finds that his sincere efforts to stabilize his nephew Joffrey's rule are being undermined and thwarted by the misguided and self-serving machinations of everyone around him. He plots to nullify the counterproductive whims of Joffrey and Cersei but the "much-maligned dwarf" finds himself "teetering between order and disaster as he tries to keep the Lannisters from losing absolutely everything". Thomas M. Wagner calls it a "defining moment" when Tyrion comments that he is all that keeps chaos from overwhelming the family and population who both despise him. Roberta Johnson of Booklist likens Tyrion to the calculating title character of Robert Graves' I, Claudius.In A Storm of Swords, Tywin reclaims the office of Hand of the King and gives Tyrion the seemingly-impossible task of reforming the royal finances. Tyrion's previous efforts, crucial in keeping Joffrey in power and saving King's Landing from invasion are all but forgotten. Joffrey, emboldened by Tywin's return, publicly humiliates Tyrion; when Joffrey is murdered, everyone eagerly points the finger at Tyrion. Cersei does everything in her power to assure that he is declared guilty at trial. Innocent but condemned to death and hated more than ever, Tyrion takes a dark turn. Martin explains:
Finding his former lover Shae in his father's bed, Tyrion strangles her. Confronting Tywin with a crossbow soon after, he murders him too. To Martin, "the two actions are quite different, although they occur within moments of each other". The author continues, "He's furious at Lord Tywin because he found out the truth about his first wife and what happened to her, and... Lord Tywin is convinced that since he doesn't love Tyrion, then no one can possibly love Tyrion." As Tywin repeatedly calls Tyrion's tragic first wife Tysha a "whore," Tyrion warns him to stop. Tywin has always taught his son that you must follow through on your threats if you are defied, so when he fails to heed Tyrion's warning, Tyrion kills him. "And it will haunt him. Tywin was his father and that will continue to haunt him, probably for the rest of his life," says the author. To Martin, Shae's murder is something else:
"Fan-favorite" Tyrion returns to the narrative in A Dance with Dragons, as he flees Westeros following the murders of Shae and Tywin "in a state of shock at his own actions". Across the narrow sea in Pentos and Slaver's Bay he soon finds himself "in just about the most humiliating and dire circumstances in a life that has seen more than its share of such". Cut off from his family's wealth and influence, he must use his wits to survive. As Booklist notes, "his astonishing adaptability evident as he goes from captive to conspirator to slave to mercenary without losing his tactical influence". Still in possession of the "cruel wit that has seen him through in the past", Tyrion provides, according to Thomas M. Wagner, the "warmest and most sympathetic moments" in the novel.