Martin, who penned the A Song Of Ice and Fire books, still has two parts of his original saga to tell; The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. The TV series, which was initially based on the books, overtook them and went its own way some time ago. But it seems there’s one aspect of Martin’s plan that was not honoured – and Reddit user dsteffee says it’s all to do with Tyrion Lannister.
The fan’s argument has been massively successful on the ASOIAF Subreddit – winning over almost 6,000 supporters and being 92% Upvoted.
It seems Martin intended Tyrion to be a villain – something the show simply did not do.
The Redditor cited something Martin said in 1999: “I’ve got to admit I kind of like Tyrion Lannister. He’s the villain of course, but hey, there’s nothing like a good villain.”
They added: “When I first came across this quote… I couldn’t believe it. Surely there’s been a misunderstanding. GRRM must have meant Jaime, not Tyrion!
“Tyrion, my darling, my favorite character from ASOIAF (both the books and the show) and one of my favorite wise crackers of all time.
MORE: IS THIS THE PERFECT RESPONSE TO GAME OF THRONES FINALE BACKLASH?
Tyrion Lannister was intended to be a villain, it seems (Image: HBO)
Peter Dinklage played him on screen (Image: HBO)
“He’s a hundred times more sympathetic than the typical fantasy hero (with fair looks and hidden royal heritage or destiny) thanks to his outsider status, with his family who doesn’t love him, and with his wits.
“But from the start, GRRM planned Tyrion to be the great villain of the series (except maybe the supernatural evils), and a primary purpose of ADWD [A Dance with Dragons] is to chronicle his descent into apathy.”
They went on to say that Martin “made him so sympathetic we all mistook him for a hero”.
“If GRRM manages to pull off this incredible feat of turning our lovable Tyrion into a believable villain, he will perhaps end up creating one of the most sympathetic villains ever,” they argued.
But the showrunners did not follow this path.
Dany was killed in the TV finale (Image: HBO)
The Redditor wrote: “Now imagine that you’re not a storyteller of GRRM’s caliber. Maybe you’re average, or maybe your strength lies in cinematography more than plot work and characters.
“You’ve successfully adapted a few books into four seasons of fantastic television, but now you need to start transforming what is arguably the audience’s favorite character into someone they will hate… and you’re supposed to do this with only another three or four seasons of television.
“Rather than risk the audience blow-back, wouldn’t it be better to let Tyrion be the hero we all want him to be?
“As it turns out, no.”
They argued that Tyrion’s “personal story is weakened when [Benioff and Weiss] softened some of the uglier aspects to it”, and that “his arc is given nowhere to go”.
“His time with Varys, Jon, (f)Aegon and Jorah is intended to slowly slide him deeper into apathy,” they reasoned.
“Without this narrative goal, there’s no point to these travels, so why even bother including Aegon? [The showrunners] knew Aegon wouldn’t be relevant to the end game anyhow.
“As a villain, Tyrion could have played Dany’s forces against the combined might of Aegon, Varys, and Dorne. As a good guy, Tyrion becomes friends with Varys and Cersei is left in power to be the antagonist at King’s Landing.
“This ends up ruining Jaime’s and Brienne’s arcs, since I think Jaime was meant to kill Cersei and finish his character arc later. Since Cersei was still around, [the showrunners] felt it was more fitting that they die together.
“As a really awful, terrible villain, Tyrion could have manipulated Dany into either deliberately or accidentally destroying King’s Landing, an act of vengeance for how the people of King’s Landing treated him.
George RR Martin is working on the next book (Image: GETTY)
“And now Jon’s killing of Dany becomes a thousand times more interesting: Maybe he thinks she’s as Mad as they say, but he has doubts.
“Maybe he knows she’s innocent and doesn’t want to kill her, but if he doesn’t, those who lost loved ones in King’s Landing will rebel and restart the civil war.
“Imagine having to decide between the life of someone you love or the prospect of war: that’s a scenario GRRM could do wonders with.”
They added that Tyrion’s villainy “was far from obvious to us, the readers. But it was always the course needed to be taken.
“Falling off that course is what ruined the show.”
The post – which you can read in more detail here – has sparked an interesting conversation in the responses, too.
Game of Thrones ended last month, and Martin is expected to deliver The Winds of Winter by summer 2020.
Is Tyrion’s arc one of the reasons it’s taking him so long? We’ll have to wait and see.