A Game of Thrones ÔÇö Tyrion IX
Word of Ned Stark's death reaches Tywin's camp and ruins every plan; Tywin sends Tyrion to rule King's Landing as Hand ÔÇö without his whore.
The chapter retold
News of Ned Stark's execution reaches Tywin Lannister's war camp and lands like a second, unplanned battle ÔÇö the confession-for-mercy bargain Cersei and Varys struck in the capital was never supposed to end in a headsman's block, and Joffrey's impulsive order has just handed the North a martyr and Robb Stark a reason to fight to the last man rather than negotiate. Tywin, furious at the strategic damage his own grandson has caused, makes a decision that startles Tyrion more than almost anything else in the book so far: he is sending Tyrion to King's Landing to rule as acting Hand in his stead, to clean up the mess Cersei's court has made ÔÇö on the explicit condition that Shae stays behind in the camp.
It's a rare moment of Tywin extending real responsibility to the son he's spent a lifetime treating as an embarrassment, though even this vote of confidence arrives wrapped in contempt ÔÇö Tyrion is trusted with the capital but not with keeping the woman he loves nearby, a condition that tells him exactly how much personal happiness his father believes a Lannister heir is entitled to. The appointment sets up the next long stretch of Tyrion's story: running a hostile city on behalf of a family that has never once thanked him for solving their problems.
This movement: Fire and Blood
- The lords of the north and Trident raise Robb Stark: the King in the North!
- Arya slips out of King's Landing shorn and renamed in Yoren's recruit column.
- Tywin sends Tyrion to court to rule as acting Hand and clean up Cersei's mess.
- Dany gives Drogo mercy, binds Mirri to the pyre, and walks into the fire with three stone eggs. Dawn: three dragons, one khaleesi, a new world.