Establishing and Deconstructing Character (Spoilers ahead)

[Atomic Fiend]

This thread isn't just for game of thrones. It's a general purpose ask a question about a character from a work and hope for an answer or analysis. Ask questions about your favorite character as well.

Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 4
What if Tywin Lannister's wife had survived child birth? Would he still have hated Tyrion to the point of it literally being the death of him? Would this have softened him to any degree? Going even further, would he have treated her like he treated all of the other Lannisters, would he treat her worse because she's not a Lannister by blood?

 

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Interesting thread.

This is where I wished I had continued to read the novels. I think an in depth analysis of Tywin’s inner workings is described there. Of course I could just google it I suppose.

Honestly it probably depends heavily upon his upbringing and his father’s style of indoctrinating him into House Lannister. A noble family would of course teach etiquette and history, particularly the history of all the prominent houses and their interrelationships. As important would be how Tywin’s father treated him, his mother and any siblings. Was there an atmosphere conveying the idea that every member of the house had a role to play, as a chess piece on the board, I would think there definitely was. Was a member valued as a unique individual as well?

It’s quite a major theme in Tywin’s dealings that his children are nothing more to him than lands and titles and alliances to be gained through marriage into the other great houses of Westeros. It’s ultimately his undoing to ignore the wants and needs of his children. If he had at least acknowledged these things he wouldn’t have fostered the emotional and moral rot that was pervasive in House Lannister.

I mentioned all this because I’m not sure if his cold calculating attitude was well cemented before his wife’s death or not. Her demise may have had little impact. Perhaps he adored her? Perhaps Tyrion was simply the scapegoat for all his frustrations and perceived failures?

Tywin was my favorite ‘evil’ character though. He had a clear motive for all his actions. He was an enemy one could plan against. His single drive was the preservation and growth of House Lannister. Much more predictable than say a Petyr Baelish whose primary tool was sowing chaos in an intricate and well hidden plan.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

I mentioned all this because I’m not sure if his cold calculating attitude was well cemented before his wife’s death or not. Her demise may have had little impact. Perhaps he adored her? Perhaps Tyrion was simply the scapegoat for all his frustrations and perceived failures?

Here's the thing with that, before he married his wife he extinguished two enemy houses.

He extinguished them, he flat out killed all heirs and the heads of those houses. This was before he married his wife. I don't think personalities change wholesale, on the contrary the develop down certain wide roads, but still roads meaning they go fixed directions. He was always going to be the cold power behind westeros and even before having his children. I don't know what he thought of his wife.

 

[Population: 1]

Here's the thing with that, before he married his wife he extinguished two enemy houses.

He extinguished them, he flat out killed all heirs and the heads of those houses. This was before he married his wife. I don't think personalities change wholesale, on the contrary the develop down certain wide roads, but still roads meaning they go fixed directions. He was always going to be the cold power behind westeros and even before having his children. I don't know what he thought of his wife.

Ah. I started delving into the books but my primary source of information was the show. Then he was indeed always that way.

I think he makes the most realistic evil character. You can see his conviction, his sense that what he does is necessary. That right and wrong are abstract concepts. Order and chaos however, are two very real conditions. He doesn’t go to bed chuckling maniacally. That’s how real evil operates. It doesn’t see itself as such. An interesting character or archetype.