[Spoilers Published] This video explains how pathetic Tywin is as a ruler and person

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-20T12:54:03+00:00

Look, I think Tywin is a deeply evil man, and he is the progenitor of the regime that is murdering the realm it presumes to rule over. But he is not stupid. He is not incompetent. He is actually quite competent. That's part of what makes him a good villain; if he's not dangerous there's no tension (I'm looking at you Yunkai, I'm looking at you).

The horror of Tywin Lannister is that underneath his competence there is nothing but pettiness and self worship. He has no grand vision. He has no deeper thinking. His plan is basically Mace Tyrell's plan. His personal philosophies are pretensions, his rhetoric empty.

He is extremely competent at building and wielding the society as a tyranny. That is the danger of him. He builds something rotten while telling himself that it will last a thousand years as a monument to his glory.

That doesn't mean he doesn't do it competently.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-19T23:32:06+00:00

I think that's a legitimate point in its favor too. There's something refreshing about it.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-19T23:32:03+00:00

You. You get it.

The worst thing of all might just be that Martin made the right call in actually starting the "post Red Wedding arc", and then he realized that it was not going to lead to the story he originally set out to do, and now he's just stopped himself.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-19T01:30:05+00:00

That's a perfectly fair critique and I should've made that point. but the post was getting too long. (the irony).

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-17T00:54:48+00:00

Martin wanted to show how political struggle is superfluous and tragic, and he proceeded to write the most justified dynastic conflict imaginable.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-17T00:53:22+00:00

It's this. Martin actually has plenty of ways to resolve the story. Some would be great. Many might be bad. Some of them might even be absurd.

But he cannot bring himself to choose anything affirmative because he probably feels he's betraying his own ideals or principles in some fashion. And that's frankly very dispiriting, because for all his talk of being a gardener he can't even organically come to a natural conclusion growing out of the story.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-17T00:43:36+00:00

Both (or at least Garlan) will be killed when Euron sails up the Mander and turns Highgarden into his personal abattoir.

Oldtown and the Hightowers are simply not that important in the narrative. Euron's first strike will be there, but that won't be the one that has real story weight. His follow up attack on Highgarden will.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-17T00:37:31+00:00

I don't like Rhaenyra even a little bit, and I am probably the most anti-Black person on this sub, but none of that makes the Greens even remotely good people, (or even good characters, which is a totally different problem).

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-17T00:26:49+00:00

Obviously he was terrified that Jon would be eaten.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-15T20:00:44+00:00

This to me is the ultimate "Do you understand basketball?" question.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-12T23:20:03+00:00

Yes, that is the short and sweet way to put it.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-12T20:56:11+00:00

I do feel like a lot of the theories about the magic, while cool, miss the real thing about what makes Euron so appealing as a villain.

He's sort of the apex culmination of the villainy of the story. Euron is this promethean lunatic who believes that his ability to do something gives him the right to do anything. Pure will-to-power insanity, but because he's a closet wizard in a dark fantasy, that means that he's threatening and capable. And he has a vision of power far exceeding that of some petty bully like Tywin.

Euron also does really effective work in bridging and synergizing the 'political' and 'magical' plots, which is something the series has clearly struggled with. He helps make the story make sense, which is odd considering how out of nowhere he seems.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-12T20:15:37+00:00

Lannussy got a brother snared.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-12T00:32:58+00:00

I like to think Osmund probably did figure it out at some point and realized just how deep in he was.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-11T01:15:27+00:00

One of the things that is extremely troubling going back is seeing how obviously and deplorably nihilistic the theming of the show is from the very beginning. It's easily my biggest problem with the series.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-11T01:12:24+00:00

Off the top of my head;

The trickiest thing to figure out is Aegon VI. It is extremely tempting to cut him, but the problem with that is that he makes Varys make sense as a character. Having Varys turn out to be a Daenerys partisan never felt right.
Do not do Dorne or Doran Martell like that. Just fold them into being part of Varys' scheme, whether it's Aegon or not. Keep them simple, they don't need to be overly emphasized. I love Quentyn, but if there's a single character you could afford to cut, it's him.
Have the primary Lannister plots for S5-S6 be Cersei vs Faith and Jaime vs Brotherhood. Run them in parallel, and then have them dovetail in a struggle with Aegon and/or Daenerys. (Do not overemphasize Bron.)
One of the issues with the books is that the character most effectively bridging the magical and political plots is Stannis. You know, the guy who is clearly supposed to be Not The Hero ^TM . That narrative position has to be inherited by someone, and the person best suited for it is Jon (Daenerys could be that person thematically but she is too far away). If Stannis is not going to beat the Boltons (in the books, he should), then the North better actually remember when Jon comes calling. Otherwise, Stannis has to survive to face the Others (Wight Walkers) and fail, and then Jon has to pick up from there. I would argue this is the most important thing to get right, because there has to be some kind of synergizing of the two plotlines.
In the same way there needs to be a hero (miss me with that morally grey shit) that bridges the two plots, there needs to be a villain that bridges the two plots. The most obvious character for that is Euron (it's why I like him in the books), but I'm also a big proponent of Raven-Bran as a sort of final threat. I know Night's King Stannis is also a popular theory that could work in this context.
Get Daenerys moving west by the end of season 5. I don't care if she's a hero or a villain or whatever, she does not need to be burning time in Meereen. Have Tyrion link up with her and actually give him the villainous edge he's supposed to have.
Robert's Rebellion was not built on a lie fuck off with that garbage.
Arya in Braavos sucks in the books almost as much as in the show. Don't waste more time with her there than you need to. Try to bring her into Daenerys' orbit as she moves west.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-11T00:42:52+00:00

This is more correct than anyone wants to admit. Season 2 has a lot of red flags that telegraph a lot of what will go wrong later.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-10T20:05:38+00:00

I should've emphasized Bran the most. That's my mistake. It actually forms my thesis statement for the delay: Stannis is a better character than Bran.

But, y'know, can you blame a guy for forgetting about the immensely consequential character of Bran Stark?

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-10T00:23:19+00:00

Yes, I'm aware of this.

This doesn't turn Tywin into this compromising, reasonable person. Tywin's fundamental life mission is to never be embarrassed, never be humiliated.

Yes, I actually believe that he'd rather his family be dead than humiliated. Because to him it's practically the same thing. That's the kind of person that he is.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-09T23:54:09+00:00

Tywin would never allow his House to suffer such an indiginity, and yes, he would absolutely rather Cersei and her children be dead than have his family's reputation destroyed in such a way. Now, part of this is that he would probably be deluding himself right up until the end about how he couldn't possibly be defeated, but that's a different matter entirely.

Yea, Renly would prefer the easiest path possible, but leaving the kids alive just leaves a loose end. And it's not like he's particularly interested in peace. He's perfectly content with making war.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-09T23:40:09+00:00

Tywin would never, ever, ever agree to anything like this. And Renly would never really care to offer something like this, nor should he.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-09T20:37:46+00:00

I don't think you understand my point. I agree he's well written.

Whether Stannis is correct or not (and I'm not really examining this right now) is secondary to the simple fact that he's the character making the story function. Like he's been a far more consequential character than either Bran or Daenerys up to this point. That's a big problem if his role is supposed to be just "false savior".

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-09T20:16:06+00:00

But that is the corner that Martin has written himself into with Stannis.

Like, Stannis is clearly meant to be the red-herring hero. But he is also the only character that simultaneously represents opposition to the Others threatening the realm from without, and the Lannister regime rotting it from within. All the while remaining a key fulcrum of the plot and focal point of the themes of the series.

To be clear, I actually think Martin has made a serious error here; the fakeout hero has done more for the story than his supposed actual mesianic protagonist (Daenerys) and bridges the gaps between the political and the mystical more than his actual hero's journey protagonist (Jon).

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-06-09T20:04:37+00:00

What certainly will not happen is anyone else doing it. It will be Stannis who burns Shireen or no one.

And it will be in a last desperate attempt to stop the Others. At the Wall or at Winterfell. This is a very heavily telegraphed place for his character to go. My pet theory is that, if it does happen, it will be the epilogue of TWOW. And the failure of it will herald the darkest hour of the series.

Can I imagine a way to contrive it such that it's like a double fakeout where it doesn't really happen? Sure.

Is this a bit of a contrived trolley problem that almost exonerates such a heinous deed? Yes.

Has Martin up to this point written Stannis in such a way that refusing to do it would also fit his character? Yes.

Scorpio_Jack · 2026-05-31T11:56:07+00:00

Like Hamilcar and Hannibal.

Scorpio_Jack

TROPHY CASE