Hey everybody, it's Charlie
This is going to be my Game of Thrones season 8 video about how Varys is connected to the Tower of Joy, Rhaegar Targaryen,
Lyanna Stark and Jon Snow. There's a new round of the book giveaway.
All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave a comment on the video.
So important idea: Varys is partially responsible for some of the events that led to Robert's rebellion.
It wasn't just any one thing that led the kingdom to war against the Mad King, there were several critical moments on the path and
Varys is responsible for one of the biggest ones really early on and it involves a secret plan to sabotage Rhaegar Targaryen.
They were actually a couple scenes during season 7 where Daenerys took him to task for his culpability in some of these events saying "Don't
you ever cross me or I'll burn you like I burn everyone else that I don't like".
There's also some evidence to suggest that he's one of the few characters who has an idea for Jon Snow's true mother and father, Rhaegar
Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, but might just not have every last piece of information to put everything into context.
So important backstory: Varys was the master of whispers for Robert Baratheon,
but the more important thing that the show doesn't remind you of very
often is that he was also the master of whispers for the Mad King for the larger part of his later years, when he got full-blown crazy.
Before that Varys grew up on the streets of Volantis as a slave, initially to the
sorcerer, the infamous sorcerer that he tells the story about "Through my bits on the fire and a voice called out from the flames".
Same sorcerer that wound up in the box that he showed to Tyrion much to his chagrin.
"Oh my god, what's going on here?" After that he escaped to the streets and survived as a pickpocket where he met Illyrio
And they scammed their way into a small Empire
So Illyria grew very rich and Varys also used that opportunity
to create the prototype
for his network of little birds, that at the time while they were in the east he called his little mice, so the little birds
network is something that came about when he came to Westeros.
His information network was so good in the East that word of his talents reached the Mad King, who by this time had descended into full-blown paranoia.
He officially named Varys master of whispers right after he lost his most trusted advisor on the small Council to a freak accident.
That was Steffon Baratheon, the father of Stannis, Renly and Robert Baratheon. How much more
ironic then are the events of Robert's rebellion, given that Steffon Baratheon was one of his closest advisors.
Steffon Baratheon had been on a mission to the east to find a bride for Rhaegar Targaryen
Only found Patchfaced the Fool and their boat sank within sight of Storm's end on the return voyage in a freak storm.
So the Mad King losing the only powerful person close to him that he trusted grew even more
paranoid and needed Varys' little mice network of information. That was in
278 AC, about four years before the official start of Robert's rebellion. Doesn't seem like it took long to light that match.
So Varys grew his network of street orphan spies in the westerosi little birds network
It worked perfectly. The Mad King loved all the information that Varys was giving him.
Little did he know that secretly Varys did not serve him in the truest of sense.
He considered himself a servant of the realm, a man for the good of the people, and still remembered the voice from the flames and
knew that the realm needed a strong leader because something terrible was coming.
So Varys made a series of calculated decisions for what he felt like was the good of the realm at that time.
Sabotage some really good characters as we saw play out in present day when he refused to speak up for Ned Stark about the truth
of Joffrey being Jaime and Cersei's son. He also let a lot of really bad things happen,
that would eventually lead to Robert's rebellion, or sort of helped things along the way that would lead to that rebellion.
One of the biggest things early on, tying this back to Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon Snow and Lyanna Stark,
is that really early on Varys learned of Rhaegar Targaryen's
secret plot to depose his father, the Mad King.
So the Mad King was right not to trust Rhaegar, because he had felt like his son was plotting against him this whole time.
Rhaegar secretly organized the tourney at Harrenhal,
the famous tourney or infamous depending on how you think about it, with the knight of the Laughing Tree and several other really big things happened there.
But the whole idea was to finance a tourney
secretly with the purse large enough that the prize would entice all the great lords of the realm to come to the tourney. At the
time nobody knew who was putting the gold up for the tournament.
They assumed that it was Tywin Lannister because of Lannister gold mines.
He'd be one of the few people that had that much money on hand.
But secretly Rhaegar was using this as a
pretense to gather all the greatest lords of the realm to call a secret Great Council and depose his father the Mad King and he
would just do it under the guise of this tourney like "Oh, that's why here we're not here to talk about usurping the throne".
So because at that time the Mad King had grown so
paranoid of everyone around him plotting against him that all Varys had to do was whisper about the tourney in his ear: "Your son will
be there with all the most powerful lords in the realm". Without even having to connect the dots for him.
So surprising everyone the Mad King left King's Landing to show up at the tournament so that he could keep an eye on
Rhaegar and the lords. At the time he had gone full-blown Howard Hughes,
so it was a big surprise that he would leave the Red Keep for any reason.
So it was a big deal that he showed up at the tourney.
But you also remember there are several other really big events that happen at the tourney of Harrenhal.
It's where a teenage Jaime Lannister was
officially inducted into the Kingsguard. The Mad King did that just despite Tywin Lannister, who he was most afraid of even though at the time
Tywin wasn't trying to usurp the Iron Throne or anything like that. The Mad Kings feud with Tywin Lannister is a whole other video.
They have a very, very deep history together and largely
it's the Mad King's madness to blame for their falling out.
The tourney at Harrenhal is also where we see the famous Knight of the Laughing Tree,
which most evidence points towards it secretly being Lyanna Stark. And even though we don't officially have a timeline of when Rhaegar
really fell in love with Lyanna Stark and hatched their plan to run away together, I would say he probably
discovered that she was the Knight of the Laughing Tree at the tournament and that's one of the events that sealed the deal for him.
Like "Oh now I really love this girl".
It's pretty clear that by the end of that tournament
something was going on between the two of them, because he won the joust and rode past his wife to crowned Lyanna with the blue roses.
Everyone was there it was a very public event. All the lords were scandalized. Everyone was shocked.
"Oh my god, what's going on here? Why is he riding past his wife, the princess Elia, to do this?"
So there's a whole other video that I could do about the events surrounding the Knight of the Laughing Tree. It's a really fascinating story,
so maybe I'll do a separate bonus video when we get closer to the season 8 premiere.
But obviously Varys was successful in thwarting Rheagar's plan to get rid of the Mad King with his secret Great Council.
So they weren't able to do that. Varys' reason for doing that, as he explains the last couple of seasons
he's been with Daenerys and Tyrion, is that he felt like the other options that were available
for leadership of the realm of the time were not good enough.
He didn't have a lot of information about the White Walkers at the time, the Night King, the Red God;
but he knew something terrible was coming and felt like the other
candidates for the throne just were not the right people for the job.
But since Varys' little birds network had all their eyes on the big players in and around Robert's rebellion.
It's pretty easy to assume that he had an idea
for what Rhaegar was doing when he ran off in secret to marry Lyanna Stark. One really good reason why he would not tell the
Mad King or anyone else about this and just allow
Rhaegar to sort of get away with Lyanna Stark is that he want Rhaegar sidelined.
He didn't want him on the throne and when they ran off together Rhaegar was effectively abandoning his bid for the Iron Throne,
which would have been an acceptable outcome for Varys. Now, he didn't want Rhaegar dead or anything like that,
but he didn't want him on the throne either.
So even if Varys didn't know at the time that Rhaegar and Lyanna had secretly wed legitimately
and he had annulled his marriage to Elia Martell. He probably had enough information about the events surrounding Rhaegar and Lyanna's
disappearance in the timing of Ned Stark's return with a mystery baby, to at least be suspicious about the truth of Jon Snow's parentage.
But because no heir had surfaced in the last 16 to 17 years,
and he was spending most of his time looking for a better
candidate, because Daenerys was still a very young girl and hadn't surfaced at that time,
he was just trying to keep tabs on everyone and keep the realm balanced until a better candidate came along.
So that's probably why he didn't dig too deep into Jon Snow's true origin.
That's why I think that he's to be a little surprised when everyone may or may not learn the truth of events,
but he wouldn't be quite as surprised about Jon Snow's parentage as everyone else.
Like I had my thoughts about Rhaegar and Lyanna
possibly having a child but didn't pay them any mind at the time. And if you're wondering why Varys his network of little birds was
so good and he had information on everyone in the realm,
why then did he bail on King's Landing at the end of season 4? This is because he felt like there was too much evidence
tying him to Tyrion's escape,
Tywin's death and then subsequently, Joffrey's death by association. Everyone knew he was close to Tyrion
so he just felt like they would connect the dots and say "Varys is responsible for all this".
So that's why he preemptively bailed, and then when they get to the east he explains his grand plan to Tyrion for the better
candidate. So by that time he had been watching Daenerys his campaigns in the east and in Mereen and felt like she was the better
person to lead the realm and prepare it for the dangers that were to come.
"If you sat on the Iron Throne, would you spread misery throughout the land?" "I will never sit on the Iron Throne."
"No you won't. The Seven Kingdoms need someone stronger than Tommen, but gentler than Stannis."
"A monarch who can intimidate the high lords and inspire the people. A ruler loved by millions, with a powerful army and the right family name."
The funny thing in all that, is that Varys, because of his culpability in the events that led to Robert's rebellion, is also
responsible for Daenerys growing up in exile, which she then in later seasons connected the dots and took him to task for "Like you
double-crossed my father, the Mad King, you were supposed to be serving him."
"You were supposed to be helping my brother not trying to sabotage him. If you double-cross me,
I'll burn you like I burn everyone that I don't like." So let me know in the comments
Do you think that Varys would be suspicious of Jon Snow's true heritage in the events surrounding the Tower of Joy,
thinking that maybe Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen could have had a child together?
Varys on the TV show kind of seems like he's gotten a little bit dumber with the last couple of seasons.
It's sort of a Tyrion problem.
You watched the first three or four seasons when they're adapting George RR Martin's book material directly, in they're very clever,
they're one step ahead of everyone else,
but then the last couple of seasons
Tyrion starts making all kinds of mistakes,
his dialogue isn't quite as witty. And the same thing starts to happen to Varys.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens to them during season 8.
But I will do a death
predictions video when we get a little bit closer. Still waiting on another big Game of Thrones season 8 trailer,
which supposedly we're going to be getting in the next couple of weeks, but if I get any news about a trailer
I will totally post an update in a video.
Congratulations, Jackie Campbell, you're the giveaway winner from my last big Game of Thrones video.
Please email me on the about page of my channel so I can get your contact details.
Click here for my new Game of Thrones season 8 Iron Throne teaser video and click here for my new season 8, episode 1
teaser video. Thank you so much for watching. Everybody stay awesome. I'll see guys tonight.