“Wait. Are you dying? No, no, no. You can’t die yet. You haven’t confessed.”
“Weep o'er his hall And not a soul to hear.” Did you know that when Tywin’s father died,
Tywin had his step-mother stripped naked and paraded through Lannisport to the docks?
Did you know that the infamous song, the Rains of Castamere, is about an event in
which Tywin Lannister drowned more than three hundred men, women, and children?
Did you know that when Tywin Lannister found out that Lady Catelyn had taken Tyrion captive,
Tywin went to the Crossroads Inn and killed the innkeeper?
One more. Did you know that when Tyrion was just thirteen, he fell in love with and married a
crofter’s daughter named Tysha. When Tywin found out, he had Jaime lie to Tyrion and tell him that
she was just a whore. To drive the lesson home, Lord Tywin gave Tyrion’s wife to a barracks of
his guardsmen to use as they please, and commanded Tyrion to watch. After all the
guardsman, he had Tyrion take her one last time. “We’ll go back to my chambers and speak with some
dignity.” “I can’t go back there. She’s in there.” “Are you afraid of a dead whore?”
Tywin Lannister was a monster among monsters. In today’s video, we are going to get to the
root of one of his biggest lies. “I wasn’t there. I don’t know
what happened.” “If the Mountain killed my sister, your father gave the order.”
Prince Rhaegar Targaryen knighted Gregor Clegane, but that didn’t stop him from killing Rhaegar’s
wife, Princess Elia of Dorne. For the next sixteen years, her young brother, Oberyn,
wanted vengeance and he finally got his chance when he served as Tyrion Lannister’s champion.
“Men at war commit all kinds of crimes without their superiors'
knowledge.” “So you deny involvement in Elia's murder?” “Categorically.”
“You’re going to fight that?” “I’m going to kill that.”
The Mountain was nearly eight feet tall, so most people were intimidated by him,
but Oberyn was not impressed. As a boy, he oft toppled boys much bigger than himself,
and on the day that Oberyn left Dorne to go to King’s Landing, he reminded his brother of that.
Oberyn told Tyrion that he had killed large men before. That
the trick was to get them off of their feet. And he did just so. Oberyn got the Mountain
off of his feet, but he didn’t kill him right away. In the books, Oberyn demanded over and
over that the Mountain say his sister’s name, and in the show, he did that and
he also asked a very important question. “Elia Martell. Who gave you the order?
Who gave you the order?!” Tywin told Tyrion that he had
given the order to kill the children since the Lannisters had come late to Robert’s Rebellion,
so they needed to demonstrate their loyalty. But Tywin denied giving orders to kill Elia.
Tywin told Tyrion that Elia need not have been harmed at all since she was nothing without
Rhaegar. That it was sheer folly for the Mountain to kill her. Naturally, Tyrion followed up by
asking, “Then why did the Mountain kill her?” Tywin said, quote: “Because I did not tell him
to spare her. I doubt I mentioned her at all. I had more pressing concerns.”
That should have been a red flag since Tywin is not the type to overlook
details. But let’s keep going. Tywin closed a fist and said,
“Nor did I yet grasp what I had in Gregor Clegane, only that he was huge and terrible in battle.
The rape dot dot dot even you will not accuse me of giving that command, I would hope.”
At this point in the story, Tyrion did not yet know the truth about Tysha,
and neither did we as readers, so it was easy to believe Tywin. But the truth is that Tywin had
given that type of order before. He had order a barracks full of guardsmen to rape Tysha.
“One way or another, you will get that girl pregnant.” “I will not rape her.”
So, Tywin admitted to giving the order to kill the children and he probably gave the order to not
only kill Elia, but rape her first. That raises the question. Why did Tywin hate Elia so much?
Oberyn’s mother and Tyrion’s mother were both companions to Rhaegar’s mother. So
they knew each. They were friends. Joanna Lannister had wanted to betroth Jaime and
Cersei to Elia and Oberyn. Unfortunately, she died giving birth to Tyrion while the Martells
were on their way to Casterly Rock. They learned about her death while they
were in Oldtown, but Oberyn’s mother tried to do it anyway. They continued on to Casterly Rock,
and she eventually broached the topic with Tywin. But Tywin denied her, saying that Cersei was meant
for Prince Rhaegar. And if she wanted Elia to marry one of his sons, she could marry Tyrion.
Three years later, Tywin told King Aerys that Rhaegar should marry Cersei, but the Mad King
refused to hear it, saying quote: “You are my most able servant, Tywin, but a man does not
marry his heir to his servant’s daughter.” To make matters worse, four years later,
Rhaegar was wed to Elia of Dorne. The girl whom Tywin had rejected for Jaime.
The Lannister sigil is a great lion of the western plains, and coincidentally,
Tywin was obsessed with his pride. Not his family. Not his children. His personal pride.
Since people had often laughed at his father, Tywin absolutely hated being laughed at.
As he was suiting up to fight the Mountain, Oberyn told Tyrion, quote:
“He taught that lesson to Lord and Lady Tarbeck once, and to the Reynes of Castamere. And at
King’s Landing, he taught it to my sister.” “Had Aerys not spurned this same off years
earlier, perhaps things would have worked out differently.”