Tyrion Lannister is one of the most popular characters in Game of Thrones, and for good
reason. Tyrion is funny and clever, but also flawed, and pained. He shows kindness to the
vulnerable, and the back of his hand to dickheads like Joffrey. He’s had a pretty rough time
of it - he's been falsely accused of murder, imprisoned, caught up in a war, then politics,
ended up in another battle, had his face cut up, was forced into a deeply uncomfortable
marriage, was falsely accused of murder again, betrayed by his lover, sentenced to death,
and ended up killing his dad - or was it his dad?
Officially, Tyrion is the son of Tywin Lannister and Tywin's cousin Joanna. But a controversial
fan theory claims that Tyrion's real father is the Mad King, Aerys Targeryen.
So - back in the bad old days of the Mad King's reign, the Targaryens were in charge, and
young Joanna a companion of Rhaella, Aerys’ sister and eventual queen. Meanwhile, Tywin
grew up frustrated with his father Lord Tytos, who had a reputation for weakness, and was
openly mocked to the point that Tywin began to mistrust laughter itself. Tywin became
determined to be the powerful, respected, even feared man that his father was not. So
he slaughtered the rebellious Tarbecks and the Reynes of Castamere, began restoring the
prestige and power of House Lannister, and was made Hand of the King. Not long after,
Tywin and Joanna were married. Tywin loved Joanna. Apparently he smiled at their wedding,
and Tywin doesn’t smile much. But something else happened that night.
According to Ser Barristan, who was Kingsguard at the time, King Aerys “wanted” Joanna
for years. At her wedding to Tywin, Aerys made a drunken joke that implied he wanted
to sleep with her, and later he took “liberties”. We don’t know exactly what those “liberties”
were. It probably wasn't sex, and it was too early to have been Tyrion’s conception anyway.
But what this shows is that King Aerys lusted for Tyrion’s mother, and did something to
her on her wedding night. In A Storm of Swords, Joffrey tells Sansa that kings often
sleep with whoever they want, including married women. So King Aerys not only wanted Joanna,
he probably could have had her. Aerys Targaryen might have fathered Tyrion.
But just quickly - it has been questioned whether Joanna was even at King's Landing
with Aerys at the time of Tyrion's conception. It seems likely that she was, because Tywin
presumably would’ve been there, as Hand of the King, and Joanna must have been with
Tywin if not Aerys for Tyrion's conception. That said, Joanna was apparently at Casterly
Rock “shortly” before giving birth to Tyrion - she died giving birth to Tyrion,
by the way. So it’s unclear. Maybe Joanna was at King's Landing with Aerys and that's
when Tyrion was conceived, or maybe Joanna was at Casterly Rock the whole time, and it
couldn’t have been Aerys. Or, for all we know, Aerys could’ve fathered Tyrion at
Casterly Rock, basically it’s inconclusive, and it may have been Aerys.
So if it was Aerys who fathered Tyrion, does Tywin know? It's conceivable that he never
knew - maybe Joanna was threatened into keeping it secret - and Tywin's ignorance of Jamie
and Cersei's relationship shows that he's impressively good at being ignorant of the
sexual proclivities of his loved ones - but it makes a lot of sense if Tywin did know,
firstly because he outright says it a couple of times, and also because it explains Tywin's
hatred for Tyrion. This hatred is usually said to be because Tyrion killed Joanna in
childbirth, which is kind of a ridiculous reason to hate the kid, or he hates Tyrion
for making a mockery of House Lannister by publicly drinking and whoring. Even that is
kinda hard to believe - Tywin has been an absolute "cunt" to Tyrion well before Tyrion
was drinking and whoring - Tyrion was just sixteen when Tywin refused to let him travel
and instead put him in charge of "all the drains and cisterns within Casterly Rock",
and just thirteen when he had Tyrion's love Tysha raped by his guards. Like – fuck,
who could do that to their own son? Jamie and Cersei have their personality defects
but Tywin doesn't do shit to them – not without good reason, anyway. Further, Tywin
disowns Tyrion, when Tywin is obsessed with his legacy. Is it really worse for him to
have Tyrion as an heir than no heir at all? Tywin knowing - or suspecting - Tyrion to
be Aerys' son makes all of this make sense - when Aerys made Jamie Kingsguard, and therefore
ineligible to inherit Casterly Rock, Aerys made his bastard, Tyrion, the heir to Tywin's
legacy. That spits in the face of everything Tywin works for, so of course Tywin disowns
Tyrion, of course he treats the Mad King's son like shit, and of course he sacks Aerys'
city shortly after the thing with Jamie. The real question is why Tywin would allow Tyrion
to live as a Lannister at all. Maybe because despite being the Mad King's bastard, despite
being a dwarf, Tyrion is Joanna's son, a Lannister, and the son of the woman Tywin loved more
than anything – it might even be a 'promise me, Tywin' sort of a situation - so Tywin
treats Tyrion pretty abhorrently, but still ensures he lives a very comfortable life as
a member of one of the great houses, funds him with plenty of gold, and only tries to
have him killed occasionally. Y’know, by putting him on the front lines of this battle
for no clear reason? Maybe Tywin figured that way he could get rid of Tyrion without directly
kinslaying. Anyway. So here's the next piece of evidence - it's
a common Targaryen trait to have dreams of dragons, often prophetic dreams. Daenerys,
Aemon, Daeron and Daemon Targaryen are all known to have dragon dreams. The other character
who dreams of dragons is Tyrion. Tyrion's interest in dragons, though, is clearly
a different thing to the dreams had by Dany and others. There's no evidence of Tyrion
having literal dreams about dragons at all, certainly nothing like this stuff. The likely
explanation is that Tyrion just liked dragons, because - dragons are cool? The reference
to Tyrion's dragon dreams is maybe a hint, but it's not a strong one.
So now Tyrion's appearance. Tyrion has “one green eye and one black one” and hair that
is both pale blond and black. Lannisters are endlessly described as having golden-blond
hair. But the pale-blond of Tyrion’s hair seems more similar to Targaryen hair, which
is generally described as silver-blond. It might be silly to pay this much attention
to hair colour, but as we were taught in the first book, "seed is strong", and hair colour
can tell a lot about someone's parentage. Tyrion's pale-blond hair is more similar to
Targaryen silver than Lannister gold, so that could be a hint to his parentage.
So Tyrion also has mismatched eyes. There's another character with mismatched eyes in
the Song - Shiera Seastar, a bastard of Aegon IV Targaryen. And like the two-coloured hair,
the two-coloured eyes could symbolically indicate Tyrion's mixed blood. Maybe.
A final note on his appearance - it's been suggested that Tyrion's dwarfism might be
the result of Targaryen genetic weirdness, or possibly the result of attempted abortion.
Dunno how biology works in the world of ice and fire, but we have no precedent for either
of those things occurring so they don't seem strong pieces of evidence.
A final hint, and possibly a big one - if Tyrion is a Targaryen, he could fit very nicely
into the prophecy of the three heads of the dragon. Tyrion, Dany and Jon are the three
main characters. They all have Targaryen blood. Each of their mothers died in childbirth,
each of them have had to kill someone they love, each could correspond to one of the
three living dragons, with which they could fulfil the prophecy, unite the Seven Kingdoms
and defeat the evil Others and ride off for a party on the Summer Isles. Or something.
It seems to work, but does it suit the cynical world George R. R. Martin has created? Does
the ridiculed, disempowered dwarf have to turn out to be a magical dragon prince who
saves the day, or can he have value just as a man?
Are prophecies really even a thing anyway? Do they magically influence peoples' destinies
in the Song of Ice and Fire, or do people fulfil them through their knowledge of them?
We're several thousand pages in and we've still never really clearly seen prophecy at
work, so the 'three heads of the dragon' seem a shaky reason to believe Tyrion to be a Targaryen.
One of the main reasons why the theory ultimately is doubtful is that while Tyrion being a Targaryen
bastard does make his awful relationship with Tywin easier to understand, it makes it something
less. Genna Lannister says that, more than Jamie, Tyrion is Tywin's true son. Tyrion
has all of Tywin's cunning, calculating nature, and political skill, but in the form of a
dwarf which Tywin – so sensitive to mockery and the appearance of weakness – cannot
bring himself to respect. There's so much irony in that Tyrion's drinking and whoring
is surely a consequence of his brutal mistreatment by his father, making him feel worthless and
unloved. But the vices that Tywin hates Tyrion for are vices not only that he caused but
that he shares. Remember – Tyrion found Shae in Tywin’s bed before he killed her
- which mirrors something Tywin hated his father Tytos for. Late in life, Tytos took
a common woman as a mistress, and let her steal his dead wife’s jewellery. After Tytos’
death, Tywin punished the woman cruelly, running her naked through the streets of Lannisport
and forcing her to publicly confess to being “a thief and a harlot”. So then late in
his own life after the death of his own wife Tywin sleeps with a common woman, and lets
her wear his jewellery, the Hand of the King necklace. What Tywin hates in Tyrion is what
he recognises in himself. When Tywin sits there, bleeding out, resolutely not shitting
gold, and tells Tyrion "you are ... no son of mine", it doesn't mean Tyrion is a secret
Targaryen bastard - it means something much more. It means Tywin has rejected his trueborn
son, refused him and tormented him because he could not bear to look upon a twisted version
of himself. And then Tyrion murders Tywin with all the
cold brutality of his father. It's tragic, it's complex, it's "the human
heart in conflict with itself", it's what George R. R. Martin's writing is really all
about, not dragon riding and happy endings. So yes, Tyrion has some kind-of-Targaryen-ish
characteristics, and yes it's conceivable that King Aerys, old dirty bastard that he
is, forced himself on Joanna and fathered Tyrion. But there's no really strong evidence,
and it cheapens one of the most interesting relationships in the series. So for these
reasons, it seems possible but quite unlikely that Tyrion is a Targaryen.
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