Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters and their Agendas (9 page)

There’s an intriguing interchange between television Tyrion and Varys on the eve of Blackwater Bay.

Tyrion: What do you want? Tell me.

Varys: If we’re going to play, you’ll have to start.

Tyrion does, describing much about how he enjoys the power he’d never dreamed of having. This conversation drifts into one about the gods. Then Varys pauses, indicating a topic shift, which the following is:

Varys: This morning, I heard a song all the way from Qarth, beyond the red wastes. Daenerys Targaryen lives.

They chat a bit about her half-grown dragons. Then Tyrion points out that Stannis is about to attack and adds that they must play “one game at a time.” (2.8). Did Varys actually confide in Tyrion? Tell him honestly what he wants? (The fact that Daenerys is alive, with dragons, is common knowledge, but in context it may be Varys’ answer, or at least the only answer he’s willing to risk: He supports the Targaryens, both known and hidden.)

Varys claims that the purpose of his machinations is not for personal power, honor, or loyalty, but simply the best intentions for the realm as a whole. After his support of Mad King Aerys, this seems unlikely. In fact, he goes on to destabilize the realm and prolong the conflict until the right time.

A possible right time could be young Aegon arriving as savior. (Of course, if Varys is destabilizing the realm and Illyrio returns with a deliverer, they’re playing the same game they played in Pentos in their youth.) While the civil war, lengthened by Varys, is threatening starvation, this only adds to the people’s misery under all the Westeros kings. Illyrio notes: “There is no peace in Westeros, no justice, no faith…and soon enough, no food. When men are starving and sick of fear, they look for a savior…A savior comes from across the sea to bind up the wounds of Westeros” (V:30). This would pave the way for Varys’ puppet king to arrive and bring peace and justice.

After book one, Varys continues to mess with Lannisters, helping and hurting Tywin, Tyrion, and Kevan along with Pycelle to further destabilize the realm. In book five, Illyrio begins young Aegon’s campaign for power. Illyrio and Varys enlist the aid of the Golden Company of mercenaries to help. The Golden Company was founded by the
Blackfyres
, a group of Targaryen bastards who tried to seize the throne
five separate times
about a century before King Robert. (They feature in various flashbacks as well as the Dunk and Egg stories.) At last, the male line (specifically) was entirely killed off. In the year 2000, a decade before book five’s release, Martin wrote, “The Golden Company is the largest and most famous, founded by one of Aegon the Unworthy’s bastards. You won’t meet them until A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.”
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Clearly the Golden Company is integral to Martin’s storyline.

Illyrio notes that the company broke a different contract and signed up because “Some contracts are writ in ink, and some in blood.” If Aegon is actually one of their descendants through the female line, they might be eager to topple both legitimate Targaryens and the pretender kings. While the company once refused to help Viserys reclaim the throne, defending their own may have always been their plan. Why is Varys so desperate for his chosen heir to take the throne? This has required about twenty years of labor, to say nothing of countless deaths and the destruction of good rulers as well as bad ones. This preference for Aegon over Daenerys and her brother suggests that Aegon as a person matters to them, or that Varys wants the satisfaction of creating an able, non-Targaryen heir, not a mad, magic-using Targaryen. That being said, Viserys showed signs of instability and madness even as a child, while women are forbidden to rule in their own right. Only once Daenerys has dragons does she become valuable – with them, she’s the most “worthy” Targaryen in the people’s eyes. Wedding her to Aegon will solidify their joint claim.

Several theories behind Aegon’s backstory are floating around online:

1.
     
Aegon’s an actual Targaryen, needed because Winter is Coming. He will be one of the three heads of the dragon and possibly Daenerys’s husband.

However, most fans are skeptical that the hero who will save everyone is not Jon, Daenerys, or Bran but a new character introduced as late as book five. There are several prophecies of a false dragon or mummer’s dragon that particularly cast doubt on Aegon. His traveling with a “halfmaester” and a false Septa emphasizes this as well. The classic Targaryen look is “silver-gold hair” and “purple eyes” like Daenerys’s in the books (I:34). Aegon has silvery hair, but this is common in Volantis. His eyes are a lighter color than the deep Targaryen purple of Prince Rhaegar and Daenerys. Of course, if he’s legitimate but gets killed or refuses the throne, the story arc won’t be severely affected.

2.
     
Most fans prefer the theories that he’s not Aegon Targaryen but is in fact

a)
  
A descendant of the Targaryen bastards who founded the Golden Company and Varys owes them something or is a descendant of theirs who’s concealing his silvery hair with his baldness. (He’s spent the entire series as the observer with no family agendas, so this would be something of a disappointment.)

b)
 
A descendent of the mad, savage Prince Aerion from “The Hedge Knight,” who traveled to the east a century ago.

a)
   
Illyrio’s beloved son by his wife who had “pale golden hair streaked by silver,” making him the schemers’ adored family but not actually royal. (Of course, Illyrio’s wife could be a Targaryen descendent through the Golden Company. Illyrio notably turned down better matches to wed her.)

b)
 
A random baby from the silver-haired descendants of Old Volantis – Varys wants to
make
a good king, not watch one inherit because of an unstable, inbred bloodline. His hatred of magic and rough upbringing on the streets would support this.

Illyrio appears to care for the boy, sending him gifts and asking to see him before the conquest. Besides, the child, Targaryen or not, has been raised to Illyrio’s and Varys’ secret agenda and will show them personal loyalty. The three of them could rule the kingdom. In one scene, Varys describes needing the right king, not just the heir:

He is here. Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid…Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them. (V:958-959)

All this emphasis on his upbringing rather than his birthright suggests Aegon has been trained for kingship, not simply bred for it.

In summary, Varys seems to aid the following:

v
 
Mad King Aerys (at least to increase his paranoia and dependency)

v
 
Daenerys (only after she has dragons)

v
 
His own young Aegon – real or fake

v
 
A Lannister-Stark war (under the right conditions and timing)

On the surface, Varys seems to want Targaryen rule. But why? He’s from Lys, where he became a powerful master of secrets before Aerys recruited him. Perhaps Varys wants to install a puppet king on the throne. Or perhaps he knows the war is coming and the people of Westeros will need a Targaryen. Time will tell.

CHAPTER 3: OTHER FAN QUESTIONS

Where Can I Find More Books like Martin’s?

Martin’s other large series,
Wild Cards
, has little relation to Ice and Fire. A few of his stories, however, anticipate or explore issues later brought into
A Song of Ice and Fire
– writing doesn’t take place in a vacuum.

For instance, Martin’s earliest fantasy story sold was “Dark Gods of Kor-Yuban.” In a sword-and-sorcery, Conan-the Barbarian-style saga, the exiled Prince R’hllor of Raugg and his boisterous, swaggering companion Argilac the Arrogant travel the world. In a sequel, they team up with Barron, the Bloody Blade of the Dothrak Empire, to slay the winged demons who killed Barron’s grandfather Barristan the Bold.
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Of course, all these names appear in Westeros (even Argilac the Arrogant, who was the last Storm King overthrown by the Targaryens). Writers’ ideas linger – they don’t just vanish. His Dunk and Egg stories, listed in the bibliography, are direct prequels to the series, but for fans who can’t get enough, the following stories may also be of interest:

“The Ice Dragon”

“The Ice Dragon” available in Martin’s 
Dreamsongs: Volume I
(Bantam Books, 2012) and as a standalone children’s book may be the closest. This story features a girl living in a medieval world of dragonriders that could be Westeros. She befriends an ice dragon and uses him to fight in their war. Ice dragons have been mentioned in
Ice and Fire,
and this book only lends fuel to readers’ speculations.

“A Song for Lya”

The Hugo Award winning “A Song for Lya” is available in the collection of that name and in
Dreamsongs Volume 1.
This novella features a tragic love story…the heroine is even named Lyanna! As she and her boyfriend struggle with romance and the meaningful questions of life, they touch on many
Game of Thrones
themes, like acts that can truly change a person, love, faith, and the nature of religion.

Windhaven 
by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle

Windhaven
 shares many of
Game of Thrones’
trappings. In a fantasy world of ballads, ships, and heroes, a girl longs to fly – not on dragons but on metal wings. However she’s denied them in favor of her half-brother. As Maris (a name repeated in
Ice and Fire
) competes, she’s proving she’s as good as those born to the birthright. It also led to Martin’s most beloved character. Martin notes:

In 1981 I wrote a novel with Lisa Tuttle called Windhaven. In fact, we wrote three different short stories with the same main character, Maris, and once we had them written we decided to put them all into one book with three different parts. So while we were writing the books we thought about a dwarf who would have been the Lord of one of the islands. He had to be the ugliest person in the world but the most intelligent too. I kept that idea in my mind and it reappeared to me when I was starting to write Game of Thrones. So…That’s Tyrion Lannister.
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Other Authors

Of course, readers looking for more books in this style could read Martin’s favorites, both fantasy and historical. Martin said:

I really like the young fantasy authors out there; they are doing some terrific work. I really like the work of my friend Daniel Abraham, who’s just started a new fantasy series with The Dragon’s Path and already has written a terrific one called The Long Price Quartet. I think Joe Abercrombie is doing some terrific work. I love Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora series. So those are three right there that they can take a look at.

   I also think that fantasy fans should go back and read the classics: obviously Tolkien if you haven’t read him, but also works like Fritz Leiber’s classic Fahfrd and the Grey Mousers stories; the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and his other characters like Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane; Jack Vance, one of my all-time favorites, the marvelous The Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance. We just did a tribute anthology to him just a couple years ago called Songs of the Dying Earth. Original Dying Earth stories written by old fantasy writers who were shaped and influenced by Jack Vance’s classic stuff…Oh and Roger Zelazny. Nine Princes in Amber. I mean that’s an all-time classic. They should definitely read those. […]
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Also, I read a lot of historical fiction, both the classic writers of historical fiction that I read many decades ago – people like Thomas B. Costain and Frank Yerby and so forth – and some of the more contemporary writers of historical fiction, like Bernard Cornwell, Sharon Kay Penman, and Philippa Gregory.
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It’s been noted that Martin’s work fits smoothly among the most popular of high fantasy series, drawing on what came before and creating a standard for what came after:

Just as he followed in the footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, and more contemporary fantasists such as Robert Jordan and Tad Williams, other authors have been influenced in turn by the [gritty and realistic] traits that Martin’s readers associate with his series of novels.
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Along with historical fiction, many fantasy epics are celebrated for their politics and complexity. For those interested in political machinations (along with quite a bit of nudity) the
Kushiel’s Legacy
series by Jacqueline Carey guides readers through a fantastical Europe as a courtesan struggles to save the realm from its own clash of kings. For historical novels reimagining the great epics, Parke Godwin has done excellent takes on Robin Hood, King Arthur, and so forth, set in historical England.
The Secret Texts
 by Holly Lisle introduces feuding houses in which even the worst villains have their moral complexity. Like Martin, Lisle breaks every rule of prophecy and fantasy conventions.
The Sevenwaters Trilogy
 and
The Bridei Chronicles
by Juliet Marillier are delightful fantasy series with an incredibly Celtic feel and much historical research…it all depends which aspects of
Game of Thrones
appeal the most.