Tyrion Lannister

Who is Tyrion Lannister?

Tyrion is the youngest child of Tywin Lannister and his wife Joanna, and the brother of the twins Cersei and Jaime. Born a dwarf into the proudest family in Westeros, he is the son his father values least and, to much of the court, a joke, and he answers both with reading, drink and a tongue sharper than anyone's sword. In Game of Thrones he is played by Peter Dinklage, and in the novels he is a central point-of-view character from the first book.

His appeal comes from the distance between how others see him and what he can do. Tyrion understands people, money and power better than almost anyone in the capital, and he is the rare Lannister with a conscience, which makes him both useful to his family and dangerous to it. The story keeps placing him where his intelligence matters most and his name protects him least.

How does he rise and fall in King's Landing?

Sent to the capital to govern in his father's name, Tyrion proves an able administrator, and after the war comes to the city he is rewarded with the office of Master of Coin, a post his father means as much to sideline him as to reward him. Tywin also forces him into a political marriage with Sansa Stark, a match neither of them wants and one that makes plain how little control Tyrion has over his own life.

His fall is faster than his rise. Failed by the family he served, he escapes the capital in the fourth season, and on his way out he kills Tywin with a crossbow. The killing ends his place in Westeros and severs the last tie between his loyalty and his family, which is why it is the turning point of the character rather than merely a shocking scene.

Why does he join Daenerys Targaryen?

Because she offers what his family never did: a chance to be judged on his counsel. Daenerys names him Hand of the Queen, and for several seasons he tries to temper her strength with strategy, steering her away from the destruction her dragons make possible. It is a natural partnership on paper, a ruler with power and a counsellor with judgement, and the show uses it to ask whether good advice can restrain a conqueror.

The answer the series gives is painful for him. His plans fail as often as they succeed, his loyalty is doubted by the people around her, and he cannot stop the outcome he most feared. The partnership ends in the last season, and Tyrion finishes the war having served a second ruler who would not, in the end, be guided by him.

What does reading him in the novels add?

In the books Tyrion is a point-of-view character from the very first novel, so readers hear the jokes and also the thoughts behind them. The page lets him be bitter, self-pitying and occasionally cruel in ways a charming performance on screen can soften, and it makes his choices harder to excuse and easier to understand at the same time.

That interior voice also explains why the character works in both versions. Tyrion is the series' most reliable commentator on its own politics: he sees what his family is doing, says what others will not, and pays for saying it. Whether or not his story ends the same way in print, the novels make clear that his sharpest observations are usually about himself.

How does his story end?

Tyrion survives, which in this story is itself a verdict. In the final episode the new king, Bran Stark, names him Hand of the King, so that he can spend the rest of his life repairing the damage he helped to cause. It is the same kind of office he held before, under a ruler of a very different kind: one chosen by the realm's lords rather than born or burned into the role.

That ending suits a character whose talent was always for the work that comes after the fighting. Tyrion cannot win a war by himself, but he can run a council, balance a treasury and talk a room into a compromise, and the series closes on him doing exactly that. In the novels his story is unfinished as of the date this page was last checked.