#varys

[azulolivart]

An unequal marriage in Westeros.

[knightsickness]

ned narration in kings landing is always like varys’ powdered perfumed face smiled eunuchly

[wodania]

stole this and drew it with asoiaf characters

[georgescitadel]

George R.R. Martin on power and Varys' riddle

Interviewer: I think one of the things that is so involving about the story is that the people who start out with power might be quite limited in some ways and lose it while the people that are allegedly powerless with the right kind of cunning and guile and smarts and heart can find a way out of situations that seem hopeless. Did you intend to examine this idea of power and hierarchy and how these things are not as fixed as people think that they are?

George: Definitely! The whole subject of power is fascinating to me! How does power work? What’s it based on? In Varys’ riddle - which I was very glad they included (in the show), I think it’s one of the most important parts of the book – he asks Tyrion who has the real power in that situation. The rich man, the priest and the king are each telling the sellsword to kill the other people… It’s actually the sellsword who has the power since he's the one who has a sword in his hand. He has the power of life and death over the other three, but he’s going to obey one of the other three because of some allusion of power… When I see that scene played out in my mind’s eye, these are three old fat guys and none of them can do anything themselves to the sellsword and yet they command him because they can summon other sellswords… Well, why do all of those other sellswords obey? Our societies are built on this structure of sand and you see that periodically with the falls of great empires and nations… The Soviet Union, it looked solid and eternal and one day it just blew away – “we're not going to follow those guys anymore, let's get rid of them and we'll bring in some new guys.” and suddenly the Soviet Union was gone overnight. Why does that happen?... I was reading a book a couple months ago about the history of Jerusalem and this one particular crazy sultan or caliph. At one point he decided his doctors were trying to kill him so he had all of his doctors killed… okay. Then he decided that the women of the court were conspiring against him, but he liked women as they had babies and other uses, sexually and stuff like that, so he commanded his guards to cut off the hands of all of the women in the court, not only his own wives and concubines, but evidently their wives and concubines as well, and they did it! Now… what the hell was going on there? Why doesn’t the captain of the guard say to the sergeant: “this guy is fucking nuts! We have swords!!! Why don’t we kill him instead of cutting off our wives’ hands?”. I don’t really know where the matter comes from, but it’s a fascinating issue to explore and huge drama comes out of that. Don’t be surprised if sometime in ASOIAF I have a crazy king cutting off the hands of a bunch of people!

- George R.R. Martin, Chicon 7

[turtle-paced]

Why do you think Varys considered Kevan a good man? Kevan was Tywin’s right hand man and never objected to any of his atrocities and in fact gave the orders in some cases for those atrocities to be carried out.

What I think Varys sees in Kevan is real love and real loyalty. Not without reason, either. Whatever doubts and grievances Kevan had with Tywin, before and after his death, whatever mistreatment he and his family received from Tywin's children, Kevan was still there for them. With boundaries, but he was there when he was called. Those would be some real virtues...were it not for the fact that the love and loyalty were for Tywin freakin' Lannister. The fraternal version of "the things I do for love," basically.

The flip side, however... what does Varys' admiration for Tywin's right hand man who not only didn't object to Tywin's atrocities but helped to implement them say about Varys?

The man who's fine with the exploitation of his "little birds" in the name of making a better world "for the children" is perhaps not the best judge of what a good man is.

[stormborns]

[allovesthings]

Arya, after outspying accidentally the master of whisper at age 9 and hiding under the nose of Roose Bolton at age 10:

[barelyanartblog]

Say what you will but at least Cersei and Tyrion have never sunk low enough to try to kill each other.... yet

[glussy]

when Tyrion comes into Varys room to fuck Shae and instead is met with Varys in full drag with a curly brown wig, dress, and beat face and saying "Is something amiss?" like asoiaf is a comedy

[claudraws34]

they're gay

[groundrunner100]

Upon seeing this poll & voting, reblogs are sincerely appreciated. Let as many people as you possible see this poll.

The 5 year anniversary of one of the BIGGEST tragedies in entertainment history deserves more recognition this time around.

Lastly, go in detail in reblogs as to why you voted for a certain character.

(This is the last time I ever do a poll on this subject.)

[andfeans]

trying new brushes in my warm-up practice

featuring asoiaf varys, catelyn (tully) stark, theon greyjoy and a sleeping syrax

[knightsickness]

its fun that when illyrio is telling tyrion his own dubiously true backstory and says he and varys were kids together in pentos the second tyrion says ‘but varys said he was from myr?’ illyrio is like oh rightt yes this was after varys came from myr :) of course. their lifelong agreement to yes-and each others lies without question is why no one in the world can run a long con like them

[motorway-south]

littlefinger and varys as they exist in agot are so funny. what if you went to the capitol to advise the king but to get anything done you had to battle two gay guys?

[georgescitadel]

Fan: How would you describe Littlefinger and Varys’ relationship?

George: Adversarial! Both of them know a lot about the other, including some very damaging things. They're essentially in a stalemate because they know that if one reveals what they know about the other, the other would reciprocate, and then they could both be destroyed. I think Littlefinger has a better idea of what Varys wants than Varys has an idea of what Littlefinger wants. Littlefinger is an agent of chaos who likes to be unpredictable and succeeds in that.

- George R.R. Martin, Penguin Random House México