#varys

[allovesthings]

I will never get over the fact that 9 years old Arya freaking Stark actually heard accidentally information she wasn't supposed to hear from Varys: the master of whispers. The literal master of spy was kinda outspyed by a 9 year old being what is essentially a little bird.

And same thing with Bolton. Arya Stark was right here. He had her and the signs were here if he had just taken any interest in the Smallfolks he had in captivity and in his service.

I don't know which is funnier though. That Varys still doesn't know his conversation with Illyrio was overheard or that Bolton realized it was Arya after the fact (probably...unclear).

I love that little girl so much.

[azulolivart]

An unequal marriage in Westeros.

[catofoldstones]

I know Varys has his own agenda, Catelyn ‘mislikes’ the guy, he has no loyalty, employes children etc etc but I love him. Was struggling in the dregs of the smallfolk social strata and still managed to win an important seat in the royal court. In a world where the powerful only care about power, this man wants peace. Saved a baby from psycho killers only to raise him to be a worthy ruler. Mourns the loss of another baby, a girl barely mentioned. Still understands the smallfolk and has no empathy for lordly violence. Varys, you’ll always be the mvp for me.

[knightsickness]

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

[stormborns]

You have a choice, my friend. You can stay here at Illyrio's palace and drink yourself to death, or you can ride with me to Meereen, meet Daenerys Targaryen, and decide if the world is worth fighting for.

[wodania]

stole this and drew it with asoiaf characters

[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]

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.

[barelyanartblog]

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

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

While Oberyn clearly held Tywin responsible for what happened to Elia and her children (as well he should), do you believe he held any similar vendetta against Jaime for letting the Lannister soldiers in?

I don't think Oberyn did, no, because Jaime didn't let the Lannister soldiers in.

Grand Maester Pycelle told Aerys that Tywin and the Lannister army had come to help him, and despite Varys warning him otherwise, Aerys agreed and ordered the gates opened. The Lannister army then began sacking the city, and Jaime (17 years old, the sole Kingsguard in King's Landing) was in charge of defending the Red Keep. Jaime saw the number of soldiers storming the walls and knew it was hopeless, so sent a messenger to Aerys asking if he could arrange a surrender, and Aerys responded by ordering Jaime to bring him Tywin's head. The messenger also told Jaime that Rossart the pyromancer was with the king, and Jaime knew that meant the wildfire plot to destroy King's Landing was about to go off, so he killed Rossart (who was about to leave the castle) and then Aerys.

The Lannister soldiers got into the castle on their own, and burst into the throne room just in time to see the end of it.

[allovesthings]

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

[queen-helaenas-pet-spider]

Though while I AM a little bummed that only a couple of y'all are as delulu as I am about Satin being the real Prince Aegon Targaryen, I'm glad y'all had fun! Hope to see you again on the next poll! Not sure when I'll do another one or what it'll be about just yet, but still! 😁😁🌹🌹���💖

[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

[stormborns]