Day 27: Favorite Death
Is favorite death really a thing? Do they mean the character I was happiest to see die or the death I felt had the most impact on the story? I guess either way, I'm going to go with the death of Tywin Lannister.
Lord Tywin Lannister was truly a magnificent bastard. The man ruled his family for a long time, pulling it out of the debt and dishonor his father had tossed it into. Tywin served as Hand of the King during the reign of Aerys Targaryen and managed to keep peace and prosperity going for about 20 years. Being peaceful for this long is almost unheard of in a place like this.
He was murdered while he sat on the privy.
Jaime had just rescued Tyrion and confessed to him that everything that happened in Tyrion's first marriage was a lie orchestrated by his father. Tywin hated the marriage because the girl was commonborn. Tyrion went to his father, who was trying to empty his bowels, and confronted him with a crossbow. Granted, it probably wasn't the best time to discuss such matters, but Tyrion was upset and in a hurry. They verbally sparred and Tyrion shot him.
While this is a very ignoble end for Lord Lannister, the consequences of his death are really the crux of the Lannister family past this point. Tyrion falls apart and goes on a drinking/self-loathing binge. He bounces around, consumed with guilt and anger and hatred and does his best to try and destroy himself. He becomes a much darker version of who he was, even though it begins to let up as the book is coming to a close.
Cersei, having recently also lost her oldest son, goes pretty crazy. In most people, this would be amusing and harmless. Cersei is Queen Regent. Her insanity is still amusing, but she causes a lot of problems for everyone. She has several people assassinated, burns down the Tower of the Hand, allows the church to regain military power, stays drunk all the time, murders people, and destroys the main alliance she has with basically everyone.
Jaime blames himself for his father's death. He is the one who freed Tyrion and gave him the reason to kill his father. As far as he is concerned, it was like putting the crossbow bolt into the man himself. He leaves King's Landing on a mission to try and make peace in the areas where war still rages. He questions everything about his life and goes forward with and alternately backslides in the process of redemption that began when he traveled with Brienne.
Varys famously says at one point that power resides where men believe it to reside. It's very clear that the Lannister siblings believed that power truly resided with their father. When he dies, Cersei feels she has no one to protect her and overcompensates by making decisions based on paranoia. When Tywin dies, Jaime has no one to he can finally prove himself to, so he loses direction and focus on what he is doing and who he is supposed to be.
Tyrion killed his father, this big, looming obstacle in his life. He is no longer under his father's thumb, he he also no longer has limits. With no limits, he has no idea how to function, how to control himself. I suppose Tywin's is my favorite death because it becomes such a wonderful device to study three of our main characters.
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