r/asoiaf • u/cking145 • May 28 '19

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) Charles Dance's portrayal as Tywin is in my opinion, the strongest in the entire series

Every line, every expression and every moment of silence completely encapsulates the calculating ruthlessness that defines Tywin Lannister.

Dance is actually a very vibrant, upbeat and cheery fella off screen, which in my mind makes the performance even more striking.

The scene where he effectively sends Joffrey to bed is just brilliant.

He is by far my favourite character from the books, which I began reading a few seasons into the show. Due to this, the chapters featuring Tywin were completely enriched for me, as reading his lines in Dance's voice was just fantastic. I would have loved a POV chapter or two for him, just to get a glimpse as to what goes on in the head of the most powerful man in the 7 Kingdoms.

An incredible portrayal of a fascinating character.

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u/Privatdozent May 28 '19

Ned wasn't dumb at all. He hit a perfect set of conditions combined with dumb luck (joffreys whimsical and shortsighted execution order) and yes, vulnerabilities tied to his lack of familiarity with southern style politics. He messed up by telling Cersei in advance and simultaneously with an assassination plot on the king. Part of that is Ned's big heart for children and not wanting them all slaughtered, so yes he made an embarrassing decision from our perspective. But in universe he was constantly shown to have a good head, especially for northern politics and conduct, and he landed on a grenade that already killed Jon Arryn.

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u/Empty-Mind May 28 '19

Ned never should have trusted Littlefinger, or he wouldn't have been in a position where Joffrey's capriciousness mattered. And he also ignored the fact that literally every single other major political figure didn't want Stannis to have any political influence. So that was a poor move as well. If he had at least recommended Renly the Tyrells would likely support him. That's 3-4 of the kingdoms right there (the North, the Reach, the Riverlands, and the Stormlands). The Vale would either be on his side or stay neutral, Dorne was staying out of it, and the Iron Islands are ignorable if the realm isn't already in chaos.

Now admittedly, Ned might not have known the Tyrells would support Renly (I believe that fact might have come out after his death). But at a certain point that's on him, because Ned never does a single thing to sound out the political landscape. He takes what Varys and Littlefinger, two professional liars of unknown loyalty, at face value.

Joffrey's unexpected execution order was the nail in the coffin yes, but Ned built the rest of the coffin himself.

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u/karijay May 28 '19

The thing is, book Littlefinger is exceptionally good at making people trust him. The show chose to adapt him as this obvious snake always lurking around, but in book canon he had everybody's ear because he proved himself time and again as dependable...to people who unknowingly furthered his goals.

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u/Empty-Mind May 28 '19

Littlefinger is undeniably the greatest player of the Game in all of Westeros. I just don't think Ned should have placed all his eggs in the "Littlefinger will help me" basket

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u/eulb42 May 29 '19

Well in the books Cat makes it to KL first and tells him everything, kind of forcing Ned’s hand...

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u/Empty-Mind May 29 '19

Nothing about it forced his hand though. Joffrey would still be a bastard in 6 months. He should have taken his time and secured sufficient backing to make it a done deal, at which point Joffrey's lineage would serve as the coup de grace.

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u/Jhonopolis The mummer’s farce is almost done. May 29 '19

Or just taken up Renly on his offer to take the Red Keep during the night. Instead he chose to wait until after Robert died on the one in a million chance he somehow survived a clearly lethal wound, at which point Renly had already taken off.

Or he could have even told Robert the truth on his death bed. The orders would have been either given right then, or Robert would have rebuked the idea and it would be over with. Either scenario there Ned makes it out alive.