Big Undiscovered Twist in HBO's "Game of Thrones"?

Warning: spoilers ahead unless you have seen Game of Thrones all the way through Season 8 Finale.
Also, if you want to try to figure out any major hidden plot twists of "Thrones" by yourself, stop reading now, and good luck!

Because we are going deep into Spoilerland: we hope to crack the hidden master narrative of Game of Thrones by playing The Game of Twists. So if you aren't done with S8EP6, turn away!

Ok - The ending of HBO's Game OF Thrones season 8 left most viewers with an unsatisfying feeling, somehow an incomplete resolution. How could the ending seem so random?  All that build with the Night King and the White Walkers, and it turned out to hardly matter?  Major character arcs just fizzled out? HBO production,  actors D&D and creative team worked so hard for years, for this arbitrary and unresolved conclusion?  What was this story actually about, after all?

It appears that there may well be a solid answer, an apparent plot twist might just be as powerful as Arya' weapon, to clear the narrative clouds that befog the GoT finale.  A twist that has been hiding in plain sight for quite a while.  This epic story twist might resolve quite a few of the viewer issues; and provides a grand master narrative to the entire series.

Viewing the show through the lens of this twist turns what initially seems like so many random narrative accidents and dead ends, into a beautifully resolved conclusion.

If there was really was a major story-shifting twist to HBO's Game of Thrones, one that was hidden until now, maybe it wouldn't  too surprising. It might be more surprising if there _wasn't_ a major twist hidden amongst all the plot threads of  "Thrones."

Just for fun, let's assume there actually is a major undiscovered twist that unlocks the master narrative. What could it be?

In the grand narrative tradition of twists, a character is revealed to be something quite a bit different than they seem, either as an unreliable narrator, or a very bright person hiding in plain sight as someone with more limited abilities.

A few recent examples of major protagonist twists: Amy Dunne in "Gone Girl."  Keyser Soze, in "The Usual Suspects." Bruce Willis' character in "6th Sense".

A writer can't pull big twists off like this very often, as readers and viewers will expect them if a writer is over-reliant on them, and if applied, need to be carefully hidden.

So as we consider the possibility of a major thematic twist in Game of Thrones,  where would it be? Which of our major Westerosi characters might be capable of sustaining years of subterfuge? They would have to be able to make themselves appear unthreatening, and yet staying close to the levers of power all along?   Who might that describe?

Putting the question this way, maybe you're thinking what I'm thinking - Here's the Twist:

Tyrion Did It.

Consider Tyrion Lannister, early on said to be the cleverest man in Westeros, a man practiced in the arts of power.  Then, at some point for no evident reason, Tyrion unaccountably starts supplying some terrible strategic recommendations to his Queen, then gives some fatal advice to his new friend Jon.

Then  a random series of events lead to Tyrion to basically fall backwards into virtually total power over Westeros. How did Tyrion, previously sharp as a tack, turn into such a hapless bumbler?    Maybe Tyrion was not actually who he seemed to be on the surface, and is holding ulterior motives?

Let's try this Tyrion Twist out for size. Bumbling Tyrion, as he appeared in the recent seasons, has actually been playing the Game of Thrones all along,  carefully hiding his power moves and actions towards his goal of the Throne.  Tyrion really wants to be King!  Tyrion's "mistakes" were actually tricky side-steps towards his goal. Tyrion even kept his true intentions hidden to the very end of the story, with no "reveal".

Let's give this Tyrion,  the expert of Game of Thrones, master of subterfuge and hiding in plain sight,  a nickname here:  "Ever Clever Tyrion". Assuming that Ever Clever Tyrion is playing the Game of Thrones (playing to personally win!)  all along, puts the narrative in a different light.  Events that previously seemed less than cohesive, now make more sense.    If  Ever Clever Tyrion's efforts to gain the Throne actually define the principal story arc,  the other storylines (like Night King, Jon vs Danyerys), will inevitably flame out to support the principal narrative.

Consider Eliminating Rivals to the Throne:  Using Twist logic, Tyrion wasn't giving poor strategic advice to Dany because he was a poor planner! Ever Clever Tyrion gave advice that were planned to get Dany out of the way of his ascent.  And he didn't just seek to eliminate her directly; that wouldn't have been too hard considering his position. Tyrion could have had Daenerys eliminated any number of ways (including letting Varys  poisoning scheme continue), but instead he developed a plan that would eliminate both Dany and Jon from the Game in one masterstroke (The Iron Throne Knifing).

Endgame strategy, Ever Clever Tyrion didn't just accidentally get chosen as hand to King Bran.  Tyrion could have worked the endgame plan earlier with Bran during their confidential fireside discussion at Winterfell. Bran knew he would be proposed to be king, ("why do you think I came all this way?") not by divination, but because  Tyrion let him in on the plan.   We don't know for sure, as the cameras cut away. But the show made it clear that Tyrion and Bran had a long and serious conversation, about subjects unknown. We can fill in the blanks here. 

By the series finale, Ever Clever Tyrion has made his ascent look like an accident;  he now just happens to be Hand of the King, and nominal King Bran is happy to let him run the Kingdom.  Ever Clever Tyrion has won the Game of Thrones.

One writerly touch at the very end of Season 8, Episode 6:  Tyrion asks Samwell about his place in the new history book. Samwell has to tell poor Tyrion, that he, Tyrion, didn't make it into the history at all.  And indeed, Ever Clever Tyrion, the hidden Tyrion, never does make it into the principal Game of Thrones narrative; he never drops his mask, never steps into the open. Ever Clever Tyrion is likely delighted that he didn't make it into the history books.

If you accept that Ever Clever Tyrion had a plan to power and has won the Game, his omission from the history books is equivalent a triumphant fireworks display, and the master narrative is completely resolved. Ever Clever Tyrion did it! And no one ever knew ( excepting Bran and perhaps Samwell).  A very private victory.

And yet, there is room for doubt, since the central Twist is not spelled out by the end of Game of Thrones.  There is no narrative babying at GoT endgame for the viewers.  Hiding a major plot twist is pretty unusual.  Most film twists get "dumped" at the movies' end. But a hidden Twist aligns perfectly with George RR Martin's known aversion to inverting classic story tropes.

If we really do have the final GoT Twist resolved, we can say farewell to Bumbling Tyrion, and hello to Ever Clever Tyrion.  Ever Clever Tyrion stands as our narrative's master protagonist, holder to the keys to the Gates of Kings Landing as well as to the overarching narrative of "Game of Thrones".  Ever Clever Tyrion, the man who saved Westeros from a future of disastrous hereditary rule, and the character whose beautiful story arc wove so many disparate "Game of Thrones" plot threads into a unified whole. Long live the King!

A word of thanks here. I would like to give a personal thanks to George RR Martin, HBO GoT Producers, crew, and especially Peter Dinklage and any other cast members that might have known, for keeping this magnificent twist secret; and for allowing the fans to work on it.  A multi-year Easter egg hunt. And we didn't even know what we were looking for! I can only imagine how hard it has been to keep this secret for all these years. If anyone else has already written publically on this, I'm sorry I didn't see it!

There are details to fill in here, years of Ever Clever Tyrion's subterfuge and journey. What moment did he decide to play for the Throne?  Did he make any real mistakes?  Any moments of doubt as he faced crucial decisions? Moments    GoT fans, please help here! A re-watch of the series might be in order here,  see the story through a new lens.

If you might agree that the Ever Clever Tyrion scenario could be the Twist that GoT needs to complete the narrative,  can I ask one favor? Let's talk about spoilers. As in, we don't want to spoil the fun for those who aren't yet done.  If this Twist is correct, it's kind of a major spoiler for those not yet done watching.  We're among friends, here, we've all faithfully watched to the end. I would ask that we do our best to respect viewers who have not yet got through all whole series, people that know the big Twist would be discreet for a while.

Let's tag this safe-zone for discussing the final Twist of GoT, the #GameOfTwists, or "Game of Twists'. No spoilers in plain sight, please! Post them in a link so readers can opt out if they're not ready.

When GRR Martin, the producers, and the cast are ready to talk about a grand twist, we can take their lead for more open discussion.  Game of Thrones team, if you're reading it's your move!

Thanks for reading!  Comments section is open.

Dan Miley

(An earlier timestamped writeup with my initial impression of the GoT Twist,  is here:  https://dailydoppio.blogspot.com/2019/05/gameoftwists.html )

Game of Twists

Warning: spoilers ahead unless you have seen Game of Thrones all the way through Season 8 Finale.

Game of Thrones seemed to end with an unsatisfying thud. Could the creative team have really had such a unskilled grip on the narrative?  It's as if the HBO GoT series is an unresolved puzzle, with unsatisfying pieces that don't seem to fit together, now that we've reached the end.

But what if the GoT puzzle actually has a solution, one not considered before? A story solution that is hiding in plain sight, not yet revealed by the GoT creative team. Consider this solution to the story: a classic "puzzle movie style" solution where the smartest character has been hiding his true motivations for a very long time.

I am offering up this solution to the end of Game of Thrones, and calling it  "Ruthless Tyrion".

By the finale of "Game of Thrones",  Ruthless Tyrion Lannister has successfully executed his master plan for power over Westeros.

Ruthless Tyrion is not physically powerful, nor does he have alignment with any magic powers.  His strengths are intelligence and subterfuge, he can allow people to underestimate him. Ruthless Tyrion's strengths allow him to make a play for the throne, but it would be crucial that no one know his true motivations throughout.

Lets break GoT endgame down, with respect to the "Ruthless Tyrion" solution:

• Ruthless Tyrion Lannister has been a shrewd and stealthy player of the Game of Thrones all along, his every move was dedicated to achieving the Throne, and even his apparent mistakes have been purposeful in pursuit of the ultimate goal.
• At the end of Season 8, Ruthless Tyrion has achieved his goal, as principal advisor and Hand of King Bran (a King who seems happy to delegate everything).  Ruthless Tyrion achieved total power over Westeros with the benefit of his actual position deftly hidden from view.
• To achieve his goal of power,  Ruthless Tyrion carefully and intentionally goaded Daenerys (the nominal leader in the race to the Throne), with intentional "bad" and inept advice, to a place where, cornered and in rage, she would make decisions that would cause her to lose her kingdom.
• Once Daenerys had gone to the brink of madness, Ruthless Tyrion artfully played on the moral sympathies of Jon Snow, the other most credible candidate for the throne, convincing him to kill Daenerys.
• Jon's fateful action, which happened immediately after his convincing discussion with Ruthless Tyrion, eliminated Daenerys from the Game, and by side effect, removed Jon Snow from contention for the Throne as well. Jon might likely have been killed from his actions, and was lucky to be banished).
• So in one mighty stroke Ruthless Tyrion eliminated the two top candidates for the Throne.  With Cercei gone as well, all that was left for Ruthless Tyrion to position the power-indifferent Bran as King, and achieve his personal triumph as King of Westeros in every way except for name.

Could a Ruthless Tyrion have possibly planned this? One has to assume Tyrion is playing the Game first, and that he wants to have the power over Westeros. 

We know Tyrion is said to be the most intelligent man in Westeros. G RR Martin has also said that Tyrion is a complex character, perhaps one to make moral compromises to achieve a goal: "Tyrion's also a very gray character. All my characters are gray to a greater or lesser extent, but Tyrion is perhaps the deepest shade of gray, with the black and white in him most thoroughly mixed, and I find that very appealing."

We have to accept for Ruthless Tyrion to play a successfully win-or-die game, he will be willing to sacrifice the lives of people close to him, if necessary. Ruthless Tyrion  may not want unnecessary bloodshed, but he would have to be willing to make the hard moves required as needed. 

Lets review a few other key events in Season 8, in this light:

Consider Varys in Season 8. Varys was a low probability dark horse for winning the Throne, but not to be underestimated as a power player. Tyrion fed Varys' fears that Dany was going to be a dangerous ruler. Once Varys acted on his beliefs with a poisoning scheme, Tyrion turned Varys in to Dany, a death sentence by proxy. This outcome had the benefit of Tyrion gaining some much needed favor with Dany, as well as knocking out a potential end-game competitor for the Throne endgame. Another benefit would be feeding Dany's growing paranoia. Ruthless Tyrion has every reason to manipulate Varys to betray Dany, and then betray Varys right after.

Consider the Season 8 Dany/Cersei Kings Landing City Gates parley, by consensus a terrible idea, and entirely Ruthless Tyrion's idea: have Daenerys approach Kings Landing gates and ask for Cersei submit an unconditional surrender. Tyrion had to know that his own sister Cersei was not one for unconditional surrender, and that in fact she would likely do something that would enrage Dany (and if Greyworm was also enraged, so much the better).

Viewers watching this encounter were puzzled by an apparent stupid move by Tyrion. Did Tyrion really think this peace parley would work?  Ruthless Tyrion knew it would not achieve peace, but was confident it would feed Dany's rage, and he was right. A peaceful outcome at Kings Landing would be of no use to  Ruthless Tyrion's ascent to power, and he had no intention of working for a true peaceful outcome.

Consider in the final episodes, a risky move for Ruthless Tyrion.  How to convince Jon to kill Dany? Ruthless Tyrion had to betray Dany but mildly so, by releasing Jamie. Then Ruthless Tyrion regained moral standing with Jon Snow by resigning as Hand, (due to civilian deaths,  reason that Jon Snow agreed with), in public at the moment of Dany's triumph.  This move, which was likely going to end in Tyrion's death, but not bad enough to be executed right away, cleared Ruthless Tyrion from agency for the final play:  to eliminate Dany.  Since Tyrion was safely under guard, there was only one candidate left to eliminate Dany, and "save the people". Enter Jon Snow, who,  already mortally offended by the carnage in the Battle of Kings landing, was convinced by Ruthless Tyrion he was the only one left to kill the Queen.  

If we don't accept that Tyrion was ruthless, we have to answer: How would the most intelligent man in Westeros become so poor at statecraft towards the endgame? All his life, Tyrion has been happy to let people underestimate him.   There was no clear reason why his planning became so bad as Dany got near her endgame.  But Ruthless Tyrion had every reason to let his planning abilities slip at just the right time.

But Tyrion spoke often of his concern for the common people of Westeros.  How concerned as Tyrion, really, with the fate and fortunes of the people. If he truly was convinced that Dany was a danger to the common folk of Westeros, he could have let Varys continue with his poisoning scheme.  But that would have either stabilized Cersei's position, or cleared the way for Jon Snow to rule after a battle for Kings Landing. No, either outcome did not lead to power for Ruthless Tyrion.

In order for Ruthless Tyrion to rule thru Bran, he needed Circe, Dany, and Jon all out of the game,  one way or the other. This made a catastrophic battle in Kinds Landing absolutely necessary, to force Dany to cross the moral line. A catastrophic attack was nearly sure to eliminate Cersei with overwhelming violence.  Dany's violent overreach would provoke Jon to sacrifice his own position as next in line to the throne, by killing Dany. 

 With the Throne game board now nearly empty, Ruthless Tyrion need only make a clever speech of the merits of letting whoever had the best story,  rule the Throne. And here we are, achievement unlocked by Ruthless Tyrion.  Indeed, Ruthless Tyrion does have the best story, a story hiding in plain sight until this very moment.

Thank you for reading,

Dan Miley

5/21/19

• .