Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters and their Agendas by Valerie Frankel Page A
Authors: Valerie Frankel
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follows this season three conversation by revealing he’s captured the sorcerer and showing him to Tyrion. While this suggests the tale is true, it also reveals that Varys has many connections in the East and is perfectly willing to wait decades to enact revenge from a place of total safety and power. Retribution matters to him, but he has no need to rush.
According to Illyrio in the fifth book, Varys started thieving in Myr, and then fled to Pentos where he met Illyrio and they became partners: Varys would steal things and Illyrio would “arrange” their return for a price. This gradually changed from wealth to information, and both conspirators gained much money and influence.
Mad King Aerys, hearing about this amazing spy, recruited him. In King’s Landing, Varys sowed dissension between his royal employer and his son Rhaegar, and Aerys grew more paranoid under his influence. Stannis reflects in the third book that “Ser Barristan once told me that the rot in King Aerys’s reign began with Varys.” Likewise Jaime tells Brienne that Aerys “saw traitors everywhere, and Varys was always there to point out any he might have missed.” Varys alerted Aerys to the possibility that Rhaegar was recruiting allies against his father at the Tourney at Harrenhal , so Aerys attended, leaving the keep for the first time since his imprisonment at the Defiance of Duskendale . Rather than stabilizing the realm, Varys appears to have slowly unhinged it, or brought down the unfit ruler in preparation for another.
Why did he come to Westeros? Varys already had wealth and power in his homeland. Did he desire to play the Game of Thrones? Or did he have another agenda?
When Rhaegar had been defeated, everyone felt the Targaryens had lost the war from that moment on. Partially this was because much of the army died with Rhaegar but also because he was regarded as an excellent future king. With Rhaegar dead, Mad King Aerys lost his tempering influence, and the remaining heirs were tiny children. No one remained that anyone wanted for king.
Nonetheless Varys advised Aerys to bar the gates against Tywin Lannister, who came to “help” and instead butchered the Targaryens. Was Varys afraid for his own skin? Or was his loyalty to the king so great that he supported him even in inevitable defeat? Was he worried that the Lannisters would butcher all the Targaryens and their spymaster as well? This may have been a clever application of reverse psychology, but with only the facts provided, Varys may have actually been going down with King Aerys’ doomed cause – an odd position for the intelligent spymaster to take.
Whatever his agenda, Varys then wheedled King Robert into leaving him spymaster, and as we finally learn, he and Illyrio set up a child to be raised as Prince Aegon, Aerys’ infant son whom Varys allegedly smuggled from the castle before his death. (There’s no proof whether the boy is who he claims.) In the fifth book, Varys and Illyrio both appear to want this boy on the throne (making this a long game indeed).
One possible but far-fetched motivation is that Illyrio and Varys, advised by Illyrio’s red priest friends (Illyrio swears by the Lord of Light), learn that according to prophecy, three Targaryen heroes will be needed to fight the Others. Illyrio comments in book five that the dragon has three heads – he knows the prophecy. Perhaps Illyrio even gave Daenerys exactly three eggs because he hoped she’d hatch them and find dragonriders. In this case Varys, needing a real Targaryen, protected Mad King Aerys and his infant grandchildren as much as possible. It also suggests Varys might have rescued the actual infant Aegon since he would be needed someday.
However, there are many problems with this: In fact, Illyrio and Varys let Viserys and Daenerys wander as beggars for a decade when they easily could have offered them more help. If Varys doesn’t value those young
According to Illyrio in the fifth book, Varys started thieving in Myr, and then fled to Pentos where he met Illyrio and they became partners: Varys would steal things and Illyrio would “arrange” their return for a price. This gradually changed from wealth to information, and both conspirators gained much money and influence.
Mad King Aerys, hearing about this amazing spy, recruited him. In King’s Landing, Varys sowed dissension between his royal employer and his son Rhaegar, and Aerys grew more paranoid under his influence. Stannis reflects in the third book that “Ser Barristan once told me that the rot in King Aerys’s reign began with Varys.” Likewise Jaime tells Brienne that Aerys “saw traitors everywhere, and Varys was always there to point out any he might have missed.” Varys alerted Aerys to the possibility that Rhaegar was recruiting allies against his father at the Tourney at Harrenhal , so Aerys attended, leaving the keep for the first time since his imprisonment at the Defiance of Duskendale . Rather than stabilizing the realm, Varys appears to have slowly unhinged it, or brought down the unfit ruler in preparation for another.
Why did he come to Westeros? Varys already had wealth and power in his homeland. Did he desire to play the Game of Thrones? Or did he have another agenda?
When Rhaegar had been defeated, everyone felt the Targaryens had lost the war from that moment on. Partially this was because much of the army died with Rhaegar but also because he was regarded as an excellent future king. With Rhaegar dead, Mad King Aerys lost his tempering influence, and the remaining heirs were tiny children. No one remained that anyone wanted for king.
Nonetheless Varys advised Aerys to bar the gates against Tywin Lannister, who came to “help” and instead butchered the Targaryens. Was Varys afraid for his own skin? Or was his loyalty to the king so great that he supported him even in inevitable defeat? Was he worried that the Lannisters would butcher all the Targaryens and their spymaster as well? This may have been a clever application of reverse psychology, but with only the facts provided, Varys may have actually been going down with King Aerys’ doomed cause – an odd position for the intelligent spymaster to take.
Whatever his agenda, Varys then wheedled King Robert into leaving him spymaster, and as we finally learn, he and Illyrio set up a child to be raised as Prince Aegon, Aerys’ infant son whom Varys allegedly smuggled from the castle before his death. (There’s no proof whether the boy is who he claims.) In the fifth book, Varys and Illyrio both appear to want this boy on the throne (making this a long game indeed).
One possible but far-fetched motivation is that Illyrio and Varys, advised by Illyrio’s red priest friends (Illyrio swears by the Lord of Light), learn that according to prophecy, three Targaryen heroes will be needed to fight the Others. Illyrio comments in book five that the dragon has three heads – he knows the prophecy. Perhaps Illyrio even gave Daenerys exactly three eggs because he hoped she’d hatch them and find dragonriders. In this case Varys, needing a real Targaryen, protected Mad King Aerys and his infant grandchildren as much as possible. It also suggests Varys might have rescued the actual infant Aegon since he would be needed someday.
However, there are many problems with this: In fact, Illyrio and Varys let Viserys and Daenerys wander as beggars for a decade when they easily could have offered them more help. If Varys doesn’t value those young
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