[BOOK & TV SPOILERS] Shae in Tywin's bed

[Tadco26]

The show just has a history of ignoring the changes they make in order to hit a very rough outline of the key events.

Tyrion sneaks into Tywin's chambers. The problem is we have no idea how he knew that there even was a secret tunnel to Tywin's chambers, much less where it was in relation to where he was. Shae never used them in the show, Varys never mentioned them, they just included it because it was in the books without considering how their other changes made the inclusion not make sense.

They removed Tysha, which is unfortunate. I know people want to argue that she couldn't just "come out of no where" and be the reason he killed Tywin, but it didn't have to "come out of no where". They could have had multiple conversations about her during Tyrion's captivity. Cut the beetle scene for something more important. Add the initial telling of the Tysha story on the "previously on game of thrones prelude". The only reason it would have "come out of no where" is because the writers made it that way. But they changed that, then made Shae try to kill Tyrion without a word despite being a loud bitch on the show 90% of the time. They gave Shae an offer to have ritches and leave to essos in safety and wealth without having to deal with Tyrion ever again earlier in the series. Then they try to make it like she isn't really a whore, just a jealous, petty bitch. Then she is in Tywin's bed and tries to kill Tyrion... They can't seem to decide what Shae is, but she certainly seems to fit the whore description by the end, and Tyrion even says while in captivity that he fell for a whore and he should have seen it. So why is Tywin calling her a whore a breaking point? Tyrion had done the same thing several times in the last few episodes and frankly with her in Tywin's bed it fit more than ever.

If they are going to completely change it, wouldn't it make more sense to have Tyrion confront Tywin about being a hypocrit? About taking HIS whore of all people? They don't even discuss that part. It just felt like they were trying to shoehorn the whore trigger in without considering the changes they made.

[Penguin king]

The whole sequence of events was radically changed; No mention of Tysha, No mention of Cerci's sexual exploits, Tyrion and Jaime parting on good terms, Varys not leading Tyrion through the tunnels, Shae's stabbing attempt ....

There's about as much evidence concerning book theories to be found here as there is in the Brienne, Hound punch up.

[Melisandre's hair]

People conveniently forget that D&D have been told by GRRM himself how everything plays out, in another words: THEY KNOW MORE THAN YOU. Lose the tinfoil hats.

They don't know fate of good portion of characters and they def don't know how EVERYTHING will play out (except the main problem who sits on the Iron Ugly Chair) - main argument for that is GRRM himself and his repetition of the fact that they keep killing people who are still alive (and will be seen in WoW/DoS) and they (D&D) don't even bother asking him will those characters be needed in future. If they do and he says they will show up again, they kill them anyway.

At the end, we will have approximately same ending but the paths to that ending will be different compering books and show. Also, some character's fate will not be the same. If they really cared about literal adaptation, they would ask him more often about certain characters. They claim they care about being ''faithful'' to the books, but we can obviously see they don't.

[Hodor's Dragon]

You know, this was really an excellent episode overall, beyond any doubt - so why did it leave me feeling so disappointed? Because the scene I was most looking forward to was fricking butchered.

Leaving out Tysha means:

• As much emphasis as they have put on the brother-brother relationship this season, and as much justice as Coster-Waldau and Dinklage have done it, I'm frankly shocked that they totally punted the most dramatic and tone-setting event between them. In the show, Jaime and Tyrion parted on the best terms, with brotherly love, instead of with a promise to fight to the death the next time they saw each other, and we lose those wonderful lines "Yes, I killed your vile son," and "fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and Moon Boy, too, as far as I know";
  
• 
  
• "Where do whores go," which becomes Tyrion's version of "You know nothin', Jon Snow," just doesn't happen. In the books, searching for Tysha is the second-most important thing in Tyrion's life after this scene (with where his next bottle of wine is coming from being #1);
  
• 
  
• The Shae/Tywin murders play out very differently. In the books, Tyrion kills them both in a murderous rage because of the Tysha revelation, but here there's no murderous rage so we get Tyrion basically killing Shae in self-defense after she pulled a knife on him. And he killed Tywin why, exactly? Because he called Shae a whore? Really? Really? In the book, Tywin's last words are "wherever whores go," and, in context, you just knew Tyrion was going to pull on him for that.
  

And OK, then, let's just assume they decided to leave out Tysha for whatever reason, like to save the 2 minutes of telling the story, or to save the minute or two of Jaime's and Tyrion's dialogue. Makes no sense to me, but let's just assume it.

So why did they also leave out Varys telling Tyrion how to get to the Hand's suite? That's just bad story-telling. In the show, if you hadn't read the books then you didn't know what's going on; you see Tyrion deciding for some unknown reason to go up some rather nondescript stairs, and then emerging from a trap door into - where? WTF is he doing? Huh? Why isn't he escaping?!? They wound up having to give little hints, like some kind of Hand pin by the bed, for us to figure out what the hell was going on and where he was, and instead of just being into the scene you spend the first couple of minutes of it completely disoriented and bewildered. In the book, there's none of that: you knew exactly where Tyrion was going, and the second he walks in that door, it's holy shit, Tyrion is in Tywin's suite. Fox in the henhouse, for sure.

So yeah, even though it was a great episode, it was easy to craft a great episode with all the great material the book had provided at this particular point in the story, and I think leaving out Tysha was by far the most significant departure from the books yet. Not only did it make the Tyrion escape scene far inferior to what it should've been if they had bothered to spend about 3 more minutes on it, but it has far-reaching ramifications. What is going to drive Tyrion now?

[Woman of War]

I wanted to open a topic about Shae but no one bothered to approve it, a pity

I am one of those who in a way always sympathized with the character of Shae. Certainly not with her decision to betray Tyrion and Sansa the way she did. But with her story as sex worker who both in books and series is tough, is a survivor - well, until.... - , a woman who had a shitty life and never got a chance to learn empathy, who could not afford for survival to put anyone's rights or emotions before her her own since no one would have done that for her. I admired her in a way as ambitious selfmadewoman, who tried to get out of her sad life by her own initiative, who tried to save herself. In the books she was a character who never had someone to teach her how to feel empathy, solidarity or commonsense and people learn from loving example to do the right thing when it would be time for it, preaching morality is useless otherwise.

But yet what she did was despicable. She may have been bribed in a way but there was no need to be extra spiteful and no reason to accuse innocent Sansa together with Tyrion.

When people excuse Shae for it this it often has the hypocrite touch of "what do you want, she was only a whore", highly discriminating, as if a sex worker (who allegedly does "immoral" work) would not be a citizen like anyone else, subject to the same rules of decent behavior like any other citizen. Granted, she owed Tyrion nothing, no more than his hairdresser or tailor owed him and yet neither she nor his hairdresser or nor his tailor were in any way entitled to falsely accuse him or to swear a perjury at his and Sansa's expense. What she did was despicable.

And yet I cringe when posters cheer about ther death (cheer about any death, come to that) I would never excuse what she did but there are reasons in her biography who may deliver at least some explanations.

But HBO Shae is a different person. She cares, she has emotions for Sansa and at least likes Tyrion quite a bit. She is a highly empathic and passionate character. Streetwise and yet stupid not to realize the danger she is in and not to see through Tyrion's lies - who unfortunately had some truth in it - when he dumped her. Her brain may have been clouded since those needles of truth in Tyrion's performance played with what she had always feared about that relationship: She would be dumped when Sansa wants him because she would be nothing but inconvenient by then.

Yet her hatred was gross and her revenge over the top. Finding her in bed with Tywin the way we did suggests that there was little bribery or fear behind her jumping ship but, well, Tyrion was finished in her eyes and Sansa with him. A 180 degree turn hard to swallow for watchers, a turn that had brought TV Shae back on the empathy level of book Shae.

Now her death: Tyrion entered the Tower of the Hand with a totally different level of rage: in the books there had been the crucial Tysha revelation, the falling apart with Jaime. Tyrion was already at the edge of his mental possiblities, half crazy. While here was nothing left but the rage against his father, a rage not fuelled by Tysha's fate and his own guilt in it but by the relationship to his father "only". So the kettle was much less close to boiling over and the show had to give a reason why a physical fight starts at all between him and Shae: she attacks him first. Granted, he could have fought her off and run, he made a decision to continue fighting and to strangle her, it was in an instant but the strangling was no direct self defense, he could have decided not to. And "I am sorry", absurd as these words are here, recognizes it. But the situation was so totally different from the books: here Shae did not try to fool him again, using in her stupidity the same words of betrayal like in the trial. She very straightforward went for her knife and it was crystal clear that she would have called for help if he had let her, no chance of bargaining. Here Shae at least ended how she had lived, a fighter, in the end consistent with her show interpretation.

And no Tysha in Tyrion's interaction with Tywin, only Shae's death on his soul! This will be hardly comparable to the impact Tyrion's guilt concerning Tysha had on Tyrion's arc: the essence of betrayal and abuse by Tywin on both him and Tysha. The hatred between Father and son was far more personal here than in the book where a very big thirteen year old Tysha stood between them.

What this probably means is that the character of Tysha will not have much impact in further books, or at least no impact that can't be left out by the show: maybe there will be no Tysha happy ending for Tyrion and no FakeTysha as trap (as I had predicted some time ago, there goes my nice little theory ;) )

Tyrion had been so much more destroyed and damaged in the books, and Shae is definitely dead, no futile quest, no search for the Holy Grail, where whores go, for him.

I am a bit disappointed because I miss so many dramatic edges in Tyrion's story. I do not care about any whitewashing theories (I am a notorious books and show apologist :D ) but all three Lannisters got their story altered and somehow flattened by not mentioning Tysha as crofters' daughter: Tyrion and Jaime have not fallen apart, Tyrion has not falsely confessed to have murdered Joffrey (diminishes the plot potential of a Tyrion - Jaime conflict) and Tywin has not been killed for that atrocious abuse of both children.

[The Knight in Motley]

The problem for the tenth time is that they miss all of Tyrion's motivation, and a major change for Jamie.

here's an attempt to fix the book motivation with the way they had it written in the show.

Have Jamie confess to Tyrion about Tysha. Tyrion rages and reveals Cersei's been fucking "Lancel, the Mountain, and probably Dontos for all I know." Jamie kneels and grabs Tyrion and asks him eye to eye if he killed Jeoffrey. Tyrion grabs the golden hand, tears it off and smacks a surprised Jamie in the face, knocking him back. Give us a few seconds of an engraged Tyrion looking like he might kill is own brother, then he tosses the hand onto the dazed Jamie with "I killed your bastard son."

Then he meets with Varys who immediately knows something is wrong. "Which way?" Varys points down the path. "No, which way to my father." Varys leads him to another tunnel.

Tyrion crawls out into Tywin's room. He sees the crossbow, takes it down and loads it. Play some farting sounds (Humor in a serious moment, signs that Tywin is human after all) , Tyrion moves towards the privvy. Shae sees him and calls out to him, obviously happy to see him. She starts moving towards him with love and sorrow in her eyes. Tyrion turns and looks at her, then shoots her with the crossbow. He quickly reloads and moves to the privvy. Then have that scene play out with the Tysha story and "wherever whores go".

Tyrion being in a rage would have fixed their own butchering of Shae's character, she could still be in love with him but he kills her out of blind rage ala Desdemona. Using the crossbow, the same one Jeoffry killed Ros with gives it a bit more savagery especially with Tyrion not wasting a word on Shae. Her betrayal has already happened. He's not thinking of her at all, only his murdered wife, who was not a whore.

[Janicia]

The man Shae loved cruelly broke up with her, put her on a boat, she was probably hauled off the boat and captured when Kings Landing shut down looking for Sansa, and she was imprisoned and threatened by Cersei to testify at the trial. The relationship with Tyrion is over - he definitely hates her after her testimony helped humiliate and convict him. So she goes back into survival mode and enters Tywin's service (I can't really wrap my head around this, but I couldn't in the book either).

When she sees Tyrion stalking up to her, she has reason to be scared. Shae has had a rough past. She's been beaten and worse. It isn't going to be a happy reunion, and Shae's mind tends to fixate on violent resolutions to situations rather than calmly talking things through (threatening Sansa's maid with a knife was a stupid thing to do, but apparently that's how Shae thinks). Shae has always had a thing for knives, so she reaches for one. But then Tyrion is on her, she tries to beat him away, she loses the knife and he murders her.

I dunno, it worked for me. I saw Shae's actions as defensive. It was Tyrion that came at her. If an ex-boyfriend startled me in bed after a nasty break-up and approached me with rage on his face, I'd be terrified.

Tyrion popping out of the floor was a surprise to me, but he did get maps of the secret passageways from Varys in season 2 before the Battle of Blackwater. I don't think Tyrion was planning to murder Tywin, but I think he cared more about getting the last word than he did about life in exile.

[deadphoenix]

• And he killed Tywin why, exactly? Because he called Shae a whore? Really? Really? In the book, Tywin's last words are "wherever whores go," and, in context, you just knew Tyrion was going to pull on him for that.

That wasn't how I read it at all - Tyrion already had decided to kill his dad when he entered the privy with a crossbow - he just used him calling Shae a whore as a trigger. He had plenty reason to want his dad dead, really just being sentenced to death alone is reason enough (naturally Tywin tried backpedaling to get out of his situation as he always tries to take control of situations but I don't buy him saying Tyrion wouldn't have been killed and I don't think Tyrion did either.) The Tysha thing is important for making Tyrion hate Jamie but that's about it to me.

[1234567]

People conveniently forget that D&D have been told by GRRM himself how everything plays out, in another words: THEY KNOW MORE THAN YOU. Lose the tinfoil hats.

True they do know more, and they may have decided they want to change the story and do something different. They may move away from the storyline in the books quite substantially.

[acosta]

That wasn't how I read it at all - Tyrion already had decided to kill his dad when he entered the privy with a crossbow - he just used him calling Shae a whore as a trigger. He had plenty reason to want his dad dead, really just being sentenced to death alone is reason enough (naturally Tywin tried backpedaling to get out of his situation as he always tries to take control of situations but I don't buy him saying Tyrion wouldn't have been killed and I don't think Tyrion did either.) The Tysha thing is important for making Tyrion hate Jamie but that's about it to me.

Hell, he had plenty of reason to kill his dad well before he ever got sentenced to death. Having nothing left to lose just gave him the courage to actually do it. There hardly seems a good reason to change the departure from "I hate every Lannister" to him and Jaime being best buds, but it's not like he needs motivation to join Dany beyond if he ever returns to Westeros except with a conquering army, he's going to be executed.

And he knew about the tunnels and trap door because he lived there before the Battle of the Blackwater. I know my way around my own house, too.

[VeturKemur]

I wonder if taking Tysha out of this means he will come across her in the future as she has still been mentioned before. Plus, if the Faith don't permit polygamy (House Targaryen aside), his marriage to Sansa would probably be invalid if she is still alive. It's possible but too early to tell I guess.

[Hodor's Dragon]

And he knew about the tunnels and trap door because he lived there before the Battle of the Blackwater. I know my way around my own house, too.

He lived in the jail cells before the Battle of the Blackwater? Face it, they short-cut all the sense out of that.

[Hodor's Dragon]

Looking at a GRRM interview with EW about the Tyrion events in this episode. Below are direct quotes that show GRRM agrees that the Tysha story is vital to the scene and the killings of Shae and Tywin.

Now he’s lost all of that and he’s also found out that Jamie — the one blood relation that he loved unreservedly and has his back, and was always on his side — played a part in this traumatic event of his life, the ultimate betrayal. He’s so hurt that he wants to hurt other people. . . .

He’s furious at Lord Tywin because he found out the truth about his first wife and what happened to her, and Tywin keeps calling her a whore — which she is by Lord Tywin’s logic.

[Killing Shae is] the great crime of his soul along with what he did with his first wife by abandoning her after the little demonstration Lord Tywin put on.

[Dolorous Gabe]

Changing Shae into a much more empathic character meant the whole thing should have gone down differently, especially without the Tysha reveal.

She should never have condemned Tyrion and Sansa as it was against show Shae character. They should have changed it to fit by having Tywin catch Shae and have her killed, giving Tyrion the anger necessary to find his way to the Hand's chambers and kill Tywin. The love they shared in the show seemed much more genuine than that in the books so they should have kept to that.

As to book Shae, it's harsh to criticise her as she seemed to me to be simply trying to survive and have a decent life. Whenever D&D make a change in character that affects that character's likely motivations and actions they should be altering those actions based on new likely motivation to fit the character.

[Mad Monkey]

I was actually a big fan of how they handled Shae's character up until the trial. I feel like the writers have this thing where they feel comfortable going their own way but only to a certain limited extent, and when it comes to important scenes they try to adhere to the book's portrayal even if it doesn't fit with what they've done. Shae is probably the character who was hit hardest by this because her entire motivation appears to change from episode to episode without us getting to see why or how.

Then of course there is the attempt to preserve Tyrion's image by having Shae go from, "Oh hey," to an Arya-esque frenzy of murderous rage. I'm not bothered by that in and of itself though, they've already established Shae as someone who feels comfortable using knives (in the scene where she threatens Sansa's maid and later on in the scene where she shows Sansa a concealed dagger that she plans to use on herself if things go bad). I kind of wish I understood more of why Shae wanted Tyrion dead though. I can understand hating him, but she was willing to kill the Hand's son when the Hand himself was in the next room -- she is ordinarily cynical enough about Westeros to know that even the fact that he is condemned to death doesn't put his status below hers to that degree. This is another area where they should have just thoroughly abandoned the book and kept making something up so that this important character arc is shown rather than just inferred.

Other than though, I thought it was a strong finale episode.

[Hodor's Dragon]

Show Shae was a hot mess from the start. Maybe they didn't like book Shae's eager-to-please-whore personality, but they had to pick something else other than "spunky girl." Spunk is not welcome among commoners in Westeros. As a whore, she made a practice of antagonizing Tyrion, who had the power to grant her a protracted and agonizing death at his whim; as a handmaiden, she was primarily characterized by her consistent capacity to ignore commands. I was pretty much offended by her presence in the show from the get-go. Good riddance.

[voodooqueen126]

I wanted to open a topic about Shae but no one bothered to approve it, a pity

I am one of those who in a way always sympathized with the character of Shae. Certainly not with her decision to betray Tyrion and Sansa the way she did. But with her story as sex worker who both in books and series is tough, is a survivor - well, until.... - , a woman who had a shitty life and never got a chance to learn empathy, who could not afford for survival to put anyone's rights or emotions before her her own since no one would have done that for her. I admired her in a way as ambitious selfmadewoman, who tried to get out of her sad life by her own initiative, who tried to save herself. In the books she was a character who never had someone to teach her how to feel empathy, solidarity or commonsense and people learn from loving example to do the right thing when it would be time for it, preaching morality is useless otherwise.

But yet what she did was despicable. She may have been bribed in a way but there was no need to be extra spiteful and no reason to accuse innocent Sansa together with Tyrion.

When people excuse Shae for it this it often has the hypocrite touch of "what do you want, she was only a whore", highly discriminating, as if a sex worker (who allegedly does "immoral" work) would not be a citizen like anyone else, subject to the same rules of decent behavior like any other citizen. Granted, she owed Tyrion nothing, no more than his hairdresser or tailor owed him and yet neither she nor his hairdresser or nor his tailor were in any way entitled to falsely accuse him or to swear a perjury at his and Sansa's expense. What she did was despicable.

And yet I cringe when posters cheer about ther death (cheer about any death, come to that) I would never excuse what she did but there are reasons in her biography who may deliver at least some explanations.

But HBO Shae is a different person. She cares, she has emotions for Sansa and at least likes Tyrion quite a bit. She is a highly empathic and passionate character. Streetwise and yet stupid not to realize the danger she is in and not to see through Tyrion's lies - who unfortunately had some truth in it - when he dumped her. Her brain may have been clouded since those needles of truth in Tyrion's performance played with what she had always feared about that relationship: She would be dumped when Sansa wants him because she would be nothing but inconvenient by then.

Yet her hatred was gross and her revenge over the top. Finding her in bed with Tywin the way we did suggests that there was little bribery or fear behind her jumping ship but, well, Tyrion was finished in her eyes and Sansa with him. A 180 degree turn hard to swallow for watchers, a turn that had brought TV Shae back on the empathy level of book Shae.

Now her death: Tyrion entered the Tower of the Hand with a totally different level of rage: in the books there had been the crucial Tysha revelation, the falling apart with Jaime. Tyrion was already at the edge of his mental possiblities, half crazy. While here was nothing left but the rage against his father, a rage not fuelled by Tysha's fate and his own guilt in it but by the relationship to his father "only". So the kettle was much less close to boiling over and the show had to give a reason why a physical fight starts at all between him and Shae: she attacks him first. Granted, he could have fought her off and run, he made a decision to continue fighting and to strangle her, it was in an instant but the strangling was no direct self defense, he could have decided not to. And "I am sorry", absurd as these words are here, recognizes it. But the situation was so totally different from the books: here Shae did not try to fool him again, using in her stupidity the same words of betrayal like in the trial. She very straightforward went for her knife and it was crystal clear that she would have called for help if he had let her, no chance of bargaining. Here Shae at least ended how she had lived, a fighter, in the end consistent with her show interpretation.

And no Tysha in Tyrion's interaction with Tywin, only Shae's death on his soul! This will be hardly comparable to the impact Tyrion's guilt concerning Tysha had on Tyrion's arc: the essence of betrayal and abuse by Tywin on both him and Tysha. The hatred between Father and son was far more personal here than in the book where a very big thirteen year old Tysha stood between them.

What this probably means is that the character of Tysha will not have much impact in further books, or at least no impact that can't be left out by the show: maybe there will be no Tysha happy ending for Tyrion and no FakeTysha as trap (as I had predicted some time ago, there goes my nice little theory ;) )

Tyrion had been so much more destroyed and damaged in the books, and Shae is definitely dead, no futile quest, no search for the Holy Grail, where whores go, for him.

I am a bit disappointed because I miss so many dramatic edges in Tyrion's story. I do not care about any whitewashing theories (I am a notorious books and show apologist :D ) but all three Lannisters got their story altered and somehow flattened by not mentioning Tysha as crofters' daughter: Tyrion and Jaime have not fallen apart, Tyrion has not falsely confessed to have murdered Joffrey (diminishes the plot potential of a Tyrion - Jaime conflict) and Tywin has not been killed for that atrocious abuse of both children.

Excellent post.

This scene was not what I was expecting. I am still reeling.

[Jdawg Laurence]

The problem is, the show is trying to have it both ways. The writers went out of their way to make it clear that Shae loved Tyrion, and that she wasn't out for money - she wasn't just a whore. But that scene last night certainly suggested otherwise. Not only did she call Tywin "My lion" (her love-name for Tyrion), but the second she saw Tyrion she went for that knife to kill him! So now what are we supposed to think?

I honestly don't get it. And why did Tyrion go up to the Tower of the Hand in the first place? There was no Tysha reveal, no reason for Tyrion to visit dear old dad. And the suggestion is that Tyrion killed Tywin because of Shae. She was in Tywin's bed, and Tyrion was forced to kill her (he felt so bad about having to do that, but he did have to do it, right?), and it's all Tywin's fault. So he kills his father because it was Tywin's fault that he had to kill the woman he loved.

Contrived, annoying, and ultimately weak. And with Tyrion and Jaime on such good terms, what motivation does Tyrion have now for joining forces with Dany against the Lannisters???

True enough, Tysha was key to Tyrion going to visit his father in the books. He didn't have the crossbow until after he killed Shae, so it would've been risky going to his father's bedroom had he not known that he was taking a dump. He had no weapon and no plan, and it was just pure chance that he walked in at that time in the show, with no weapon to conceive of killing his dad with. Just seems a bit... empty in the show.

[Seneti]

So, I have always been against the "Varys planted Shae in Tywin's bed" theories because they require way too many different variables to come together to work. In the show, Tywin clearly knew Shae was there, and Shae herself said "Tywin, my lion?" when she woke up. Does tonight's episode put those theories to rest? I think so.

I hope so. IMO, Shae being in Tywin's bed served two basic reasons:

1) take Tyrion's anger up to 9000

2) show that Tywin was a liar and a hypocrite

Except that little "sentence you to death" thing, which Tyrion seems to be pissed off about. Sounds like a good enough reason for me.

Agreed. That and all the shit he's been getting from Tywin all his life (including, but not limited to such charming gems as Tywin openly stating that he would have thrown him off the cliffs of Casterly Rock if he hadn't been his son).

Honestly, I think the show botched the relationship between Shae and Tyrion and Tyrion's reasons for killing Shae and Tywin completely up.

It would have been easy and would have only cost 2-3 minutes to include the Tysha incident when Tyrion talked to Bronn before his marriage to Sansa (something like: " I have made bad experiences with marriages. When I was thirteen ..."). Killing Tywin because he ordered the gang-rape of his wife is a far better reason (and it explain why Tyrion shoots, when Tywin says "whore") than the reason D and D gave.

In all fairness, they did introduce Tysha in season 1 and mentioned her several times throughout the seasons, which only makes cutting her from Tyrion's escape story all the more ridiculous. Also, the reason why Tyrion shoots when Tywin says "whore" is the same as in the books - he promised him he'd do it if he ever mentioned that word again. And Tywin did.

Did they even mention Tysha?

Yes, they did - plenty of times throughout the seasons.

Honestly, I think the show made her motivations really confusing. She wanted Tyrion to go over the narrow sea with her, but she refused Varys' offer to go alone, with lots of money. Then seemingly decided to take the Lannister's money and stay in King's Landing. I'm just lost. I didn't like book Shae, but I am even less of a fan of show Shae.

Show-Shae really loved Tyrion -- at least that's how she was written. Scenes were created just to convince us that she loved Tyrion, scenes not in the book. Her behavior in that final scene just made no sense. Why did she call Tywin "My lion"? Why did she go for the knife the second she saw Tyrion?

The way I see it, this is what happened with/to Shae:

1) she is Tyrion's whore for money only

2) she falls in love with him

3) he frequently tells her he loves her, too, but constantly pushes her away when she tries to be close to him, pissing her off in the process

4) he marries another girl, pissing her off even more

5) he sends Varys to ship her off across the Narrow Sea (or at least so she believes), pissing her off even more yet

6) he sends her away and calls her a whore, making her believe that he was playing her all along and finally driving her to her breaking point

7) Tywin and Cersei capture her before her ship leaves and play on her insecurities (see point 6)

8) she decides to get back at him by testifying, at which point Tyrion reinforces that he sees her as a "lying whore"

9) she sells her body to Tywin to continue living in the luxury of the Red Keep

10) Tyrion comes into the bedroom and looks at her with a mix of confusion, betrayal and anger

11) she decides in a split second (fight or flight) that it's better not to talk her way out of this but reach for the knife instead

12) Tyrion strangles her

Seems perfectly believable to me.

[Danelle]

Does anyone remember the scene between Sansa and Shae in S2 Blackwater?

Shae urges Sansa to go to her room, Sansa tells her that she should join her but Shae informs Sansa that she needs to say goodbye to someone first.

The thing is that at the time the two people who were close to Shae, was Sansa and Tyrion. Tyrion at the time was fighting Stannis.

Unless Shae was planning to join Tyrion at the battlefield, there is no way that she was referring to him.

I remember that after that scene aired, there were theories that Shae was Varys' spy.