"...bring in the other three who claim knowledge of the Imp."

[Illyrio Mo'Parties]

Quote

Sad to say, the three would-be informers proved no more useful than the Tyroshi. One said that the Imp was hiding in an Oldtown brothel, pleasuring men with his mouth. It made for a droll picture, but Cersei did not believe it for an instant. The second claimed to have seen the dwarf in a mummer's show in Braavos. The third insisted Tyrion had become a hermit in the riverlands, living on some haunted hill. The queen made the same response to each. "If you will be so good as to lead some of my brave knights to this dwarf, you shall be richly rewarded," she promised. "Provided that it is the Imp. If not . . . well, my knights have little patience for deception, nor fools who send them chasing after shadows. A man could lose his tongue." And quick as that, all three informers suddenly lost faith, and allowed that perhaps it might have been some other dwarf they saw.

Cersei, you idiot!

If you'd followed up that third tip, you'd have found a magic woman who can predict the future, as well as a valuable source of intelligence on the Brotherhood Without Banners.

And if you'd followed up that second tip, you'd have found that Littlefinger was manipulating Joffrey and trying to cause a rift between him and Tyrion.

But here's the big question: what if she'd followed up the first tip?

WHO IS THE COCKSUCKING MIDGET OF OLDTOWN???

[Springwatch]

Um, well, it is a bit odd - the dwarf on the haunted hill was real, and the dwarf in the mummer's show was real, but I can't believe the Oldtown brothel story.

Why not take the easy way out and say the dwarf is Tyrion, it hasn't happened yet, and he's pleasing people in the usual way by telling them what they want to hear? That's what he did to the Golden Company.

7 hours ago, Illyrio Mo'Parties said:

Cersei, you idiot!

If you'd followed up that third tip, you'd have found a magic woman who can predict the future, as well as a valuable source of intelligence on the Brotherhood Without Banners.

And if you'd followed up that second tip, you'd have found that Littlefinger was manipulating Joffrey and trying to cause a rift between him and Tyrion....

True! She couldn't have predicted any of this, but she was still an idiot for frightening off informers and not following up leads. Especially the brothels.

I've been wondering recently if each character has a leitmotif, a recurring theme that follows them around. (Sandor's is fire. Sansa's is decapitation - gone a bit quiet at the moment, will come back to bite her.) Tyrion's leitmotif is brothels and whores - he never leaves them alone. If you want to know where he is, ask the brothel-keepers.

[Illyrio Mo'Parties]

5 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

Why not take the easy way out and say the dwarf is Tyrion, it hasn't happened yet, and he's pleasing people in the usual way by telling them what they want to hear? That's what he did to the Golden Company.

Wait, what? This isn't a prophecy, it's a tip from an informant. It wouldn't be metaphorical or whatever.

[Renly's Banana]

Me. I am the Oldtown dwarf pleasuring men with his mouth. 
I hope you're happy now that I've been exposed. 

that or it's Ashara Dayne

[Springwatch]

18 minutes ago, Illyrio Mo'Parties said:

Wait, what? This isn't a prophecy, it's a tip from an informant. It wouldn't be metaphorical or whatever.

It's foreshadowing or nothing - I don't think we going to see an actual dwarf courtesan.

[Therae]

20 minutes ago, Renly's Banana said:

that or it's Ashara Dayne or Daario

[CornishDornish]

9 hours ago, Illyrio Mo'Parties said:

WHO IS THE COCKSUCKING MIDGET OF OLDTOWN???

Penny?

Innocence my arse!

[Maxxine]

I think I'm going to have to defend Cersei. She had no reason to know or follow up on these other dwarfs. She knows they're random dwarfs and not the one she is looking for. She has no reason to know these randoms actually could lead to important information. But I never thought  about the one Oldtown. Assuming someone Sam or Euron will encounter in Oldtown and because he's an whore he'll know something important - Alleras, glass candles etc?

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

1 hour ago, Springwatch said:

. Sansa's is decapitation - gone a bit quiet at the moment, will come back to bite her.

 

come back to bite LF more like it. 

[Lord Wraith]

17 hours ago, Illyrio Mo'Parties said:

Cersei, you idiot!

If you'd followed up that third tip, you'd have found a magic woman who can predict the future, as well as a valuable source of intelligence on the Brotherhood Without Banners.

And if you'd followed up that second tip, you'd have found that Littlefinger was manipulating Joffrey and trying to cause a rift between him and Tyrion.

But here's the big question: what if she'd followed up the first tip?

WHO IS THE COCKSUCKING MIDGET OF OLDTOWN???

Probably one of Marwyn's drinking buddies. I am sure Alleras and Leo will introduce Sam in the next book to him.

[Walda]

I don't know - but perhaps Petyr Baelish does.

And Satin might, and ^ yeah, Marwyn. Not Alleras, but Leo might have lighter pockets for knowing.

Now you mention it, the cocksucking is a bit odd too - not just hiding in the brothel, but working, and not working generally, but specialising. Are they suggesting that he is disguised as a woman? Or that he has somehow lost his parts? Or is it done in some kind of under-the-table way where he can work without being identified?

Also, if there was a dwarf mummer in Braavos who knew nothing, or who had vanished because there was a price on dwarf heads,  Cersei would be left none the wiser

Quote

“Is that where my sister found you? In Braavos?”
“Your sister?” The girl looked lost.
“Queen Cersei.”
Penny shook her head. “She never … it was a man who came to us, in Pentos. Osmund. No, Oswald. Something like that. Oppo met with him, not me. (ADwD, Ch.33 Tyrion VIII)

It is only if her man in Braavos discovers that there isn't and has never been mummer dwarfs in Braavos that Cersei would know she is being manipulated. And even then, she might just think her messenger was incompetent. To prove the existence of someone is easy enough - you can take them to the doubter, or take the doubter to them. To prove the absence of someone is quite hard, because of course you have nothing, but that doesn't prove they don't exist. It works for God, why wouldn't it work for dwarfs?

I'm wondering if all three informers came from Petyr - he loves it when the people in power strip off their own defences (eg. Ned sending his men to supplement the Goldcloaks, Tyrion taking Cersei's guards to Riverrun.) He would be delighted at the way Cersei sent away Balon and Jaime and Loras (and probably Arys - Tyrion made the match with Doran, but he might have been able to send her off with a competent sword that was not a knight of the Kingsguard, except it had to be someone Cersei could sort of trust, and not someone like Bronn). Then she got Osmund incarcerated, and delighted in the idea of Margaery having to choose between Boros and Meryn, if she wanted a champion.

Or maybe it was Varys that wanted Cersei to send her men east, north, and west. He is the one still hiding out in Kings Landing, he is the one who has only whispers to rely on. If the informants were all Baelish plants, they would be sure of pay and protection, and not so perturbed by Cersei's threats. Varys isn't in a position to make promises, and making promises is more Petyr's style than his anyway. But he is well placed to spread rumours, and Cersei is offering the reward.

[Illyrio Mo'Parties]

Derp, I thought Littlefinger picked up Penny in Braavos

[Nevets]

Actually, there is a dwarf in a mummer's troupe in Braavos.  In a preview chapter,

Arya is working in a theater, and one of the main actors is a dwarf, who is playing Tyrion in their latest production.

So that one is true as well.

Also. I doubt Cersei would get much of value from the Ghost of High Heart.   While her prophecies are accurate, it is generally only after the fact that their meaning becomes clear.

[Renly's Banana]

16 hours ago, Walda said:

Now you mention it, the cocksucking is a bit odd too - not just hiding in the brothel, but working, and not working generally, but specialising. Are they suggesting that he is disguised as a woman? Or that he has somehow lost his parts? Or is it done in some kind of under-the-table way where he can work without being identified?

If you're really good at something, never do it for free. 

[PCK]

I'm just now noticing on my current re-read  and about fourth overall of Cersei's AFFC chapters, how little respected she is right from the start. I missed that she was the absolute last person in KL to know of Tywin's death.

 

I also like how Kevan bluntly tells her that she was a horrible mother with Joffrey and is nothing like her father.

[Philokles]

On 01/04/2017 at 10:21 AM, Illyrio Mo'Parties said:

And if you'd followed up that second tip, you'd have found that Littlefinger was manipulating Joffrey and trying to cause a rift between him and Tyrion.

 

2 hours ago, Nevets said:

Actually, there is a dwarf in a mummer's troupe in Braavos.  In a preview chapter,

  Reveal hidden contents

Arya is working in a theater, and one of the main actors is a dwarf, who is playing Tyrion in their latest production.

So that one is true as well.

She wouldn't have found out that LF was manipulating her, but depending on how observant her men were being she might have found one of her runaway hostages instead.

[Walda]

Actually, Petyr mentioned

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"did your little lord husband enjoy my jousting dwarfs?”
“Yours?”
“I had to send to Braavos for them and hide them away in a brothel until the wedding. The expense was exceeded only by the bother.(ASoS, Ch.61 Sansa V)

Before the wedding, Petyr was in the South, doing deals with the Tyrells. The Lannisters presumed on the Rose Road, somewhere between Storm's End and Bitterbridge, but they had lost track of him quickly, and not even Varys knew exactly where he was, until he turned up with the Tyrells after the battle of Blackwater, just in time to shepherd in the wayns of food and the new Queen to be. It is very possible he had a ship, and not impossible that he had Penny and Oppo brought to Oldtown in anticipation of the marriage, before Cersei knew the marriage to Margaery was on.

Although there is a difference between hiding in a brothel and working in one. And why Penny or Groat, either or both, would choose to specialise in cock-sucking while they were hiding out there. No mention of Pretty Pig or Crunch, or the small elderly dancing bear that was also part of the wedding festivities. But maybe they didn't stay in the brothel.