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What did Tyrion do before he went to Winterfell?


Carl Drogo

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I was recently wondering, is this a hole in Martin's amazing complete narrative fabric? As far as I know we have no clue as to what Tyrion did prior to "A Game of Thrones" and the family trip to Winterfell. Sure, some years before he had been the master of sewage at Casterly Rock and he was married to a whore for a very short while, but that appears to be a while back. Isn't it kind of strange that there is no mention of any position he held or anything he did shortly before the narrative begins? It's kind of difficult to imagine that he did nothing but whore, party and read during that time.



We don't even know where he lived. It doesn't seem like he was still living at the Rock at the time, but from his comments during his time as hand of King Joffrey, you don't get the feeling that he's lived in Kings Landing for years, either. To me it would make the most sense if he had just moved to Kings Landing shortly before John Arryn's death.



For most other major characters we have a pretty good idea of what they did prior to the commencement of the narrative, but Tyrion appears to be quite an empty book in this regard. Am I missing something or is this truly and interesting topic to explore. Perhaps his marriage wasn't that far in the past and he left the Rock to get away from Tywin and be close to Jaime, likely the most important person in his life at the time.



BTW, [show Spoiler from S4Ep4] I really liked how Bronn brought it home to Jaime how important he was to Tyrion when he convinced him to go visit his brother in Jail.


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He has always been a well read person, a kind of self-study scholar.

I think from childhood on he spent most of his time alone and without friends of his own age since he simply never could live up to norms of healthy male behaviour like learning to kill.

I mean, the pleasures of the average young boy like riding, hunting, jousting and fighting were impossible for Tyrion, the only person close to him, Jaime, may have lived a completely different life and is after all many years older, other kids may have bullied Tyrion. And he may have learned to fight back by being nasty, by becoming a verbal bully himself.

So I guess after a lonely nerdy childhood and after the Tysha catastrophe there were only the sewers of Casterly Rock. And he became "a man of leisure", meaning he had no real goal in life and was not actively seeking for one. And yet he was a learned man, after all when GOT started he was of the age of someone with a master's degree in our world.

And yet - why did he stay so long in that financial and emotional dependency from Tywin, why didn't he draw the line and left? This was certainly not only the money but deeper psychological issues - and plot necessity. Martin may have stayed deliberately vague here since no explanation would be truly satisfying.

It is indeed a bit hard to understand why Tyrion did not start some investments, say in trade or shipping, to create an income independent of Daddy since he could have seen that some day he might want to have an emergency way out. Only Martin wanted to keep this character in a fatal dependency of his father for plot's sake. And so this inconsistency in Tyrion's otherwise learned and clever character can be explained.

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The Hairy Bear is right, this is not the correct subforum for this question.



To save you the trouble of posting this question elsewhere, though, it seems that Tyrion was living at Casterly Rock, visting KL every now and then. He might also have visited other places in the Seven Kingdoms, like Oldtown. But unfortunately for Tyrion, CR was his home, together with Tywin, which can't have been too bad, until his uncles died/disappeared, leaving him with Kevan and Tywin only.



Tyrion might have frequently visited KL. That would explain why he did know Lysa Tully, but not that well. In addition, Jaime would be in KL, his favorite person, and and King Robert, whom Tyrion got along with reasonably. Cersei and Joffrey would have to be stomached as well, but in addition, he would get to hang around Myrcella and Tommen, whom he seemed to have enjoyed spending time with.



As to why he was at the royal party, Jon Arryn died 14 days after the Tourney given for Joffrey's 12th nameday, and Tywin had come down from CR to see Jaime take part. Cersei, the three children, and Tywin, were on their way to CR when Jon Arryn died, but no mention about Tyrion. I can understand that he wouldn't have wanted to travel with Cersei, and Tywin, and Joffrey, and that he thus stayed behind at KL with Jaime. It might have been a sort of holiday for Tyrion, to have all his least favorite family members be away from him for a while, with only Jaime as company.


At Jon Arryn's death, and Roberts decision to go north, he would still have been in KL, so he could have decided to tag along, especially since it sounds like he had never been to the north before. Which might make it seem like he lived in KL, but really, I doubt it.


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