Anyone else wish Penny didn't exist?

[Abdallah]

Is it just me or is Penny the worst and most boring character in the books? I don't care about her pig, or her dog, or the stupid tilting. FFS Tyrion was hand of the king and a lion at the blackwater. Now he's being a mummers farce. Penny is scared of normal sized people. She brings no value to the books. And I really hate the entire dwarfs should date other dwarfs thing that is being implied. Seriously GRRM just have the poor girl die of the pale mare in TWOW. 

[chrisdaw]

But how else would you understand Tyrion does not treat all young, dumb, vulnerable and fragile females equally?

[lidsa]

I like Penny. Unfortunately for her, she's only around to show how hypocritical Tyrion is, and to give him some perspective about how entitled he actually was and still is. Tyrion is treating Penny the same way for being ugly that he himself always lashes out on people for.

[Dorian Martell]

On 4/18/2016 at 9:48 PM, Abdallah said:

Is it just me or is Penny the worst and most boring character in the books? I don't care about her pig, or her dog, or the stupid tilting. FFS Tyrion was hand of the king and a lion at the blackwater. Now he's being a mummers farce. Penny is scared of normal sized people. She brings no value to the books. And I really hate the entire dwarfs should date other dwarfs thing that is being implied. Seriously GRRM just have the poor girl die of the pale mare in TWOW. 

She is a late coming character non POV character. Tyrion was a highborn lord in a powerful position second only to the king. The fact that he is in a mummer's farce shows you how far he has fallen from his high status. Penny is a commoner and a dwarf. She is at the the lowest rung of society. The only people below her are the property of other people. Tyrion being forced to live her lifestyle is her value in the  books. He is being forced to be humble. He is using his wits again, something he stopped using after the blackwater/shae debacle. Also, tyrion has never fucked her. He only has sexual congress with women of normal height. Penny will probably die though 

[Dya of Oldstones]

She really annoyed me on my first read through, but she's grown on me. Like others mentioned above, she's putting Tyrion's feet to the fire about how much he really cares about cripples, bastards and broken things and she's a lot more resourceful than I initially gave her credit for.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

Her purpose in the story is to show Tyrion what a prick he is, and give him someone's welfare to care about when he is in a place where he doesn't seem to care if he lives or dies; often he tells himself he is saving penny, but in fact he's also saving himself.

Though he laments that he is so broken & he no longer cares, caring for her life keeps him going right up to the point in his sample chapter where:

Spoiler

he decides Damn it, I do want to live!!

 His relationship with Penny teaches him certain much needed lessons about himself and facilitates a huge quantity of personal growth for Tyrion. Her role is in my view vital. 

[Rusty Winchester]

I want to agree with the OP, but a number have posters since have made fairly convincing arguments.  So I will only say she is pretty much the Skyler White of this series.

[chrisdaw]

I think criticism is fair, she's probably the most blatant and unintegrated plot device in the series.

[Danelle]

I always thought that Areo Hotah was considered to be the most boring character in ASOIAF but even he has a purpose in the story, since his devotion to Doran is contrasted by Arys' betrayal of Tommen. 

 

Penny has also a purpose in the story, as it has been already stated by previous posters.

To be fair, I don't think that Tyrion hates dwarves or Penny.

 

By the time they meet he is already at a low moral point but there are times when he appears to comfort her or even protect from the harsh reality.

Quote

Penny had been searching for a new master since the day her brother Groat had lost his head. She wants someone to take care of her, someone to tell her what to do.

It would have been too cruel to say so, however. Instead Tyrion said, "Yezzan's special slaves did not escape the pale mare. They're dead, the lot of them. Sweets was the first to go." 

Quote

"We," she said. "If you're one of them, you should say we, not they. Has anyone seen Pretty Pig? Inkpots said he'd ask after her. Or Crunch, has there been word of Crunch?"

Only if you trust Kasporio. Plumm's not-so-cunning second-in-command claimed that three Yunkish slave-catchers were prowling through the camps, asking after a pair of escaped dwarfs. One of them was carrying a tall spear with a dog's head impaled upon its point, the way that Kaspo told it. Such tidings were not like to get Penny out of bed, however. "No word as yet," he lied. "Come. We need to find some armor for you."

 

[Tianzi]

I don't like Penny as a character, she is boring and annoying. I see her purpose in the book, but I just don't like reading about her (though she is far from the only character like that). I will forgive her if she turns out to be a spy, or something.

 

7 hours ago, chrisdaw said:

But how else would you understand Tyrion does not treat all young, dumb, vulnerable and fragile females equally?

As cynical as it sounds, yes. And also her character should finally open some people's eyes to the fact that Tyrion (a Lannister, the queen's brother, a genius, a nobleman, a man) does NOT occupy "the worst place in ASOIAF society".
 

[Protagoras]

Penny is necessary to the story but she is, like Daario, nothing but a symbolic tool - in this case to humanize Tyrion. She have no value as a character, that is - she has no inherent value by herself but only in relation to Tyrion, much like the hero and his funny sidekick. She is more a set of qualities (humility, innocence, servility) than she is an actual person. I don´t mind her but an interesting character she is not and calling her the female version of Daario is not undeserved. 

 

[Seams]

To begin to unravel the mystery that is Penny, it is helpful to look at Tyrion's dreams on the Selaesori Qhoran. There you see Penny compared to Tywin. This is the first clue that she is a new father figure for Tyrion, of all things.

But she's also Groat's sister, and Tyrion is the new Groat. So this puts her in the position of being a nightmare Cersei figure and Tyrion is a Jaime equivalent.

We know that Tyrion famously tells Jon Snow that he needs to wear his difference as his armor - this presumably refers to Tyrion's status as a little person and Jon's status as a bastard. After several close readings of the Tyrion chapters in ADwD, however, it also refers to Tyrion's innate tendency to act as a Fool. (GRRM's definition of a fool does not mean someone who is silly and stupid, but someone who has a close relationship with both life and death and who speaks truths that no one else quite understands.)

Although Tyrion found his own armor before Blackwater, Penny now gives him the first set of "armor" that fits him. It is mummer's armor. So there is a symbol here of Tyrion finally learning to wear his armor = to be himself. Tywin never let him travel, act like a Fool or have a sword. Tyrion is finally working toward fulfillment.

It's also significant that Penny doesn't know the games Tyrion knows (cyvasse, Come Into my Castle). When he tries to play games with her, she makes up her own rules. There is a strong theme in Tyrion's arc about treating the "small folk" as human beings with value. Tyrion has been close to the mountain clans who have been largely ignored by Westeros society, his lovers have been a crofter's daughter and a prostitute, and Bronn is his Dunk. Penny is now an important mentor in bringing Tyrion further along in his role as the champion of the little people. The way that Penny plays by different rules than Tyrion has been taught in his high-born previous life shows that he is picking up life skills here that he didn't learn from Tywin or from being a Lannister of Casterly Rock.

Penny's mentorship can also be compared to Jeor Mormont's relationship to Jon Snow. Both Tyrion and Jon Snow are knights who have never been knighted. (Sort of like the ambiguity about Ser Duncan the Tall's knighthood.) Mormont gives Jon Snow a significant sword which symbolically and practically makes him knight-like, even if he has not take the title "Ser." Penny has given Tyrion armor, a mount and a lance. He is sort of her squire (feeding acorns to the pig) but also, once he suits up, a knight who hasn't been knighted. (I think this is how GRRM is telling us a person is a True Knight - you act the part, don't just get someone to confer a knighthood on you. Just as Tywin tells Joffrey that a true king doesn't need to say that he is a king.)

There's no doubt in my mind that Penny has a secret identity we have not yet learned. Briefly, I wondered whether she might be the Shrouded Lord (or a symbolic version of the Shrouded Lord), because she initially tried to kill Tyrion and subsequently kept trying to kiss him. But I think the kissing may be part of the twisted Cersei/Jaime symbolism. I suspect the secret identity has to do with gifts she and her brother received from a wealthy admirer of their mummer's act, and my guess is that the gifts were elephants. (She keeps trying to fly her elephant while playing Cyvasse, and Tyrion has to keep reminding her that only dragons can fly in the game.)

Penny is an actress, and the whole sexual innocence thing is part of her act with Tyrion, I suspect. Recall that the show put on at Joffrey's doomed wedding reception involved the dog mounting the pig in a sexual way. In the act in Essos, Tyrion rides the pig (there is a ton of pig imagery connected to Tyrion and to small folk) and Penny rides the dog. Tyrion may be getting "screwed" by a devious Penny, and he doesn't yet know it.

I also suspect that GRRM wants us to dislike Penny for her apparent whiny weakness and her unattractiveness, even to Tyrion with his missing nose. He wants us to underestimate her because characters we don't suspect are important provide the best plot twists.

[The Mountain that Cries]

7 hours ago, Dorian Martell said:

She is a late coming character non POV character. Tyrion was a highborn lord in a powerful position second only to the king. The fact that he is in a mummer's farce shows you how far he has fallen from his high status. Penny is a commoner and a dwarf. She is at the the lowest rung of society. The only people below her are the property of other people. Tyrion being forced to live her lifestyle her  the value in the  books. He is being forced to be humble. He is using his wits again, something he stopped using after the blackwater/shae debacle. Also, tyrion has never fucked her. He only has sexual congress with women of normal height. Penny will probably die though 

This enough said.  I love her just cause the contrast and hypocrisy of Tyrion.

[zandru]

At one point, Tyrion notes Penny's similarity to Sansa Stark Lannister: both naive, starry-eyed girls who don't seem able to see the ugliness of the reality all around them. But Penny has none of Sansa's considerable advantages: she lacks Sansa's beauty, is a dwarf, and is not from one of the highest Houses in all Westeros. Penny will get no breaks from society; Sansa is protected by her status and looks. Even as a "bastard" (Alayne), Sansa is bathed, clothed and her hair done by a bevy of handmaids.

So it's significant that Tyrion feels protective towards Penny. He would have been justified, by the rules of his society, in dumping her at the first opportunity, leaving her to be taken by the pale mare outside the gates of Mereen. But he doesn't. Penny is important in Tyrion's character development and (one hopes) further awakening.

[A spoon of knife and fork]

3 hours ago, Rusty Winchester said:

I want to agree with the OP, but a number have posters since have made fairly convincing arguments.  So I will only say she is pretty much the Skyler White of this series.

Not at all.  People (mostly dudebros) hate Skylar because she got in the asshole "protagonists" way. That is to say she (initially) tried to stop him from destroying himself and their family, god forbid.

people hate Penny because she's a weakly constructed morality pet for Tyrion.  The only similarity is the amount they are hated and their gender. I Would personally have much preferred more Tyrion/Jorah development than what Penny had to offer.  

[Maxxine]

I agree that Penny is incredibly annoying, but she does serve the purpose of helping Tyrion get out of his funk. 

[The Arthur Smith]

I highly agreed with the others that Penny is nothing more than a morality pet and plot device to Tyrion.  

But like really, take her out of the story and that wouldn't change much and I predict she won't have anything to offer in Winds.

[AureliusAmbrosius]

GRRM is a skinchanger - it's the only possible way he could realistically write so many different believable characters so different from himself.

But he's obviously never warged a lady with dwarfism.

I don't wish that Penny didn't exist. I do wish she was a bit more fleshed out, as a character.

[dRagonese]

4 hours ago, Rusty Winchester said:

I want to agree with the OP, but a number have posters since have made fairly convincing arguments.  So I will only say she is pretty much the Skyler White of this series.

lol well said

[Sigella]

My interpretation of her is that she's set up as the cliché of a moral guide: only there to help Tyrion come to terms with his shortcomings. By learning to love, or at least care for, Penny he'll learn to love, or care for, himself better and blah blah blah. I really hope GRRM has a really nice twist to this coming up... because as is its not great.

Tyrion and Penny makes me think of "The Dwarf" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dwarf_(Lagerkvist_novel) ) and I'm so hoping for a scene that surpasses "the evil dwarf mock satanic ritual" scene in kickassery.