My brother, my murderer.

[Lollygag]

1 hour ago, Seams said:

I read something awhile ago about Tyrion as a chimera, but it hadn't crossed my mind to relate it to this theory. Fascinating!

So if Tyrion absorbed his brother, he is in conflict with himself, if this idea about the living brother / dead brother tension is correct. Or maybe his brother is looking out for him, perhaps providing him with some protection.

I'm pretty sure Tyrion emerging from his hiding place in the wine barrel when he emerges in Essos is a symbolic dragon hatching, so maybe the Lannister side of Tyrion dominates before his journey to Pentos and his Targ side is reborn upon arrival.

On my next re-read, I'll try to remember to look for signs of Tyrion having internal debate that might be signs of the Targ twin arguing with the Lannister twin. Nice catch!

On a related note: there are references to children as monsters - Sansa tells the Tyrells that Joffrey is a monster; Dany's Rhaego was monstrous and then she becomes the Mother of Dragons. Catelyn's children are wargs. Shireen Baratheon has greyscale. Gilly's baby is nicknamed Monster. I wonder if GRRM is telling us that twins are a type of monster? That would explain the name The Twins for the Frey family homestead. Certainly a chimera would be interpreted as a monster, if Westeros people knew such a thing existed, and a dwarf is seen as an anomaly pretty close to a monster if not solidly within the category.

The symbolic dragon egg hatching is reinforced given we have another alcohol-soaked (rum instead of wine) dragon in a barrel in Maester Aemon and it just feels like his story isn't quite done yet. Tyrion’s time in the barrel reminded me of a coffin, but a womb fits better.

I was rereading the Purple Wedding and immediately preceding chapters and in the setup there’s concurrent tension with Tywin and also a strong dragon presence. Tyrion meets up Shae by the dragon skulls and her dress is hanging on a dragon tooth hinting at being eaten by a dragon. At the purple wedding, Tyrion was in red and black and Sansa was in silver and purple with Asshai stones giving them both heavy Targ symbolism. With the castles in the sky, Shae sees gold (Lannister), but Brella who is likely Varys’ creature sees ruin and we know what side Varys is on (at least right now).

Tyrion being both Targ and Lannsiter makes the bromance/rivalry between Aerys and Twyin more interesting. Tywin tried to eat the Targ by being the real power behind Aerys and then marrying Cersei to the heir, but then the Targ tried to eat Lannister when Aerys denied this. Lannister rose to eat Targ again in RR, but now maybe in Tyrion killing Tywin, Targ has come to eat Lannister. Dizzying. 

Children as monsters fits in a bit better for me if it's a mix of hero and monster. A lot of comic book heroes are also monster of a type or at least perceived as monsters as they don't fit in well with their society which definitely a major aspect of all of the major POVs which go back to the beginning of the series who are still alive. A lot of the X-Men spin offs especially deal with this hero/monster conflict.