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About THE dagger


Helman Corbray

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Hey guys, I don't know if there is a discussion already, but I started reading everything again in order to get inspired for my writing. 

So I got this in my mind... How did the catspaw ended up with Tyrion's dagger? 

I heard Joffrey contracted the assassin because of his weird way to feel good, but how would he get the knife? Is there any theory?

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The dagger was never Tyrion’s. And, as Tyrion says, he would never bet against his family, so he would never have lost it in the way Baelish describes (Tyrion betting against Jaime, for Loras). Baelish just makes this up to inflame the situation between Starks and Lannisters. 

The dagger was instead won, from Baelish, by King Robert, who would gladly bet against Jaime. Joffrey took it from Robert’s armoury and gave it to the Catspaw. 

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Lannister poured, drank, poured, and stared into his wine cup. "This wine seems to be improving as I drink it. Imagine that. I seem to remember that dagger, now that you describe it. Won it, you say? How?"

"Wagering on you when you tilted against the Knight of Flowers." Yet when she heard her own words Catelyn knew she had gotten it wrong. "No . . . was it the other way?"

"Tyrion always backed me in the lists," Jaime said, "but that day Ser Loras unhorsed me. A mischance, I took the boy too lightly, but no matter. Whatever my brother wagered, he lost . . . but that dagger did change hands, I recall it now. Robert showed it to me that night at the feast. His Grace loved to salt my wounds, especially when drunk. And when was he not drunk?" (ACOK Catelyn VII)

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He remembered a cold morning when he'd climbed down the steep exterior steps from Winterfell's library to find Prince Joffrey jesting with the Hound about killing wolves. Send a dog to kill a wolf, he said. Even Joffrey was not so foolish as to command Sandor Clegane to slay a son of Eddard Stark, however; the Hound would have gone to Cersei. Instead the boy found his catspaw among the unsavory lot of freeriders, merchants, and camp followers who'd attached themselves to the king's party as they made their way north. Some poxy lackwit willing to risk his life for a prince's favor and a little coin. Tyrion wondered whose idea it had been to wait until Robert left Winterfell before opening Bran's throat. Joff's, most like. No doubt he thought it was the height of cunning.

The prince's own dagger had a jeweled pommel and inlaid goldwork on the blade, Tyrion seemed to recall. At least Joff had not been stupid enough to use that. Instead he went poking among his father's weapons. Robert Baratheon was a man of careless generosity, and would have given his son any dagger he wanted . . . but Tyrion guessed that the boy had just taken it. Robert had come to Winterfell with a long tail of knights and retainers, a huge wheelhouse, and a baggage train. No doubt some diligent servant had made certain that the king's weapons went with him, in case he should desire any of them.

The blade Joff chose was nice and plain. No goldwork, no jewels in the hilt, no silver inlay on the blade. King Robert never wore it, had likely forgotten he owned it. Yet the Valyrian steel was deadly sharp . . . sharp enough to slice through skin, flesh, and muscle in one quick stroke. I am no stranger to Valyrian steel. But he had been, hadn't he? Else he would never have been so foolish as to pick Littlefinger's knife. (ASOS Tyrion VIII)

 

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3 hours ago, Helman Corbray said:

Hey guys, I don't know if there is a discussion already, but I started reading everything again in order to get inspired for my writing. 

So I got this in my mind... How did the catspaw ended up with Tyrion's dagger? 

I heard Joffrey contracted the assassin because of his weird way to feel good, but how would he get the knife? Is there any theory?

It was part of Robert's collection. Joffrey swiped it.

The question, though, is why. I don't buy this idea that he was just trying to impress Robert because 1) Robert beat him bloody when Joffrey killed a cat, so why would he expect praise when he kills the comatose son of Robert's best friend, and 2) in what possible way would Robert ever learn that Joffrey did this?

Here is what I think happened:

People say that Littlefinger could not have been behind this because he would have no way of knowing that Bran fell and was injured. This is true, but LF does not have to know this in order to be the real culprit here. I think that just before leaving Winterfell, LF took Joffrey aside and told him that Robert appointing Ned as Hand would be very bad -- bad for Robert, bad for Cersei, bad for House Lannister, but most of all, bad for Joffrey's eventual succession as king (a prediction that would later prove prescient in Joffrey's eyes). He would then infer that, alas, the only thing preventing Ned from taking the job would be if some great tragedy were to befall House Stark, something like the death of a child.

So when Bran fell, it would seem to Joff that the problem has resolved itself. But when Ned takes the job anyway, Joff jacks the dagger, gives it to the catspaw, and tells him to finish the job. In this way, we have LF as the mastermind behind the idea, but the clumsy plan is all Joffrey. This, of course, is exactly what LF wants because he is not interested in preventing Ned from becoming Hand, he only wants to sow discord between the wolf and the lion.

And I also think that once it became clear that his plan had failed, Joffrey was about to eliminate another Stark on the Trident, but they ran into Arya and Micah instead.

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