Who gave Mandon Moore the order to kill Tyrion?

[Wmarshal]

Baelish, he had every reason to want him dead.

[CharlesW]

I think it was Joffrey.

[UnFit Finlay]

For me it seems like a typical Littlefinger move.

People tend to forget that Littlefinger is basically playing a game. He can't control what everyone else does but, he can, set his pieces up in such a way that he wins, regardless.

Telling Moore to kill Tyrion, if he got the chance, is perfect. If Tyrion died and the Lannisters won, people would just assume that one of Stannis' men killed him. He IS a dwarf after all. If Tyrion survived, he'd be far more likely to assume that Cersei or Joffrey ordered it than he is Littlefinger who, after all, wasn't even in the City at the time.

If Stannis won, his forces would sack the City and Cersei, Joffrey, Tyrion and Moore would all be dead anyway. People would, again, just assume Tyrion was killed by Stannis' men.

The whole thing is a win/win for Littlefinger whereas Cersei and Joffrey, the other key suspects, had a lot to lose. Tyrion WAS commanding the City's defenses after all. They had no idea that Tywin and The Tyrells were on their way so Moore taking Tyrion out could have led to the City falling to Stannis. Not really a good plan is it?

[Mrs_Darcy]

My theory is that it was Joffrey. GRRM has given us enough clues to figure it out, but he's hidden them very well. He reveals Joffrey's motive in this passage from Tyrion's trial:

But is Ser Osmund lying, or is GRRM misdirecting us here? Tyrion certainly can't know firsthand, as even Joffrey wouldn't be stupid enough to say this in Tyrion's presence. Who else is lying at this trial? Everybody seems to be telling the truth except Taena Merryweather and Shae, and both of them have ulterior motives to lie: Taena wants to ingratiate herself with Cersei, and Shae not only has a deal with Cersei, but also wants to dissociate herself from the traitor Tyrion.

Could Osmund Kettleblack be lying here? Probably not. The witnesses have to swear an oath to speak the truth:

and here is what Osmund's brother Osney said about lying to the High Septon in A Feast for Crows:

Cersei managed to persuade Osney to lie by sleeping with him, but is Osmund's testimony at Tyrion's trial worth that kind of persuasion? He just reports what Joffrey thought, and doesn't really tell us anything about Tyrion's actions.

So Joffrey had the motive (he thought Tyrion was planning to kill him) and he had the means and the opportunity (Mandon Moore would have obeyed him). It's not clear who else Mandon Moore would have obeyed apart from Cersei, and not only is she smart enough to realize that Tyrion is helping defend King's Landing, but she also thought she had Tyrion under control because she had his whore captive.

Since Osmund never really specifies the name of said uncle, he could very well be using a quote by Joffrey regarding Stannis.

In Joffrey's view Stannis is his uncle (since he does not know, that Jaime is his father), Stannis does not love him and he wants to be king.

If Osmund repeated this quote he would not be lying strictly speaking but rather using quotes out of context

[Queen.Sansa.Lannister]

Littlefinger

[John Doe]

Varys.

[Petyr's Little Finger]

It was LF. Apart from Varys, only Tyrion knew that LF was a dangerous schemer and not just a smiling Master of Coin .Tyrion had managed to escape the Eerie alive, thanks to Bronn and he also had a lot of incriminating evidence against LF regarding the dagger lie. Tyrion was also in the process of replacing LF's men in high position with his own agents. Tyrion's presence in KL was becoming increasingly dangerous to LF. I also think that LF wouldn't want Tyrion spilling the dirt on him to Tywin. So LF acted through Mandon Moore (a vale man just like LF) and tried to make it look like an accident hence the assassination attempt took place in the middle of the battle.

[CaptainTheo]

I always thought it could only be either LF or Joffrey. I'm leavning towards LF for reasons discussed by other posters. Also Joffrey seemed to be enjoying himself on the battle, flinging the antler men over the ramparts and seeing Stannis's ships burn; it would be an odd time for him to ask Mandon to kill Tyrion (and Joffrey wanted this one he might have asked a different member of the kingsguard, like the Hound or Ser Meryn).

[Kingmonkey]

That quote is Littlefinger telling Sansa that the Kettleblacks are in his employ. It begs the question, does he have a lot of experience with men changing after joining the Kingsguard?

Excellent thought. This may be a pattern for Littlefinger, revealing little hints of what he's been up to in his attempts to show off how experienced and knowledgeable a player he is.

There's this quite similar thing here:

"Do you have any idea how costly they are?" Littlefinger complained. "You could hire an army of common sellswords for half the price, and that's for a merchant. I don't dare think what they might ask for a princess."

...which always made me think that Littlefinger once inquired the cost of hiring a Faceless Man to hire a merchant, probably Illyrio.

[Erza Whitewalker]

I don't think LF had anything to do with it. The plan ( from the first time we get a hint) to kill Joff began with Sansa getting the hairnet from Dontos. It came from LF right after his return with the Tyrell forces. Even though he planted the murder weapon on her, I think it's obvious he never wanted her to be implicated - but he must have been thinking of some scapegoat and Tyrion was always the perfect choice. Why kill the most likely suspect?

He had to do a massive amount of improvising, what with the Tyrells trying to "steal" Sansa and the Lannisters marrying her to Tyrion to head that off, but I'm sure he'd already started working out the contract for Penny and Groat.

Joff's an idiot. He was sloppy in the attempted assassination of Bran and he didn't think of the implications of a Kingsguard knight killing the Hand, a Lannister relative to boot. I also don't think that Moore would have acted alone. If spotted, he would have lost his own head. Doesn't strike me as the passionate type to risk his own life on the notion of vengeance for an acquaintance.

[Kaguya]

If it was Joff why the need to do it subtly? He could just ask the hound to do it openly.

[Dya of Oldstones]

It was LF. Apart from Varys, only Tyrion knew that LF was a dangerous schemer and not just a smiling Master of Coin .Tyrion had managed to escape the Eerie alive, thanks to Bronn and he also had a lot of incriminating evidence against LF regarding the dagger lie. Tyrion was also in the process of replacing LF's men in high position with his own agents. Tyrion's presence in KL was becoming increasingly dangerous to LF. I also think that LF wouldn't want Tyrion spilling the dirt on him to Tywin. So LF acted through Mandon Moore (a vale man just like LF) and tried to make it look like an accident hence the assassination attempt took place in the middle of the battle.

:agree:

To add to that, he still tried to get Tyrion killed even after that with framing both him and Sansa for Joffrey's murder at PW, but Jaime and Varys threw a monkey wrench in his plans. Tyrion, and now Sansa are both still alive and have the most dirt on him.