Skallagrim
Well-known member
Tywin is...kinda retarded IMHO. The historical figures he was based on would have considered him a gibbering autist.
A great example of this was a scene where (I think) Cercei is recalling a moment when someone made a some joke or insulting remark that offended Tywin and he kept hatefully staring at the guy for the rest of the evening, even after everyone else had long moved on.IMO, Tywin has the same problem the Dothraki and Ironborn have, though on an individual rather than society-wide level. He's not so much a 'hardass political operator & strategist extraordinaire' as he is 'a clueless writer's idea of a hardass political operator & strategist extraordinaire'. As the Ironborn and the Dothraki a respectively based less on actual Vikings and Mongols/Plains Indians but more-so on Hollywood caricatures of those people with a crapton of unnecessary edge thrown in, so too did Martin write Tywin based less on what actual ruthless & infamous medieval nobles/royals like Edward Longshanks, Philip IV and Warwick the Kingmaker (who he seems to have not bothered researching beyond the surface level, same as Vikings/Mongols) were like but on what he saw in Braveheart, The Accursed Kings or whatever.
This is supposed to illustrate (in Cercei's mind, but from the way it's written, also by authorial fiat) that Tywin is an icy badass who never forgives or forgets a slight (no matter how, uh... slight). But what it actually shows is that he's a total autist who can't even hide his dislike for others at the very best of times.
After all, one could have written that Tywin didn't show any outward reaction to the remark, but that a year later, when nobody else even remembered that the remark had ever been made, that guy who offended Tywin was suddenly incriminated in a treason plot, with all the "evidence" found by Tywin's loyalists, upon which he was executed and Tywin seized all his assets. That would show that Tywin holds a grudge, too, but that he's smart about it. (And if this is from Cercei's POV, it would also illustrate how she's possibly the only person who made the connection between Tywin's revenge and the minor slight that precipitated it. Which would build her up as at least pretty astute, too.)