Why Tyrion Lannister is the best character in Game of Thrones

Hi there. Today is going to be a survey of the best character from Game of Thrones in my games of throney opinion, and that would be Tyrion Lannister. Peter Dinklage did a great interview about the character on NPR it's available here and I think you should check it out.

I'm going to be discussing Tyrion through the third book. And books, not the show because although show Tyrion is very good book Tyrion is a bit more persuasive.

There's a great line in book four that Jaime's Aunt Genna says to him in regards to Lord Tywin's son. And Jaime is all, yeah true I know I am it's whatever and she says no, Jaime. Tyrion is Tywin's son.

I love this, because there's so many conversations between Tywin and Tyrion that paint a genuinely painful picture of Tywin's resentment and hatred of Tyrion. How he wishes he wasn't his son and feels obligated to do something with him since he still bears their name and the name Lannister must command respect. And I mean these discussions are painful. Tywin does nothing to spare Tyrions feelings, and makes more than one point to explain to Tyrion how he killed his own mother in being born. But it's true, regardless, that Tyrion has the wit and intelligence of Tywin where Cercei and Jaime have boldness and charisma.

Tyrion is an underestimated character, and a tragic hero. He's the only Lannister (aside from Jaime later on in the books) who shows any real empathy for those involved in the game of thrones and is not just looking out for himself. He does that pretty well, but because he has struggled and been humiliated all his life he makes a point to make up for it in wits and intelligence (a point he makes early on) and yet even then gets little reprieve. The people of King's Landing still blame him for everything that goes wrong even though he's the only character who has the ability to make anything right. Awkward.

But what makes him the best character ultimately is his incredible ability to see everything around him with a shrewd but also humane perspective. I love the way he manipulates the council, and I love the way he is always self aware and questioning himself and who he has been and those around him. Usually the questioning from those around him are about who is lying, cheating and manipulating and while Tyrion is exemplary at that he also makes a point to understand the motive and emotions behind the actions so that he never forgets that in the game these are people, not just pawns. This is brilliant because it creates a character that is actually worth caring about. Everyone else is either too weak or too strong. George RR Martin writes characters driven by greed, lust, power and honor. No matter what other struggles they go through their drives make it clear. Tyrion is driven by nothing other than his will to survive his own reality. In this he is empathetic to the struggle of others and this dynamism gives him a depth and a sentiment that no other character possesses.

SPOILERS for book four because I need to discuss Tyrion's epic breakdown.

Who else was heartbroken that Shae totally betrayed him. I mean Tyrion just CANNOT catch a break in these stories he will continually be humiliated and betrayed. Which is why his unraveling is so gratifying. I suppose his last conversation with Jaime could have been avoided I don't think that did much help for anyone but I love that Shae gets what she deserves and I love that the bane of Tywin's existence is what ultimately took him down. If you kick someone enough times they'll probably shoot you in the abdomen with a crossbow, just sayin Tywin. Should have rethought that lord of Casterly Rock thing and maybe not publicly shit on your son every day of the week, BAM. ROASTED.

I have not started book 5 but I know that Tyrion is going to be in book 6 and I can't wait to horrify my grandchildren with it when it finally comes out. When I'm 80.

Avenge bender

So I went and saw The Avengers, unfortunately I was unprepared and had to make my friend explain the story of Captain America to me over enough explosions to give Michael Bay a semi. But from the knowledge I do have of the other characters, it was a genuinely indulgent display of pure badassery and comedic timing.

And the direction and screenplay were both Joss Whedon. JOSS WHEDON, you guys. And girls, and nerds. I buy shamelessly into anything Joss Whedon does it's the curse of having been an antisocial nerd in the 90s. There are vague spoilers I'm not doing much with the plot.

First of all I'd like to say the unnecessary casting of Cobie Smulders as agent catsuit earpiece was a waste of the film budget.

Sooo I know people probably come up to you all the time and say this but I really want to talk about The Hulk. I'm as embarrassed for the Hulk movies as the next person with sensory perception (but not nearly as embarrassed as I will be for the next Spiderman movie, there truly is no god). Despite this I bit the bullet and went to see Edward Norton in the last film. Heck I'd probably go see Edward Norton do the Blue Man Group. And mildly enjoyed it, like some kind of half melted ice cream you go ahead and eat anyway. But Mark Ruffalo, I have to say that guy brought sympathy to the character that Edward Norton for all of his acting charms just does not possess and it gave Bruce Banner at least 4 new levels of depth. I feel perpetually underwhelmed with how filmmakers manage the Hulk - Bruce Banner is such an interesting emotional study and all they want is to distract you with CGI and heavy breathing. I bet if Christopher Nolan got his hands on it we would all be weeping by the end; there is a real story to the man behind the monster that I feel cheated out of every single time. But kudos to Mark Ruffalo for actually reminding me that he's a person and not just mad guy/green guy/brooding guy the end.

Soundbites about the movie:

- Smarmy cameo by Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper Potts,
- Awkward nod to the Thor move with a cameo of...a picture of Natalie Portman...
- A cameo by Alexis Denisoff that I just learned about and am devastated to have missed
- Teen boys were rewarded with Scarlett Johansson's almost-cleavage and gratuitous posterior shots (before remembering they can google more explicit materials using an iphone)

And the older crowd got to see Chris Evans drop a few greatest generation one liners and wear pants too high up his waist. Robert Downey Junior taught comedic timing a lesson like he literally cannot fail to do and Samuel L. Jackson came on screen and children wet themselves two theaters over. That man could kill a bear with his eyes.

Also Stellan Skarsgard, who I have been having a screen to face affair with lately is just a great addition to any movie. And maybe this is because I have a huge crush on his son and his accent but I'm really happy whenever he gets cast. I recently watched Melancholia (2011) and genuinely appreciated the few scenes he was in, before spiraling into a brief existential depression. Don't watch that movie if you want to do anything with your day.

Tom Hiddleston (IMDB him he looks like someone poured milk over a wax figure) was passable as Loki, although he doesn't really betray much at all with his face or demeanor. I thought they could have picked somebody much more sinister looking maybe with kind of a pitiful edge. I feel like this Loki would be a better character if he ever looked anything but annoyed or amused. He's supposed to be all about jealousy and self-loathing with a desire to prove himself through misguided violence but mostly he just looks smug. And Thor continues to play the brother card I mean at what point do you say dude, you're not invited to my wedding and no you can't borrow any more money. He's a bad brother, bro. He just stabbed you.

There were lots of action sequences, lasers and gunfire and flying mechanical centipede fish and screaming civilians. Threat of nuclear attack that SLJ's character tried to stop by blowing up the offending plane with a bazooka (Hollywood logic wins again) and enough CGI to feed a small family for a year. Is it weird that I watched aliens destroy movie Manhattan and my first thought was 'I can't imagine how New York is going to get the governmental funding to rebuild the infrastructure and house all of these displaced persons.' The answer is yes.

Ultimately it was really well done. Superhero movies have a tendency to be lukewarm or overshot and I thought they cast this one fantastically (aside from the abscence of Michael Fassbender which brings every movie down a little bit) and that extra final scene at the end was pure gold. If nothing else go sit through the coming attractions so you can see the new Dark Knight Rises preview.

Still waiting for the war on reality TV.

So, guys. It's looking like Romney is going to be our GOP candidate. As soon as you finish picking your JAWS up off the floor, I'd like to discuss the War on Women, because I think it warrants even more attention.

I guess one could call this Santorum's final joke on Romney...he created a war on women during his campaign, and then dropped out so that Romney could scramble to pick up the pieces and try to convince women that he doesn't hate them and would they just please please vote for him because he spent a lot of money on his smile coach and if he loses and runs again he's going to be unfriended from the GOP. So once again, as is Romney's fate, his party has villainized something that Romney has to awkwardly stand for and against. I don't believe Romney gives one mansion whether women get equal pay or free abortions or insurance covered birth control. It sucks for him that he now has to explain himself for an idea his party propogated. But here we go, and actually being one of those central to this debate I find it particularly interesting to watch.

The one thing the Republicans are trying is to make it seem as though Obama DOESN'T support women, which is a classic tactic - create a massive campaign about a social issue involving women and when women don't like it pretend the other guy did it first. They're claiming women lost more jobs than men during the recession.

A. Obama didn't cause the recession he inhereted it from his great great grandfather, Iraq War. It isn't entirely fair to pretend that it's his recession, and whatever happened after the point of impact between the stock market and America's concrete floor was already in motion.

B. What on earth could Obama have to do with women losing more jobs than men. That's like blaming your coach for the fact that you were picked last in kickball.

So now we are going to sit through this tedious debate about whether he's going to get women voters or not. And this is where the whole Conservative Backlash comes into it. The bible belt loved Santorum, the deep south had Santorum themed birthday parties and I'm sure they printed tshirts with his face at Jesus camp. This was great for preserving the archaic ideas of conservatism. Yay for conservatism, now let's exit the B.C. era and discuss what this means for modern day America. They now have to convince American women that wanting to take away all your rights and revert to a patriarchical society doesn't mean we HATE you, come on you guys are being dramatic. So overly emotional.

Actually it's interesting that these candidates and pundits created the War on Women, coined the name and created all of the controversy, and women had nothing to do with it's conception (insert pun here) we just watched the horror unfold. Sort of an absurd situation to be in - you just decided that you are going to argue about how much I am allowed to matter and suddenly, I couldn't possibly matter more to you. Somebody has to appreciate the joke here.

But more to the point there is something disheartening about watching the candidates grovel for my vote. Shouldn't you people have not put me in this position to begin with? Why am I having to listen to you defend your support for women, why are women the ones getting picked out of the crowd here. There is an understanding of wanting certain minority votes - the Hispanic vote, the African American vote, etc. And that's because these groups of people are part of relatively underrepresented but powerful groups that could be the push needed to move an election one way or another. That's understandable, you want to move the needle slightly in your favor. What isn't understandable is why you are now trying to convince a group that makes up most of America that you don't actually hate us. Think about that - if all women voted one way or all women voted another way all of the time, there would no longer be a democracy. It would be a Femocracy. Again I find the humor in a debate about how many rights women should be given and what rights should be taken away, or how much women are allowed to matter. Maybe this is the kind of thing that should have entered the minds of candidates and controversy mongerers when they decided to wage a war on the majority of America.

As such I find it condescending to listen to them all discuss why we actually matter to THEM. Because that's the issue here - how much does Mitt Romney want women to have rights? What has Obama does lately that's helped women? I'd love to know when I can shut off my tv and take for granted that I can achieve whatever I'd like to without having to be reassured that a discussion of my rights is in my best interest.

April showers bring crushed Republican dreams

So the news has just broken, along with bible belt hearts across the country, that Rick Santorum has suspended his presidential bid. I bet Romney will throw himself a party to celebrate, and the music will be the sighs of relief from all women, democrats and gay individuals. Romney's new best friends.

Gingrich is pulling along, as he is inclined to do, so that there is a real conservative in the race still. He could just not show up at all I'm not sure many people would notice. Not that Romney makes a huge impression but it's not like anybody is looking at what's behind him anymore.

It's not as though it's going to be an easier ride for Romney from here on out, though. Now all of the attention will be on him and we all know how Romney usually conducts himself under the spotlight. Let the awkward comments roll.


Winter is coming, Mitt.

Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?

If anybody hasn't seen that video yet stop reading and go to YouTube right now.

The playground is getting rougher and shovier over in the Primary race. Bush has backed Romney, Gingrich's best $$$$$ friend is looking to ditch him because he's..losing... and Santorum is fishing in the bottom half of the country for all of his new friends. God help us if he wins Texas.

It's as if everyone was invited to a birthday party at Obama's and nobody wanted to go but their parents made them.

Sorry for all of the middle school references I've been reading a lot about the movie 'Bully' and I'm having flashbacks to the cruel and sadly appropriate age the candidates are acting.

K, SO.

Everyone is tired of this race already. Everybody is just screaming over each other and it's becoming redundant so today I thought I'd make Batman analogies instead.

Even though Santorum took up Mississippi, Alabama and Louisianna - the three states arguably most mocked for their wholesome good hearted southern backwardsness, Romney is still considered the most viable of the race so far. It's not just that he's pocketed the most delegates or that he will one day grow up to be the guy from Monopoly, it's that he's just more moderate and it's less scary.

So let's put Romney and Santorum in the context of Batman villains to explain why Romney is the most relatable and defeatable. And let's say Santorum is, idunno, the Scarecrow. This guy loves fear mongering, he loves to discuss Satan I don't know if the Scarecrow was into that but I'm sure it doesn't hurt to assume. He wants to take over America with a mix of noxious fear and what is most likely pent up aggression about all the guilt of masturbation he had to deal with growing up. Romney will be the Penguin. I recognize that Dick Cheney embodies this but I'm going to allow dual association here because they are both Penguin in their own way. Romney: misunderstood, and one of the rare few who makes sense wearing a monacle. He wants to be adored, and to lead an army of freaks (the exorbitantly rich) out of the sewers (mansions) to take over Gotham (America). Cheney just resembled him more, and probably eats raw animals as well. I don't know I can only assume.

I'd like to say this makes Obama Batman, and so I will. The tragic hero set up to be the face of everything Gothmerica loves and fears, needs and resents and will be blamed when things go wrong. Unfortunately I can't think of a single Batman plot that ever involved hours of Batman and the villains arguing over taking away women's rights or whether everybody should be allowed accessible health care. Actually scratch that it's not unfortuante at all, it would make for an incredibly tedious and irritating graphic novel and a boring career for Frank Miller. Although I'm sure Christopher Nolan could still have adapted a badass movie of it.

This would make Max Shreck the GOP trying to help Romney Cobblepot talk to the public and run for office. Although I think Max Shreck did a better job but, whatever they both hate their candidate so it's a tough situation from the get-go. Although I think things will end more savagely than they did in Batman Returns because the fight is going to be through the media and I don't know about you but I think that is far more dangerous than a bunch of missile-strapped penguins. But still the public can get behind him because, you know, you kind of want to see what he'll do next. And yet Obatman will eventually defeat this Rompenguin because nomatter how attractive new tries to be if it's still a raw fish eating weirdo underneath it's going to shine through. This is a moral.

Santorum as the Scarecrow attracts exactly the crowd that would be into hallucinogens. God's hallucinogens in his case. And all he wants to do is destroy Gotham (America) by spreading his poison gas (self-righteous rhetoric on how only Christians know how to handle social issues) everywhere to KILL the citizens (' rights and freedoms to make choices that aren't in the bible). Scarecrow did it because he was picked on as a child. HM.

Batman gets him too.

Okay that's my daily quota of Batman Politics. A topic I am perpetually happy to revisit.

White men can't jump (or have children).

So I've been sitting on this topic for a while, just letting it heat up to boiling point. I've debated getting into the use of women's rights as a political tactic because it is very difficult to make a strong argument for women as a woman, in that hypocritical patriarchical way our country identifies with, but it's something that calls for defense regardless. It's particularly difficult to be female defending females, because society and media has made damn sure that women hating women is what men are most comfortable with. But here we are, front and center again so if anyone wants to call it a feminist rant or blame my hormones, you can come say it to my face.

Where to even begin. So it's come to my (and the entire northern hemisphere's) attention that abortion and contraceptive use is what's wrong with this country. Here is my abridged list of what I consider to actually be wrong with this country, in light of this political atmosphere:


1. Rush Limbaugh. Attacking a private citizen about her sex life is pretty 90's, bro. Not to mention ethically abhorrent, because if you can reduce an educated woman who is exercising free speech to make a case for contraceptive coverage to a prostitute, I wonder how loosely we can use that definition in the future. Birth control has many purposes, not all of which are about having sex. There are plenty of health related reasons women use contraceptives, reasons Rush Limbaugh is happy to ignore in order to call women who use birth control sluts and tell them that he wants to watch their sex tapes. Both creepy and ignorant. You should do that bit at your birthday party. Invite all of your sponsors they'll love it.

2. The fact that we are discussing abortion. STILL. How often is a progressive move like legalizing abortion overturned? Where is the logic decades after Roe v. Wade, as we move forward generationally and as a culture that we would choose to suddenly regress into some kind of puritanical society where women are forced to have a child nomatter how it was conceived? This is like some bizarre dystopian nightmare. I have no idea why it's okay for grown men to cover their ears and try to scream over the reality of rape, incest and broken condoms. I'd say generally when push comes to shove a broken condom is going to present a stronger argument than God when it comes to the decidision to have a child. Wrapping this issue up in the misinformed, stifling blanket of pro-life doesn't change the reality that it is anti-choice. Not taking into account that there is a certain psychological trauma that is inherent in having a child of rape or incest, and that this child that you're so graciously forcing all precious life upon even though nobody asked you, old white men, to do that, this child may end up living a life fraught with resentment and confusion because you have forced an identity on another human being that they did not ask for.

So thanks again, privilaged white men I'm sure have thoroughly googled this and know exactly what it must feel like to be forced to have a child. Puritan America really was the golden age.
Oh and make sure to really hammer home your future points about people abusing the welfare system when we're dealing with over population. Be sure all the teenage moms and low-income mothers who had their rapists babies aren't trying to pull a fast one on the rest of privilaged America.

3. Arguing that Americans are paying for abortions and for contraceptives. Hey reality called it wants it's overwhelming social cost of unexpected pregnancy back.

4. Rick Santorum is a self-righteous jackass.


There are hundreds more points I can make about this country but I am trying not to dissolve this into a cantakerous survey or a forum to preach. Believing in God or being 'pro-life' for yourself is not the problem, the suggestion that believing in God makes you worthy of making everyone else's decisions for them is the problem. This issue has become especially potent because I consider it to be condescending, regressive and a waste of everybody's time.

Happy Super Tuesday Y'all

So I'm sitting in my liberal apartment in the liberal Democratic SHARP left turn of the state of Massachusetts. Watching the Super Tuesday results roooooollllll in (by the way Santorum has 12% here in MA of course we hate him).

As expected Romney is sweeping his way across the PriCaucusi, snagging Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts (uhduh), Ohio and Oklahoma. Santorum has Tennessee (jealous, Romney?) and Newt Gingrich probably has a box of tissues at his side. I'm sure Ron Paul has changed the channel by now. 

Newt Gingrich is giving another condescending speech to the audience, ever the bored bitchy teenager complaining to her friends while his wax statue of a wife stands next to him trying to avoid open flame. Don't light your cigarettes near Callista. I bet Santorum is googling 'how babies r made,' because it just makes him so mad and Romney is burning money and laughing since that's how he winds down after a long day.

I can't believe someone hasn't slapped a muzzle on Santorum yet since it's as if every statement that comes out of his mouth is something he picked because he closed his eyes and pointed at a page from the bible. How does somebody being considered for an actual influential position in 2012 get away with saying that rape victims should be forced to have their rapists baby, or that women in combat might compromise a situation because of their emotions. Or that Obama saying that he wants every American child to go to college makes him a SNOB. Seriously who edits this guys speeches? People actually applauded that. Yeah, you're right elitist Obama wants all of America's children to have the opportunity for higher education that is soooo snobby. I can't even believe he wants to make it possible for every child to have the same opportunity that is just a perfect example of the exclusionary and discriminatory behavior generally associated with snobbery PFFT. GOD, Obama. Not everybody is so goddamn fancy as you are. 

Every time Santorum opens his mouth plenty of people who write their opinions on these issues takes to their laptops in a blind fury, and this is not the time to digress into a full fledged rant because this is a holiday after all, but I will for the record express my disbelief at the fact that he is still awkwardly explaining his backwards and extraordinarily detrimental values to anybody who will listen. Oh, and he also said he plans to retroactively nullify all gay marriages in the 8 states that allow them so, we have that to look forward to in the quantum universe in which Santorum has a chance.