Varys Brought Shae to Tywin to Kill Him
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
My current theory is that the woman in Tywin’s bed was Shae because Varys put her there to get Tywin murdered by Tyrion. I arrived at this theory while writing:
If I’m right about everything, which is unlikely, Varys hoped Tywin would realize Varys had betrayed him right before Tyrion killed him.
Tywin's eyes go wide. He says "Varys!" but Tyrion shoots him with the crossbow.
Here’s the passage where Tyrion realizes he will visit Tywin:
"We are below the Tower of the Hand."
"Yes." Frozen hinges screamed in protest as Varys pulled open a long-closed door. Flakes of rust drifted to the floor. "This will take us out to the river."
Tyrion walked slowly to the ladder, ran his hand across the lowest rung. "This will take me up to my bedchamber."
"Your lord father's bedchamber now."
He looked up the shaft. "How far must I climb?"
"My lord, you are too weak for such follies, and there is besides no time. We must go."
"I have business above. How far?"
"Two hundred and thirty rungs, but whatever you intend—"
"Two hundred and thirty rungs, and then?"
"The tunnel to the left, but hear me—"
"How far along to the bedchamber?" Tyrion lifted a foot to the lowest rung of the ladder.
"No more than sixty feet. Keep one hand on the wall as you go. You will feel the doors. The bedchamber is the third." He sighed. "This is folly, my lord. Your brother has given you your life back. Would you cast it away, and mine with it?"
"Varys, the only thing I value less than my life just now is yours. Wait for me here." He turned his back on the eunuch and began to climb, counting silently as he went.
It’s obviously a bold argument to make that Varys took this route with every expectation Tyrion would go rogue and visit Tywin. However, the text does suggest it by Varys’s repeated decision to give Tyrion correct and clear instructions instead of actually pressing him onward. Given Varys characteristically manages up and rules by pretending to serve, it is easy to see how he could have denied Tyrion the ability to visit Tywin, knowing he’d already brought him Shae.
Varys Betrayed Shae
The best evidence Varys used Shae to provoke Tyrion to kill Tywin is Vary’s betrayal of Shae. The text suggests Varys set Shae up to betray Tyrion for Cersei. When Tyrion is too confused about how to arrange a future for Shae, someone helps Shae ask for aid from Cersei in exchange for false testimony against Tyrion. Most likely, that person was Varys.
Here’s the rough history:
First, Varys ambushed Tyrion at the Broken Anvil, where he is found chatting with Shae.
A gust of merriment greeted him as he shoved into the inn's common room. He recognized Chella's throaty chuckle and the lighter music of Shae's laughter. The girl was seated by the hearth, sipping wine at a round wooden table with three of the Black Ears he'd left to guard her and a plump man whose back was to him. The innkeeper, he assumed . . . until Shae called Tyrion by name and the intruder rose. "My good lord, I am so pleased to see you," he gushed, a soft eunuch's smile on his powdered face. - A Clash of Kings - Tyrion I
Varys continues to meet with Shae, providing her ugly guard and orchestrating her move into the Red Keep. Remember how interested Shae had been to live in the Red Keep with Tyrion?
"I was expressly forbidden to take you to court.""By your stupid father." Shae pouted. "You're old enough to keep all the whores you want. Does he take you for a beardless boy? What could he do, spank you?"- A Clash of Kings - Tyrion X
But when she gets there, Shae must not wear her finery.
"Can I take my belt of silver flowers and my gold collar with the black diamonds you said looked like my eyes? I won't wear them if you say I shouldn't."Loath as he was to disappoint her, Tyrion had to point out that while Lady Tanda was by no means a clever woman, even she might wonder if her daughter's bedmaid seemed to own more jewelry than her daughter. "Choose two or three dresses, no more," he commanded her. "Good wool, no silk, no samite, and no fur. The rest I'll keep in my own chambers for when you visit me." It was not the answer Shae had wanted, but at least she was safe. - A Clash of Kings - Tyrion XI
Then, Shae wanted to return to the manse.
"I don't want to leave. You promised you'd move me into a manse again after the battle." - A Storm of Swords - Tyrion II
But instead Tyrion married Sansa,
My sweet lady Shae tells me you are newly wed. - A Storm of Swords - Tyrion IV
and Shae began to understand she needed to look for a husband.
Within, the dragon skulls were waiting, and so was Shae. "I thought m'lord had forgotten me." - A Storm of Swords - Tyrion VII
When we recall that it was Varys who brought Shae to the dungeons, it’s clear he is the one who made her wait, not Tyrion. Varys made Shae think Tyrion would forget her instead of helping Tyrion do the obvious and arrange Shae’s marriage to a knight.
Tyrion intends to help Shae as much as possible, though he comes to understand it was never going to work to keep her as the solution to a loveless arranged marriage:
The only safe course was to rid himself of Shae. I might send her to Chataya, Tyrion reflected, reluctantly. In Chataya's brothel, Shae would have all the silks and gems she could wish for, and the gentlest highborn patrons. It would be a better life by far than the one she had been living when he'd found her. Or, if she was tired of earning her bread on her back, he might arrange a marriage for her. Bronn, perhaps? The sellsword had never balked at eating off his master's plate, and he was a knight now, a better match than she could elsewise hope for. Or Ser Tallad? Tyrion had noticed that one gazing wistfully at Shae more than once. Why not? He's tall, strong, not hard to look upon, every inch the gifted young knight. Of course, Tallad knew Shae only as a pretty young lady's maid in service at the castle. If he wed her and then learned she was a whore . . . - A Storm of Swords - Tyrion VII
We will learn Shae asked Cersei for marriage to a knight in exchange for her testimony against Tyrion:
"They plotted it together," she said, this girl he'd loved. "The Imp and Lady Sansa plotted it after the Young Wolf died. Sansa wanted revenge for her brother and Tyrion meant to have the throne. He was going to kill his sister next, and then his own lord father, so he could be Hand for Prince Tommen. But after a year or so, before Tommen got too old, he would have killed him too, so as to take the crown for his own head." - A Storm of Swords - Tyrion X
Cersei recalls
Shae had been asking about some jewels Tyrion had given her, and certain promises Cersei might have made, a manse in the city and a knight to marry her. - A Feast for Crows - Cersei I
It is painfully ironic that Tyrion had been thinking of offering Shae just such a marriage when she betrayed him to Cersei for one…and likely was promised nothing, despite being forced to give false testimony.
The queen made it plain that the whore would have nothing of her until she told them where Sansa Stark had gone. - A Feast for Crows - Cersei I
The tragedy of Shae’s ending is that she might have been the way Ser Tallad got to have a wife at all, supported by Tyrion’s desire to do right by the girl he loved (though Shae would not have been able to live in a manse on Tallad’s believable dime.) Instead, someone helps Shae find a way to approach Cersei. Most likely, this was Varys.
But Maybe Tywin Asked for His Son’s Whore
The obvious counter-argument is that Tywin wanted control over everything related to his son’s sex life. This is a strong argument, given how Tywin responded to Tyrion’s having married Tysha. It is likely Tywin wished to interrogate his son’s mistress, personally, and treated her like a whore partly to reinforce the idea it’s all she could ever be.
However, this counter-argument can also support the idea Varys used Tywin’s motives towards Tyrion to set him up to be murdered for the affront of bedding Tyrion’s mistress.
Recall that Varys had Tyrion hide Shae behind Alayaya. While Tyrion accepts the idea to go to Shae through Chataya’s in order to protect her, this route has the side effect of making Tyrion appear to whore openly, something Tyrion does not realize Tywin would absolutely smack down (though he’d be far more livid about the mistress). It would also remove from Tywin’s mind any idea that Varys had been bringing Tyrion whores in the Tower of the Hand, something Varys may have suspected he’d eventually be asked to do. Initally, it looks like self-defense that Varys presents Tyrion as unaided regarding whores.
Another possibility is that Varys hid his involvment in aiding Tyrion with Shae in order to reveal it when he chose. It may be Varys always intended to bring Shae to Tyrion through the Red Keep’s tunnels, as he eventually does. If so, this was likely also with a mind towards how things would appear to Tywin. My theory Varys suggested he bring Tywin Tyrion’s whore comes largely from the fact that Varys initially hid that he’d used the tunnels to bring whores to Tyrion in the Tower of the Hand, as he’d done for Tywin.