Sunday’s ‘Game Of Thrones’ Episode Has People Thinking That This Old Fan Theory About Tyrion’s Real Parents Is Legit


SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN S6E02 OF THRONES!

Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones had nearly everything we’ve come to love from the series and more: surprise character deaths (Roose Bolton), Arya getting beat with a stick in order to become a secret assassin, Tyrion getting in a bunch of quick and witty one-liners, dragons…but in fact, two of those things supposedly go hand-in-hand if this old fan theory about Tyrion is true.

While Tywin Lannister made his disdain towards Tyrion openly visible throughout both the television series and books, the theory goes that he not only hated him because of his physical shortcomings (har), but because he wasn’t even his son:

The theory that King Aerys was Tyrion’s real father goes something like this. Once upon a time, either through coercion, seduction or flat-out rape, Aerys and Joanna Lannister knew one another in the carnal fashion. For this union to result in Tyrion, it would have had to happen during Tywin’s stint as Aerys’ Hand, and thus become a major factor in the deepening bad blood between the two. After his wife became pregnant with the king’s bastard, Tywin, fearing that the child would reveal his being cuckolded by physically taking after the real father, attempted to abort the pregnancy using moon tea, tansy, what have you; some type of contraceptive. This attempt failed to stop the child’s birth, but resulted in his deformity and the death of Joanna. These circumstances were also a major factor in the king choosing Jaime for the kingsguard, Tywin helping to dethrone him, and Tywin’s refusal to name Tyrion heir to Casterly Rock.(via)

Then again, Tywin could’ve also refused to name Tyrion as his heir because he hates him for being handicapped. Real good parenting right there.

And if you’re stuck on the fact that Tyrion doesn’t look like a Targaryen, we can chalk that up to casting differences between the show versus the books. The novels have Tyrion described with hair “so blonde it seemed white,” and even though any bimbo can go and dye their hair white and claim themselves a Targaryen, we’re still missing the third head of the dragon:

At the House of the Undying, Daenerys Targaryen sees a man (Rhaegar Targaryen) and overhears him talking to a woman (Elia Martell) nursing a baby. “Aegon… What better name for a king… He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire”; When Rhaegar’s eyes meet Daenerys’s, he says either to her or Elia, “There must be one more… The dragon has three heads”, and he picks up a silver harp and begins to play.[1]
However, neither Daenerys nor Ser Jorah Mormont know what the song of ice and fire means. It is implied that there is a connection between the song, the promise, and Daenerys herself. This is established more clearly when Maester Aemon identifies Daenerys as the “prince” that was promised. [2](via)

Assuming that Daenerys is one head of the dragon and that Jon Snow is the second, we still need a third person, and Tyrion tends to get the most screen time/pages out of any of the remaining characters.

So is Tyrion a Targaryen?

Maybe. Maybe not…but I’d pay money to see the look on Tywin and Cersei’s face if and when he goes flying by on a dragon, wrecking shit and conquering lands. If the gods are good, we’ll at least get to see Cersei realize her little brother is a boss before she inevitably kicks the bucket.

God, she’s overdue for a stabbing.