An Illustrated Guide to the Tyrion-is-a-Sekret-Targaryen Theory

I was afraid this would happen once the truth of Jon Snow as a Sekrit!Targaryen came to light. Book readers have for years, since realizing the subtle hints in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, been seeing what I think of a Sekrit!Targaryens around every corner. Is Meera Jon’s twin separated at birth? (Nope.) Is Aegon who shows up in Meereen a real Targaryen? (He’s been cut from the show, so I’m going with no one cares, and I hope he’s eaten by a dragon on general principles.) Fans just can’t get enough Sekrit!Targaryens. And now that’s spread to the show fandom as well. (I guess once you pop you can’t stop?)

The biggest Sekrit!Targ theory that sprung from the minds of book readers is that of Tyrion Lannister. It’s based on several book based moments, some of which have made their way onto the show itself. But most of all, it comes from the novel’s description of Tyrion himself. On screen, Tyrion is played by the handsome Peter Dinklage. On the page, though, he’s much closed to looking, well, like Bonobo from last season’s Game of Thrones players in Braavos. In Chapter “Jon V” of A Game of Thrones, he is described as having “stubby legs, a jutting forehead, mismatched eyes of green and black, and a mixture of pale blond and black hair.” It’s those eyes (The black one is actually said to be “so dark purple it looks black”) and that pale blonde hair (“so pale it looks white”) that cause fans to think he’s half Targaryen. After all, purple eyes and silver hair are the calling cards of the Targaryens genes. (There’s a scene in a later book where a character runs into a young man, and the point of the scene is that the reader is supposed to realize they are obviously talking to a Targaryen bastard byblow type, because of the focus on the violet eyes and very pale blonde hair. The “genes give things away” through-line through the books is not limited to just Robert Baratheon’s bastards and the Lannister twincest children.

Uproxx has made a handy dandy illustrated guide to the “Tyrion Lannister Is The Son of The Mad King” Theory. Check it out.

 

Now personally, I used to subscribe to this theory–before the show started. I was convinced Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister would both turn out to be sekrit!Targs,a dn they were the other two riders. But since the show went on the air, I’ve changed my mind. One reason? Dinklage. If the hair and the eye were so important, the show would have made Dinklage wear a colored contact, and they would have kept his hair very blonde. They did neither of those things. Another was Charles Dance’s performance. In the books, it’s easy to read into lines like “You’re no son of mine,” and think that was Tywin is really saying is that he believes, after all this time, that Tyrion was not his after all. Dance’s delivery leaves little doubt to me though. That’s a father who is denying his son in rage and fear.

I just don’t see the evidence translating on screen from the books. But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps Westeros is littered with Sekrit!Targaryens hiding in every corner after all…

 

Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/09/09/an-illustrated-guide-to-the-tyrion-is-a-sekret-targaryen-theory/