Sandbox / Game Of Thrones - Varys

Varys

"Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow on the wall."

Played By: Conleth Hill

"Storms come and go, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling."

A eunuch and a skilled schemer. Originally from the Free City of Lys in Essos, he is unfailingly loyal to the realm as whole, but has little respect for either King Robert or King Joffrey. He's not a Lord, yet everyone calls him one. The Master of Whisperers on the Small Council for four kings, he has to flee to Essos after aiding Tyrion to escape, which results in the murder of Tywin Lannister. He backs a Targaryen restoration and Daenerys as the best option available for Westeros.

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Tropes relating to him

• Adaptational Heroism: Varys is, on the whole, a far more benign and far less sinister figure than his book counterpart:
  • There is no sign of his concern for Sansa in the books. The idea of marrying Sansa to a Tyrell comes from Olenna herself (albeit as a potential Unwitting Pawn). His "little birds" are implied to have their tongues cut out to prevent idle gossip. Here, Varys states that he Wouldn't Hurt a Child and the children who work for him are shown to have been well-treated until Qyburn turns them into the silent terrors of their book counterparts, in addition to carrying out political assassinations of key figures of the Small Council that Varys was behind in the books.
  • Varys's friendship with Tyrion in the show is actually genuine, if vitriolic. In the book, Varys only views Tyrion as a pawn in his larger schemes and his betrayal of Tyrion helps to utterly isolate the latter.
  • In the show, it's eventually revealed that he is totally loyal to Daenerys Targaryen albeit after walking a thin line between subterfuge and loyalty (until he betrays her for fully noble reasons). In the books, it's revealed that he never saw her as anything other than a Hot Consort first intended to be married off to Drogo to prep him for a potential invitation of Westeros, than as one for his true candidate, the Adapted Out "Young Griff", a perfect prince. Daenerys is a constant Spanner in the Works to his plans and his original intention was to throw both her and Viserys under the bus.
    • On top of that, in the books it is mentioned that he actively sabotaged Rhaegar's plans to usurp his insane father's power; which utterly contradicts his stated intent to protect and stabilize the realm. Which means that basically, it was his doing that set the Seven Kingdoms on their catastrophic trajectory. A fan theory says that Varys is ultimately just an agent of the Adapted Out House Blackfyre (an exiled cadet branch of House Targaryen) and his machinations only follow the goal to bring them to power. If that is truly the case, this would make his deeds (producing decades of war and strife with millions of dead just because of some dynastic squabble) particularly heinous and would basically turn the book version to the almost polar opposite of his tv counterpart.
• Affably Evil: Varys is unfailingly polite and calm to everyone (except when he deploys barbed sarcasm). In general this is one of the things that set him apart from Littlefinger: Varys doesn't go out of his way to antagonize and belittle, and merely does needs to be done, while Littlefinger is a lot more petty.
• Ambiguously Evil: He's definitely not an out and out good guy owing to his Playing Both Sides disposition and his conspiracy to enable a succession and invasion of Westeros by the Dothraki and later Daenerys. His goal, however, is to serve the greater good and he seeks to oppose Littlefinger, and likewise, he has multiple Pet the Dog moments. In Season 7, there is little doubt that he is not evil as he explains his motives and desires to Daenerys, he wants not only peace and stability but for the people not to suffer under cruel or incompetent rulers, hence his gambit to find a suitable ruler.
• Ambiguously Gay: Several characters accuse him of being gay, although Varys eventually admits to being asexual. Not that Varys could have done much with anyone in any case, particularly since he was castrated as a child.
  Oberyn Martell: We have some lovely boys on retainer, but...You did like boys before? [Varys shakes his head] Really? Girls? Hmm. I hope you won't be offended when I say I never would have guessed.
  Varys: Not at all. But I was never interested in girls, either.
  Oberyn Martell: What then?
  Varys: Nothing.
  Oberyn Martell: Everybody is interested in something.
  Varys: Not me. When I see what desire does to people, what it's done to this country, I am very glad to have no part in it. Besides, the absence of desire leaves one free to pursue other things. [an aside but pointed glance at the Iron Throne]
• And I Must Scream: During his castration, he was apparently given a drug to prevent him from moving, but which kept him fully conscious and all of his senses intact during the whole thing, and as a child no less. He eventually gets his revenge by torturing the sorcerer several decades later — see Best Served Cold.
• Anti-Hero: A dark version. Unscrupulous Hero, maybe. While he is a schemer, isn't always trustworthy, and has a positively terrifying sense of vengeance, he does at least seem to be most interested in doing what is good for the realm, at least in the long run.
• Apologetic Attacker:
  • While he pretty much sells out Tyrion at the trial, he makes no secret that he took no enjoyment from doing it.
    Tyrion: You once said that without me the city would've faced certain defeat; you said, the histories would never mention me but you would not forget. Have you forgotten, Lord Varys?
    Varys: Sadly my lord, I never forget a thing.
  • He later helps Jaime bust Tyrion out of prison. When Varys says he never forgets, he means it.
• Armor-Piercing Question: To Ned in Season 1: "What of your daughter's life, Lord Stark? Is that a precious thing to you?"
• Badass Boast: See his page quote.
• Badass Bookworm: Effective because of his knowledge base rather than his fighting skills. It takes a lot of balls (so to speak} for him to carry out his plans in the way he does.
• Benevolent Boss: According to him, his "little birds" are treated very well for their services (certainly better than Littlefinger's prostitutes). There is some truth to it, since it's shown they do miss him while working for Qyburn.
• Beware the Nice Ones: At first glance, he is a benevolent, effeminate suck-up. The reality is quite different. It takes serious balls (so to speak) for Varys to pull off his manipulations the way he does. He traps the sorcerer who castrated him as a child in a box after stitching up his mouth, and even straight-up disagrees with Joffrey. It may sound like a small thing, but Pycelle would never have the guts, nor Littlefinger the moral standards to do such a thing.
• Best Served Cold: After being castrated by a sorcerer and thrown out to die, he decided to do absolutely whatever it took to live, and then to gain power. After nursing his grudge for several decades, he finally gets to act on it — he has the sorcerer shipped to him with his lips sewn shut so he can take his time with the son of a bitch.
• The Bus Came Back: Took a short but noticeable ride on the bus between the end of Season 2 and "Walk of Punishment".
• Can't Argue with Elves: Tries to repeatedly get one up on the Red Priestesses, first Kinvara and then Melisandre. Both time he gets shut out and embarrassed by their clear displays of clairvoyance and magical prowess. He later discusses with Tyrion about being bothered by Dany's claims of destiny and great purpose, feeling that it was too messianic. Tyrion points out that it's hard to make that case against someone who walked into fire and came out with three dragons.
• The Cassandra: A light case of this as pretty much no-one in the series takes his advice and warnings seriously and it has a habit of coming back to bite everyone in the ass
  • His warnings and attempts to advise Ned are not heeded until far too late
  • His repeated attempts to get Shae out of harm's way by either attempting to bribe her or increasingly dire warnings to Tyrion are not heeded until the literal last minute, and ultimately fail.
  • His warnings to literally everyone about how dangerous Littlefinger is have been universally ignored despite the entire War of the Five Kings, the bankruptcy of Westeros, and the death of Joffrey all being Littlefinger's doing.
  • Jaime Lannister also noted to Brienne that Varys warned Aerys not to open the doors of King's Landing to Tywin, believing quite rightly that Tywin had scented a Kingmaker Scenario and wanted to finish Aerys and King's Landing for good.
  Littlefinger: I admire your powers of persuasion, Lord Varys. You who can traffick so many secrets to so little avail.
  • His concerns about Daenerys's state of mind and behavior are later justified when Daenerys proves his fears by burning King's Landing after the city has surrendered, killing civilian men, women, and children. He voices his concerns over Daenerys's mental state to Tyrion and Jon but they disagree. However, Tyrion ends up invoking this when he realizes Varys was right:
    Tyrion: Our queen doesn't keep prisoners for long. I suppose there's a crude kind of justice. I betrayed my closest friend and watched him burn. Now Varys's ashes can tell my ashes, "See, I told you."
• The Chessmaster: Part of his job considering he has to attempt to outwit other information brokers like Littlefinger. Deconstructed in that he (along with his collaborator Illyrio Mopatis) is responsible for Daenerys's rise to power, but that wasn't the intended result and things changed due to factors that were out of his control (and the dragons probably weren't planned either).
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A rare benevolent example. He worked for several regimes over the course of his life and has secretly worked to undermine them whenever they saw they were too oppressive or ineffective and in Season 7, he declares to Daenerys that he is is not loyal to her, or any ruler, but loyal to the people and the realm and the reason why he backs her is because he believes she is the best ruler who looks after the people's wellbeing. Daenerys tells him to just say it to her face when she starts to fail the people in his eyes, and dispense with this propensity... under punishment of death by dragonfire.
• Composite Character: He takes Illyrio's role of welcoming Tyrion to Pentos, though they're still in Illyrio's house. Followed by replacing Griff and his entire team in escorting Tyrion to Meereen.
• Crazy-Prepared: Varys just so happens to have a map of every single possible secret route out of the Red Keep, just in case he has to make a hasty escape (or covertly spy on someone). He also keeps a human-sized crate just in case he needs to smuggle someone out or in the city.
• Create Your Own Villain: Downplayed. Daenerys hasn't crossed the line into villain territory but Varys's actions inadvertently help push her there. When he finds Daenerys to be growing increasingly unstable and ruthless in dealing with those she considers her enemies, Varys fears for the people of the realm. After he learns the truth about Jon's heritage, Varys decides to push Jon's claim to the Iron Throne over Dany's, despite Jon's refusal, as Varys feels Jon is a more even-tempered option and would be a better ruler for the people. However, in betraying Daenerys as one of her closest advisors, Varys ultimately manifests Daenerys's very fears over Jon's claim and this plays a big part in pushing her to the brink where she later decides to go full Dragon Queen on King's Landing and just "burn them all" — the very thing Varys betrayed Dany to prevent.
• Deadpan Snarker / Disabled Snarker:
  • Eighty percent of his conversations with Littlefinger and Tyrion are snark. Examples are his conversation with Littlefinger in the Season 1 finale, and this exchange with Tyrion:
    Tyrion: (after Joffrey has just gone into detail as to what he plans to do to Stannis) Imagine Stannis' terror.
    Varys: (flatly) I am trying.
  • And when Bronn jokingly suggests throwing books to repel Stannis's siege of the city:
    Varys: We don't have that many books.
• Death by Irony: When he was castrated as a boy, his privates were thrown into a magical fire for a ritual. Years later, the rest of him is incinerated with dragon fire as punishment for betraying Daenerys. In addition, it was his machinations that facilitated Daenerys's rise to power in the first place (due to her becoming a major Spanner in the Works when he intended for her to be nothing more than a Hot Consort), meaning Varys was executed by the very pawn he inadvertently helped bring to power.
• Determinator: It's portrayed with more subtlety than most examples, but this man went through absolute hell to get to the Small Council. It takes no small degree of determination to go from being an orphan on the streets of Myr to one of the most powerful men in Westeros.
• Didn't See That Coming: Despite being a chessmaster, he has dropped the ball many times. The High Priestess Kinvara eventually calls him out on this, mocking him for being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
  • His original plan with Illyrio was to bring Khal Drogo and his Dothraki across the Narrow Sea with Daenerys as his bride and Viserys as King, even arranging a botched assassination attempt to trigger Drogo. This backfired when Drogo died and then Dany hatched three dragons. Dany chews him out about this in Season 7, noting for all his "For the realm" talk, his plan was to replace a lazy but functional and basically competent king with someone who would have been another Aerys II, and that whatever his plans were, it certainly didn't include her.
  • He was also caught off guard by Ned Stark's execution, the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings and Joffrey's assassination. Likewise, going on the lam with Tyrion was never a real part of his plan but he eventually adapts to his situation, anyways. Indeed, most of Varys's actions since the start of the series has been improvising and surviving, since his original plan to bring Viserys over with the Dothraki hit a huge snag.
• Dirty Business: One of the traits that set Varys apart in King's Landing is that unlike most of the other schemers (such as Tywin, Cersei, and Littlefinger), Varys seems to feel a degree of guilt for all the scheming he has to do. For example, it's plainly visible before and during Tyrion's trial that he absolutely hates what is happening, but keeps going because it's what he has to do.
• Disability Immunity / No-Sell: As Ros discovered, it's very hard to seduce someone who has no genitals.
• Does Not Like Magic: And has a pretty solid reason for it too, as in his experience, magic practitioners are typically associated with pain, torture, and death. Though he does make an exception for dragons, eventually.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite having orchestrated an assassination attempt on Daenerys, he seamlessly becomes part of her court in Season 6. In fact, their first meeting occurs entirely off-screen and has not yet been alluded to. Subverted in Season 7 where Daenerys question's Varys's loyalty and threatens to burn him alive if he betrays her. She does pardon him tentatively. Subverted in Season 8. Upon learning Varys has been scheming behind her back, Dany makes good on her earlier threat.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Invoked by Grand Maester Pycelle. It may or may not be true. Lampshaded by Varys himself when he asks with exasperation at the imprisoned Eddard being leery about the water he offers, "Why is it no one ever trusts the eunuch?" Varys's later behavior, however, demonstrates that he really isn't completely benevolent, and may have only been as kind to Ned as he was, because it could make him feel better about other things he'd done, and he knew it wouldn't cost him anything.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • The Black Magic practiced by the Lord of Light religion disturbs him, and the thought of a follower of that religion sitting on the Iron Throne terrifies him.
  • He's visibly disturbed when Joffrey decides that he will behead Eddard Stark there and then. After all, he did do his best to help Ned when he could.
  • His opposition to Littlefinger is due in no small part to his awareness of how Littlefinger will happily watch the realm burn so long as it allows him to advance, and he is visibly disgusted by just how low Baelish will go.
  • He is visibly appalled when Joffrey announces that he plans to serve Robb Stark's severed head to Sansa at his wedding feast. Heck, not just visibly; he outright breaks his normal effete facade and insistently reminds Joffrey that Sansa is now his aunt by marriage. It isn't clear if he's appalled by how hurtful this would be to Sansa herself, or shocked that Joffrey's so bat-shit insane that he would do this in front of the entire court and not consider how bizarre this would appear to the lords of the realm (though probably both).
  • He makes no effort to hide his displeasure and disgust as Joffrey's "war of the five kings" reenactment at the royal wedding.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Dany executes him for treason, he simply says that he hopes he is wrong regarding his fears about Dany and that he still considers Tyrion to be a friend despite his betrayal. He doesn't even scream or show signs of pain when he is burned alive.
• Fatal Flaw: His insanely high standards. Varys expects his rulers to be absolutely perfect at all times, and whenever their moral compass falters, he immediately begins the process of betraying them and finding a replacement. Daenerys wasn't having any of it.
• Foil:
  • To Littlefinger. They're both self-made men who came from very humbly beginnings but ended up as two of the most powerful figures of the Realm, they're both expert manipulators with a Dark and Troubled Past, and they can both be charming when it's required. The key difference is that Varys fights for The Needs of the Many and Order and stability, while Littlefinger strives to create utter chaos in his pursuit of power, and ultimately fights only for himself. There's also the contrast that Littlefinger is a provider of sex, while Varys is an eunuch and an asexual.
    • The difference between the priorities of these two is captured perfectly by their reaction to Tyrion's Batman Gambit in Season 2 regarding Myrcella: Varys is able to respect Tyrion's ability to manipulate Pycelle and understands his need to root out spies, even reacting with borderline glee even though he was played. Littlefinger, meanwhile, is simply angry that he is not getting the power Tyrion promised him and is only calmed down when Tyrion tells him he'll still get what he was promised.
  • To Melisandre, who he dislikes out of prejudice for magic. Both of them were born poor and slaves, are foreigners to Westeros, but circumstances led Melisandre to turn to magic and prophecy for help and support while Varys ended up hating magic to become a formidable Knowledge Broker. Both of them believe in serving the greater good and will do what it takes for the sake of their ideologies and as Dany reminds Varys, they are both Former Regime Personnel paying court to her.
• Friendly Rivalry: To Tyrion. Not so much to Littlefinger, probably on account of his more jerkish attitude.
• Friendly Enemy: To Littlefinger. This is deconstructed by the fact that Littlefinger's ambition actually scares Varys, and that their aims are completely different, as one fights for order and the other for chaos. Varys and Littlefinger do enjoy each other, as Varys himself admits, but as the game ramps up and the stakes increase their friendly bickering becomes nothing but a light veneer.
• Groin Attack: As a young boy, he was ritualistically castrated against his will by a sorcerer. The sorcerer then burned his severed genitals on a pyre as a sacrifice. See Best Served Cold for how he settled that several decades later.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: While in his own words he isn't even close to a hero, he's one of the least malevolent members of the Small Council, and yet not a soul seems to trust or appreciate his job because of the widespread eunuch prejudice and the fact he's The Spymaster (considered "dishonorable" in the honor-obsessed society of Westeros).
• Hypocrite: He has a hard time defending how his bid to remove Robert with Viserys II fits with his mantra about the "good of the Realm", as it would mean replacing a lazy and uninvolved ruler but one who provided peace and stability and was an improvement on the Mad King, with a cruel, stupid, and weak man.
• I Did What I Had to Do: At one point he tells Littlefinger, "I did what I did for the good of the realm", and this phrase incidentally sums up how he justifies everything he does. His eventual friend Tyrion invokes this notion verbatim to defend Varys before Daenerys. This reasoning reaches its tragic conclusion in Season 8 when his intentions to save the city result in him trying to poison Daenerys and being executed for treason when he plots against her.
• Immigrant Patriotism: The only non-Westerosi born member of the Royal Council (he's from one of the Free Cities), and yet he claims his primary allegiance is to the realm as a whole, as opposed to his own self-enrichment or the further the goals of a particular faction. Whether or not he's telling the truth is hard to determine.
• In-Series Nickname: He's frequently referred to as "The Spider".
• In the Hood: When going incognito, Varys wears a hooded cloak.
• Informed Attribute: He's presented as a great all-knowing chessmaster and presents himself as someone interested in the general good of the realm. Yet throughout Seasons 1-4 he gets Out-Gambitted by Littlefinger (who kills his mole Ros, murders Joffrey by working with Olenna Tyrell), by Daenerys herself who both survives his assassination attempt, and then births three dragons, then Tyrion kills Tywin and finally his supposedly loyal "little birds" get subverted by Qyburn, and he somehow fails to unearth information about the drying of Tywin's goldmines.
  • Likewise his assessment of other characters is treated as true, such as his belief that Stannis would have been a bad king. Since Stannis was the only Southern King who believed in the White Walker threat, and came to the aid of the Night's Watch, something that Daenerys is quite reluctant to do, and instead of supporting Renly and/or Robb, he supports Joffrey and the Lannister regime, one can also doubt the extent to which he is invested in the common good or at least his judgment of character.
  • Upon pledging himself to Daenerys he insists that he will serve faithfully (though makes it clear that his loyalty is to the realm, not her) yet in the same scene he mentions Robert ordering an assassination on her, without mentioning that Ned Stark opposed it and that Robert regretted it and tried to rescind that order. His self-saving lie leads Dany to be belligerent in her meeting with Jon Snow and she talks down his support for Ned's memory by bringing up that Ned was okay with Robert's assassination.
• Is That a Threat?: Varys makes coy, veiled threats to Tyrion in their first scene together, but Tyrion angrily cuts the bullshit and bluntly calls him out on it. He then threatens to throw Varys into the sea if he ever threatens him again, which Varys retorts with his page quote shown above.
• Kill It with Fire: Executed by Daenerys via immolation by Drogon.
• Knowledge Broker: Hence his nickname.
• Last of His Kind: The last of the original Small Council that governed King's Landing, he defected along with Tyrion to Dany and managed to dodge Cersei's purge.
• Missing Steps Plan: Vary's ethos in a nutshell. He wants to build a better realm that protects the common people. So he serves the royal government, if the government is not doing its best, he then decides to nurture a rebellion even if the guy in charge of that rebellion (Viserys) is plainly going to be worse than the incumbent. Somehow, after a series of events, this will create a better realm for the smallfolk.
• The Mole: He serves in the Small Council at the Baratheon dinasty's pleasure, but he's secretly in league with a group of people who "saw Robert Baratheon for the disaster he was" and plans for a Targaryen restoration.
• Necessarily Evil: How most people see Varys (I.e he's a dishonorable traitor, but his treachery serves a purpose), and even how he views himself from time to time.
• The Needs of the Many: When asked where his allegiances lie, he says he serves the realm, not the ruler. This is his justification for going along with the plan to assassinate Daenerys, for trying to prevent Littlefinger from gaining even more power, and most likely his reason for selling out Tyrion despite obviously having no desire to do so.
• Noble Demon: While evidently not 100% good (he himself snarks to Ned that he's no hero) Varys desires peace above all. He also has a distaste for violence and is appalled by the casual evil displayed by the likes of Joffrey and Littlefinger.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Every time Varys does something unapologetically good, it seems to come back to bite him in the ass. His attempts at helping Sansa probably set the wheels in motion for the Tyrell-Littlefinger alliance and his ally Tyrion's downfall and when he helps Tyrion escape King's Landing, this causes Tywin's death, and thus forces him to flee Westeros so he won't be a prime suspect.
  • While good deed might be stretching it, his "for the greater good" view eventually gets him killed as after seeing the signs of Danearys descent into madness (which later turn out to be true), his attempts to stop her by trying to get the more measured and tempered Jon on the throne results in him getting executed for treason.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Varys, as seen in "Stormborn", is a kind of fantasy take on Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, an official who claimed to be Loyal to the Position while boasting Vetinari Job Security, serving multiple administrations loyally while secretly working to undermine and/or replace it when he dislikes it. The resemblance is more in career and profile rather than biographical or visual similarity (Talleyrand was well-known sybarite while Varys is a celibate eunuch). The line he mentions to Tyrion about how he paddles along while storms come and go echoes Talleyrand's famous line "Regimes may fall and fail, but I do not". His interview with Dany in Season 7 echoes his meeting with King Louis Philippe of the July Monarchy who wondered if Talleyrand would serve him or eventually try and replace him as well.
• Non-Action Guy: Lampshaded when Ned asks why he did nothing to help, and he says that he can't do much against multiple armed soldiers.
• Nothing Personal: One of Varys's greatest strengths as a schemer, spymaster, politician and information broker is that he takes absolutely nothing personally.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The assassination attempt on Daenerys that he orchestrated was bungled, and Khal Drogo EXTREMELY pissed off, pushing him to start preparing an invasion of the Seven Kingdoms. This was almost certainly his planned result however, being part of the conspiracy backing the invasion.
  • An even more obvious one is him warning Olenna Tyrell about Littlefinger's ambition and trying to set up a marriage between Sansa and Loras. In retrospect, he just gave Olenna a glowing recommendation of the one man other than them, who was ruthless enough to pull off a regicide and serve as her partner-in-crime. This led to Joffrey's assassination, so not a great loss all in all.
  • Being informed that Jon has a higher claim to the Iron Throne than Daenerys and being mindful that she may not be a good ruler, he quickly moved to depose her before her. When his plotting is discovered he is quickly executed by dragonfire and his actions became one more step for Daenerys path to madness.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Everyone can't seem to go one sentence without mocking him for being a eunuch.
  • Never Heard That One Before: Varys seems to have long since resigned himself to this and to respond with barbed sarcasm.
• Only One Name: He's just Varys. He once contrasts himself and Shae with the highborn who have last names.
  Varys: You have one name. As do I. Here only the family name matters.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Any time Varys drops his Sissy Villain act and politely mocking tone of voice, you know it's come time to be afraid. The sorcerer is a prime example of what Varys is capable of when he gets serious.
• Order Versus Chaos: Claims to fight for order and mostly acts in the interests of keeping the realm stable, in contrast to Littlefinger who actively causes chaos with intent to climb the social ladder as others fight around him.
• Out of Focus: In Season 5, he is largely absent after the first three episodes due to losing track of Tyrion. He catches up with him in the finale, though.
• Pet the Dog: As Tyrion is recovering from the attempt on his life from The Battle of Blackwater, he remarks that most people won't know his role in protecting the city, but the ones that do will always remember. It's hinted later on that this is part of the reason why he smuggles Tyrion out of the city after his conviction for Joffrey's murder.
  Varys: There are many who know that without you this city faced certain defeat. The king won't give you any honors, the histories won't mention you, but we will not forget.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: After becoming Daenerys's Master of Whisperers in Seasons 7 and 8, Varys never once provides her with any advance intelligence or spreads any division or propaganda amongst her enemies.
• Playing Both Sides: Varys seems to be playing absolutely everyone in his pursuit to be doing the good of the Realm. Tyrion hangs a Lampshade when he discusses his work with Daenerys suggesting that he had subtly been in charge of the assassination attempts for Robert while also undermining it at the same time.
• Precision F-Strike: Varys very rarely swears, so it's quite jarring when he does, even if he's simply quoting someone else.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Starting Season 2.
• Put on a Bus: Ends Season 2 by telling Tyrion he won't be around for a while, and is conspicuously absent from the first two episodes of Season 3.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: A poignant, competent advisor and not a particularly wicked schemer by the standards of the Court. His vocal concern for the realm seems genuine enough.
• Red Baron: It isn't made explicitly clear in the show, but Varys's nickname "The Spider" isn't his own idea; the other members of the court gave it to him due to his "web of information." Varys never claims or uses the nickname himself.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Varys's long, long history of playing the kingmaker and the power behind the throne, which has involved sabotaging or betraying all of his former masters when he deemed them unacceptable, finally comes back to bite him in the penultimate episode. When Daenerys learns that Varys has begun plans to depose her in the same way he's done all his other masters, she drags him down into the caves under Dragonstone and has Drogon incinerate him.
• Sacrificial Lion: Daenerys executing him for treachery is the final catalyst for her Face–Heel Turn.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After arranging Tyrion's escape to Essos, he gets a listen to the city bells announcing Tywin's death and decides to hop on the boat himself, partly due to the fact that, since he knows the castle better than anyone, he's a prime suspect in Tyrion's escape.
• Self-Made Man: Even more than Littlefinger, who was at least a minor noble. After Varys was castrated and thrown into the slums of the Free Cities, he became a pocket thief and whore. There, he learned to extract secrets from his clients. Gradually expanding his power, he eventually gained enough influence to earn him his seat in the Royal Council.
• Sissy Villain: As with Eunuchs Are Evil, the half of the trope indicating villainy is in doubt, but the first half is blatant. Really, when everyone already knows you're a eunuch, what the devil's the point of wasting time embarrassing yourself by trying to look butch? Mostly, though, it's an act. When he gets truly angry he drops his usual polite, facetious tone and his voice becomes considerably lower, such as when he threatened Tyrion in Season 2 and Littlefinger in Season 3. An excellent example is how he speaks to Ned when trying to convince him to give a false confession and demands him to serve the realm.
• Sole Survivor: As he implies to Tyrion in the quote above. Subverted when he's killed off in the penultimate episode.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: His main form of conversation with those he sees as worthy opponents, such as Tyrion and particularly Littlefinger.
• The Spymaster: He claims his "little birds" are everywhere. Justified when it turns out that he's cultivated a network of informants amongst the abundant and forever-overlooked orphans and poor children of Westeros. Subverted when the drawbacks of such a network are made manifest — namely, they have no particular loyalty to Varys.
• Sympathy for the Hero:
  • The Starks are a traitor family and arch-enemies of the defacto rulers of the city, whom he serves. He shows covert sympathy for the Starks a number of times anyway. Book Varys provides the quote for the trope.
  • He's supportive of Tyrion in the aftermath of Blackwater and informs him about the attempt on his life and of his demotion.
    Varys: There are many who know that without you this city faced certain defeat. The king won't give you any honors, the histories won't mention you, but we will not forget.
• Start X to Stop X:
  • Varys is loyal to the common people and feels they are oppressed and stifled and suffer for the wars of the nobles and the high lords. To help them he is willing to destabilize a government if he feels that it's not doing its job well. So what is his method of doing so, backing another King, starting a war and prepping an invasion, which will in all likelihood affect and hurt the same common people he claims to care about, and all for the sake of replacing one King for the sake of the another, and in the case of Viserys, a ruler who would have been far worse than the one currently in charge.
• Stealth Expert: It has been remarked that Varys has a nearly supernatural ability to sneak in and out of any place both inside and outside of the Red Keep^{In the books} Varys often uses a intricate secret tunnel network that runs through all of the Red Keep and King's Landing, and he's also a master of diguise who can fool even Tyrion.
• Undying Loyalty: At least that's how he puts it, describing what appears to be an extreme Chronic Backstabbing Disorder as being constantly loyal to the regular people who will suffer because of the high-ranking person he's just turned against.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Varys's actions have probably done more to bring Westeros and Essos to its doom than even Littlefinger's witting instigation of chaos:
  • His insistence on selling Dany to Khal Drogo started a series of Disaster Dominoes that led to the cooling of the friendship between Ned and Robert; the assassination attempt on Dany led to Khal Drogo and his khalasar murdering the Lhazareen; this leads to Drogo's death, which splits apart the Dothraki into warring factions; and to Dany hatching her dragon eggs in Drogo's funeral pyre, which leads to the birth of her three dragons.
  • His decision to support the Lannister regime in Season 2, just to prevent Stannis and Melisandre from taking over, leads the corrupt Lannister regime to assert its dominance, as a result of which Westeros becomes a chaotic despotic regime ruled by Cersei Lannister who plunders, robs, and murders her supports creating a regime where the likes of Euron Greyjoy and the corrupt Iron Bank are in charge. Likewise, by hampering Stannis' campaign, he damaged the only candidate of Westeros who could have peacefully resolved the War of the 5 Kings and rallied Westeros for defense in the Long Night, since Stannis' attempt to aid the Night's Watch and rescue the North from the Boltons collapsed because of a lack of support, and Jon Snow is meaningfully hampered in trying to pick up where Stannis left. Much of this could have been avoided had it not been for Varys.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Whatever he does, is for the good of the realm. Whether that means supporting and funding the exiled lunatic Prince Viserys Targaryen, selling his sister Dany to the Dothraki, and arranging a Dothraki invasion into Westeros and even sending an assassin to kill Dany to trigger an international incident, it's all for the good of the realm, eventually.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Varys goes out of his way to aid Tyrion and is clear he has a personal liking to the man, despite often dressing his help simply as part of his greater love for the Realm. They eventually flee together to Essos, where they share a lot of time laying low. Regardless of the circumstances, they enjoy the competence of the other and will amicably bicker at every chance.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Varys can and will switch sides if it suits him and is willing to commit some pretty ambiguous acts, in the long run, Varys is doing it all for the sake of the Realm. He might even be one of the most genuinely well-intentioned characters in the show since he takes the little people into consideration. Though his methods and goals for doing so lack imagination.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gives one to Ned Stark after Robert's death, asking him what on earth possessed him to flat-out confront Cersei after piecing together her secret.
  • Finds himself on the receiving end courtesy of Tyrion at the latter's trial (see Apologetic Accuser).
  • Extensively called out by Daenerys on this during Season 7, regarding his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• Wild Card: Averted. Varys has definite goals in mind that he does not sway from, but must play the role to keep his enemies guessing.
  Varys: My role is to be sly, obsequious and without scruples. I'm a good actor, My Lord. As I said, I'm no hero.