History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireTyrionLannister

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the TokenGoodTeammate. Yes, Tyrion tries to do justice during his tenure as Hand and curb Joffrey's cruelty. Yes, he tries to protect the people of King's Landing from a second sack. Yet he's still working to keep TheWrongfulHeirToTheThrone in power and "feeding" him those who are opposed to the Lannister reign. Yes, he punishes the corrupt Janos Slynt and the child-murdering Allar Deem, yet he makes no move to oust Cersei, the one who gave the order to kill Robert's bastards.

** Tyrion also convinces himself that Shae loves him despite her being a prostitute who is paid to have sex with him. In addition he is at times physically abusive to her and very controlling as well.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Tyrion's entourage includes the misfits and lessers of society. He has an amoral sellsword for a henchman, a whore for a lover, a stuttering twelve-year-old for a squire and a horde of mountain savages for allies.

* ObliviousToHisOwnDescription: Let's look at the way Tyrion describes Cersei: "And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honor, for love." This ''is'' an accurate characterization of Cersei--but it's also an equally accurate a characterization of ''himself''.

* {{Troll}}: Like Jaime, a lot of his problems are down to failures to control the impulse to verbal baiting. Ask anybody who has tried to box him in: it's a lot of hard work that rarely pays off as he ''will'' find a way to sneak out or otherwise turn the tables on them. Even if it bites him in some way to do so. Isn't that right, Catelyn Stark and Lysa Arryn? If you cross a line and hurt others needlessly in front of him, though, he will do his best to break out the full-scale KarmicTrickster schtick on you rather than just keeping his trickster ways genial, low-key, reflexive, and/or for personal survival, only. Just ask his sister. Or Joffrey. [[spoiler: Or his dad.]]

* ShoutOut: Tyrion has mismatched eyes, one green one black, as does Satan in The Master and Margarita.

--->"'Tyrion:''' Those are brave men. Let's go kill them

* ThePeterPrinciple: When not outright trying to get him killed as indirectly as possible while still being fairly obvious about it, his father is less than subtle in trying to invoke this trope on him by throwing him in dangerous (or just really tedious) positions. So far, it hasn't worked as planned for Tywin; again and again Tyrion proves he has managerial skills. Leaving Tywin to fall back on exaggerating perceived failures as an excuse to prove him incompetent.

-->'''Tyrion Lannister:''' Did I offend you? Sorry. Dwarfs don’t have to be tactful. Generations of capering fools in motley have won me the right to dress badly and say any damn thing that comes into my head.

--->"Those are brave men. Let's go kill them."

->'''Tyrion:''' ''To Stannis!''
->'''Cersei:''' ''To Renly! May they battle long and hard, and the Others take them both!''

* PsychologicalProjection: Let's look at the way Tyrion describes Cersei: "And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honor, for love." This ''is'' an accurate characterization of Cersei--but it's also an equally accurate a characterization of ''himself''.

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: When Tyrion is accused of [[spoiler: murdering Joffrey]], it doesn't take much evidence to convince the majority of people of his guilt due to his hideous appearance and evil reputation.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Tyrion heads to Tywin after his demotion from Hand to demand his birthright from him, not taking into consideration that he certainly did not accomplish what Tywin sent him to King's Landing for in the first place; he brought Shae to the capital even when Tywin expressly told him not to; he got into petty squabbles with Cersei instead of placating her like he was supposed to, causing the city to be utterly unprepared for the battle that Tywin had to later salvage because, as a matter of fact, ''they were losing it''. Then, even after almost losing King's Landing to Stannis, Tyrion comes to Tywin to claim Casterly Rock even when he failed in Tywin's eyes. Even though it wasn't entirely Tyrion's fault (as Cersei did little more than sit on her hands), Tywin indeed had put the task on Tyrion and he fell short (no pun intended).

* TooCleverByHalf: There are times his scathing mouth ends up backfiring on him, such as when [[spoiler:he's auctioned in a slave bazaar]].
** His ousting of Cersei's informant within the Small Council, Pycelle, was a genuinely clever gambit that benefited him in the short term by allowing him to work effectively as Acting Hand without Cersei breathing down his neck. However, this gambit ended up backfiring in the long run in two ways. The first is that by humiliating Pycelle by sending him to the black cells, Tyrion made himself an enemy once Tywin returns and releases the Grand Maester, who would be one of the people who would testify against Tyrion when the latter was accused of murdering Joffrey. The second and more dangerous mistake is deceiving Littlefinger with a false promise, and Littlefinger doesn't like being made a fool.

** That is, unless your name is Catelyn Stark née Tully. Blinded by conspiracy, Catelyn arrests Tyrion by artfully recalling the local allegiances, displaying her hands as visual proof of a crime, and angling her "gentler" sex to successfully rouse men to her support. When Tyrion's veiled threats do not persuade, he is then taken North to face justice, with all the people at the Inn spreading the word of what happened and where he was going... ''or so he thought''. Catelyn outplays him again by ''saying'' they were heading North then pivoting to the Vale, where her sister rules and Lannisters have no friends. To his credit, Tyrion manages to escape ''and'' clear his name when the first opportunity arises - though note, not by Catelyn who wanted discretion, but by the deranged Lysa who held court, thus enabling him to demand trial by combat.

** That is, unless your name is Catelyn Stark née Tully. Blinded by conspiracy, Catelyn arrests Tyrion by artfully recalling to local allegiances, displaying her hands as visual proof of a crime, and angling her "gentler" sex to successfully rouse men to her support. When Tyrion's veiled threats do not persuade, he is then taken North to face justice, with all the people at the Inn spreading the word of what happened and where he was going... ''or so he thought''. Catelyn outplays him again by ''saying'' they were heading North then pivoting to the Vale, where her sister rules and Lannisters have no friends. To his credit, Tyrion manages to escape ''and'' clear his name when the first opportunity arises - though note, not by clever Catelyn who wanted discretion, but by the deranged Lysa who held court, thus enabling to demand trial by combat.