History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireTywinLannister

->''"Jaime Lannister: My father had a saying too. Never wound a foe when you can kill him. Dead men don't claim vengeance."''

->''"If your enemy defies you, serve him steel and fire. But if he bends the knee, you must help him back to his feet, else no man will ever kneel to you."''

** His abandonment of the North to the invading Greyjoys and Wildlings served up a perfect opportunity for Stannis to earn loyalty from the suffering Northmen, further bolstering his army and power base where Tywin could have benefitted from it instead.

* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: He ''wants'' his children to be proper inheritors of House Lannister. But his daughter's a neurotic, psychotic mess; his eldest son is a BloodKnight Kingslayer who's more interested in serving as a Kingsguard than managing household affairs; and the child who's most like him is the person Tywin despises more than anyone else. A large part of his resentment towards his children comes in how they fail to live up to the standard he sets for them time and again, failing to see how his manipulative and abusive tactics hardly help bolster familial loyalty to the Lannister name.

** [[spoiler:The unnatural condition of his corpse (how it stank to high heaven and was visibly starting to rot even after the Silent Sisters cleaned it out) led many readers to believe that Tywin had been poisoned (possibly by Oberyn) prior to his death. Tyrion noted during his trial that Tywin looked ill and even thought for a moment if he had drunk the same poisoned wine that killed Joffrey. Tyrion would later find Tywin in the privy, and some slow-acting poisons such as Widow's Blood were known to loosen the bowels.]]

** That said, Tywin may commit a number of unforgivably cruel and brutal acts, but there's always at least ''some'' practical reason for it- he's not a high-functioning sociopath like Roose Bolton and doesn't hurt people for the sheer enjoyment of it. For example, while having Elia and her children murdered can be perceived as vengeance for Aerys refusing to marry Rhaegar to Cersei, he defended it to Tyrion by pointing out that, as latecomers to the rebel cause, the Lannisters needed a surefire way to prove their loyalty to the new regime, and while Rhaegar's children would have to die to secure Robert's throne, [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork Robert would prefer not to have to do it himself]]. Even his most unforgivable act, his ordering the [[spoiler:gang-rape of Tysha]] was intended to teach Tyrion what Tywin saw as an important ideological lesson about the smallfolk needing to know their place, not solely to make Tyrion suffer because Tywin hates him.

** He routinely disparages the smallfolk of Westeros in word and deed. He is personally responsible for overturning protections provided for the peasants of Westeros by a previous King during his tenure as Hand of the King, and his rhetoric of not seating "dogs" at the high table is contrasted by Eddard Stark's practice of seating a lowborn subject at his table so that he might govern his realm better.

** His abandonment of the North to the invading Greyjoys served up a perfect opportunity for Stannis to earn loyalty from the suffering Northmen, further bolstering his army and power base where Tywin could have benefitted from it instead.

* FrontlineGeneral: Averted; the one time we see Tywin in battle he waits with the reserve so he can see the entire battlefield, only going in when victory is already assured.

* PapaWolf: He's very protective towards Jaime and Cersei, even believing the latter's claim that she organised the defense of King's Landing during the siege of Stannis. Never to Tyrion. If he ever does do anything to protect Tyrion, it's only for the sake of defending the honor of the family name.

* AloofOlderBrother: To Tygett and Gerion apparently, much to their resentment. Somewhat averted with Kevan and Genna, whom he had been closer to, if only because they submitted to his authority early on.

** [[spoiler:The unnatural condition of his corpse (how it stank to high heaven and was visibly starting to rot even after the Silent Sisters cleaned it out) led many to believe that Tywin had been poisoned (possibly by Oberyn) prior to his death. Tyrion noted during his trial that Tywin looked ill and even thought for a moment if he had drunk the same poisoned wine that killed Joffrey. Tyrion would later find Tywin in the privy, and some slow-acting poisons such as Widow's Blood were known to loosen the bowels.]]

* AnimalMotifs: His sideburns evoke the look of dominant male tomcats.

** Tywin's victory of the War of the Five Kings ultimately comes down a series of amazing strokes of good fortune. The decisive factors [[spoiler:for his victory over the Starks and the Baratheons]] come from Tyrion Lannister sending Littlefinger to form an alliance with the Tyrells after recieving word of Renly's death as well as his innovative and competent siege prepearations and defense of King's Landing. However, even then that would not have been enough as Tywin had ridden west taking Robb Stark's bait of leaving the Riverlands by returning home. Had it not been for Edmure Tully's engagement which Tywin lost, he would have been too far to receive word of Stannis' attack and the Tyrells change of alliances. This created the conditions for his timely intervention at Blackwater, grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat.

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Neither of his sons can ever remember seeing him smile, though other relatives report Tywin doing so on rare occasions. Because of the way his father was mocked, Tywin distrusts laughter and japes; yet another reason for his conflicts with Tyrion, who uses mockery as a defense mechanism.

* TheUnfettered: Ruthless as can be. Tywin will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:With the revelation that he was not above cavorting with whores himself, there is a possibility that Tywin might have sired bastards of his own, with the prostitute Marei possibly being one of them, on account of her blond hair and solemn character. When asked of this, GRRM merely said that "[Tywin] would have you flogged for the mere suggestion."]]

* DesecratingTheDead: [[spoiler:Very possibly. After his death, the silent sisters should have performed the standard procedure by making his body presentable for his funeral, draining bodily fluids, removing organs and stuffing the thing with salts and herbs. Yet his rotting corpse gives off a stink so vile that his grandson runs vomiting from the sept. Come to think of it, the list of people who would want to see the great Tywin Lannister suffer indignity in death ''is'' pretty high...]]

* EvilVirtues: Ambition, Determination, Courage, Patience, Pragmatism, and (to a degree) Familial Love.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Though he's more percepetive, pragmatic and wiser than his children Cersei and Jaime, and his grandson Joffrey, Tywin himself is prone to grave mistakes and errors in judgement that backfire on him and his family:

* GeneralFailure: While he had a pretty good military record in his youth (Knighted during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, decisively put down the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt), everything after that point runs from middling to terrible. His only contribution to Robert's Rebellion was sacking a near defenseless capital while feigning friendship and during Greyjoy's Rebellion, he allowed his fleet to be caught and burned at anchor by the brothers Euron and Victarion Greyjoy. It only got worse during the War of the Five Kings; he managed to score a limited tactical victory over Roose Bolton at the Green Fork but this was mooted by Robb Stark's stunning victory over Jaime; Bolton's whole objective was to keep Tywin pinned, which Tywin realized too late. Stark proceeded to run rings around Tywin for months and was successfully luring him into a trap in the Westerlands until the battle of the Fords, where Tywin sent his army into costly and bloody assaults unsuccessfully trying to dislodge [[UpperClassTwit Edmure Tully.]] Tywin's reputation was only saved by news reaching him about the Stannis's attack on the capital and the alliance with the Tyrells, allowing him to disengage from the Riverlands and to claim credit in the victory on the Blackwater. After that, he gave up trying to defeat Robb directly.

** His many atrocities against the smallfolk in King's Landing and the Riverlands have sparked the movement of the Sparrows, and made the common people only too willing to join or side with them, which will become a large threat to his family later on.

* GeneralFailure: While he had a pretty good military record in his youth (Knighted during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, decisively put down the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt), everything after that point runs from middling to terrible. His only contribution to Robert's Rebellion was sacking a near defenseless capital while feigning friendship and during Greyjoy's Rebellion, he allowed his fleet to be caught and burned at anchor by the Euron and Victarion Greyjoy. It only got worse during the War of the Five Kings; he managed to score a limited tactical victory over Roose Bolton at the Green Fork but this was mooted by Robb Stark's stunning victory over Jaime; Bolton's whole objective was to keep Tywin pinned, which Tywin realized too late. Stark proceeded to run rings around Tywin for months and was successfully luring him into a trap in the Westerlands until the battle of the Fords, where Tywin sent his army into costly and bloody assaults unsuccessfully trying to dislodge [[UpperClassTwit Edmure Tully.]] Tywin's reputation was only saved by news reaching him about the Stannis's attack on the capital and the alliance with the Tyrells, allowing him to disengage from the Riverlands and to claim credit in the victory on the Blackwater. After that, he gave up trying to defeat Robb directly.

* GeneralFailure: While he had a pretty good military record in his youth (Knighted during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, decisively put down the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt), everything after that point runs from middling to terrible. His only contribution to Robert's Rebellion was sacking a near defenseless capital while feigning friendship and during Greyjoy's Rebellion, he allowed his fleet to be caught and burned at anchor by the Euron and Victarion Greyjoy. It only got worse during the War of the Five Kings; he managed to score a limited tactical victory over Roose Bolton at the Green Fork but this was mooted by Robb Stark's stunning victory over Jaime; Bolton's whole objective was to keep Tywin pinned, [[Out-Gambitted which Tywin realized too late]]. Stark proceeded to run rings around Tywin for months and was successfully luring him into a trap in the Westerlands until the battle of the Fords, where Tywin sent his army into costly and bloody assaults unsuccessfully trying to dislodge [[UpperClassTwit Edmure Tully.]] Tywin's reputation was only saved by news reaching him about the Stannis's attack on the capital and the alliance with the Tyrells, allowing him to disengage from the Riverlands and to claim credit in the victory on the Blackwater. After that, he gave up trying to defeat Robb directly.

* GeneralFailure: While he had a pretty good military record in his youth (Knighted during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, decisively put down the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt), everything after that point runs from middling to terrible. His only contribution to Robert's Rebellion was sacking a near defenseless capital while feigning friendship and during Greyjoy's Rebellion, he allowed his fleet to be caught and burned at anchor by the Euron and Victarion Greyjoy. It only got worse during the War of the Five Kings; he managed to score a limited tactical victory over Roose Bolton at the Green Fork but this was mooted by Robb Stark's stunning victory over Jaime; Bolton's whole objective was to keep Tywin pinned, [[Out-Gambited which Tywin realized too late]]. Stark proceeded to run rings around Tywin for months and was successfully luring him into a trap in the Westerlands until the battle of the Fords, where Tywin sent his army into costly and bloody assaults unsuccessfully trying to dislodge [[UpperClassTwit Edmure Tully.]] Tywin's reputation was only saved by news reaching him about the Stannis's attack on the capital and the alliance with the Tyrells, allowing him to disengage from the Riverlands and to claim credit in the victory on the Blackwater. After that, he gave up trying to defeat Robb directly.

--> "My brother is undoubtedly arrogant," Tyrion Lannister replied. "''My father is the soul of avarice'', and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath."

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Examined in series, as this is how he seems to conceive of himself. While Tywin is not uncontrolled like Joffrey or Aerys, he will back any number of monsters to advance his cause, from Gregor Clegane to Vargo Hoat (and indeed, Joffrey and Aerys, Roose Bolton and Walder Frey). Given that Tywin isn't aimlessly destructive, he appears a step above the rest, but his harms reach further into the realm and future than the others. The sum total of misery invited on Tywin's orders very likely dwarfs what the rest of them cause individually. So, he is a more stable form of evil, less overt but longer lasting. If anyone were to rule in hell, it would not be any of the lower villains, but the sceptre would go to Tywin with only Euron potentially rivalling him going forward. Though, moving beyond Westeros reveals institutions devoted to slave production and mutilation. At the very least, Tywin's riches do not rest on factories of human atrocity.

* MoneyDumb: Downplayed. Tywin isn't completely incompetent with finances and isn't one to waste money away, aside for war and political displays, as he had some successful economic policies while as Hand under Aerys, but he has a conservative and entirely political view of economy and doesn't understand the more complex aspects of finance, being dumbfounded when Tyrion tells him about the poor state of the crown treasury and refusing Tyrion's advices and propositions to mend it and pay for Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell's royal wedding. This leaves him blind to Littlefinger's manipulations of finances and swindling, as well as to the danger Littlefinger can poses with all the wealth he has accumulated despite his low birth.