Major spoilers ahead for the fifth episode of Game of Thrones Season 8.
Earlier tonight, Tyrion Lannister was presented with a choice. He could join his longtime friend Varys and betray the Mother of Dragons, or he could side with his Queen and let her know the Spider had begun plotting against her. He picked Daenerys over Varys, and like every single thing he’s done for what feels like a half decade, he screwed up… and she immediately burned thousands of people to death in angry retaliation for Missandei's death and also all the other sleights she's ever felt from Cersei and her enemies. We all saw it coming. Deep down, so did Tyrion.
I suspect like most people, one of the first Game Of Thrones characters I fell in love with was Tyrion Lannister. Surrounded by brilliant and broken men like Littlefinger and Varys, he plotted, schemed and lied with the best of them, spending every second he wasn’t whoring in pursuit of keeping Kings Landing moving in the right direction. To paraphrase Sansa, I thought he was the cleverest of them all. And then Season 4 ended, he was shipped off to Essos, and it has been a long and frustrating fall from grace since.
Now, to be clear, I appreciate that Game Of Thrones lets us watch everyone screw up from time to time. Its best quality has always been its unwillingness to let characters grow stale and to take bold and edgy chances. Arya, a character we’re all supposed to love, robbed The Hound, another character we all love, and left him for dead. Cersei committed a terrorist act in her own city and blew up Margaery Tyrell, among others. I like that Thrones doesn’t let people be just one personality trait. Tonight was a good reminder of that (re: Dany). So, Tyrion needed some losses. I'm willing to admit that, but my God have the Ls piled up over the past few seasons.
Remember when he convinced Dany to take Casterly Rock, which allowed the Lannisters to take Highgarden and burn their fleet? Or how about the time he told Danerys to trust Cersei and that she’d be sending her army to help? Whoops. Forget the Varys thing, what about this same episode when he let Jaime out of his cell in maybe his stupidest and most emotionally blind plan ever? That had absolutely no chance of working. At all.
I don’t need to see Tyrion on the Throne. I’m even begrudgingly okay with most of the places Game Of Thrones has taken him over the past few years, but with one episode left, as a tribute to the Old Gods and the New, could we please let Tyrion have another victory? I just want to see him get a few moves ahead and win one more round. It would make me so happy, and I can’t be the only Game Of Thrones fan who feels that way.
Tune in to HBO on Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. ET for the series finale of Game of Thrones. We can bet that there are still plenty of surprises in store, and none would be more shocking than the show winding back the clock and letting our man Tyrion have one more moment of glory.
