Tyrion Lannister delivered the greatest act of strategic genius in “Game Of Thrones” with his masterful defense of King’s Landing during the Battle of Blackwater Bay. Sunday night’s episode revealed that he also may have sealed the fate of Daenerys Targaryen with his fatal error of convincing Jon Snow to embark on his mission to collect a wight beyond the Wall.
Tyrion’s campaign for Jon and his entourage of misfit warriors to go beyond the Wall to collect a wight seemed misguided from the start. With the death of all three of her children, Cersei became untethered to any other principles except maintaining her own power. The notion that given evidence of an omnipotent force threatening all of humanity she would willingly engage in a detente with an attempted usurper was preposterous both in theory and in practice, but “The Last of the Starks” cemented how disastrous it ultimately proved to be for Daenerys’ bid for the throne.
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Prior to the mission beyond the Wall, Daenerys had three dragons, the Dothraki, the Unsullied, and a tentative alliance with Jon Snow, who could provide ample troops of Stark allies and the free folk. Cersei understood the threat that Daenerys posed, but she knew nothing of the White Walkers. Tyrion’s mission for Jon to go beyond the Wall resulted in Viserion, one of Daenerys’ dragons, dying and being reanimated by the Night King to join the Army of the Dead. Two grievous consequences emerged as a result.
First, the meeting between allies of Daenerys and Cersei instigated Euron Greyjoy heading to Essos to bring back the Gold Company mercenary army for Cersei’s disposal. If Daenerys and her allies had taken out the Army of the Dead first, Cersei wouldn’t have known when to expect Daenerys’ insurgence and Euron may not have gotten the mercenary army prepared.
Second, the Night King wouldn’t have annihilated as much of Daenerys’ army without the reanimated Viserion. She would have had greater forces when approaching King’s Landing, and Cersei would have been taken more off guard.
While Tyrion’s belief that a pregnant Cersei would act with more tact and less willingness to watch the world burn to the ground, he had no reason to believe she had nothing to lose prior to sending Jon beyond the Wall. As the show clearly established and Tyrion correctly understood, Cersei’s love and devotion towards her children was perhaps the only thing that humanized her.
At the time he sent Jon beyond the Wall, he didn’t believe she had any child, born or unborn, guiding her conscience. She’s ruthless and vindictive enough to have blown up an entire Sept of citizens, including her daughter-in-law. This is a woman who spent a lifetime wanting Tyrion dead and nearly succeeded in securing his execution for a crime she likely knew he did not commit. The idea that Tyrion would honestly believe he could reason with Cersei and obtain her support in the Great War was absurd from the start.
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The venture beyond the Wall served the sole narrative purpose of cementing the alliance and seeds of romance between Jon and Daenerys, but that’s it. It certainly harmed Tyrion’s consistency as a character.
Tyrion spent the first half of “Game of Thrones” as the single most clever character, pivotally protecting Joffrey and King’s Landing during the most fractious portion of the War of the Five Kings. But because of Tyrion’s terrible judgment call, Daenerys must face off against an amply prepared enemy with just one dragon and a fractured army in the hopes of securing the Iron Throne.
