Tyrion Lannister is Mat Cauthon

Potential Spoilers Below

Mat Cauthon is one of the main characters of the series.  He is also one of the three Ta’veren around which the series revolves.  He leads the Band of the Red Hand which consists of members from Tear, Cairhien and later recruited from Altara, Andor and Murandy.  He has a scar around his neck after his first encounter with the Eelfinn.  He later lost his left eye as a result of a third encounter with the Aelfin and the Eelfinn. 

Mat Cauthon

Band of the Red Hand
It's time to toss the dice

The Second Squadron of the Band of the Red Hand

He is considered the most immature of the three Ta’veren boys who leave the Two Rivers and most people don’t take him seriously.  Being raised in the Two Rivers is what they all share in common along with being Ta’veren.   He is arrogant and confident in his own abilities, revels in disobeying of authority and has an intense curiosity in how things work. 

The three main ta'veren. (from left Perrin Aybara, Rand al'Thor and Matrim Cauthon

He comes into possession of a tainted ruby-hilted dagger which he took from Shadar Logoth and loses many of his memories and can only remember fragments of his childhood.  His link to the ruby-hilted dagger almost leads to his death.  The holes in his memories are filled with those of dead battle commanders spanning centuries and he begins to instinctively  plan for combat scenarios without even knowing it.  These memories allow him to take command of the Band of the Red Hand. 

Ruby-hilted dagger

Shadar Logoth in ruins

Although the memories start to mature him he still retains his arrogance and his chasing of women.  He constantly makes jokes at other’s expense but in general people seem to like him.  Since everyone believes him immature they normally don’t credit him with being behind a successful battle outcome; only those who witness his actions first hand seem to believe in his abilities.

Mat spends most of his time trying to get away from battle, but because of circumstances he always seems to be in the thick of things. 

Mat was also gifted with extremely good luck.  He uses it most of all to play dice and he used it to bankroll an extremely large amount of gold.

Mat was also in possession of a Foxhead medallion which disrupts the flows of the One Power.

The battle at Dumai's wells, with the Asha'man (right) destroying Shaido with the One Power

Mat killed Couladin.  Couladin was the de facto clan chief of the Shaido.  After Rand al’Thor revealed the truth about the origins of the Aiel Couladin led the Shaido away from the rest of the assembled Aiel clans in opposition to Rand.  Couladin couldn’t accept the reality that they had once followed the Way of the Leaf.  An encounter between Mat’s army and Couladin's band of Shaido led to a deadly fight between the two which ended in Couladin dead at Mat’s feet.

Couladin

Mat killing Couladin

Matt was made battle commander of all the armies at the Last Battle, when the 4 Great Captains fell under the influence of compulsion.

Rand, Moiraine and Nynaeve at the Last Battle

Tyrion Lannister is also one of the main characters of the series.  I believe he will be one of the three heads of the Dragons as “The Dragon has three heads.”  He leads the Hill Tribes whose members consists of The Stone Crows, The Burned Men, The Black Ears, The Moon Brothers and The Painted Dogs.  While leading his men at the Battle of the Blackwater Tyrion is forced to lead a sortie in which a most of his nose is sliced off.  Since I believe he is the Mat Cauthon character of the Wheel of Time will he lose an eye also? 

Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion with the Hill Tribes

I believe what the 3 Dragons will all have in common is the fact that all three of their mothers died while giving birth to them along with the fact that all are most likely Targaryen (the word George R.R. Martin used instead of Ta’veren).  Daenerys Targaryen whose father is Aerys II Targaryen, Jon Snow whose father I believe will be revealed to be Rhaegar Targaryen and Tyrion who I believe whose father will turn out to be Aerys II Targaryen also.  I believe that the fact that Aery’s was infatuated with Joanna Lannister will be revealed to have led to a relationship that gave birth to Tyrion.

Daenerys Targaryen

Aerys II Targaryen

Rhaegar Targaryen pronouncing Lyanna Stark as the Queen of Love and Beauty

The Valyrian Steel dagger that was used to implicate Tyrion in the attempted death of Bran Stark almost led to his death when he was taken captive by Catelyn Stark at the Crossroads Inn. 

Bran Stark

Catelyn Stark

Tyrion spends a lot of time with whores.  His wit, humor and cunning are his survival mechanism.  He isn’t a warrior, he has instances where he shows great bravery; he has stated that what he lacks in size and strength he makes up for in mental acuity.  He displays high intelligence and great promise during his brief tenure as Hand of the King, revealing himself to be as politically savvy and astute as his father yet receives close to no recognition for it.

I wonder if all the situations that Tyrion finds himself in and seems to get himself out of could be considered lucky?  Did George R.R. Martin simply do this to apply more of Mat’s characteristics upon Tyrion?  It could also be one of the reasons Tyrion was made master of coin for a time.

Questions:

Since I assume that Tyrion is Mat and the Aiel are the Dothraki this leads me to believe that Tyrion may end up killing either Khal Pono or Khal Jhaqo.  Khal Pono was the first to take members from Khal Drago’s khalasar after Drogo’s incapacitation.  Pono’s did this because he couldn’t accept the idea of a woman leading a khalasar.  Jhaqo declared himself Khal shortly after that.  So if the stories continue to mirror that would mean that Tyrion could somehow find himself in a situation where he meets one of these men, most likely Khal Pono, on the battlefield.

Will Tyrion be chosen to lead all the armies against the Great Other at the pinnacle of the story?

Will Tyrion also come into possession of an item that will nullify the powers of the magic that seems to be returning to the world after the dragons were reborn?  

During the final battle with the Others will a form of compulsion be used as looks to have been the case with the Night’s King?  The story goes like this:

However, the Night's King fell in love with a woman "with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars"; he loved her though "her skin was cold as ice", and when he gave his seed to her he gave her his soul as well. He brought her to the Nightfort and bound the brothers of the Night's Watch to his will through sorcery, (sounds like compulsion to me). He declared himself "Night's King" and ruled over the Wall and the Gift as his own. The King in the North and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, joined forces to defeat him.

The Wall

The Night's King: The 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch

The Night's King and the Night's Queen enslaved the black brothers and performed human sacfrifices

Joramun

King in the North (Age of Heroes)

Mance Rayder, the current King-Beyond-the-Wall

Fall of the Night's King

The death of the Night's Queen at the King in the North's hands

Another things that tie Mat and Tyrion together is dice.  Mat actually heard the dice rolling in his head whenever there was a perceived danger that he was aware of due to his being Ta'veren.  He used the phrase: "Dovie'andi se tovya sagain." (It's time to toss the dice.) Said by Mat Cauthon from time to time, generally before battles.  He starts using it after being released from the ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth. It is later used on the banner of the Band of the Red Hand.

Mat holding dice

Below are instances where Tyrion uses a similar phrase in reference to dice when he perceives a dangerous situation:

“He does not look broken to me,” Lady Catelyn said.

Lady Lysa paid her no mind. “Say what you will,” she commanded Tyrion.

And now to roll the dice, he thought with another quick glance back at Bronn. “Where to begin? I am a vile little man, I confess it.  My crimes and sins are beyond “counting, my lords and ladies. I have lain with whores, not once but hundreds of times. I have wished my own lord father dead, and my sister, our gracious queen, as well.” Behind him, someone chuckled. “I have not always treated my servants with kindness. I have gambled. I have even cheated, I blush to admit. I have said many cruel and malicious things about the noble lords and ladies of the court.” That drew outright laughter.”

“Know?” Tyrion squatted awkwardly on his stunted legs to build the fire. “I tossed the dice. Back at the inn, you and Chiggen helped take me captive.”

“Everyone tells me that.” Tyrion glanced up at the sellsword. “Did I offend you? My pardons … but you are scum, Bronn, make no mistake. Duty, honor, friendship, what’s that to you? No, don’t trouble yourself, we both know the answer. Still, you’re not stupid. Once we reached the Vale, Lady Stark had no more need of you … but I did, and the one thing the Lannisters have never lacked for is gold. When the moment came to toss the dice, I was counting on your being smart enough to know where your best interest lay. Happily for me, you did.” He slammed stone and steel together again, fruitlessly.”

“Oh, I imagine they’ll be here long before it comes to sleep.” The smell of the roasting meat made Tyrion’s mouth water.

Bronn watched him across the fire. “You have a plan,” he said flatly, with a scrape of steel on stone.

“A hope, call it,” Tyrion said. “Another toss of the dice.”

“With our lives as the stake?”

Tyrion shrugged. “What choice do we have?” He leaned over the fire and sawed a thin slice of meat from the kid. “Ahhhh,” he sighed happily as he chewed. Grease ran down his chin. “A bit tougher than I’d like, and in want of spicing, but I’ll not complain too loudly. If I were back at the Eyrie, I’d be dancing on a precipice in hopes of a boiled bean.”

“And yet you gave the turnkey a purse of gold,” Bronn said.”

“When dawn broke, he found he could not face the thought of food. By evenfall I may stand condemned. His belly was acid with bile, and his nose itched. Tyrion scratched at it with the point of his knife. One last witness to endure, then my turn. But what to do? Deny everything? Accuse Sansa and Ser Dontos? Confess, in the hope of spending the rest of his days on the Wall? Let the dice fly and pray the Red Viper could defeat Ser Gregor Clegane?”

I used to think that Jaime Lannister would be the third dragon but after reading the Wheel of Time I feel that Tyrion fits better.  Although Rand al’Thor was also missing a hand like Jaime he doesn’t have something that fits the second criteria that ties him to both Danny and Jon as I see it.

Jaime Lannister missing his sword hand

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

The Game of Thrones is The Game of Houses

Potential Spoilers Below

Queen Cersei

Ned Stark

    This is the crux of the series.  Broken down “The Game Of Thrones” is for the most part is the maneuvering by highborn lords and ladies plus political upstarts to gain control for the ultimate prize: The IronThrone.  The term is also used colloquially to refer to the monarchy that rules the Seven Kingdoms and the authority of the King.  The game itself never ends when a ruler sits upon the throne as the players in the game are always scheming to place themselves in a position to gain said rulers favor.  With the parentage of the children of Queen Cersei in question chaos ensues which leads to the War of the Five Kings.

The Iron Throne

     Of course we know that what Queen Cersei said was true especially the part about dying.  Everybody is playing the game but face it the Starks are terrible at it because they bring their honor to the game.  Littlefinger in my opinion is the best player with Varys a close second.  Cersei can’t see the layers involved and is easily manipulated.  I won’t go too much into all the plots that are unfolding because you should already know. 

Littlefinger

Varys

Daes Dae'mar is a phrase in the Old Tongue which translates to The Great Game, but is more commonly known as The Game Of Houses.  It refers to the political and social maneuvering employed by the nobility of various nations to gain status or wealth, or to cause the downfall of others they dislike.

The Great Game is played the most heavily in Cairhien, where the most seemingly irrelevant act can cause lords and ladies to speculate endlessly about one's motives; even servants of the Cairhienin nobility play their own version of Daes Dae'mar. Conversely, it is rarely seen in the Borderlands, as Borderlanders are more concerned with Shadowspawn and the Blight than individual power, status or wealth.

Draghkar - shadowspawn

Myrddraal and Trollics - shadowspawn

It has been stated that the best way to put players of the Great Game off balance, is to be honest, since no-one expects you to be. This has been the case with both Rand and Perrin.

Rand

Perrin

Perhaps one of the most accomplished players of the Great Game in current times is Thom Merrilin, who developed his skill at court in Caemlyn. He has used his skill more than once to come to the aid of Rand al'Thor; first in Cairhien while Rand was hunting the Horn of Valere, and later in Tear after Rand proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn to keep the Tairen High Lords off-balance enough to leave him alone. Another accomplished player of the Game is Moiraine Damodred, whose skillful mind for the Game more than once was annoyed with Siuan Sanche's lack of understanding for it.

Horn of Valere

Moiraine

Siuan Sanche

Rand and Perrin have often expressed their dislike of Daes Dae'mar, though Rand has become skilled in it recently.

Berelain supposedly has used the Game of Houses heavily to protect her small country of Mayene from being absorbed by Tear.

In the Wheel of Time before Rand was proclaimed the Dragon Reborn and started breaking the world they had already been playing the Game of Houses.  The Sun Thrown in Cairhien and The Lion Throne in Andor were thrown in to upheaval after his being proclaimed.  Rand actually took both thrones and intended to give them to Elayne Trakand but because of his naivety and not understanding that the people would never follow a leader who didn’t take the throne through tradition even though she was the rightful heir to the throne after her Morgase Trakand her mother was presumed dead. 

The Sun Throne

Elayne seated upon the Lion Throne

In the meantime armies were gathered, battles were fought and manipulation and backstabbing ensued.  As always the common folk suffered the most.  She eventually was able to out maneuver the other nobility at odds for the Lion Throne the primary prize and later consolidated her rule and did what no other ruler had done and sit the seat of both thrones. 

As I look back on both stories I see that Ned Stark was Rand and Perrin in being so honorable.  Rand was so noble that he almost died on multiple occasions because he couldn’t kill women who were trying to kill him.  Ned did the same thing but he paid the ultimate price.  In both books even the larger focus should have been on the real enemy and not the political gamesmanship of vying for Thrones.  The difference between the shows as I see it was in the Wheel of Time Elayne was the rightful heir to the throne but she was not accepted as such and the people who ended up playing the game the best turned out to be the ones who played with honor.  In the Game of Thrones the script was flipped in making Joffrey an illegitimate heir to the throne and the people who played with honor got outplayed and died for being naïve.  

Joffrey - Illegitimate King

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.