The Chosen Ones

A character who was written so well that I have come to absolutely detest him: Tywin Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire. I often see Tywin characterised as cold, measured, rational, unemotional, controlled, pragmatic, and overall a ruthlessly efficient politician; that's for sure. On the other hand, he is utterly amoral, a horrible father, and a sorry excuse for a human being.

He has a special mix of an utter callousness for human life, a flagrant disregard for justice, duty, loyalty or honour, completel lack of any personal code, a twisted, oft indulged cruelty and no redeeming tragic background to excuse any of it.

He keeps constantly on hand bloodthirsty monsters like Gregor Clegane and Vargo Hoat, is completely uncritical of their actions, and is always willing to use them. His tactics in war are incredibly dirty and underhanded. He will **** and pillage and torture as a tactic. Flying false banners. He will not blink to murder children. He doesn't give a **** about human lives, except when it fits him.

You might say that he brought peace to the realm during the 20 years he served as Aerys the Mad King's Hand. What peace? The kind of peace that exploded into a rebellion that swept up half the realm at the drop of couple of roses. He was flagrantly disloyal, at the end, of course. But before that - he was utterly unreliable. We saw how much he cared about the kingdom, how willing he was to leave it in Aerys' mad hands the moment it doesn't serve his interests anymore.

And then we have Tywin the father. He only cares about his elder children Cersei and Jaime as extensions to his own power and legacy, and there was almost nothing of actual parental love in his behaviour, and what he'd done to his dwarf son Tyrion was purely malicious and outright not efficient to any personal goal - he hated him simply for being an ugly dwarf in a family with a reputation of having good looks, and for his frequent whoring.

He also doesn't understand one bit about his children at all. He always raised Jaime as his heir, even after he disinherited himself by joining the Kingsguard - Tywin simply thought he'd release him from his vows and have him inherit; in reality, Jaime cared more about fighting than ruling his lands. Cersei, well,... one of the only few good things we ever hear about Tywin was that he smiled for Cersei. Good job parenting there, considering she was murdering her friends as a preteen.

And now Tysha. Tyrion married her, a commoner girl, without his permission, and she was **** by an entire garrison, to teach Tyrion a lesson. This isn't measured, rational, unemotional. Its bizarre. Over the top. A piece of pure, gleeful theater of torture and cruelty, topped off with the lies, the money, forcing Tyrion to go last. This is what he did to his son for daring to fall in love with someone he found inappropriate. Thats not how anyone with a shred of maturity, or a conscience, would deal with the situation.

Finally, his end in ASoS was as satisfying as it could be. Tyrion found him in his bed, sleeping with Shae, his ****; and, remembering of what he did to Tysha, Tyrion strangled Shae to death and confronts him in the privy. Even as Tyrion has him at crossbow-point with his pants down, he keeps badmouthing Tyrion's wife and treating his son like a joke. Tyrion does not take it well... Such a fitting end for a monster.

Compare him to Eddard Stark. His honour got him killed, but also ensured the undying loyalty of nearly all of his bannermen after his death; while even though everyone in the Seven Kingdoms fears him for his power and prodigious mind, none of them cared a **** about him after his death, with Jaime refusing to leave the Kingsguard to succeed Tywin, Tyrion exiled, and Cersei quickly running the realm to the ground with her madness. When his competent brother Kevan takes over the regency, he is killed because he is the only man who can keep the Lannister regime from collapsing. Now with Kevan dead, I'm eagerly waiting to see how spectacularly the Lannisters fall in tWoW.

It is ironic how the actions of a man always obsessed with his family's legacy have just been facilitating the downfall of his very house.