Tyrion Lannister may have invited Jon Snow to Dragonstone at the behest of his queen in Game of Thrones, but he didn’t do so as she may have liked.
In episode 2 of Game of Thrones‘ ongoing seventh season, Daenerys Targaryen tells Tyrion Lannister to write to Jon Snow, since the two men know each other from the early days of the show, before both of those characters earned their scars, Tyrion grew a beard, and Jon grew his hair out (and also died … then came back to life).
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As I noted in my predictions and again in the photo analysis for episode 3, this meeting has two powers that have different goals in mind. The problem might come in that Tyrion may have encouraged Jon’s reading of the situation.
Making Game of Thrones, the official behind-the-scenes blog, actually published photos of the letters from both Sam Tarly and Tyrion we see Jon read in episode 2. Our sister site, Winter is Coming, has looks at the Sam letter as well as the one from Jorah Mormont. I’ve transcribed Tyrion’s letter below:
"“Queen Daenerys Targaryen, First of Her Name, invites you to Dragonstone. My queen commands the combined forces of Dorne and the Reach, an Ironborn fleet, legions of Unsullied, a Dothraki horde and three dragons. The Seven Kingdoms will bleed as long as Cersei sits on the Iron Throne. Join us. Together we can end her tyranny. I appeal to you, one bastard to another — for all dwarves are bastards in their fathers’ eyes.Tyrion Lannister Hand of the Queen”"
The Northern contingent quotes most of this letter throughout the episode, including the mention of Tyrion’s “dwarves” line and “ Seven Kingdoms will bleed” convincing Jon that he should go and that the letter does actually come from Tyrion. All things considered, it’s not that long.
However, Tyrion has adopted a tone that’s more in line with the tone of the speech Jon delivers to the Northern lords to explain his decision. As we noted in the predictions, Jon wants “allies.” This letter makes it sound as though Tyrion — whose addition of his title and starting with Daenerys’ command — wants similar. Note the usage of words like “together” and that exhortation to “Join us.”
This isn’t a letter of impending conquest, even though Tyrion does rattle off all of the Targaryen assets, which were quite sizable at the time the letter was sent. (Euron Greyjoy then intervened.)
Of course, that’s just a surface reading. Tyrion may not exactly want the rosy friendship this letter appears to imply that he wants. However, it is rather fascinating that he doesn’t provide a plan for the conquest of the North to Daenerys, when taken in context with this letter.
Once again, as yours truly noted in our episode 3 predictions, Daenerys explicitly says “bend the knee” in episode 2 in relation to Tyrion writing to Jon to bring him Dragonstone. This is not a letter that would make Jon expect that. It calls up a question I asked in a reflection about Olenna’s “be a dragon” monologue: is Tyrion about to fall in favor?
Would Jon go so far as to call out Tyrion in front of Daenerys about the letter if she makes that kind of demand? It could be a little too far out of character, but we can’t leave it out of the realm of possibility at this point. After all, one could construe this letter as somewhat deceiving.
Next: 5 OMG moments from Game of Thrones S7E2
With the reveal of the entire content of this letter, episode 3 of Game of Thrones season 7 just became more politically interesting.