I keep hearing from fans about how Cersei is awful and evil and how they can’t stand her, but they often think that Tyrion is a good person.
This is probably going to be a hot take, but Tyrion trying to destroy an entire kingdom and letting the clans from the mountains freely raid and pillage across it is much worse than anything Cersei has done.
Before anyone tries to argue that he didn’t intend for this, Tyrion essentially arranges for the clansmen to be given better weapons and he specifically tells them that they can have the Vale for themselves and reconquer it which inspires the clansmen to attack the Vale. Then, when he meets with Tywin and Kevan, Tyrion thinks about how his plan is going to destroy the Vale and here is the exact quote from the text:
>Tyrion was about to tell his lord father how he proposed to reduce the Vale of Arryn to a smoking wasteland, but he was never given a chance.
Then, Littlefinger tells Tyrion that there are reports of clansmen coming down from the mountains and performing devastating attacks against the Vale with new weapons, but Tyrion doesn’t care about that and thinks about how he has armed the clans with no remorse.
Everyone from the fans always say how Cersei is much worse than Tyrion and how Tyrion is more moral than her, but if you think about it, Tyrion’s actions here claimed the lives of at least hundreds of innocent people and before anyone makes an argument that tyrion doesn’t have control over what the clans do, he specifically tells them that they can reconquer the Vale with the new weapons he has given and I already provided a quote from his own POV chapters which shows that he plans for the Vale to be reduced to a “smoking wasteland”.
In comparison, Cersei commits a few political murders and tortures some people, but her body count (successful or attempted) never reaches the sheer scale of what Tyrion is trying to accomplish here and she never tried to commit genocide on one of the Seven Kingdoms by inciting wildlings to attack it, pillage it and conquer it for themselves. Her giving test subjects to Qyburn claims the lives of 4 people while Tyrion’s scheme has claimed the lives of much more people.
In fact, this is the list of crimes Tyrion has committed throughout the story:
* He crushed the musician Marillion’s fingers out of spite.
* He took revenge on Lysa Arryn for imprisoning him by arming the mountain clans with new weapons and armors and then goaded them into attacking the villages of the Vale. While those raids are not shown, from what is described in the books by other people and what is presented about the mountain clans, it is still clear that they were devastating for the people of Vale. Tyrion himself even thinks about how the Vale is going to be “reduced to a smoking wasteland” which further shows the destructive nature of his plan.
* While he has a soft spot for underdogs, he has no problem with armies raiding, killing, raping and burning villages down, saying it is just a part of war.
* He seemingly allowed Allar Deem to take the black in and go to the Night’s Watch but instead he ordered the captain who was transporting him to throw him off-board on their way to the Wall (granted, Allar Deem had it coming for killing an innocent woman and her baby).
* He then replaced him with Bronn, someone who is just as amoral. When asked if he would kill a baby without question, Bronn replied he wouldn’t kill one without asking how much.
He poisoned his sister, Queen Cersei, to the point of her getting sick so that he could run the government while she was absent.
* When Cersei had a prostitute captured, Tyrion threatened that any harm that would come to the prostitute, including rape, he would inflict upon Tommen who is his nephew and a child. When he hears that the prostitute had been whipped bloodily (which was actually done by Tywin, but at the time Tyrion thinks it’s Cersei), he thinks with sadness about how he is going to have to do the same to Tommen because otherwise Cersei would win which heavily indicates his threat was actually true.
* When Varys informs him that a large group of men called the Antler Men were planning to sabotage the defenses of the city and let Stannis conquer it, Tyrion has them all arrested and gives them to Joffrey to be brutally tortured and killed. Joffrey nailed antlers to their heads and then shot them with trebuchets against the enemy forces and Tyrion doesn’t seem to feel any remorse about it.
* He slapped his lover Shae after she mocked him.
* Even though he knows his nephew Joffrey is not the rightful heir to Robert Baratheon and would be a terrible and cruel King, he still supports his claim to the throne and organizes the defense of King’s Landing against Stannis’ forces. His plan to use wildfire to destroy Stannis’ fleet which kills many of the sailors, including Davos’ four sons, and his management over the defense of the city is what ensures that Joffrey would remain in power.
* He ordered Bron to kill a singer who was trying to extort him. He then ordered him to get rid of the body by giving it to an inn to be cooked into a stew which was then fed to the poor people of King’s Landing who didn’t even suspect they were eating human flesh.
* He wants to sleep with Sansa, who is around 13 years old. Granted he doesn’t actually go through with it even though it was expected of him by his father to consumate his marriage.
When he learned the truth about Tysha, he swears revenge on his entire family, including Jaime, who loved him. He even lied about killing Joffrey and confessed that Cersei is cheating on Jaime, just for the sake of hurting him.
* While he was escaping from execution, he killed his former lover Shae on his way for giving false testimony against him. This act is presented as more heinous than it is in the show because in the books Shae doesn’t try to kill him but instead starts apologizing to him and says that she was forced to testify against her will by Tywin and she was too afraid to refuse but Tyrion kills her anyway.
* He shoots his father, Tywin Lannister, with a crossbow and kills him (granted, Tywin had it coming for all the abuse he put Tyrion through and for his other actions).
After his kills his father, he takes a drastic turn for the worst, becoming more cynical and bitter than ever.
* He often fantasizes about hurting his family, often of him raping and strangling Cersei to death. He also fantasizes about Jaime and Cersei’s heads on spikes.
* In the fifth book, he goes into a brothel, and even after learning that the girls there are sex slaves who were kidnapped from their homelands and forced to please men against their will, he still forces himself on one of them even after he sees that she is uncomfortable with it.
* It is very likely he might have raped another sex slave girl as well in Illyrio’s mansion if his comments that he is going to claim her after his dinner with Illyrio are anything to go by. He even threatens that if he kills her, her master wouldn’t mind because Tyrion is more important to him than some sex girl. The only reason why Tyrion threatens her like that is because he enjoys seeing her afraid of him.
* He manipulated Jon Connington and Young Griff to attack Westeros early, leading to more war and death in Westeros.
* When he becomes a slave, he takes advantage when one of the guards gets sick, to feed him poisoned mushrooms, so he can watch him die (though the guard had it coming for his mistreatment of Tyrion and the other slaves).
So, basically, Tyrion tries to commit genocide against the population of an entire kingdom (something Cersei has never tried to do), he gives the Antler’s men to Joffrey to be tortured to death by him, he has a singer killed and then has the unsuspecting smallfolk eat his flesh (Cersei, for the record, has not tricked anyone into eating human flesh), he kills his former lover, he rapes a slave girl and he might have raped a second one just for his own amusement and he manipulates Jon Connington and Young Griff into attacking westeros early which results in even more deaths.
I am posting this because I am sick of the double standard fans have regarding Tyrion and Cersei and I strongly suspect that it’s because Tyrion is a man, so people are more inclined to make excuses for him, but because Cersei is a woman, she is held to a completely different standard and nobody considers her point of view and that she might have justifiable reasons for her own actions.
by AmphibianJolly8699