Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion Lannister
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Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where he is portrayed by American actor Peter Dinklage.

Introduced in A Game of Thrones (1996), Tyrion is a prominent point of view character in the series, having the most viewpoint chapters in the first five published novels. He is one of a few prominent characters not included in A Feast for Crows (2005) but returned in A Dance with Dragons (2011), and is confirmed to appear in the forthcoming sixth novel The Winds of Winter. Tyrion developed from a character concept Martin had while writing the 1981 novel Windhaven. He is Martin's favorite character in the series.

Tyrion is the youngest child of Lord Tywin Lannister, the patriarch of House Lannister, the wealthiest family in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. A dwarf whose birth killed his mother, he is despised by Tywin and his sister Cersei. Tyrion soothes his perceived inadequacies with wit and self-indulgence, also using his status as a Lannister and the support of his brother Jaime to better his own position.

Tyrion has been called one of the author's finest creations and most popular characters by The New York Times. The popularity of the character led Martin and Bantam Books to publish The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister (2013), an illustrated collection of Tyrion quotes from the novels. Dinklage has received universal acclaim for his performance as Tyrion. He won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. He is the only Game of Thrones actor to win an Emmy award and the only actor to receive a nomination for each season.

In A Game of Thrones (1996), Tyrion is introduced as the third and youngest child of wealthy and powerful Tywin Lannister, the former Hand of the King, and Joanna Lannister, who dies giving birth to him. Tyrion's elder sister, Cersei, is the Queen of Westeros by virtue of her marriage to King Robert Baratheon, and Cersei's male twin, Jaime, is one of the Kingsguard, the royal bodyguard. Described as an ugly ("for all the world like a gargoyle"), malformed dwarf with different colored eyes, green and black, Tyrion possesses the white-blond hair of a Lannister but has a complicated relationship with the rest of them. While he is afforded the privilege and luxuries of his family, he is treated as a "second class noble" because of his stature. Tyrion's mother, Joanna, died giving birth to him and Tywin and Cersei loathe him because they blame him for her death. While Tywin bears no affection for Tyrion, he nevertheless feels a sense of duty to his son, raising him in the Lannister fold and extending Tyrion a share of the family wealth. In contrast to Tywin and Cersei, Jaime has great affection for Tyrion and treats him with kindness, respect, friendship and love. Lev Grossman of Time wrote in 2011:

Tyrion Lannister [is] the brilliant, black-witted dwarf whose family has had the firmest grip on power for much of the series, though that's not saying much. Tyrion is another good example of what separates Tolkien and Martin. Tyrion isn't a hearty, ax-wielding, gold-mining member of a noble dwarven race. He's not Gimli. Tyrion is an actual dwarf, achondroplastic and stubby-limbed, a joke to passersby and an embarrassment to his family.

Tyrion is intelligent, witty, well-read, and shares his father's skill for business and political maneuvering. Grossman described the character as "a bitter, cynical, high-born dwarf", calling him "Martin's Falstaff". David Orr of The New York Times called Tyrion "a cynic, a drinker, an outcast and conspicuously the novels' most intelligent presence". He is often referred to throughout the series as "The Imp" due to his mischievous and cunning nature. As an outcast, he displays sympathy for other outcasts and the otherwise mistreated; the TV series version of the character commiserates with the illegitimate son of Ned Stark by saying, "All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes." Still, he is usually seen for his deformities and vices, rather than his virtues and good deeds. Tom Shippey of the Wall Street Journal wrote that other characters underestimate Tyrion: "His dwarf-status acts as a kind of protection, because—though he is probably the most intelligent character in the whole cast list—no one takes him seriously." Acknowledging that Tyrion's wit, humor and cunning are his survival mechanism, actor Dinklage told The New York Times that "He knows he has no skills with the sword and this is a world that is really deeply violent. Military rules. He would not be able to survive in that world, given his own strength. So he beats people to the punchline—he's entertaining."

In 1981, Martin was collaborating with Lisa Tuttle on a trio of novellas that would be published as the novel Windhaven:

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