We are still months away from the premiere of Season 8 of Game of Thrones, but that hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with new theories by the day.In the latest fan theory, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) betrays Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) for the sake of his own family and sister, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who is still on the Iron Throne in King’s Landing. There have been many betrayals on “Game of Thrones,” and yet Shae’s betrayal of Tyrion Lannister hurt like it was the first one. Maybe it was because audiences fell in love with the couple’s relationship, or maybe it was because people thought Shae was safely away from Westeros when she returned, but seeing her come back and implicate her former lover in “The Laws of Gods and Men” was hard to watch.
Game of Thrones Season Seven wrapped up over a year ago with a deeply uncomfortable ending. It involved Daenerys Targaryen unknowingly having sex with her nephew Jon Snow. If that wasn't weird enough, their friend Tyrion Lannister was standing outside of their room creeping on their hook-up. We still don't know exactly why Tyrion was standing outside of their room. According to some fan theories, he's either planning to betray Daenerys and Jon, or he's just concerned that they're hooking up when they have much, much bigger things they should be worrying about.
Anyway, actor Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion, has finally chimed in about what that scene meant to him. As he told Entertainment Weekly:
It’s complicated. A lot of the time with Tyrion, it’s professional and personal. Obviously, he has feelings for Daenerys. He loves her — or thinks he does. She’s awe-inspiring. He’s questioning that because he doesn’t have a good track record for falling in love. There’s jealousy wrapped up in there. And he loves Jon Snow, too. They’re the two people he has the most in common with, in a way — they’re both outsiders in their own families who have refused to follow the path their family has taken, and hopefully for the better. He’s wondering how smart of a move [Jon and Dany getting romantically involved is], because passion and politics don’t mix well. He knows the two of them getting together could be very dangerous.
This falls in line with some of the simpler theories out there. Remember what happened with Tyrion and Shae, Rhaegar and Lyanna, Robb and Talisa, Littlefinger and Catelyn, Tommen and Margaery? Yeah, someone died in every one of those doomed romances.
If Tyrion has to work with two of these people he cares about, he's got to be worried that it's going to get messy.
That, and also their little incest hook-up probably woke him up in the middle of the night since they were all in close quarters on a very small boat.
In Game of Thrones, Season 4, why did Shae betray Tyrion at his trial?
Did Shae ever love Tyrion, or was he right in thinking that she only loved his gold and the lifestyle he provided?
Rand al'Thor♦
Paran BharaliParan Bharali
4 Answers
NOTE: This answer will be strictly about TV show, not the books. In the books things are completely different.
Did she love him?
In the Show, Shae indeed loved Tyrion. She proved it when Tyrion suggested that she should flee before Stannis takes over King's Landing. Shae on the other hand rejected his proposal, risking her life, deciding to stay with him till the bitter end. No amount of money can make a person do that.
Shae: Are you afraid, my lion?
Tyrion: If the city falls, Stannis will burn every Lannister he can find. Of course I'm afraid.
Shae: I won't let them hurt you.
Tyrion: I'm a Lannister. I don't have a choice in all this. But it'snot your war.
Shae: It is now.
Tyrion: You can't fuck your way out of everything.
Shae: I have so far. Do you remember what you said when you met me in your tent? That I should make love to you like it was your last day on this earth.
Season 2 Episode 9 - Blackwater
Season 2 Episode 9 - Blackwater
Then Tyrion got hideous facial injuries, was stripped off his post as Hand of the King, lost his Gold Cloaks and the Tribesmen. At his most vulnerable position Shae came to see him. She made it clear for him that she didn't care about the Money.
Tyrion: It was good of you to come.
Shae: Good of me? Of course I come. I want to see you.
Tyrion: Believe me, you don't.
Shae: Have you looked? I will be the first.
Tyrion: Well?
Shae: You are a mess.
Tyrion: I'm a monster as well as a dwarf. You should charge medouble.
Shae: You think I'm here for money?
Tyrion: That was the arrangement we made.I pay you and you lie to me.
Shae: Oh. I'm a poor little rich man and nobody loves me, so I make jokes all the time and pay them to laugh. Fuck your money
Season 2 Episode 10 - Valar Morghulis
Season 2 Episode 10 - Valar Morghulis
She proved it further when she next suggested that Tyrion should flee into exile with her and she was Okay with him being a penniless exile and still wanted to be with him.
Shae: Let's leave.
Tyrion: Leave?
Shae: Leave King's Landing. They tried to kill you. They will try again. Going into wars, fighting soldiers, you're terrible at this. Let's take a boat to Pentos and never come back. You don't belong here.
Tyrion: What would we do in Pentos?
Shae: Eat, drink, fuck, live.
Tyrion: I want to go with you.
Shae: So do it. Your father, your sister, all these bad people, they can't stop you. Forget about them. Come with me.
Tyrion: I can't. I do belong here. These bad people are what I'm good at. Outtalking them, outthinking them. It's what I am. And I like it. I like it more than anything I've ever done. Are you going to leave?
Shae: You have a shit memory. I am yours and you are mine.
Season 2 Episode 10 - Valar Morghulis
Season 2 Episode 10 - Valar Morghulis
Then Why betray him?
They started drifting apart in Season 3. Shae already suspected that Tyrion found Sansa attractive. Tyrion found the notion absurd. And apparently Shae seemed content with his denials.
But The drift cemented when Sansa and Tyrion were about to be forcibly married. Tyrion wanted to speak to both Sansa and Shae separately but Shae refused to leave and Sansa refused to dismiss her. Tyrion was forced to inform Sansa of his father's plan in front of Shae. He did pass a code worded apology to Shae, but she either didn't understand it or was too furious to consider it. For her, it was Tyrion who betrayed her for a highborn girl.
The significant blow came before Tyrion's marriage. Shae still harbored hopes that Tyrion might choose exile for her but he refused and Shae realized that she always was and always will be just another whore for Tyrion.
Shae: So, am I invited to your wedding?
Tyrion: I didn't ask for this marriage. I didn't want it.
Shae: No? She's a beautiful girl. You said so yourself.
Tyrion: That doesn't mean that, this is duty, not desire.
Shae: Is that what you will tell yourself when you fuck her?
Tyrion: I don't have a choice. My father
Shae: Does not rule the world. We can still go across the Narrow Sea.
Tyrion: What would I do there? Juggle? I am a Lannister of Casterly Rock.
Shae: And I'm Shae the funny whore.
Tyrion: My feelings for you have not changed. I will marry Sansa Stark and do my duty by her.
Shae: While I empty her chamber pot and lick your cock when you're bored?
Tyrion: I swear to you it will not be like that.
Shae: No? What will it be like?
Tyrion: I will buy you a good home somewhere in the city. You will have fine clothes, guards to keep you safe, servants. Any children we might have will be well provided for.
Shae: Children? You think I want children who can never see their father? Who would be killed in their sleep if their grandfather found out about them?
Tyrion: Listen. Listen to me, my lady.
Shae: I'm not your lady.
Tyrion: You are. You'll always be my lady.
Shae: I'm your whore. And when you are tired of fucking me, I will benothing.
Season 3 Episode 7 - The bear and the maiden fair
Season 3 Episode 7 - The bear and the maiden fair
Later Varys tried to pay her for leaving, she rejected the bag of diamonds and said if Tyrion wants her to leave, he can bloody well ask her himself.
Shae still harbored hopes and tried to seduce Tyrion at number of occasions, Tyrion always made some excuse, which only deepened the rift.
By that time, Shae's presence had been noted by Cersei. Growing anxious for Shae's safety, given Tywin's threat that he'd hang the next whore he found in Tyrion's bed, Tyrion decided it was time to break up for good and have Shae ferried to safety, whatever the cost. Tyrion was very cruel to her, even though he was just pretending to have her leave King's Landing, but it broke Shae's heart.
Shae: What's wrong, my lion?
Tyrion: Don't call me that.
Shae: What should I call you?
Tyrion: I'm afraid our friendship can't continue.
Shae: Our friendship?
Tyrion: There's a ship waiting in the harbor bound for Pentos.
Shae: What?
Tyrion: You'll have your own cabin, of course, and across the Narrow Sea a house, servants.
Shae: What is this?
Tyrion: I'm a married man. My wife has suffered a great deal, as you well know. I don't want her to suffer anymore on my account. I need to uphold my vows.
Shae: She doesn't want you.
Tyrion: I need to do right by her.
Shae: You don't want her.
Tyrion: By our children.
Shae: What are you afraid of?
Tyrion: I'm not afraid.
Shae: You are. You are afraid of your father and your sister. You're going to run from them all your life?
Tyrion: I need you to leave.
Shae: I'm not afraid of them. I'm not going to run.
Tyrion: Shae.
Shae: We will fight them together. It's like you said, I am yours and you are mine.
Tyrion: You're a whore! Sansa is fit to bear my children and you arenot. I can't be in love with a whore. I can't have children with a whore. How many men have you been with?
Shae: How many whores have you been with?
Tyrion: I have enjoyed my time with all of them and I have enjoyed my time with you most of all. But now that time is over. You'll have a comfortable life in Pentos. Bronn will escort you to your ship.
Season 4 Episode 2 - The Lion and the Rose
Season 4 Episode 2 - The Lion and the Rose
So that was it, Tyrion confirmed it that for him she was just a whore and everything he said before was a lie and he was now going to enjoy his life with his new wife and sire children on her, which Shae was unfit for. Shae was now going to be what Tyrion thought she was, a whore. So she sold out.
Later, At Tyrion's trial, she scathingly threw it in Tyrion's teeth when he pleaded for her to stop.
Tyrion: Shae. Please don't.
Shae: I am a whore. Remember?
Season 4 Episode 6 - The laws of Gods and Men
Season 4 Episode 6 - The laws of Gods and Men
Conclusion
- Shae did love Tyrion with all her heart.
- Tyrion crushed her heart by calling her a whore and unfit to be the mother of his children.
- Shae paid back, by selling out and being a whore.
- It is a twisted, sad story. Both of them loved each other but both of them thought the other had betrayed them. Both tried to kill the other (Shae at trial, Tyrion in his father's chambers), Tyrion succeeded.
AegonAegon
Tywin or Cersei has got to Shae. She has no money or power in her own right, and is about to lose her only protector. Faced with threats and being a friendless whore in King's landing, she chooses to take the bribe and a ticket on a ship out of there.
EddyEddy
I agree. I think Tywin told Shea that he would send Tyrion to the wall if she lied at the trial.
I think once Tyrion demanded a trial by combat, that split moment of her face being afraid told the audience that she feared for his safety (if he lost) and her own if he won (because he would kill her)
AliAli
All Tywin had to do was tell her his plan of getting him found guilty and telling her that if she helped, he would spare Tyrion's life by sending him to the Black. Simple. She thought she was saving his life.
William ShipleyWilliam Shipley