Bump.
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Originally Posted by romdom
The Tyrion being a targ theory is very book heavy and has to do with physical features (hair and eye color) and that his mother died in childbirth, along with some other little tidbits including tywins line "you are no son of mine". Tyrions book response to the comment is inf more satisfying than the show
Tywin: You shot me.
Tyrion: You always were quick to grasp a situation, my lord, that must be why you’re the Hand of the King.
Tywin: You ... you are no ... no son of mine.
Tyrion: Now that’s where you’re wrong, Father. Why, I believe I’m you writ small. Do me a kindness now, and die quickly. I have a ship to catch.
I think the biggest piece of evidence is Tywin's speech to Tyrion in S03E01, quoted more or less verbatim from the books:
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“You ask that? You, who killed your mother to come into the world? You are an ill-made, devious, disobedient, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning. Men’s laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors, since I cannot prove that you are not mine. To teach me humility, the gods have condemned me to watch you waddle about wearing that proud lion that was my father’s sigil and his father’s before him. But neither gods nor men shall ever compel me to let you turn Casterly Rock into your whorehouse.”
"You're no son of mine" spoken in anger is one thing, Tywin says something similar to Jaime at one point. "Since I cannot prove that you are not mine" is a bit of a different beast. Suggests a genuine suspicion on the part of Tywin.
At the very least, Tyrion being the Mad King's son might be an intentional red herring. Jon, Tyrion and Daenerys being the "three heads of the dragon" is definitely neat, they are pretty much the main characters of the saga, and note the way it combines a pureblood Targ with a Targ/Stark and a Targ/Lannister, the two houses whose conflict GoT opens with. "Neat" isn't necessarily what GRRM is going for though.
Alt Shift X, whose videos I recommend,
wasn't that convinced by the theory, on the grounds that Tyrion's conflict with Tywin, and the way that he reflects back to Tywin the things Tywin is ashamed of in himself, was good drama and wouldn't be cheapened by a narrative trick like Tyrion being a Targ. I'm not so sure though. Endings are hard. It's easy to introduce maximum intrigue and surprise while in the middle of a story, but once you have to write towards an end, it gets tough. The idea that the story might become more cliched as it reaches its end is pretty possible. The alternatives to cliche in endings tend to be either unsatisfying or riddled with deus ex machina.