Game Of Thrones: Tyrion Lannister's Downfall Can Be Traced Back To One Moment

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It is a truth universally acknowledged — to me, at least — that the final season of "Game of Thrones" is a mess, and I'd take that even further: the final two seasons of the show based on George R.R. Martin's novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" are a total mess. A big reason for that is the rampant character assassinations that play out over the final few seasons of "Game of Thrones," and that includes Tyrion Lannister, the character immortalized by Emmy winner Peter Dinklage.

I'm going to rewind even further back than Seasons 7 and 8 of "Game of Thrones." Tyrion acts pretty nonsensical at the beginning of Season 5. His arc in that particular season begins after he crosses the Narrow Sea with Varys (Conleth Hill) — a journey they only undertake because, in the Season 4 premiere, a wrongfully incarcerated Tyrion escapes from prison, kills his lover Shae (Sibel Kekilli) and his own father Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), and then flees the Westerosi capital of King's Landing. (To be fair to Tyrion, Tywin put his youngest son on trial for the murder of Jack Gleeson's disgusting King Joffrey Baratheon — a crime that Tyrion did not commit — and Shae betrayed him during the trial, but still. Tyrion does murder two people on his way out of town.) After Varys and Tyrion arrive in Pentos, Tyrion escapes from the cargo box where he lived in secret and pukes wine all over the place. That's sort of a perfect metaphor for his character trajectory from that point onwards.

Things do work out for Tyrion outside of the confines of Westeros in that he meets Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and is named as her Hand of the Queen. Still, starting in Season 5, he just behaves ridiculously, and it's so disappointing.

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There are bumbling characters on "Game of Thrones." Nobody would call Kit Harington's Jon Snow a brain trust, for example (with all due respect). The thing that makes Tyrion's backslide into clownery so disappointing is that, throughout the first four seasons of "Game of Thrones," he's basically too smart for his own good, and his considerable intelligence actually tends to get him in trouble. Look at, by way of example, his "confession" in Season 1 as he stands accused (falsely) of attempting to kill Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright). Instead, he confesses to a whole backlog of other sins, including "milking his eel" into a batch of turtle stew that was subsequently consumed by his sister Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey).

Tyrion's quick thinking is a staple of the first few seasons of "Game of Thrones," especially during the landmark (and challenging) Season 2 episode "Blackwater," where he's able to save King's Landing from certain ruin by using wildfire against enemy forces. Beyond that, Tyrion is just a witty and fascinating figure who's always on hand with a cutting remark, a revelation, or a discovery, and he's typically the smartest guy in the room. In both George R.R. Martin's original books and the show, Tyrion says that "a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone," and he puts his money where his mouth is; he's a learned man who knows and understands Westeros' history.

Unfortunately, this Tyrion, apparently, vanishes within that unpleasant box that serves as his vessel from Westeros to Pentos. From Season 5 onwards, Tyrion's brain collapses into veritable mush, and it's honestly depressing to witness.

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Tyrion doesn't do a whole lot after he links up with Daenerys and becomes her Hand of the Queen at the end of Season 6. Basically, he gets thrown into the fighting pits of Mereen, survives with the help of Daenerys' loyal lieutenant Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), and then rules Mereen in Daenerys' stead after she flies off on her dragon to escape a vigilante group known as the Sons of the Harpy. I don't know how much Tyrion does to "rule" Mereen, though; he mostly just cracks jokes and drinks wine.

Season 7 is where we start to hear more from Tyrion, and, unfortunately, that's bad news. Towards the end of that frankly cruddy season, Tyrion, along with Jon Snow, devises the show's all-time worst plan: a group of fighting men, including Jon, will travel north beyond the Wall and capture a singular wight to prove to Cersei that the threat of the White Walkers and their undead army is extremely real. There's a couple of problems with this plan, however. First of all, Cersei is not going to care about this (something Tyrion should know). Second, speaking of those ice zombies, they pretty much exclusively travel in packs, so if you capture one, you're sure to face down an army and the White Walkers themselves, which is exactly what happens to this band of buffoons.

Tyrion never gets his brains back after this and concludes the series by convincing Jon to kill Daenerys and then deciding that Bran should lead Westeros. At a certain point, it's better to pretend that Tyrion's story ends after Season 4. If you want to witness this downfall for yourself, "Game of Thrones" is streaming on HBO Max now.