This analysis suggests that Ser Barristan Selmy's rapid transition from Lord Commander of the King's Guard to Hand of the Queen for Daenerys Targaryen was not solely a matter of personal conscience but a carefully orchestrated move by Varys to undermine the Lannister regime and advance his own agenda.
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s barrist seli went from Lord commander
of Joffrey's King's Guard to Lord
commander of daenerys's Queen's guard
and hand of the queen on the other side
of the world very quickly how did that
happen was it just him deciding to
switch sides or was there someone subtly
pulling the strings behind the scene a
spider perhaps hi everyone this is
Robert welcome to in deep geek on this
channel we cover A Song of Ice and Fire
In Depth as well as other great fantasy
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welcome this video was produced in
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there's a link in the
description how on Earth did s barriston
seli go from being Lord commander of
Joffrey's King's Guard to Lord commander
of Danny's Queen's guard so quickly it's
one of the biggest turnarounds in the
whole series and I want to suggest that
this isn't just a matter of one man's
conscience and good reputation leading
him to a new employer but evidence of
how Varys has been working behind the
scenes without anyone noticing to
undermine the Lannister regime and
further his own
interests let's start by underlining the
fact that saris and seli is the most
famous and respected Knight in Westeros
by a long way a living legend beloved by
the commoners in fact so respected was
he that he was allowed to join and head
Robert baratheon's Kings guard after
being on on the losing side in the
battle of the Trident he fought against
Robert Baratheon but got rewarded with
not just keeping his job but getting a
promotion and no one doubted for a
second that he would serve honorably but
behind the scenes barriston himself
never felt quite right as a member of
Robert's King's Guard he did his duty
but it never quite sat right with him to
abandon House Targaryen whom he had
given his initial pledge of loyalty and
service to and indeed before Robert Ed
him he had considered seeking out Young
Prince viseris and offering his service
but decided against it in light of the
prince's Youth and after learning that
he showed signs of his father's
targaryan madness he also considered it
a mark of Dishonor to serve alongside
the newly nicknamed King Slayer Jamie
Lannister barriston took his vows
seriously and was being asked to serve
alongside to the person who had murdered
the man he had sworn to defend to the
death not very honorable but eventually
siston decided that it would be wrong to
turn his back on the new king who had
shown such Grace in not only sparing him
but promoting him to Lord commander and
served dutifully for the next decade and
a half which doesn't mean that
barristan's discontent ever went away we
saw it bubble over when he was forcibly
retired later and Varys will have been
well aware of this remember Varys was
the other most high-profile member of
the Mad King's Court to keep their job
when the new king came in varis is
perhaps the most astute judge of
character in all of A Song of Ice and
Fire he often can predict eily
accurately how others will react knowing
that gives him a lot of leeway to
manipulate particularly as barriston
himself is quite predictable if you
expect him to do The Honorable Brave
thing you'll usually be right it
certainly was in this case just as
barriston spoke up about Jaime's ongoing
role in the Kings guard and later with
Ned against his King's decision to send
an assassin after Dany varis knew that
barriston would not sit silently when
robbert's will was disregarded by the
Lannisters nor what came next only a few
days later was his dismissal from the
King's Guard Joffrey and Cersei wanted a
loyal younger Lord Commander so they
fired the discontented older man named
jimie in his place and added sandor
again to fill the missing spot
barristan's initial reaction was shock
and confusion varis as he often does
played the role of mediator telling
barriston that Lord Tywin Lannister has
granted him a tra of land with servants
to see to his every need though the
words are gentle this actually makes
barriston angrier it's adding insults to
injury and we can be pretty sure Varys
knew that that would be the case again
barriston is predictable and when he
spat on their offer and called it pity
it was no surprise at all at least no
surprise to Varys Cersei and Joffrey are
noticeably less competent at reading
people but there's a big difference
between saying that Varys probably knew
that barriston would reject their
generous offer and instead storm out in
disgust and saying that Varys had
somehow manipulated the whole thing that
he knew exactly how to push Baron's
buttons and he got Joffrey and Cersei to
do it for him so what evidence do we
have that this was Varys well in a Clash
of Kings we get this exchange between
Tyrion and Cersei while tirion is trying
to understand exactly what had been
going on in King's Landing Tyrion speaks
first was it Joffrey's wish to dismiss
sir barriston SEL me from his King's
Guard too Cersei sighed Joff wanted
someone to blame for Robert's death
varis suggested s barriston why not so
varis suggested that barriston dismissed
from the King's Guard and as we've
already noted it was varis who told
barriston that Tywin had set aside some
land for him angering him further it's
easy not to spot but it is this
suggestion from Varys that actually
makes barriston Rage Quit he immediately
responds by taking off his white cloak
and throwing his armor to the floor he
is a knight not a hasbean to be
pensioned off and given a house by the
seaside he is deeply deeply insulted by
varys's offer or Tywin Lannister's offer
as Varys calls it except that Tywin
seems to know nothing about it the offer
did not come from him in fact when Tywin
hears that s barriston has been
dismissed he is angry too it is one of
the things that prompts him to send
Tyrion to take over his acting hand so
if varys's offer didn't come from Tywin
did it come from varis later Tyrion
points out something else to Cersei s
barriston was the Lord commander of
Robert baratheon's Kings guard the small
folk talk of him in the same way they
talk of sewin of the mirror shield and
Prince Aon the Dragon Knight what do you
imagine they'll think when they see
barriston the Bold riding beside Rob
Stark or Stannis
barathan Cersei glanced away I had not
considered that father did said
ayrion it's easy to believe that Cersei
hadn't thought through how saaron might
react and what he might do afterwards
but not varis he will have been well
aware and chose to say nothing it's also
hard to believe that varis whose little
birds see and hear so much of what goes
on in King's Landing wouldn't have been
able to keep track of barriston
afterwards and at least try to capture
him because barriston didn't exactly
rush out of there as fast as he could no
he goes back to the white sword Tower
first takes the time to write a record
of his dismissal in the white book heads
down to the The Stables kills two guards
who try to stop him rides out of the
city sells his horse grows a beard then
comes back into the city Witnesses Ned
Stark's execution goes to the great sept
to pray for Ned's soul and then heads
back out of the city having decided to
try to find viseris are we to believe
that Varys knew nothing of
that which brings us to the reason why
Varys might have been doing this he is
trying to weaken the ran lannis a hold
on the Seven Kingdoms so he can place
his own candidate on the Iron Throne
we'll cover the details of that plot in
another video but for now it's worth
noting that barriston is not the only
competent person that Varys has managed
to remove from King's Landings defenses
there's also Kevin Lannister who he
killed in the epilog to A Dance with
Dragons and Tyrion who he smuggled out
of the black cells of course Tyrion like
barriston ends up in pentos with
Magister Elio varys's
co-conspirator so might Varys have
further had a hand in guiding barriston to
to
Lio perhaps but we don't have any
evidence for it what we can say is that
whereas Tyrion pondered whether
barriston would end up supporting
Stannis or Rob varis having known siston
from his first time serving the
targaryens will have known better
barriston would try to belatedly keep
his initial vows find viseris and serve
him and viserys's last known permanent
address before heading off into the
dothi sea was ayo's mans in pentos it's
the only logical place for him to go
straight into the hands of varys's Ally
and Varys knew that once with AO they
could have tried to get barriston to
join up straight away with Team fagon
young Griff the man claiming to be egg
on the sick that they are trying to get
on the throne but plans change they
already have a famous Westeros night
protecting him John connington and
meanwhile Dany has turned from an
Expendable princess to potentially a
major part of their plans rumors have
started to emerge that she is now based
in kth has hatched dragons and is
actively looking for ships to take her
and her Entourage West a long way from
being Expendable she is now Central to
the plan perhaps they can even marry her
to fagon and have dragons on their team
but who to send to her to bring her back
to pentos well I'm sure you're ahead of
me here who better than a Wester Rosy
figure so legendary that even Dany who
has never set foot on westros will know
about a man whose Deeds deserve her
respect a man able to make that
connection to her family that she has
lost and a man who can win her trust
even more by unmasking the traitor in
her Inner Circle sir Jorah who had been
sending messages back to Robert
baratheon's spy master because varis and
iio now had plans for Dany they wanted
someone they and she could trust to
protect her loyally and could escort her
back to pentos and they hoped at the
time a marriage with young Griff AKA
Egon I 6 with Daenerys and her dragons
and armies joining his side for a
forthcoming invasion of westos someone
worth protecting in other
words barison the Bold undoubtedly gives
honor to any cause he's associated with
so there is no doubt that whichever
King's Guard or Queen's guard he is a
member of will gain a degree of
authenticity simply by his membership of
it and by association that king or queen
would themselves appear more legitimate
ultimately Varys wanted barriston in
Fagan's Kings guard because this is
where his manipulating seems to have
found its limit for the time being
because Danny did not simply accept the
offer to be shipped back to pentos
instead she stopped off at slaver's Bay
got herself an army of unsullied
defeated aapor and yunai freed the
slaves and made herself ruler of marine
along the way she named barriston Lord
commander of her Queen's guard then she
decided not to Head West straight away
and not entirely of her own valtion
headed off with drogon into the Dothraki
sea fagon young Griff understandably got
a bit tired of waiting for this woman
he'd never even met and launched his
invasion anyway so looking at it from
one perspective all of varys's
manipulating behind the scenes has so
far come to Little barriston May no
longer be there to help manage King's
Landings defenses which is a win for
Varys but he is still a long way from
being a part of team fagon but there may
be one more twist to this story line
because at some point barriston will
learn about young Griff by then perhaps
even fully established in King's Landing
as Aon the 6th Targaryen barristan's
honor is a curious thing because it
makes him one of the more predictable
characters in A Song of Ice and Fire
what would he do if Dany returns and
does things he considers reminiscent of
her father Aris is that possible well
Georg ARA Martin rarely comments on
blogs and the like about his writing but
he did once about a mirin blot blog post
saying it got it
completely that blog post concluded that
the whole plotline in Marine is designed
to maneuver Dany into a mental place
where she'll decide to sideline her
concerns for innocent life and take what
she wants with Fire and Blood interpret
that how you will but I think it's fair
to say that Danny's story in the Winds
of Winter will be a darker one and if at
the same time we get darker Dany s
barriston learns that there is another
targaryan alive claiming to be a head of
Dany in the line of succession and Son
of the Targaryen he rated most highly
rhaegar might he switch allegiances
again he might well think it's the only
honorable thing to do perhaps varis will
get his way after all let me know what
you think in the comments section if
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