Varys's extensive knowledge network, known as his "little birds," is not merely a spy system but a brutal operation involving enslaved, maimed children, which is both his greatest asset and a potential downfall.
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how does Varys know so much who are his
little birds are they still working for
him and what might that mean for varys's
fate in the story hi everyone this is
Robert welcome to indeep geek on this
channel we cover A Song of Ice and Fire
In Depth as well as the Lord of the
Rings and The Witcher welcome and this
is another collaboration with the
wonderful history of Westeros please do
check out their excellent podcast and
YouTube channel there's a link in the
description we are introduced to varis
early in book one and told straight away
that he is a man who knows things he
should not it's catlin's fourth chapter
the one where she arrives at King's
Landing and she takes care to conceal
herself even bribing people but fails
spectacularly she barely has time to get
into an inn when Littlefinger finds her
how did he know varis told him
apparently Lord varis knows all Peter
said with a slice smile he will be
joining us shortly but I wanted to see
you alone first it has been too long cat
how many
years catlyn ignored his familiarity
there were more important questions so
it was the king spider who found me
little finger winced you don't want to
call him that he's very sensitive comes
of being a unic I imagine nothing
happens in this city without Varys
knowing oft times he knows about it
before it happens he has informed
everywhere his little birds he calls
them one of his little birds heard about
your visit thankfully Varys came to me
first this is a big introduction Varys
knows all we're told nothing happens in
the city without him knowing he has
informants everywhere his little birds
he calls them Varys arrived soon after
in the same chapter and basically
confirms all that his little birds have
furthermore told him about the Valyrian
steel dagger she has and its role in the
attempt on Bran's life the movements of
Sir rodric castle since he'd been in the
city and what he'd talked about it's an
impressive Flex from Varys though not
seen his little birds are introduced
alongside him which is fitting given how
important they are to his success but
who are these little birds where did
they come from what role do they have in
the story to come Littlefinger gives us
something of an answer when he tells
catlyn that varys's little birds a
network of informers though we should be
skeptical of anything Littlefinger says
he's absolutely truthful in this case
but this isn't saying much of course
varis pays people in various places for
valuable information and news and such
that much is plain there have been many
spy Master figures in A Song of Ice and
Fire master of Whisperers or otherwise a
network of informers is something all of
those characters have in common and
would likely hold true outside of A Song
of Ice and Fire even in the real world
no doubt varys's network of people
willing to sell him information is large
but varys's ability to know everything
that is going on in King's Landing goes
far beyond that it's easy to miss
because it comes so early in the story
but it's notable that even Littlefinger
is impressed by varys's abilities in
other words while all Spy Masters have
information networks Littlefinger
himself included Varys is exceptional
within the confines of West Ros we
occasion see someone with skills that go
beyond the ubiquitous spy Network and
often this is manifested via the
supernatural blood Raven was a master of
Whisperers who could glean information
by disguising himself with Glamour and
by listening through the ears of ravens
if not other animals this idea is teased
in a Game of Thrones too Varys is a man
whose level of knowledge borders on the
Supernatural characters like catlyn and
Ned wrestle with the idea that he is
indeed us
sorcery yet this is directly refuted by
Varys himself when he tells Tyrion the
story of his maming he claims he has
hated magic and those who use it ever
since the day he was cut of course it's
possible he's lying about that we
mustn't forget who we're dealing with
nevertheless the clues George Aram
Martin gives us regarding varys's little
birds contain very little to suggest the
supernal nor does much else about Varys
suggest magic there's no direct evidence
and some counter evidence instead the
clues take us somewhere every bit as
dark and terrible as the mysterious
voice that Varys heard from the blue
flame and every bit as brutal as the
ritual that cut him to summon it that
nameless sorcerer didn't kill varis he
simply dumped him on the street
expecting him to die Varys famously told
Tyrion that to spite the man he resolved
to live he rose through the criminal
ranks from the lowest of the low to the
highest of the high from from the
gutters to the prince of Thieves in Mir
that ended when a rival informed on him
and he had to flee for pentos where he
met AO where he started playing politics
and where he first started using little
birds at first they were called little
mice they stole valuables and brought
them back to Varys but eventually they
started stealing Secrets the sort that
could harm or destroy Elite individuals
if not families the change to stealing
valuable Secrets instead of valuable
Goods is likely the difference between
birds and mice in this context birds can
speak and sing in this case they can
speak and sing Secrets mice cannot with
access to the secrets of half the Nobles
in pentos varis no longer had to worry
about the authorities coming to kill him
Exile him or send him back into slavery
most of them owed him favors or relied
on him for information which sounds very
similar to how he operates in Westeros
oh over time Varys perfected and
improved his techniques and this is why
he was hired by King Aris fast forward
to the pages of A Song of Ice and Fire
where Varys has spent decades in the
game all along doing to other children a
version of what was done to him like him
his little birds are highly trained they
use disguise and they are slaves who
have been
maimed it's a dark inversion of varys's
little birds singing to him AKA
repeating stolen information they were
taught to memorize this is a brutal
irony his little birds cannot sing nor
even whisper because they have no
tongues their language is a unique
written Cipher known only to Varys they
cannot communicate with anyone but him
and perhaps each other to these little
birds to these children varis is the
voice in the blue flames calling
answering demanding more 50 more little
birds says to AIO in arya's hearing deep
below the red keep she has no idea what
they are talking about no idea that 50
little birds means 50 Children enslaved
and brutally trained 50 children with
their tongues removed and never given a
chance at normal life Lio bulks at
having to provide 50 more he complains
about how hard they are to train how
much they cost how easily they die He
suggests they use older children instead
but varis says the risk is too great and
Arya hears no more of the conversation after
after
that if older children are not effective
for his purposes then what happens to
the little birds who survive and grow
older one possibility comes to us
through tyrion's POV he spends some time
at aio's mans and tries to start
conversations with several different
servants none of them respond none of
them even talk to him he brushes this
off as them not speaking the same
language as him or he Muses perhaps
they've been commanded not to speak to
him but it could be that they are
incapable of speaking they could be
retired little birds whose tongues were
removed long
ago A Song of Ice and Fire shows us in
many ways that violence begets violence
Varys is a microcosm of that concept
that which was done to him for power he
has done to others in a previous video
we concluded that Veris probably does
genuinely want to create a future
Kingdom that is fairer and better for
all and he views the actions he takes to
achieve that however horrible they may
be as necessary evils this Mass abuse to
so many small children is surely the
greatest of those evils but can he keep
this a secret forever will he get away
with it he might but it's probably more
likely that he's eventually discovered
this isn't a oneoff that he could sweep
under the carpet there are now hundreds
if not thousands of victims many of whom
will presume presumably now have grown
up and many of whom might not be as
loyal as Varys thinks one of these
children could be strong enough to break
through the conditioning or be caught by
one of varys's many enemies Varys guards
against this by ensuring his little
birds can't speak or right so even if
they got caught they could reveal
nothing but is that as strong a defense
as he thinks Georg Aram Martin has
already given us one example of a child
who can't speak but when Court gives up
valuable information to his previous
enemies wax Theon Squire who informs
Lord Mandy and Robert Glover of the
location of rickon and OSHA despite
being born dumb as Robert Glover says
until he learns more letters we will
never know half the truth but he came to
us knowing yes and no and those can go a
long way once you find the right
questions and the more little birds
there are and the more overt their
actions the more likely discovery comes
previously they seem to have been mostly
just listening in on conversations and
the like but as Varys and aio's longterm
plan to place young Griff on the throne
is coming to a head he appears more
willing to use his little birds
aggressively for example the final
chapter of A Dance with Dragons is
Kevin's epilog a chilling scene where
varis shoots him with a crossbow before
a group of little birds with daggers
finishes him off the way they are
described is unsettling we reads that
they were all around him half a dozen of
them white-faced children with dark eyes
boys and girls together and in their
hands the
daggers it's the final line in A Dance
with Dragons quite a way to finish a
book and this was a surprise to many
readers we knew they spied and stole
information but this was perhaps our
first evidence that the little birds
were also used to kill what other uses
might VAR have for them it's
uncomfortable to imagine a small child
clearly one of the little birds opens
the door to pel's apartments for Kevin
and he seems to find it completely
unremarkable throwing his cloak at her
without thinking there are clearly
children all over the red keep running
messages cleaning things opening doors
and apparently many of them are little
birds the denisons of the red keep are
blly living their day-to-day lives not
knowing that or ignoring the small Army
of potential assassins that Scurry
around beneath their notice so who might
discover the truth of this and how will
they react that second part is quite
important because in the Cutthroat World
Of Ice And Fire some people will surely
not care or just view it as how kingdoms
are run but others who might care might
find out for example kyber is varys's
successor as master of Whisperers he
will be developing his own informant
Network in King's Landing we read in
cersei's POV that she thinks that
varys's spies have simply moved over to
kyber but kyber is surely not that naive
there's a good chance he will be keeping
an eye out for whatever remains of
varys's network and if he does discover
something and tell Cersei well I think
we know how she will react swiftly and with
with
brutality or how about Arya I have
previously speculated on the heavy
foreshadowing Georgia ra Martin seems to
be giving us for Aya skin changing into
one of the cats in the red keep perhaps
Bion himself and two or three of the
names on her list are in King's Landing
so there's a healthy chance she will at
least consider going there when she
leaves Bravos and cats are even more
unnoticed than small children in the red
keep she has already witnessed varis
ordering in some more little birds from
AO if she then discovers what that meant
it will surely offend her strong moral
compass and Lead to varys's name being
added to her
list someone else who will surely hate
the idea of what Varys has done to all
those children is Dany and if things go
the way we think they might Varys May
well be back out of hiding by the time
she arrives in Westeros if young Griff
takes King's Landing while she may not
personally know immediately if Tyrion is
by her side he's definitely the kind of
person who can figure things out he has
firsthand experience of being hand of
the king with varis as master of
Whisperers and spent time at ayo's mans
where the servants are suspiciously mute
retired little birds perhaps and we know
he suspects Ayo to be a slaver so it
seems that there are several ways for
this secret to come out and surely a few
others that you could think of and who
would save him as he said himself a few
times he has no armies no house or even
Valiant Brothers to defend him he makes
it sound so Noble almost Brave that he
has so few advantages compared to the
Highborn of Westeros Tyrion even feels
bad for him varis claims he buys his
life a new each day by providing
information to those who could easily
have him killed information they view as
too valuable to live without but they
don't know that that valuable
information comes to them over the dead
bodies of slave children
varis was highly successful before his
little birds but they are what took him
from an expert to one of the world's
greatest in the Game of Thrones they are
both his greatest power and his greatest
liability if the secret of his little
birds is exposed it would likely be his
end he would no longer be able to buy
his life a new it would be too costly it
would mean ultimately that which has
given Varys his greatest advantage
throughout his career may also earn him
his downfall if this dark secret is
discovered it's likely something that
even the silver tonged Varys wouldn't be
able to talk his way out of and perhaps
that is right even from his own
perspective if he truly is trying to
build a better fairer westos then there
surely wouldn't be a place in it for
someone who does the dark things that he has
has
done if you'd like to see more videos
like this diving deep into into the
world of Ice and Fire there's a link
into my play there's a link to my
playlist on the left of your screen or
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there's a link to my patreon on the
right of your screen that's all for this
time thanks for watching I'll see you
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