0:02 s barrist seli went from Lord commander
0:04 of Joffrey's King's Guard to Lord
0:06 commander of daenerys's Queen's guard
0:08 and hand of the queen on the other side
0:11 of the world very quickly how did that
0:13 happen was it just him deciding to
0:16 switch sides or was there someone subtly
0:18 pulling the strings behind the scene a
0:21 spider perhaps hi everyone this is
0:23 Robert welcome to in deep geek on this
0:25 channel we cover A Song of Ice and Fire
0:27 In Depth as well as other great fantasy
0:29 worlds like the Lord of the Rings and
0:32 The Witcher if you're new here
0:34 welcome this video was produced in
0:36 collaboration with the excellent history
0:38 of Westeros please do check out their
0:40 excellent podcast and YouTube channel
0:42 there's a link in the
0:45 description how on Earth did s barriston
0:47 seli go from being Lord commander of
0:49 Joffrey's King's Guard to Lord commander
0:51 of Danny's Queen's guard so quickly it's
0:53 one of the biggest turnarounds in the
0:56 whole series and I want to suggest that
0:58 this isn't just a matter of one man's
1:00 conscience and good reputation leading
1:03 him to a new employer but evidence of
1:05 how Varys has been working behind the
1:07 scenes without anyone noticing to
1:09 undermine the Lannister regime and
1:11 further his own
1:13 interests let's start by underlining the
1:16 fact that saris and seli is the most
1:18 famous and respected Knight in Westeros
1:21 by a long way a living legend beloved by
1:24 the commoners in fact so respected was
1:27 he that he was allowed to join and head
1:29 Robert baratheon's Kings guard after
1:31 being on on the losing side in the
1:33 battle of the Trident he fought against
1:35 Robert Baratheon but got rewarded with
1:37 not just keeping his job but getting a
1:40 promotion and no one doubted for a
1:43 second that he would serve honorably but
1:45 behind the scenes barriston himself
1:48 never felt quite right as a member of
1:50 Robert's King's Guard he did his duty
1:53 but it never quite sat right with him to
1:55 abandon House Targaryen whom he had
1:56 given his initial pledge of loyalty and
2:00 service to and indeed before Robert Ed
2:02 him he had considered seeking out Young
2:05 Prince viseris and offering his service
2:06 but decided against it in light of the
2:09 prince's Youth and after learning that
2:10 he showed signs of his father's
2:13 targaryan madness he also considered it
2:15 a mark of Dishonor to serve alongside
2:18 the newly nicknamed King Slayer Jamie
2:20 Lannister barriston took his vows
2:22 seriously and was being asked to serve
2:25 alongside to the person who had murdered
2:27 the man he had sworn to defend to the
2:30 death not very honorable but eventually
2:33 siston decided that it would be wrong to
2:35 turn his back on the new king who had
2:38 shown such Grace in not only sparing him
2:40 but promoting him to Lord commander and
2:42 served dutifully for the next decade and
2:45 a half which doesn't mean that
2:48 barristan's discontent ever went away we
2:50 saw it bubble over when he was forcibly
2:53 retired later and Varys will have been
2:56 well aware of this remember Varys was
2:58 the other most high-profile member of
2:59 the Mad King's Court to keep their job
3:03 when the new king came in varis is
3:04 perhaps the most astute judge of
3:06 character in all of A Song of Ice and
3:08 Fire he often can predict eily
3:11 accurately how others will react knowing
3:13 that gives him a lot of leeway to
3:15 manipulate particularly as barriston
3:18 himself is quite predictable if you
3:20 expect him to do The Honorable Brave
3:22 thing you'll usually be right it
3:25 certainly was in this case just as
3:27 barriston spoke up about Jaime's ongoing
3:30 role in the Kings guard and later with
3:32 Ned against his King's decision to send
3:35 an assassin after Dany varis knew that
3:37 barriston would not sit silently when
3:40 robbert's will was disregarded by the
3:43 Lannisters nor what came next only a few
3:45 days later was his dismissal from the
3:48 King's Guard Joffrey and Cersei wanted a
3:50 loyal younger Lord Commander so they
3:53 fired the discontented older man named
3:55 jimie in his place and added sandor
3:58 again to fill the missing spot
4:00 barristan's initial reaction was shock
4:03 and confusion varis as he often does
4:06 played the role of mediator telling
4:09 barriston that Lord Tywin Lannister has
4:11 granted him a tra of land with servants
4:14 to see to his every need though the
4:17 words are gentle this actually makes
4:20 barriston angrier it's adding insults to
4:22 injury and we can be pretty sure Varys
4:25 knew that that would be the case again
4:27 barriston is predictable and when he
4:30 spat on their offer and called it pity
4:33 it was no surprise at all at least no
4:36 surprise to Varys Cersei and Joffrey are
4:38 noticeably less competent at reading
4:40 people but there's a big difference
4:42 between saying that Varys probably knew
4:44 that barriston would reject their
4:46 generous offer and instead storm out in
4:49 disgust and saying that Varys had
4:51 somehow manipulated the whole thing that
4:53 he knew exactly how to push Baron's
4:56 buttons and he got Joffrey and Cersei to
4:59 do it for him so what evidence do we
5:03 have that this was Varys well in a Clash
5:06 of Kings we get this exchange between
5:08 Tyrion and Cersei while tirion is trying
5:10 to understand exactly what had been
5:13 going on in King's Landing Tyrion speaks
5:16 first was it Joffrey's wish to dismiss
5:17 sir barriston SEL me from his King's
5:21 Guard too Cersei sighed Joff wanted
5:23 someone to blame for Robert's death
5:27 varis suggested s barriston why not so
5:30 varis suggested that barriston dismissed
5:32 from the King's Guard and as we've
5:34 already noted it was varis who told
5:36 barriston that Tywin had set aside some
5:39 land for him angering him further it's
5:41 easy not to spot but it is this
5:43 suggestion from Varys that actually
5:46 makes barriston Rage Quit he immediately
5:48 responds by taking off his white cloak
5:50 and throwing his armor to the floor he
5:53 is a knight not a hasbean to be
5:55 pensioned off and given a house by the
5:58 seaside he is deeply deeply insulted by
6:01 varys's offer or Tywin Lannister's offer
6:04 as Varys calls it except that Tywin
6:07 seems to know nothing about it the offer
6:10 did not come from him in fact when Tywin
6:11 hears that s barriston has been
6:15 dismissed he is angry too it is one of
6:16 the things that prompts him to send
6:19 Tyrion to take over his acting hand so
6:22 if varys's offer didn't come from Tywin
6:25 did it come from varis later Tyrion
6:28 points out something else to Cersei s
6:30 barriston was the Lord commander of
6:33 Robert baratheon's Kings guard the small
6:35 folk talk of him in the same way they
6:37 talk of sewin of the mirror shield and
6:40 Prince Aon the Dragon Knight what do you
6:41 imagine they'll think when they see
6:44 barriston the Bold riding beside Rob
6:46 Stark or Stannis
6:50 barathan Cersei glanced away I had not
6:53 considered that father did said
6:56 ayrion it's easy to believe that Cersei
6:58 hadn't thought through how saaron might
7:00 react and what he might do afterwards
7:03 but not varis he will have been well
7:06 aware and chose to say nothing it's also
7:08 hard to believe that varis whose little
7:10 birds see and hear so much of what goes
7:12 on in King's Landing wouldn't have been
7:13 able to keep track of barriston
7:16 afterwards and at least try to capture
7:18 him because barriston didn't exactly
7:22 rush out of there as fast as he could no
7:24 he goes back to the white sword Tower
7:26 first takes the time to write a record
7:29 of his dismissal in the white book heads
7:31 down to the The Stables kills two guards
7:33 who try to stop him rides out of the
7:36 city sells his horse grows a beard then
7:39 comes back into the city Witnesses Ned
7:41 Stark's execution goes to the great sept
7:44 to pray for Ned's soul and then heads
7:46 back out of the city having decided to
7:49 try to find viseris are we to believe
7:52 that Varys knew nothing of
7:55 that which brings us to the reason why
7:58 Varys might have been doing this he is
8:00 trying to weaken the ran lannis a hold
8:02 on the Seven Kingdoms so he can place
8:05 his own candidate on the Iron Throne
8:07 we'll cover the details of that plot in
8:09 another video but for now it's worth
8:11 noting that barriston is not the only
8:13 competent person that Varys has managed
8:16 to remove from King's Landings defenses
8:18 there's also Kevin Lannister who he
8:20 killed in the epilog to A Dance with
8:22 Dragons and Tyrion who he smuggled out
8:26 of the black cells of course Tyrion like
8:28 barriston ends up in pentos with
8:31 Magister Elio varys's
8:34 co-conspirator so might Varys have
8:36 further had a hand in guiding barriston to
8:37 to
8:40 Lio perhaps but we don't have any
8:42 evidence for it what we can say is that
8:44 whereas Tyrion pondered whether
8:46 barriston would end up supporting
8:49 Stannis or Rob varis having known siston
8:51 from his first time serving the
8:53 targaryens will have known better
8:56 barriston would try to belatedly keep
8:59 his initial vows find viseris and serve
9:02 him and viserys's last known permanent
9:03 address before heading off into the
9:07 dothi sea was ayo's mans in pentos it's
9:10 the only logical place for him to go
9:13 straight into the hands of varys's Ally
9:17 and Varys knew that once with AO they
9:19 could have tried to get barriston to
9:21 join up straight away with Team fagon
9:23 young Griff the man claiming to be egg
9:25 on the sick that they are trying to get
9:27 on the throne but plans change they
9:29 already have a famous Westeros night
9:32 protecting him John connington and
9:34 meanwhile Dany has turned from an
9:37 Expendable princess to potentially a
9:39 major part of their plans rumors have
9:42 started to emerge that she is now based
9:45 in kth has hatched dragons and is
9:46 actively looking for ships to take her
9:49 and her Entourage West a long way from
9:52 being Expendable she is now Central to
9:54 the plan perhaps they can even marry her
9:57 to fagon and have dragons on their team
10:00 but who to send to her to bring her back
10:03 to pentos well I'm sure you're ahead of
10:05 me here who better than a Wester Rosy
10:08 figure so legendary that even Dany who
10:10 has never set foot on westros will know
10:13 about a man whose Deeds deserve her
10:16 respect a man able to make that
10:17 connection to her family that she has
10:20 lost and a man who can win her trust
10:23 even more by unmasking the traitor in
10:26 her Inner Circle sir Jorah who had been
10:27 sending messages back to Robert
10:30 baratheon's spy master because varis and
10:33 iio now had plans for Dany they wanted
10:36 someone they and she could trust to
10:38 protect her loyally and could escort her
10:40 back to pentos and they hoped at the
10:43 time a marriage with young Griff AKA
10:45 Egon I 6 with Daenerys and her dragons
10:47 and armies joining his side for a
10:50 forthcoming invasion of westos someone
10:52 worth protecting in other
10:55 words barison the Bold undoubtedly gives
10:57 honor to any cause he's associated with
11:00 so there is no doubt that whichever
11:02 King's Guard or Queen's guard he is a
11:04 member of will gain a degree of
11:06 authenticity simply by his membership of
11:09 it and by association that king or queen
11:12 would themselves appear more legitimate
11:15 ultimately Varys wanted barriston in
11:17 Fagan's Kings guard because this is
11:19 where his manipulating seems to have
11:21 found its limit for the time being
11:24 because Danny did not simply accept the
11:26 offer to be shipped back to pentos
11:28 instead she stopped off at slaver's Bay
11:30 got herself an army of unsullied
11:32 defeated aapor and yunai freed the
11:35 slaves and made herself ruler of marine
11:38 along the way she named barriston Lord
11:41 commander of her Queen's guard then she
11:44 decided not to Head West straight away
11:46 and not entirely of her own valtion
11:48 headed off with drogon into the Dothraki
11:51 sea fagon young Griff understandably got
11:53 a bit tired of waiting for this woman
11:55 he'd never even met and launched his
11:58 invasion anyway so looking at it from
12:00 one perspective all of varys's
12:02 manipulating behind the scenes has so
12:05 far come to Little barriston May no
12:07 longer be there to help manage King's
12:09 Landings defenses which is a win for
12:11 Varys but he is still a long way from
12:15 being a part of team fagon but there may
12:18 be one more twist to this story line
12:20 because at some point barriston will
12:23 learn about young Griff by then perhaps
12:25 even fully established in King's Landing
12:28 as Aon the 6th Targaryen barristan's
12:30 honor is a curious thing because it
12:32 makes him one of the more predictable
12:34 characters in A Song of Ice and Fire
12:36 what would he do if Dany returns and
12:39 does things he considers reminiscent of
12:43 her father Aris is that possible well
12:45 Georg ARA Martin rarely comments on
12:47 blogs and the like about his writing but
12:51 he did once about a mirin blot blog post
12:53 saying it got it
12:56 completely that blog post concluded that
12:59 the whole plotline in Marine is designed
13:02 to maneuver Dany into a mental place
13:04 where she'll decide to sideline her
13:06 concerns for innocent life and take what
13:10 she wants with Fire and Blood interpret
13:12 that how you will but I think it's fair
13:14 to say that Danny's story in the Winds
13:18 of Winter will be a darker one and if at
13:20 the same time we get darker Dany s
13:22 barriston learns that there is another
13:24 targaryan alive claiming to be a head of
13:27 Dany in the line of succession and Son
13:29 of the Targaryen he rated most highly
13:32 rhaegar might he switch allegiances
13:35 again he might well think it's the only
13:38 honorable thing to do perhaps varis will
13:40 get his way after all let me know what
13:43 you think in the comments section if
13:45 you'd like more videos like this about
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13:48 please check out the playlist on the
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13:56 the right of your screen that's all for
13:59 this time thanks for watching I'll see
