68. Who Sent the Assassin After Bran?

Events move fast on Game of Thrones. Although it’s a show with mysteries in its backstory, they don’t define what people do: their personal and political motivation do that. And once they start down a path, its consequences take over from their initial motivations. The story keeps moving.

That is a somewhat longwinded way of asking this question: Do you know who sent the assassin after Bran Stark with the Valyrian steel dagger? This was a critically important question in the early episodes, and Catelyn Stark’s answer, given to her by Littlefinger, is that Tyrion Lannister did it. She kidnaps Tyrion, starting the War of the Five Kings. Tyrion wins trial by combat and goes free...and then the show never actually answers the question.

There are plenty of reason to not believe that it was Tyrion. First, and probably most importantly, the Imp is one of the most likable characters in the entire story, and one who always tries to fight for good. Assassinating a paralyzed boy doesn’t fit with his character at all, and he denies it vehemently. Also, the information comes from Littlefinger, whose trustworthiness is, shall we say, somewhat lacking.

But by the time Tyrion is freed from the Eyrie, and especially when Littlefinger’s betrayal of the Starks is revealed, events had moved well beyond the need to find a resolution for the dagger storyline. There’s a war on, and CSI: Winterfell has to take a back seat. But it is still strange that such an important question was never resolved.

In the novels, this question takes a back seat as well, although Tyrion does investigate how he’d been set up when he’s free in King’s Landing. King Joffrey provides several clues that it was him who did the deed, and Tyrion later puts the pieces together. The problem is, Joffrey’s motivation doesn’t work at all on the show: he’s slightly younger on the page and is going through a phase where he tries to emulate his supposed father, Robert. Joffrey overhears King Robert complaining about Bran’s injury, saying that it would be better if the boy died. So the sadistic prince, attempting to be like his dad, steals the dagger and gives it to a cutthroat to do the deed.

But on the show, Joffrey never shows any kind of respect toward his father. He orders Robert’s bastards killed at the start of the second season (an order given by Cersei in the novels), so any kind of filial duty is off the table.

The only possible clue given by the series is a conversation between Jaime and Cersei, where Cersei insists that Jaime didn’t have to try to kill Bran. While the conversation is almost certainly about the initial shove out the window, it is perhaps ambiguous enough to comprise the second assassination attempt as well. Six seasons in, it’s clear that Game of Thrones has no interest in providing a clear resolution, but viewers have moved on, just like the show did.