https://iceandfire.fandom.com/wiki/Shae
Doing a rewatch of game of thrones, first time, and I’m thinking about Shae’s arc.
She starts as a camp follower for a Lannister knight, gets poached into the service of Tyrion, follows him into the capital. Becomes a persistent force in his life, wont leave the city despite multiple threats on her life… Eventually Tyrion forces her onto a boat to flee the capital… and she “somehow” returns for Tyrion’s regicide trial, only to end up in the bed of Tyrion’s father… When Tyrian finds her there, she attempts to kill him.
This is my understanding of her Arc, and I’m confused by her motivations.
- Why did she come back to the capital despite being safely away?
- Why try to kill Tyrion when discovered in his father’s bed?
- If her motivation was just money, why not take the nice retirement offered to her three times?
- If she loved Tyrion, why try to kill him at all, why come back to the capital and appear in his trial?
I understand the TV show and the book diverge with the book saying she did the double cross for a marriage to a knight and a title. The TV show didn’t flush out any of her motivations for her latter actions. There was some foundation that she was in “young love” with Tyrion and not being sensible and refusing to understand or accept the political game that put her in danger. Inexperienced confidence works for her character, until the double cross, which has no motivation justified in the TV show.
If they had spent screen time where she laments she doesn’t have a title, or if we see her scheming to get a title or status, it would give her some reason for the double cross. Or… if she had motivated by coin that would explain the double cross, but not the refusal to take the retirement package.
Right now the TV series arc feels unearned, and kinda just fodder to dump on “everyone betrays Tyrion” bandwagon
Maybe I’m missing something? What where her motivations?
I can only vaguely agree with your interpretation since it’s been a good while since I saw the show and haven’t read the books yet.
What I do recall from watching the show was many of the same questions you asked, and I just assumed it was explained in the books and poorly adapted to TV.
Shea always seemed like she had some kind of mysterious back story that was going to come into play but never materialized.
It is a great question my head canon of events is since Cersei knew about her (shae) she found Shae before she ever left or on the way out basically she never got away and she was instead squirled away and kept for “leverage”. I have absolutely no evidence to back this up since Bron definitely said he saw her get on the ship and sail (it could have been stopped or something who knows) but it’s what I’ve been going with since what I can remember. Even during the scene at a feast Cersei shows her dad Shae and says something close to “see that’s the whore”.
Edit: as for trying to kill Tyrion… I have no idea. I am currently rewatching game of thrones aswell and I just watched that about a week ago and that still does not make much sense. She could have just been quiet.
I heard a theory that Shae was always in Tywin’s (the father) bed the whole time, even when she was with Tyrion. Adds a interesting embedded mole aspect to her character, which might explain why she never wants to leave.
I like Shae, but I always felt she was treated as more of a plot device than a full character. Tyrion’s experiences of her were written as being more important to the plot than she actually was. I don’t remember if (or to what degree) this is true in the books.
