Spoilers and the continual use of the word fornicate ahead!
Tywin Lannister is a man of conviction. What he is not, is a man of half-measures. If Ron Swanson was a medieval lord instead of a pot belly mans-man, he would be Tywin Lannister (except everyone would have more freedom and his realm would exist in Libertarian anarchy). In the books, when his hair began to fall from his head, he shaved it as he would not allow it to only do half its job.
I should hate Tywin Lannister. We all should.
After all, he cared very little for the small-folk of the world. He ordered evil things be done to people that didn't deserve them all in the name of the preservation and elevation of his family. He was a product of his time who had the means to be better and yet choose selfishness. The world he lived in eats up goodness and spits it out. That's the reason Ned Stark found his way to the chopping block. Does that then justify the evil in the world Tywin did nothing to alleviate and in a lot of ways perpetrated? Of course not. Still, he was a force in the world. Someone who would do anything to alleviate the insecurity that his great family might not be considered the greatest family even years after the fall of the mad-king he once served. Tywin Lannister sought for the world to do as Tywin Lannister says.
Something macabre within me admires the man. I think the emotional side of me yelled out in joy when the crossbow bolt that ended his life pierced his stomach and we all got the answer to the question that Westeros was collectively holding its breath to see proven: does Tywin Lannister shit gold?
The logical side took hold after the endorphins of the kill faded. Mine gripped me right after the shock wore off from his death. Westeros was going to be a much worse place to live with Tywin Lannister gone and Cersei left to rule. His children listened to him, his children's children hung on his every word, the realm itself knew of the mind behind his vicious green eyes. While he may have never sat the Iron Throne, he might as well have, ruling it from the shadows for two different kings and bank rolling the exuberant spending habits of one more. Cold, and most importantly, calculated, he was a man to be feared and respected.
Men of history are like that in a way. All through out history we have seen such strange reverence repeated over and over. Genghis Khan killed so many people the world's carbon went down a measurable amount. The Dictators and Emperors of Rome killed and enslaved with impunity.
There is a dark allure to men in charge that affects the mind of those that study them. Genghis Khan is looked as a figure that changed the world, allowed religious freedom in his blood soaked empire, and conquered those that disrespected him, while hardly anyone ever talks in seriousness about the atrocities he was responsible for. Caesar was a ruthless man who smashed the Gauls at home and then took over the Republic he once fault for. Rome marched its way across the world and would have hit every coast at some had the internal politics of the time not prevented continued growth. As we've seen in modern times, politics are fickle and tumultuous, resulting in grand stalemates and performative celebrations for little victories when anything ever actually gets accomplished.
Things are simpler in Game of Thrones. Kind of.
Tywin wielded his power like a knife, easily hidden, but anyone whose anyone knows its there. Its when too many people found out it was there the mad-King Ceres sent him packing back to Casterly Rock. Joffrey proved an even greater challenge for Tywin to mold and control. Too emotional, and in the worst way. Too prone to outburst that Tywin could not predict, like the beheading of the only man that might have stopped the War of Kings. It was why if he did not directly know of the plot to kill his grandson, he certainly cared less than anyone else that day in the Grand Sept of Baelor when they placed the stones upon Joffrey's eyes and he instead reached for the innocent shoulders of young Tommen.
Things might have improved under a Tywin-raised Tommen. Especially if the young king could have preserved his kind heart but had the lessons of leadership instilled in him by Tywin (though such lessons most likely involved the stamping out of kindness). After all, Tywin was in no way a bad leader. His men beloved him, the realm feared but respected him, and he had done his best to control the impulses of two mad kings, allowing them to thrash against the world within the Red Keep while he maintained his control beyond its walls.
That is why I respect Tywin Lannister, even if only a little bit.
Now enters Tyrion.
Tywin learned beyond his failure of a father, though he failed in spectacular ways to raise children that didn't fornicate with one another and absorb from him his worst traits that he otherwise had control of within himself. Cersei got his viciousness and devotion to family (and his hatred of Tyrion), Jamie got his military mind and talent for leadership, but they both lacked his logical mind and his knack for looking at the bigger picture. Tyrion didn't get the viciousness except in short burst nor, by nature of his disability, his talent for killing. What he did get was his mind. Logical, forward-thinking, and just plain smart. Tyrion was the best child Tywin had and that only made him hate his imp-son more.
Tyrion was the son Tywin wanted all along. He would have preserved the family, fixed what ever might have ailed it in the future. He also would have no doubt kept plenty of heirs at hand to one day rule. Tyrion's job as hand of the king was good. Too good. Tywin isn't stupid, he knows King's Landing wouldn't have survived until his arrival if it wasn't for Tyrion. The sea chain, smart use of wildfire, and his ability to make the hard decisions, like burning the lean-too hovels that situated themselves at the base of the walls of King's Landing, made sure that the walls would hold when Stannis came calling. Yet, he did not receive praise for this, except from the Varys who by his very nature has to keep secrets. He only received more coldness from his family. Tywin knew how good a job he did, and he hated him for it. A flaw that would prove fatal for Tywin.
For Tywin, the opportunity was right there and he took it. He could swoop in after the Battle of the Blackwater, claim all the glory for the victory, and blame every bit of suffering the people of King's Landing endured until his arrival on his Imp son, whom the people were already angry at for burning their hovels and whipping the city into war time shape. It was cold, and calculated, and worked to make sure his least favorite son didn't gain the love and praise for a victory well deserved and potentially undermine his future plans to wrench Jamie free of the Kingsguard and give him patronage of the family.
Tywin, for all his strengths, was afraid of Tyrion. He knew that was his best child and he just couldn't stand it. Tyrion would live long after Tywin and who knew what things he would get into after his passing. Like, say, becoming the harbinger of the end of his other children and the Lannister line as he knew it before his death. Whoops.
Still, through all that, I still respect Tywin.
I truly believe he was the only thing that could have kept Westeros in line. Cersei did a terrible job without him. She did not wield a knife, but a hammer, and used it to loosely. Tywin would have never allowed religious fanatics to gain control of King's Landing. The High Sparrow would still be serving slop to the poor folk, as any good religious man like himself should be doing. He would have been too afraid to explore a power grab with Tywin in charge. The people would still be free to get drunk, fornicate, and do whatever else poor peasants do under his reign. When the war ended, he would have done what was necessary to get Westeros back on the right path, even if it was one warped by his own perceptions. He would have eventually died, and sweet Tommen would have taken the throne, and introduced a bit more kindness.
Before all that, Tywin would have found a way to throw Daenerys back across the sea. That might be the most controversial thing I say in this post, but I believe he would have. Cersei almost managed it and she's the most incompetent of his children. After he finished up with her, he'd face his greatest challenge in the White Walkers. Presuming Tywin allowed Jon to wrest control of the North back, I can only imagine he would be willing to listen to some amount of reason from the Northerners who had been facing the White Walkers in some form or another for years by this point. If for nothing else, to provide a bulwark against the White Walkers while he strengthened out everything below the Neck. After the White Walker's fell, I could even see Tywin working with the remaining Starks to placate the North. Maybe Jon would have been declared a full-Stark. Sam would have never made his way to Oldtown to find out the big secret, and presuming Bran kept his mouth shut, no one would know of Jon's actual origin. Or, Sansa would have married someone, preferably a Stark ally, presuming Tywin doesn't sue for her to marry a Lannister cousin. By this point, the North would be ravaged and a good Southern lord doesn't really care what is happening in the North so long as the wolves fall in line.
I'm gonna need another post to properly analyze the what would have happened after the Great Northern Conspiracy had Tywin been alive (or if we go by the show, the Great Northern Stroke of Good Fortune).
No matter what, Tywin staying alive would have meant a better, more complete Westeros even if for just a time. He was a great ruler with many flaws, comparable to the Caesars and Genghis Khans of the world. A man I admire, while fully realizing his many faults and atrocities. I think he's far enough back in time I can say that without repercussions, right? In a perfect (or maybe just a little better) world Tommen assumes control when Tywin dies with Tyrion acting as Hand of the King while the remaining Starks are left to rebuild the North. Daenerys stays her chapped ass in Essos (chapped from all the dragon riding), perhaps righting some wrongs there. Ned Stark would somehow be alive too, though perhaps we're getting a bit too crazy.
I can dream, I suppose.
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