Is Mace Tyrell a Secret Genius? (ASOIAF Theory Feat. Fantasy Haven!)

A Song of Ice and Fire is filled with a massive variety of characters each room has a distinct personality skill set and goals some of these characters wear these facets of themselves and their sleeves While others hide their true motivations in the hopes that whatever grand scheme they're planning will unfold without the notice of their arrivals characters like Littlefinger and Varys fall into this latter category and certain fans even believe that another small council member maybe even subtle

r in his workings than these players some believe that Mace Tyrell a man usually thought of as a buffoon is actually an expert player in the Game of Thrones while people do believe that I am not people that is why I brought in one of those conspiracy theorists today to discuss the very slight possibility of Mace Tyrell being a secret genius welcome back to the Channel Fantasy Haven introduce yourself for those who might not know hello it's me the late Lord Haven if you don't know me I do animate

d lore videos and live streams and other fun stuff but today I'm here to tell you why Mace Tyrell is a 4D chess master not that I fully agree but it's always fun to play Devil's Advocate before we jump into talking about mace himself we should take a look at his family the main brains the Tyrell operation seems to be the queen of thorens Elena Tyrell it's both implied and stated throughout the series that the men of the Tyrell family have at least in recent history not been the brightest bulbs i

n the shed the prime example of this is mace's Father Laura Luther Tyrell who might have my favorite death in the series maybe tied with my car Targaryen he was Hawking and rode his horse off a cliff because he wasn't looking where they were going the first time mace pops up was an important player in Westeros is during Robert's Rebellion the tyrells remained loyal to the targaryens which is actually a bit of a strange move the other great house that remained loyal were the martells but they wer

e directly tied to the crown through elia's marriage to rhaegar the tyrells had no such ties yet remained on the side of the Dragon Kings throughout this period it's from this war where we begin to hear of mace's accomplishments I'm doing air quotes even though you can't see me at a glance these accomplishments do seem quite admirable he's credited as the only man to defeat Robert Baratheon in battle during the Rebellion a feat that's not even accomplished by my beloved John connington however t

his isn't as much of a credit to mace as one would believe it was Lord Randall tarly samo's father who did the bulk of the work as the battle was pretty much entirely won by his Vanguard before mace even arrived on the field after this battle mace went on to lead the siege of Storm's end where he sat and feasted for pretty much a year doing nearly nothing sure it was a decent move to stay out of the fighting and just sit in the siege for tremendous amount of time but he does ultimately lose this

Siege Stannis Baratheon holds firm as the one true king always does and the castle does not fall the grand Siege efforts made by the lord of the flowers are ultimately defeated by one humble onion Smuggler whether Mace Tyrell or Randall tarly truly earned the victory at Ashford is irrelevant what matters is the perception of power mace takes the credit deliberately and word of mouth and song builds up his reputation and solidifies his hold over the reach as for Storm's end well by staying South

he protected the bulk of his army from the fierce fighting further north he created a win-win scenario for himself if the Mad King won mace moving granted the stormland's castle itself Robert won instead and the status quo remained notice the psychological warfare mace played hosting Grand feasts outside the starving castle walls this is a man of Ruthless cunning we only hear of one thing that mace does between Bobby's battles and the time period covered by A Song of Ice and Fire and that's pre

ssure his son to participate in sports earlier than he should he tells his son Willis to joustin attorney which results in his Heir being crippled by Oberyn Martell The Red Viper this increases the already existing Bad Blood between the martells and the tyrells but at least Oberyn Willis seem chill with it they're pen pals which is pretty nice other than that mace does what he specializes in that being nothing for about 20 years and then the main Story begins he doesn't appear in the first book

A Game of Thrones nor does anyone in this house other than Loris but his family is supposedly involved in some schemes therein allegedly Renly Baratheon was planning on a re-wetting Robert to Marjorie Tyrell only to have the King die and Renly then formed this marriage pact himself in Clash we see the continuation of this Renly Tyrell Alliance Renly declares himself the rightful King and naming Mace Tyrell as his hand the supposed King has a massive hosted Storm's end though mesis forces being t

he largest part of the army remain in the reach and take a very slow march on the capital in doing so mace closes the Rose Road which on first land doesn't seem like a massive deal but it is the primary route through which food shipments go towards the majority of the Seven Kingdoms this ultimately results in the riot in King's Landing that we see from tyrions and sansa's perspectives with Tywin tied up in the riverlands it's almost guaranteed that Renly will crush Stannis and take King's Landin

g siding with him which secured him his hand and his daughter marjorie's Queen was the smartest play again we see mace's ruthless cunning at work he exploits the natural advantage of ruling a breadbasket to trigger a famine and Stoke riots in King's Landing divide and conquer Renly is unfortunately killed probably by Brienne of Tarth and suddenly the tyrells are left without an ally luckily they're able to join their strength to that of the Lannisters crushing Stannis Baratheon on the Blackwater

in delivering a decisive victory for King Joffrey all while arranging from Marjorie to be made Queen Once Again however while this was a masterful political stroke mace has pretty much nothing to do with it the alliance is fully negotiated by Littlefinger and for his efforts the Mockingbird is awarded harrenal Littlefinger is a smart man but it was Macy negotiated with at high Garden mace was faced with a decision joining Stannis or Joffrey he chose correctly once a traitor to the crown mace No

w find himself greatly empowered Marjorie is once again a queen his son Garland becomes Lord of Brightwater keep and his gay son lorus joins the esteemed kingsguard if you want further proof of mace's shrewd nature he downright refuses tywin's offer of marriage between Cersei and the Tyro Heir Willis a storm of Sword sees mace take up life at court in King's Landing he's named the master of ships and begins to serve on the small Council during this time he also lives in the maiden vaults which I

just discovered in researching which is a weird detail uh that aside a lot happens in King's Landing during storm the most important of which is Joffrey's death the only real notable action he has in the story during this book is acting as one of the three judges at tyrion's trial where he aims to find Tyrion guilty because Marjorie was drinking from The legendly Poisoned cup as well despite mesa's desire to prosecute Tyrion he does not seem to notice the fact that his own mother is the actual

culprit for this crime this is nonsense not only is Mace aware of olena's actions he ordered them she is the shriveled puppet dancing to the tune of mace's doset tones the queen of thorns takes part in littlefinger's negotiations she plans to marry Sansa to Willis Tyrell she poisons Joffrey all while disparaging her oath of her son as a result one of the most powerful men in the Seven Kingdoms is still underestimated as a threat just the way he likes it few would suspect a little old lady to be

an assassin and mace's Bluster as a judge during tyrion's trial is a brilliant way of diverting blame the oath of highgarden indeed mesa's position at court is weakened slightly in A Feast for Crows Cersei is incredibly paranoid about the tyrells which results in her attempting and failing to pack the small Council in her favor mesa's daughter is then wed to tommen which seemingly secures the family's position regardless of The Dowager Queen's meddling Mesa soon discharged from the capital order

ed to reclaim Storm's end for the crown which marks the second of three times that mace is going to try and fail to capture Storm's end I'll also note this is the only time I'm going to bet for mace in the entire video and it stems from Feast cersei's Council in the book is either plotting against her or incredibly dumb in the TV show portrayed mace's time on the cancel as incredibly and unreasonably unintelligent however in the books that role is more filled by Lord Horace Swift who serves as t

ommen's hand for a Time mace does seem a little buffoonish at times in storm but overall his role in the council in dance and in Feast is okay well mace is gone Cersei schemes against Marjorie these schemes result in both Queens being deposed by the faith militant which naturally enrages mace both Marge and Cersei are held for trial neither which have occurred yet as of the end of A Dance with Dragons towards the end of that book lord Tyrell returns to King's Landing to serve as the hand of the

king the highest title he's ever held while awaiting his daughter's trial that trial should be taking place shortly as Mason tends to ride for Storm's end as soon as it's concluded to Halt the invasion of King aegon VI Targaryen everyone seems to think that aegon's a pretty big threat but mace is straight up refusing to leave the capital until the end of his daughter's trial he also intends to name his uncle Garth the gross as master of coin neither of which seem like particularly inspired polit

ical moves mace Tyro is perhaps the most powerful man in Westeros right now his army is relatively intact his harvests are Bountiful and his family is strategically placed a daughter married to a naive King a warrior son in the kingsguard another ruling is a Lord and the eldest opened to Future marriage alliances mace himself sits on the small Council as hand of the king with two of his vassals packs to red wine as master of ships and Randall tarly as master of law his uncles may arrive soon pai

sal is dead leaving the door open for maester Gorman and as Quinn said Garth the gross will soon replace Sahara Swift as master of coin that's five Council positions I called that a Tyrell sweep overall mace tyrell's time in the story is quite remarkable in terms of the workings of the plot the tyrells are an incredibly influential house and their support means the world to various parties throughout the series however the base of this House's power seems to stem from pun intended the resources

the reach cultivates rather than the strength of its Lord what's more we know the most important action taken by the reach so far in the story that being the poisoning of Joffrey was undergone not by Lord Tyrell but by his mother overall I don't think mace is intelligent or unintelligent he just sort of seems like a guy if anything his defining trait seems to be being slow to act and generally a bit lazy all of his actions be them politically or military intended typically come after significant

delay and don't result in him doing all that much if I give you Quinn it's okay to be objectively wrong about mace the ace the Chad of highgarden the man with a higher IQ than season 8 Prime on my channel Quinn helped me with a video about the history of house Tyrell so feel free to check that out and thanks for having me Quinn thank you so much for coming on fantasy Haven it's great to have you back I really hope people enjoyed your presence here be sure to check out his channel it's linked in

the description and he we also did a video over there about the history of Taos Tyrell where I cover the Targaryen era so be sure to check that out as well if you want to see more of me more of him more of both uh I'll have more videos for you in the near future law school has very much started kicking my ass but I am going to keep up hopefully consistent weekly uploads uh thank you all again so much for watching be sure to like comment and subscribe if you enjoyed the video and I will see you

all again in the near future goodbye