Wiki of Westeros

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Wiki of Westeros

"Let the war... begin!"
―The dwarf[src]

A dwarf made a living by performing for other people's amusement.

Biography[]

Background[]

A dwarf, he makes a living by performing for other people's amusement.[1]

Game of Thrones: Season 4[]

Along with a group of four other dwarfs, he takes part in a mock "reenactment" of the War of the Five Kings at King Joffrey's wedding. He dresses as Joffrey Baratheon and rides a gold lion with antlers representing House Baratheon of King's Landing. He emerges victorious.[1]

Joffrey's uncle Tyrion Lannister, himself a dwarf, is deeply insulted by this spectacle. He instructs Podrick Payne to pay each of the dwarfs 20 Gold Dragons when the play is over. Joffrey mockingly suggests that Tyrion fight the champion dwarf but Tyrion declines. He suggests that Joffrey fight instead but cautions his nephew to be careful as the champion dwarf is clearly mad with lust and it would be a tragedy for the king to lose his virtue hours before his wedding night, which draws a few stifled chuckles from the guests. The champion dwarf is visibly insulted by Tyrion's statement as is Joffrey, who petulantly pours wine over his uncle's head in front of the entire congregation.[1]

Game of Thrones: Season 5[]

503 Dwarf 1 Oppo head

Cersei is presented with yet another dwarf's head, passed off as Tyrion's.

After Tyrion murders his father Tywin and flees King's Landing, Queen Cersei puts a price out on him, offering a lordship to anyone who brings her his head. Many lowlifes start hunting random dwarfs in Westeros, and attempt to pass off their severed heads as Tyrion's.[2]

The dwarf who played Joffrey during the wedding is one of those unfortunate enough to be caught up in the violence. A pair of hunters present his severed head to Cersei, after crudely making a fresh cut across the left side of the face to try to make it look vaguely like Tyrion's disfiguring war wound. However, Cersei sees through the ruse and dismisses the hunters, but tactfully declines Meryn Trant's offer to punish them as that would discourage the other hunters from searching for Tyrion. Cersei tells them to dispose of the head but Qyburn leans in and politely asks if he can keep the head for himself as it might be "useful" in some of his twisted experiments, which Cersei happily obliges.[2]

In the books[]

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, there are only two dwarfs jousting, dressed like Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon. They ride live animals, a dog and a sow. Their real names are revealed in A Dance with Dragons - Oppo (aka Groat) and his sister Penny. Joffrey, however, is mentioned in two songs: Hamish the Harper's Lord Renly's Ride and another song by Galyeon of Cuy praising Joffrey for his bravery in the Battle of the Blackwater.

In the novels, one of the two dwarfs from the mock joust at Joffrey's wedding - the one named Oppo - was indeed later killed at Volantis by bounty hunters hoping to receive Cersei's promised reward of a lordship to the anyone who brought her Tyrion's head.

In the TV version, Cersei is shown rejecting the head of this dwarf from the joust as fake - though in the novels, the scene actually depicted was one in which she rejects the head of a dwarf that Brienne of Tarth met on the road in the Riverlands who was devoted to the Faith of the Seven. That being said, in both the novels and TV series, Cersei mentions that she has been presented with numerous dwarf heads that men are attempting to pass off as Tyrion - so she might have also seen and rejected Oppo's head as well in the novels, just "off-screen"; it is uncertain, though, that those who killed and beheaded Oppo managed to travel from Volantis to King's Landing in time to present his head, before Cersei's downfall.

Appearances[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. In "Winter Is Coming," which takes place in 298 AC, Sansa Stark tells Cersei Lannister that she is 13 years old and Bran Stark tells Jaime Lannister that he is 10 years old. Arya Stark was born between Sansa and Bran, making her either 11 or 12 in Season 1. The rest of the Stark children have been aged up by 2 years from their book ages, so it can be assumed that she is 11 in Season 1. Arya is 18 in Season 8 according to HBO, which means at least 7 years occur in the span of the series; therefore, each season of Game of Thrones must roughly correspond to a year in-universe, placing the events of Season 5 in 302 AC.

External links[]

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