Game Of Thrones: 5 Ways Olenna Was The Worst Tyrell (& 5 Ways Margaery Was)

“Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.” Olenna aka The Queen of Thorns, told Jaime just before she died. She had done everything in her power to protect House Tyrell, an inheritance that wasn’t hers, to begin with. Olenna was one of the smartest players of ‘The Game’ in Westeros and also one of the most dangerous women in Game of Thrones.

Cunning and calculating, Olenna found a way of getting her granddaughter in the Red Keep and The Crown in the Tyrells’ debt. Margaery was her granddaughter and her best student but as it turned out, she just wasn’t good enough. The two women were both ambitious though, and if Cersei hadn’t stopped them, would have ended up ruling The Seven Kingdoms. So which of the two queens of High Garden was the worst of the Tyrells?

10 Olenna: She Stole Her Sister’s Betrothed

Viola Redwyne was Olenna’s sister who was initially betrothed to Luthor Tyrell, the heir to High Garden but Olenna did the unimaginable to become a member of House Tyrell. She was herself betrothed to a Targaryen but rejected the engagement because she didn’t like his silver hair. Olenna then got “lost” on her way from her embroidery class and found her way into little Luthor’s room the day before he was to propose to Viola.

The following day, Luthor couldn’t walk because of what Olenna did to him the night before, so he didn’t show up to propose to poor Viola. Luthor fell in love with whatever Olenna gave him that day, and it was all he could think about. That is how Olenna got married to ‘The Oaf” which made her the heir to High Garden and The Reach.

9 Margaery: Marrying Her Brother’s Lover

Renly Baratheon was gay and that was an unwelcome trait in the Seven Kingdoms; not that it wasn’t being practiced in secret. Renly’s homosexuality was known to many people in King’s Landing though, as was his affair with Loras Tyrell. Being the heir to High Garden and Olenna’s son, Loras’ sexuality was also a problem for House Tyrell.

Olenna and Mace then betrothed Margaery to Renly, to whom she got married although the marriage was never consummated for the whole two weeks that it lasted. Margaery knew well that the marriage wouldn’t work and that Loras was in love with Renly but she still entered the marriage.

8 Olenna: She Allied With The Lannisters

The Rains Of Castemere was a popular song in Westeros warning everyone how an alliance with Tywin Lannister would end but Olenna seems to have forgotten. Tywin was the most dangerous man in Westeros and Olenna knew it but she still allied with him after Renly Baratheon’s death.

Her alliance with Tywin was the beginning of the end for House Tyrell, and she obviously knew how dangerous it was because she confessed to Tywin’s brutality when he forced her to agree to Loras’ marriage to Cersei. Olenna had many options including Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon, but she chose the Lannisters anyway.

7 Margaery: She Played Sansa

Margaery knew how to fight her way to the top thanks to her grandmother’s tricks, but she didn’t have to rub it in Sansa’s face. Her treatment of Sansa was one of the coldest Sansa received while in King’s Landing. Sansa was an innocent orphan who had lost everything but stayed around and tried to survive.

Margaery didn’t care about Joffrey, just the throne. She also knew that Sansa had no chance against The Tyrells and The Lannisters combined, so the least she could do was be sympathetic to the naive orphan. She chose to toy with Sansa’s emotions instead, only making her pain worse.

6 Olenna: She Murdered Joffrey At His Wedding

Joffrey’s death is probably the one good thing Olenna did in Game of Thrones but it didn’t make her a saint. The murder was so horrible that even Olenna got scared.

While most fans agree that his death was a relief, the way it happened was brutal and Olenna was still a monster for doing it. She killed the boy at his own wedding, just after betrothing her granddaughter to him. If she was so keen on protecting Margaery, she should never have allowed the union to happen in the first place. Better still, she could have found another way to kill him after the wedding.

5 Margaery: Seducing Tommen

Margaery Tyrell was willing to marry anyone that would get her to the throne, so when Joffrey died, Tommen was her next catch, except he was a 9-year old boy. Tommen didn’t know anything about falling in love, he was just a poor boy forced to grow up too fast because his mother and grandfather needed a pawn.

Margaery’s tricks worked because the Lannisters didn’t have any better choice for a queen, but the cost was too high. Tommen innocently fell in love making him the victim when the war between the Lannisters and the Tyrells and the High Sparrow reached its peak. The doomed marriage evolved from child abuse to murder when the poor boy committed suicide because his ‘beloved’ was dead.

4 Olenna: She Framed Sansa For Joffrey’s Murder

Olenna did despicable things for her family but agreeing with Baelish to use Sansa in her worst of times was just too evil of her. First, she tried to marry Sansa to Loras to get control of Winterfell, then turned around and turned her into Tywin’s enemy, a place even Olenna herself wouldn’t want to be.

When Olenna called Sansa and asked her about Joffrey, she got the poor girl to confess that Joffrey was a monster but she loved him anyway. Olenna then decided to use that to save Margaery while writing Sansa’s death sentence. The least Sansa expected, was to be accused of murdering her Joffrey.

3 Margaery: Trusting The High Sparrow

Margaery knew how to play pious and earn the love of the common folk but the High Sparrow was too radical even by her standards. Being a queen, Margaery should have known better than to side with a cult leader against a person as dangerous as Cersei. The High Sparrow was a dangerous man that nearly brought down all the nobles of Westeros. He was cunning and couldn’t be trusted, and Margaery, with all that training, should have known that.

When she found herself in the High Sparrow’s cells, it was time for her to apply the lessons her grandmother told her about “trusting clever people.” However, Margaery folded to the faith militant’s will confessing to bogus charges and agreeing to work with someone whose politics obviously had no future in King’s Landing.

2 Olenna: She Lost High Garden

Like the Starks in the North, the Tyrells knew better than to raise their swords against Aegon the conqueror. They bent the knee and were in return named the Lords Paramount of The Reach, a position that made the Tyrells a Great House for over three hundred years.

When Olenna found herself in charge, she lost sight of what was really important, spending too much time squabbling with the Lannisters. The Lannisters stood no chance against a united High Garden because it was the bread basket of King’s Landing. Olenna got too greedy and entered alliances without a proper plan leaving The Reach vulnerable to Cersei.

1 Margaery: She Underestimated Cersei

Cersei Lannister was the most dangerous woman in the world as alluded by Tyrion, and the worst mistake the Tyrells ever made was underestimating her. When Cersei was distracted while mourning Joffrey, Margaery took advantage and got herself named as Tommen’s queen. It was a small victory but Margaery wouldn’t stop rubbing it in Cersei’s face.

She also supported the High Sparrow hoping to use him to get rid of Cersei forgetting that Cersei was in control of The Small Council and most of the resources of the crown. On the day of the trial, Tommen was a no show, a sign Margaery should have read early enough, but she didn’t know until the sept was about to explode.

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