Tyrion Lannister strangled Shae in Geroge R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s adaptation of the material, Game of Thrones. She met the same fate, at the hands of the same man, in the same predicament: Tywin Lannister’s bed. both in the show and the novel. However, everything that led to the moment could not be more different, as the Shae that audiences see in the show was on a very different trajectory compared to her counterpart in the novels.
HBO had taken some liberties with George R.R. Martin’s work, mostly because, as the author explained, the studio wished to fit the epic tale into the budget that was allocated to the adaptation. This resulted in certain characters being fused, while others met more gruesome fates than their novel counterparts. However, the changes made to Shae’s story only made the character meet a more tragic end, even if the circumstances of her murder mirrored what happened in the books.
In books, Shae was a much more materialistic character
In George R.R. Martin‘s books, the character of Shae is concerned with one thing and one thing alone: moving up from her station as a prostitute. She views Tyrion Lannister as her road to high society, happily serving as his mistress as long as he showers her with silks and jewels. However, Tyrion Lannister lets his heart get the better of him and assumes that Shae feels the same.
This causes Tyrion to reassign Shae as a handmaiden to the simple daughter of Lady Tanda Stokeworth, Lollys Stokeworth. Even after she is inducted into Sansa’s service later in the books, she expects Tyrion to continue their relationship, which up until the point, at least for Shae, had been defined by the many gifts that Tyrion had showered her with. These were all stripped from her before he moved into the Red Keep, which she hoped to get back.
Shae, following Tyrion’s imprisonment, would go on to betray him, openly talking about the intimate details of their relationship during Tyrion’s trial. Given that at this point Tywin and Cersei had gotten to the young maid, who had been stripped of all the money and gifts she was given by Tyrion Lannister, it made no sense for her to stay loyal to the character.
In the show, Shae seems to love Tyrion genuinely
HBO’s version of Shae asserts her loyalty to Peter Dinklage‘s Tyrion several times, despite the gold plot being absent in the show. There is genuine affection between the duo, which becomes muddled when Tyrion is forced to marry Sansa. Shae shows genuine jealousy at the tenderness and care that Tyrion shows to the Sansa. His feelings are further corroborated by the fact that she asked Tyrion to leave Westeros with her after he was injured in the Battle of Blackwater Bay. In that same conversation, she also asserts that she is not with Tyrion for the money, and genuinely wishes to be with him.
Shae is also a lot more sympathetic to Sansa’s plight as well, showing genuine care and affection for the Stark girl. She tries to assist Sansa in hiding her first period, while also instructing her what to do should the city fall during the battle of Blackwater Bay.
However, Tyrion calls her a wh*re when he tries to convince her to leave, which ultimately leads to her thinking that the younger Lannister never thought of her as anything more. This, combined with the fact that Cersei and Tywin could have gotten to her, causes her to testify against Tyrion during his trial, where she echoes the words that Tyrion used to alienate her in a bid to get her to safety.
Shae’s fate in the books and the show might be the same, but her story in Game of Thrones is a bigger tragedy than in A Song of Ice and Fire
Given that in the show, Shae’s love for Tyrion was genuine, the fact that the younger Lannister murdered her with his own two hands makes her fate infinitely more tragic than in the novels, despite it being the same in the books.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, Shae wants to move on from the station that she has been given in her life, with Tyrion Lannister serving as a means to that end. As soon as Tyrion stops being a source of what she wants in life, Shae starts looking for an out, which she gets in the form of testifying against him.
However, when Tyrion escapes and encounters her in her father’s chambers, unlike the show, Shae tries to reason with Tyrion, defending her actions and why she is in his father’s bed. However, her choice of words, calling him ‘giant of Lannister’ is what does in the end, cause Tyrion to murder her, before he goes on to kill his father.
In the show, Shae tries to murder Tyrion, and Tyrion has to kill her in self-defense. In both the show and the books, Shae seems to have gone to Tywin’s bed willingly, albeit under different circumstances. The books point towards her seeing Tywin as her next step into high society, while the show has her believing that Tyrion saw her as nothing but a whore and there was no genuine connection between the two.
Tyrion’s love for Shae was genuine in the books and the television show. While he failed to see that Shae did not love him back in the books, the fact that he would go to any length to distance her from himself for her safety is what did the love story in in the show, which wrote more heartache into the story of Tyrion Lannister, who has always had a rotten luck with love anyway.
