I have a question about the Purple Wedding.
Who done it?
I have read through half of book 5. It’s been about three years since I’ve read the other books. I know Tyrion didn’t do it, though he tells people he did. I don’t recall reading who the murderer actually was. As of the middle of book 5, do we who who did it?
For answers based on the TV show, can you provide evidence?
Olenna Tyrell, using poison snuck in on a hairnet she gave Sansa
Having read the books, the TV show hinted at it, but it was very subtle I’m not sure it was picked up on.
Margaery’s grandmother - Lady Olenna Tyrell - Note her remarks on the Red Wedding to Sansa…
Confused about what [Spoilers] means in the rule scheme, but this is something that happens in the ASoS, so you should be caught up:
Shortly after he absconds with Sansa, there’s a part where Littlefinger goes into Bond villian mode and explains how the whole thing went down. I didn’t really remember it either. I feel like the show is so far making Olenna’s involvement a little more obvious, but that might just be because I cruised through the book and missed it whereas I have a whole week here to stew between episodes.
‘Spoilers’ in the title is a warning that this thread contains spoilers about the Purple Wedding. It’s also a warning that the answer may be found somewhere in the books (up to the middle of the fifth one), and that the revelation may be posted here.
As far as I’m concerned, since I warned about spoilers in the title and I have read to a certain point, spoilers in the thread need not be boxed – at least to the middle of book 5.
Yeah, it’s been a long time. I don’t remember that at all. Can you (or anybody) recap how it went down according to Littlefinger?
Oh it is a much expanded role on TV vs. the books. If you get Dame Diana Rigg you don’t waste her ;). The poisoner is only found out in retrospect in the books, whereas the shows gives serious hints. A real strength of the TV show IMHO. Cersei, Olenna and Margaery in particular have all been much better served on film than on the page.
Edited to remove not really necessary spoiler tags, per Johnny L.A. - it’s all his fault :D.
For an explanation of how things went down in the books, read this article.
For the TV show, you can find a decent breakdown here.
Littlefinger says to Sansa something like, “I would wager that sometime during the evening someone came over to you and adjusted your hairnet.”
Thanks for the replies. I found this spoiling link in another thread just now, and Lakai’s first link was very helpful.
I still don’t remember the specific scene from the book, but a couple of things did sound familiar.
Since my question has been answered, I have another one regarding events at the Purple Wedding. After Joffrey hacks the pie, there’s a quick closeup of the cut pie. I didn’t catch what was being shown. Was it a killed bird? (Oh, yummy.)
Ah, gotcha. The rules thread says to say open, boxed or no spoilers. But whatever, I think [Spoilers] is plenty clear.
Anyways, the basic gist of it is that Littlefinger says that he orchestrated it basically to stir things up. Remember his “chaos is the ladder” spiel. He has Dontos get Sansa to wear the jeweled hairnet with the poisoned gem things on it, Olenna grabs the poison and then gets it in the cup. Littlefinger then kills Dontos to tie up the loose end and heads off with Sansa.
I do think it still remains to be seen whether Littlefinger’s stake in the plot really was simply sowing chaos. It could be that the entirety of his interest in the plot was making Sansa an unwitting participant in it so she’d have flee with him. We might have to see what his endgame is exactly before we know for sure.
I think part of my not remembering Olenna Tyrell’s role in the plot is that I didn’t find her character all that interesting in the books and so didn’t really care too much about that big reveal. The showrunners and the actress have done a really good job with the character on the show, though.
More than one killed bird, I think.
(Earlier in one of the GoT threads, someone cited the dismembered birds as proof that the pie was NOT poisoned, since ‘poison doesn’t decapitate’ or words to that effect. Forgotten was the possibility that the birds could have been poisoned by the pie and THEN dismembered by Joffrey’s sword.)
I had the same problem with Melissandre. Didn’t pay any attention to her at all until Dragons, and then only because she has such a prominent role in the show. Even after we saw the powerful magic, her character didn’t really register with me.
What page? 
Why does he tell people he did?
I don’t recall.
ISTR that someone (Jaimie?) asked him if he did it, and Tyrion said ‘Yes.’ I was not clear on the motivation. Might have been, ‘Well, they’re going to pin it on me anyway. Eff it.’
Yeah, it’s Jaime, and it’s in response to being asked just after Jaime’s admitted to the truth about Tyrion’s first marriage. So the motivation was anger and a desire to hurt.
Here’s the thread describing the compulsory labeling convention.
I’ve reported this thread for title modification.
It’s worth noting that most of the evidence we have that it’s Olenna Tyrell comes from Littlefinger saying it directly to Sansa, and Martin’s used the unreliable narrator/flat-out lying character before. But the plan just matches up too well, and I think it’s safe to assume Littlefinger’s telling the truth.