Worf is a battle-hardened Klingon warrior who gets his ass kicked constantly. Star Trek: The Next Generation made Worf a victim of his own success, establishing his hardass bonafides so thoroughly that every monster-of-the-week would get a chance to thump him. Need a quick way to demonstrate that the episode’s single appearance antagonist is tough? Have him or her beat Worf to a pulp. Worf was so useful in this role that he wound up losing more fights than he won.
Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 5, “The Door,” cast Varys in the same position, the guy with the tough reputation that a new character gets to put in his place.
Hoping to drum up support for Daenerys Targaryen in her absence, Tyrion Lannister and Varys meet with the High Priestess of the Red Temple of Volantis, a worshipper of the Lord of Light like Melisandre. After Varys scoffs at her piety — noting Melisandre’s failed predictions for Stannis Baratheon — the High Priestess slaps him down, reducing Varys to a quivering lump by recollecting, in detail, his castration at the hands of an evil wizard.
Varys, the Worf of Game of Thrones, had been slapped down to prove how tough a new character could be.
This isn’t necessarily damning for Varys as a character, Worf is beloved despite his adorable propensity for always being wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edflm7Hh3hshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edflm7Hh3hs
But it is an indication that Varys doesn’t really have much to do. What happened to the Master of Whispers would could make or break any Westerosi noble? We continue to see Littlefinger in the same position, travelling around the land and stirring up trouble, but Varys has been largely reduced to a funny sidekick for Tyrion.
Will Varys remain the Worf of Essos and Westeros, or will he finally jump back into the ring and prove why we called him The Spider in the first place? He has 5 more episodes in Season 6 to prove he’s more than a Klingon out of place, existing only to be pummelled by tougher characters.
