It is Tyrion's trial. As I write this I do not yet know the outcome. He considers trial by combat, but it would be against GREGOR and Bronn is not willing to fight for him unless Tyrion can offer him a better castle and bride than the one Cersei has offered him. (I'm not sure what good all this land ownership is supposed to do. The obvious answer is security for yourself and your offspring, except you're also on the hook to whatever superior lord lives nearby and have to do whatever insane and dangerous deeds he wants his bannerman to do. So you either obey him and risk death and ruin, or else he chops off your head and steals your castle anyway. Even the winner of the game of thrones might get usurped to death any minute. Why can't everyone agree to just get along?)
The judges are Tyrell, Oberyn and Tywin. Bringing those two together ought to be a recipe for drama but the death of the king overshadows all, I suppose.
Endless witnesses are brought out against Tyrion. It's as if the entire series of books up to this point is a set-up against him. Nearly everything he has done has been in self-defence, in defence of good people (such as the time he saved Sansa from Joffrey) or for the good of his family. But because Cersei and Joffrey hate him and taunt him so much, everything good he has done can be made to look bad. It is almost Kafkaesque. Even Varys is no use. Varys seems to know everything. I would imagine he knows who really did it, but he is not saying. It is hard to see how Tyrion can get out of this one.
In a normal courtroom drama, everything would be made to look hopeless but there would be some game-changing revelations in the nick of time. I am not sure GRRM will follow a pattern like that.
And now Oberyn has come to visit Tyrion. Will he offer a way out, perhaps?
Ah, well, sort of. We finally get a fairly straight explanation of how each of the Targaryens died during Robert's usurping. Jaime killed mad king Aerys, as we know. Armory Lorch killed Princess Rhaenys (and was later killed by a bear at Harrenhal). GREGOR killed Prince Aegon. Oberyn wants GREGOR dead. So naturally he offers to be Tyrion's champion in a trial by combat. Might be worth a try!
But also, somewhat unsatisfying. I mean, does anyone really believe that trial by combat proves anything? Won't they think Tyrion was just lucky to get away with it? And I was rather hoping the Hound might eventually kill GREGOR.
