something about tyrion lannister—the man who treats sex workers like property, fantasizes about raping and killing his sister, slaps his teenage lover for mocking him, makes his child bride undress and proceeds to grope her, strangles his lover to death for humiliating him, rapes multiple enslaved women (on his way to the literal breaker of chains)—being haunted by the question of “where do whores go?” is genuinely horrifying.
after a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse against women—particularly sex workers—now you want to know where whores go? now you’re finally starting to consider them beyond the context of sexual objectification? to understand what could have happened to tysha, tyrion has to understand a group of people who have never even been human to him (and still aren’t, considering that he rapes two enslaved women before asking them this question, though he doesn’t get an answer from either woman). even regarding tysha, tyrion only starts asking “where do whores go?” after finding out that she wasn’t a sex worker and therefore didn’t deserve to be gang raped. tyrion only recognizes her humanity when she’s once again defined as HIS wife.
tyrion will never know where whores go because he doesn’t deserve to. maybe he’ll find peace or maybe he won’t, but he’s never going to find tysha.
and yeah, tyrion’s misogyny and abusive behavior doesn’t exist in a vacuum. he’s a victim of sexual violence at the hands of his father. he resents women for the revulsion and mockery he sees in their eyes when they look at him. he treats sex workers like objects because they’re the only group of people that he can exercise control over. ALL of that is true. and he’s still never going to know where whores go.
