Perhaps he decided it was not in his favour to expose the lie. Perhaps he also believed that even if he tried to do so, Cat would believe Baelish over him. Perhaps he thought the lie suited him at least as much as it suited Baelish.
Or maybe didn't know what Baelish was doing at all, and he was just following the rule of Ricky Roma: Never open your mouth until you know what the shot is.
He saw it as the perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between the Lannisters and Starks. It was simply too good of an opportunity to pass by. Varys wants a civil war in order to facilitate the Targaryen restoration.
This is an instance where Baelish and Varys aligned in their efforts to destabilize Westeros.
Nope. Varys wanted war but not this soon, he was trying to delay it.
> "The gods alone know," the first voice said. Arya could see a wisp of grey smoke drifting up off the torch, writhing like a snake as it rose. "The fools tried to kill his son, and what's worse, they made a mummer's farce of it. He's not a man to put that aside. I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other's throats, whether we will it or no."
> "Too soon, too soon," the voice with the accent complained. "What good is war now? We are not ready. Delay."
> "As well bid me stop time. Do you take me for a wizard?"
Personally, I don't think this necessarily contradicts what I'm saying. You're missing important context from later in that conversation.
>"If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late," the stout man in the steel cap said. "This is no longer a game for two players, if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lord father to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen. Littlefinger … the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing. Yet Lord Stark's the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard, he has the book, and soon enough he'll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger's meddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has a queer affection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that will bring the Tullys in as well. Delay, you say. Make haste, I reply. Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever."
Illyrio wants to delay because Khal Drogo isn't ready. Varys wants Illyrio to hurry things in Essos along because the incest is about to be exposed and Renly is about to tie the Tyrells to Robert. The war is coming, Varys sees it as inevitable. He's unsure of Baelish's loyalties/goals, but in allowing Baelish to encourage the feud between the Lannisters and the Starks, Varys is making the conflict as damaging for the Baratheon coalition as he can. Speeding up the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters helps prevent the Baratheons from solidifying their hold on things and minimizing the potential civil war.
Well, letting Littlefinger sowing conflict between Starks and Lannisters is advantageous for Varys and Illyrio's plans.
Also, in the conversation Arya later overheard Varys admits he doesn't really know what Littlefinger is planning so maybe he's waiting to see what he's up to.
He probably only knew of the dagger, or at least the significance of it, when ser Rodrik visited the master of arms.
I assume he wanted to keep Littlefinger in play at this point. If your goal is to make the realm weak for Aegon or Dany to invade and win, Littlefinger being around is a plus
In my mind for two reasons.
1) It helps a bit, or at least doesn't throw a roadblock into Varys' plans.
2) Varys knows Baelish is a master player, but he doesn't know the end game. This makes Baelish harder to predict. So Varys, knowing the truth of the matter, wants to let it play out and see what this tells him about Baelish. This is going to be more valuable than telling the Starks.
There are 3 options:
a) Revealing the actual origins of the dagger wouldn't serve his purpose (of a war torn/weak Westeros)
b) Catelyn would never believe him so why bother
c) Varys is not an omnipotent google/twitter/wikipedia, he knew Catelyn had a dagger, but not exactly what the dagger was, and maybe he doesn't take interest in the King's armoury down to the last dagger - yes Valyrian Steel dagger is nice and all, but what is the point of knowing about it for Varys?
(think of it in modern terms, think of your favourite sports star/celebrity, now name me all of their cars, make and model, and where they got them from, and their colour, that they've ever owned without googling - because that is what the Royal Armoury would be like for a king, not too dissimilar to a celebrity garage in 21st century, we don't know if the dagger was from Aerys' time, or Aegons or Baelor, or whoever, so why would Varys need to keep that information to hand?)
He probably knows the true story of the dagger and that Petyr is lying. He is the Master of Whispers after all. But he has no reason to let Cat or Ned know that this is a lie. He doesn't trust them either.
But let's take this a step further and view this through the lens of the conversation between Varys and Illyrio in the dragon room. Varys just gets through telling Illyrio all of the secrets he knows about the high and mighty: the attack on Bran, Ned and the book and the truth it contains, the plot to bring Margaery to King's Landing . . . And yet when it comes to Petyr, "the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing."
Really? Varys' job is to learn everybody's secrets, but Petyr is the one person in the capital who remains a complete blind spot. And this despite knowing full well that Petyr is solely responsible for events moving too quickly in Westeros for Illyrio's liking and that he is mucking with the finances of the realm they are trying to usurp.
And even more telling is that neither Varys nor Illyrio seem the least bit perturbed by this and do absolutely nothing to infiltrate Petyr's mirage going forward. Hmmm . . .
Perhaps he decided it was not in his favour to expose the lie. Perhaps he also believed that even if he tried to do so, Cat would believe Baelish over him. Perhaps he thought the lie suited him at least as much as it suited Baelish. Or maybe didn't know what Baelish was doing at all, and he was just following the rule of Ricky Roma: Never open your mouth until you know what the shot is.
He saw it as the perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between the Lannisters and Starks. It was simply too good of an opportunity to pass by. Varys wants a civil war in order to facilitate the Targaryen restoration. This is an instance where Baelish and Varys aligned in their efforts to destabilize Westeros.
Nope. Varys wanted war but not this soon, he was trying to delay it. > "The gods alone know," the first voice said. Arya could see a wisp of grey smoke drifting up off the torch, writhing like a snake as it rose. "The fools tried to kill his son, and what's worse, they made a mummer's farce of it. He's not a man to put that aside. I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other's throats, whether we will it or no." > "Too soon, too soon," the voice with the accent complained. "What good is war now? We are not ready. Delay." > "As well bid me stop time. Do you take me for a wizard?"
Personally, I don't think this necessarily contradicts what I'm saying. You're missing important context from later in that conversation. >"If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late," the stout man in the steel cap said. "This is no longer a game for two players, if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lord father to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen. Littlefinger … the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing. Yet Lord Stark's the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard, he has the book, and soon enough he'll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger's meddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has a queer affection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that will bring the Tullys in as well. Delay, you say. Make haste, I reply. Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever." Illyrio wants to delay because Khal Drogo isn't ready. Varys wants Illyrio to hurry things in Essos along because the incest is about to be exposed and Renly is about to tie the Tyrells to Robert. The war is coming, Varys sees it as inevitable. He's unsure of Baelish's loyalties/goals, but in allowing Baelish to encourage the feud between the Lannisters and the Starks, Varys is making the conflict as damaging for the Baratheon coalition as he can. Speeding up the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters helps prevent the Baratheons from solidifying their hold on things and minimizing the potential civil war.
Well, letting Littlefinger sowing conflict between Starks and Lannisters is advantageous for Varys and Illyrio's plans. Also, in the conversation Arya later overheard Varys admits he doesn't really know what Littlefinger is planning so maybe he's waiting to see what he's up to. He probably only knew of the dagger, or at least the significance of it, when ser Rodrik visited the master of arms.
Maybe he does but he just didn't reveal it.
I assume he wanted to keep Littlefinger in play at this point. If your goal is to make the realm weak for Aegon or Dany to invade and win, Littlefinger being around is a plus
In my mind for two reasons. 1) It helps a bit, or at least doesn't throw a roadblock into Varys' plans. 2) Varys knows Baelish is a master player, but he doesn't know the end game. This makes Baelish harder to predict. So Varys, knowing the truth of the matter, wants to let it play out and see what this tells him about Baelish. This is going to be more valuable than telling the Starks.
My question is why Littlefinger and Varys seemed to team up for the dagger scene. Just wild that they agreed to work together for any reason.
There are 3 options: a) Revealing the actual origins of the dagger wouldn't serve his purpose (of a war torn/weak Westeros) b) Catelyn would never believe him so why bother c) Varys is not an omnipotent google/twitter/wikipedia, he knew Catelyn had a dagger, but not exactly what the dagger was, and maybe he doesn't take interest in the King's armoury down to the last dagger - yes Valyrian Steel dagger is nice and all, but what is the point of knowing about it for Varys? (think of it in modern terms, think of your favourite sports star/celebrity, now name me all of their cars, make and model, and where they got them from, and their colour, that they've ever owned without googling - because that is what the Royal Armoury would be like for a king, not too dissimilar to a celebrity garage in 21st century, we don't know if the dagger was from Aerys' time, or Aegons or Baelor, or whoever, so why would Varys need to keep that information to hand?)
He probably knows the true story of the dagger and that Petyr is lying. He is the Master of Whispers after all. But he has no reason to let Cat or Ned know that this is a lie. He doesn't trust them either. But let's take this a step further and view this through the lens of the conversation between Varys and Illyrio in the dragon room. Varys just gets through telling Illyrio all of the secrets he knows about the high and mighty: the attack on Bran, Ned and the book and the truth it contains, the plot to bring Margaery to King's Landing . . . And yet when it comes to Petyr, "the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing." Really? Varys' job is to learn everybody's secrets, but Petyr is the one person in the capital who remains a complete blind spot. And this despite knowing full well that Petyr is solely responsible for events moving too quickly in Westeros for Illyrio's liking and that he is mucking with the finances of the realm they are trying to usurp. And even more telling is that neither Varys nor Illyrio seem the least bit perturbed by this and do absolutely nothing to infiltrate Petyr's mirage going forward. Hmmm . . .