Because I think he ultimately does care for the good of the realm. He wants to build a kingdom where there isn’t poverty and exploitation, like the world he grew up in.
That’s essentially what he tells Tyrion in Season 5, for what it’s worth (I know the books and the show are different beasts by now, but still.) According to the recent EW issue, Varys says he wants “peace, prosperity. A land where the powerful do not prey on the powerless.” And then he goes on to say the lines about a ruler loved by millions, heard in the trailer. I, for one, believe him.
I do as well. Varys isn’t motivated by money – he got all of that he needed in Pentos. We know he’s got motivations other than power – otherwise, why try to save Gendry?
And then I go back to his childhood. Sold as a slave, horrifically mutilated, homeless, physically abused, survival prostitution – Varys has known what it is to be poor and exploited more than most, and I think he wants a systemic solution.
Yeah, but how is one good ruler a “systematic” solution? Sounds like a lot of work for a temporary band-aid. It’s either kind of a shit plan, or there’s got to be more to the story.
This gets back to the oceans of blood thing. Varys’ plan, as I understand it, is to create enough chaos that the nobility of Westeros – who have blocked all attempts at social reform since Aegon V – will be so exhausted and terrified that they will accept an absolutist king who will completely remake Westerosi society for all time, as long as it means peace. (See Henry VII’s dismantling of bastard feudalism in favor of a more centralized and more parliamentary monarchy) And thus you need an enlightened despot who’ll use that power benevolently.
And of course it’s not going to work. Enlightened despotism never works. But a lot of smart people, from Voltaire on down, fell for it.
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