Because he isn’t a “Westeros men of his class.” Varys is known to be a foreigner, and to be a eunuch, and not highborn either (only a lord by courtesy), so trying to assimilate would only bring about the sneering disdain of nobility for parvenus.
Moreover, as we see from his disguises, Varys’ very unassimilated appearance is actually quite useful to him. People are so used to seeing the elaborately dressed and perfumed court eunuch, simpering in falsetto, that when he puts on boiled leather and speaks in a rough voice, no one would think it’s him.
Here’s the thing that people don’t get about the wineseller: the whole thing was staged to push Khal Drogo into accelerating his plans for invasion, and carefully scripted by Varys and Illyrio.
Varys gets the order, but rather than hire a professional like one of the Sorrowful Men or something, he hires a complete patsy who even a relative naif like Dany sees through in an instant. And then he sends a letter to Illyrio telling him exactly what’s going to happen, and Illyrio sends a letter to Jorah, and lo and behold Jorah’s on the scene to “save” Dany and gain her trust so that he can help Varys and Illyrio “steer” Dany from long range.
In other words…it’s not a “real” assassination attempt, it’s more of an elaborately plotted piece of theater meant to convey the impression of an assassination attempt.
“Ser Kevan. Forgive me if you can. I bear you no ill will. This was not done from malice. It was for the realm. For the children…This pains me, my lord. You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes…but you were threatening to undo all the queen’s good work, to reconcile Highgarden and Casterly Rock, bind the Faith to your little king, unite the Seven Kingdoms under Tommen’s rule.”
As I’ve said before, Varys is an arch-utilitarian who doesn’t blink at the idea of building Utopia by spilling an ocean of blood and raising up a mountain of skulls. Hell, this is a man who mutilates children so that they can’t betray his secrets, who does it “for the children” – and he’s not insane or lying, he’s weighed the short-term costs in human lives versus the long-term gains of a complete remaking of the social order by enlightened despot. (Incidentally, this is why utilitarian revolutionaries are so dangerous, because their faith in the future justifies any atrocity.)
So how would someone like that look at Kevan?
I don’t think Varys would object to Tywin’s methods as much as his goals and his frame of reference – Tywin was fighting for the glory of House Lannister rather than for the greater good; his efforts to keep the Seven Kingdoms together with war and war crimes would have been undone by Joffrey’s unstable tyranny or Tommen’s well-intentioned weakness or Cersei’s paranoia and misgovernment; and none of these people have the very precise training and worldview that would allow them to be a “perfect prince” who could make systemic change. Hence the “bad cause.”
At the same time, when Kevan took control, he didn’t act for his own benefit but to strengthen the crown and restore order in the capitol – by rebuilding the alliance between House Lannister and House Tyrell that gave the regime its political constituency and military hegemony, by ending the clash between Faith and Throne that was dividing the body politic and threatening further uprisings. Varys sees that as the actions of a “good man,” one who looks out “for the realm.”
I don’t have a huge amount of evidence for this, but Varys and Illyrio share a bond of trust and partnership that has endured for decades and across oceans, which is pretty rare in ASOIAF.
So one of the things that struck me in Tyrion I of ADWD is this passage that comes immediately after Tyrion meets Illyrio as a “friend of Varys the Spider”:
Beneath his window six cherry trees stood sentinel around a marble pool, their slender branches bare and brown. A naked boy stood on the water, poised to duel with a bravo’s blade in hand. He was lithe and handsome, no older than sixteen, with straight blond hair that brushed his shoulders. So lifelike did he seem that it took the dwarf a long moment to realize he was made of painted marble, though his sword shimmered like true steel.
And then in Tyrion II we get this exchange that gives context to what it represents:
“…even fat old fools like me have friends, and debts of affection to repay.”
“…How is it that the Spider became so dear to you?“
“We were young together, two green boys in Pentos.”
“Varys came from Myr.”
“So he did. I met him not long after he arrived, one step ahead of the slavers. By day he slept in the sewers, by night he prowled the rooftops like a cat. I was near as poor, a bravo in soiled silks, living by my blade. Perhaps you chanced to glimpse the statue by my pool? Pytho Malanon carved that when I was six-and-ten. A lovely thing, though now I weep to see it.”
“Age makes ruins of us all. I am still in mourning for my nose. But Varys …”
“In Myr he was a prince of thieves, until a rival thief informed on him. In Pentos his accent marked him, and once he was known for a eunuch he was despised and beaten. Why he chose me to protect him I may never know, but we came to an arrangement. Varys spied on lesser thieves and took their takings. I offered my help to their victims, promising to recover their valuables for a fee. Soon every man who had suffered a loss knew to come to me, whilst city’s footpads and cutpurses sought out Varys … half to slit his throat, the other half to sell him what they’d stolen. We both grew rich, and richer still when Varys trained his mice.”
I found it interesting that the symbol of Illyrio’s past is a depiction of male beauty – clearly, back in the day, Illyrio was enough of a hottie to inspire sculptors to work pro-bono, since he was only “a bravo in spoiled silks” back then. And Illyrio thinks of Varys’ “dearness” as associated with that youthful beauty, of being youths together.
(credit to Pojypojy)
Now, it’s could all be totally platonic, but it’s not like there isn’t a history of homosocial and homoromantic relationships between young men in Renaissance city-states. And there’s something about the way that Illyrio says “why he chose me to protect him I may never know” that reminds me of people in long-term relationships who talk about not knowing what their partner saw in them in the beginning.
And if we’re going by the usual GRRM metrics of what would the most tragic possible outcome be, imagine this scenario. Varys and Illyrio are lovers, and trust each other implicitly. Indeed, so self-sacrificing is Varys that he elevates Illyrio to wealth and power to the point where Illyrio gets married to the Prince’s cousin, and Varys even overlooks Illyrio’s passion for Sera.
But then Varys executes the greatest scheme in their careers, the one that actually means something to him because of the possibility of producing the perfect prince, and he gives over the royal baby he smuggled out of King’s Landing into the hands of the one person he trusts in the world. And Illyrio, out of love for the other woman, replaces that baby with his own son. What more profound betrayal can you imagine?
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