How different would the story be if Ned seized the Throne over Robert?

[Bright Blue Eyes]

After some initial trouble with the Westerlands over executing or sending to the Wall Jaime, Tywin, Clegane and Lorch, he rules successful. A bit of trouble with the Faith, but nobody cares.

Ned doesn't last too long as king. We saw in GoT that he didn't last a year in the political machinations in King's Landing.

That's due to him being late to the stewpot and Robert not giving him the power to sort it out.

If you want to judge his political skills as a ruler, do it by the 15 he ruled the North and the legacy he left behind.

Would the little prince and princess even be dead? I think there's an implication that Robert at least gave Tywin a nod and a wink on that plan, if not outright ordered it. As readers, we don't actually know what happened, as none of the folks involved, including Robert if he is involved, are POV characters.

No communication at all. Tywin (correctly) guessed what would sit well with Robert, that's it.

[Hodor's Dragon]

No communication at all. Tywin (correctly) guessed what would sit well with Robert, that's it.

Do you think Tywin would murder the little prince and princess if Ned were leading the Rebellion? Why should he? If he doesn't, what does Ned do with them? And what does Ned do with Jon Snow?

These are some pretty serious problems for a guy with no legitimate claim to the throne and a proven lack of political ability to deal with. I think he would have to be borrowing his underwear back from Littlefinger within a month.

[voltron]

Ned hand the king would not be the same as Ned the King of Westeros after the rebellion. Ned is not a politically savvy man but he's competent administrator and would be a great king.

- Sending Jamie to the wall would be a wise and justified decision

- Kill Gregor and his goons

- Benjen would become Lord of the North and would have expanded the Stark family

- Jon would advise Benjen and Robert to Arianne and Cersei to make an alliance with the Lannisters and the martells.

- Margery would have married Robb

- Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon would be great assets for alliances

- Catelyn would have been a great queen, she's smart, loyal, kind and genuine, she's the perfect queen for the iron Throne.

Besides people argue that the south would rebel against Stark just because they don't like him, but who ?

- The riverlands love the Starks and have supported Robb in his war, they are Stark loyalists

- The vale have great respect and sympathy for the Starks, so no problems for them

- The Stormlands would have no problem with the Starks as a royal family, Ned and Robert are best friend.

So who else would rebel against Ned, let's see :

- The Tyrells are cowards, i don't see them as rebels, and Mace only ambition is to marry Margery or an other child to the royal family, and that would be more than possible with Robb or Sansa. Beside, The Tyrells don't hate the Starks, there's no animosity between these two houses, they can get along, Robb can be Loras Friend, Margery and Sansa can be friends, Olenna can get along with Catelyn, i don't really see the problem.

- The martells, they don't have the number, so who care, an marriage between Arianne and Benjen or Renly is enough to keep them quiet forever.

- The Lannisters, Tywin is an pragmatic man, he know that rebelling against half the Kingdom is not really a good thing to do.

Ned is an great man, an dutiful commander and an honorable man, he would be the best man to keep the iron throne in peace.

Robert was a drunkard and a fool but he kept the peace for 14 years just because he was the king, so why Ned could not do better ?

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Do you think Tywin would murder the little prince and princess if Ned were leading the Rebellion? Why should he? If he doesn't, what does Ned do with them? And what does Ned do with Jon Snow?

Yes, I think he would. Because it would sit well with 95% of all rebel leaders and Ned has not yet established his reputation. Ned would likely raise Aegon and Rhaenys with loyal bannermen, with strong inclination for them to join the Watch, the Citadel or the Faith as soon as they are old enough. Jon Snow would probably be raised as his bastard nephew, with less, but existant inclination to take the Black.

These are some pretty serious problems for a guy with no legitimate claim to the throne and a proven lack of political ability to deal with. I think he would have to be borrowing his underwear back from Littlefinger within a month.

LF would never be in a position to accomplish what he did. Ned's problem in KL is Robert - the rot he let in during the last 15 years and refusing Ned the authority to settle these issues. If Ned himself had the authority to do so, he'd keep the court reasonably clean and functional, instead of the viper pit it was after Jon Arryn's death.

[Hodor's Dragon]

You've given me some answers, but I think they're problematic.

I think there's a serious logical flaw in most of the answers in this thread. Everybody assumes Ned takes over after Aerys' death, but they also assume that everything that had happened in Robert's Rebellion up to that point happened exactly the same way in Eddard's Rebellion. Not. The rebellions would have had different leaders, and if Ned is going to be a different sort of leader than Robert, than things would already have been happening differently and Ned certainly can't escape responsibility for what had happened to that point.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

The rebellion would happen exactly the way it did. Up until the Trident, all four commanders were equal, with Jon Arryn and Ned Stark being the more important ones.

Afterwards, Robert was wounded, leaving the rest of the war to Ned anyway.

[Colonel Green]

Ned's precious honor is a bit worse for wear for starters for not giving over the thrown to Jon.

Not true. Ned led a rebellion to overthrow House Targaryen. Once he's taken that step, he's under no obligation to give the throne to anybody else just because the old Targaryen succession law says so.

As far as the Targaryen children's futures, if they're still around, the solution for what to do with Rhaenys is pretty obvious: marry her to Robb in the future, which would bolster the perceived legitimacy of future monarchs and please the Dornish. Aegon (and Viserys, if they ended up capturing him in this reality, though I would question whether that would happen) are a bit more of a challenge. At a minimum, send them north to Winterfell to be kept under guard, and either they stay there or else join the Night's Watch.

[Night's_King]

Does it really matter?

Winter is coming.

[Hodor's Dragon]

Not true. Ned led a rebellion to overthrow House Targaryen. Once he's taken that step, he's under no obligation to give the throne to anybody else just because the old Targaryen succession law says so.

As far as the Targaryen children's futures, if they're still around, the solution for what to do with Rhaenys is pretty obvious: marry her to Robb in the future, which would bolster the perceived legitimacy of future monarchs and please the Dornish. Aegon (and Viserys, if they ended up capturing him in this reality, though I would question whether that would happen) are a bit more of a challenge. At a minimum, send them north to Winterfell to be kept under guard, and either they stay there or else join the Night's Watch.

Hasn't he sworn an oath to that succession law?

Robert certainly didn't ignore it. If Ned does, that undoubtedly would add complexity to his regime, especially if there are acknowledged Targaryens running around.

I think these questions of whether Jaime goes to the wall, etc., are decidedly secondary (assuming Jaime kills Aerys in the same fashion in this universe, which I wouldn't actually assume). First question, as Robert certainly would've told you, is what do you do about the Targaryens.

[Colonel Green]

Hasn't he sworn an oath to that succession law?

He swore an oath to the king, which would include the succession. Once you've rebelled against the king with the intent of crowning a new monarch, the rest is irrelevant. You've opted to sweep clean the stable.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

As Ned is married, and Jaime is probably sent to the Wall, Cersei wouldn't be Queen but Tywin's only heir to CR. She doesn't go married into some House but some House gets married into the Lannisters. With that in mind, they wouldn't get as powerful as they are at the start of GoT, and considering Tywin's crimes, he would have little support and he either is sent to the Wall or gets killed. Ned becomes King, he marries Robb to Arianne Martell. Benjen is Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell.

Of course, this means no Jon nor Benjen at the wall but Jaime and Tywin... that doesn't look good for the humanity.

[Gregor Clegane's head]

Why does everyone bulldog Ned over the whole telling Ceresi thing? He had no idea Robert was currently at the time getting assassinated he thought he had it in the bag and was going to spare 3 children to prevent everyone hating him plus he believed them to be innocent.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Hasn't he sworn an oath to that succession law?

No, he has sworn an oath to Aerys II. Something he emphathetically broke.

Robert certainly didn't ignore it. If Ned does, that undoubtedly would add complexity to his regime, especially if there are acknowledged Targaryens running around.

He most certainly did. What some Maesters made up after Robert planted his Baratheon ass on the Iron Throne nobody cares about it.

[Gneisenau]

I'm of the opinion that Ned would have let Tywin and Jaime return to CR.

[Hodor's Dragon]

[Gregor Clegane's head]

Er no. When Rickard died Ned became leader of the North, he didn't swear fealty to Aerys yet.

[Lord_Tyrell]

Do you think Tywin would murder the little prince and princess if Ned were leading the Rebellion? Why should he? If he doesn't, what does Ned do with them? And what does Ned do with Jon?

Yeah, if it were Ned and not Robert leading the rebellion, I doubt Tywin would have killed the Targaryen children. Tywin knew that Robert loathed them entirely, and that he'd be able to get away with it. I think he would have captured them for sure to use as leverage against Ned.

[new djinn]

Tywin had 12000 men at KL while Ned had only the vanguard, so no, he won't be doing anything to Tywin there. If Elia and children are alive, they will kept as hostages to insure the loyalists behaviour, but Rhaella, Viserys and Daenerys are still out there. If he insists in Jaime going to the Wall later, it's only a matter of time before the Wyllas-Cersei match happens(it works to well for Tywin and Mace), and the slightest sign of weakness from Ned(such as not being willing to kill children) will start the civil war between Arryn-Tully-Baratheon-Stark and the Lannister-Tyrell factions with the Martells and Greyjoy waiting on the sidelines for oportunities. The reason why Robert manage to maintain peace(mostly) for 15 years was that the was charismatic, carefree and gave leeway to the most ambitious to thrive. Ned, not so much.

[Colonel Green]

Yeah, if it were Ned and not Robert leading the rebellion, I doubt Tywin would have killed the Targaryen children. Tywin knew that Robert loathed them entirely, and that he'd be able to get away with it. I think he would have captured them for sure to use as leverage against Ned.

I don't think Tywin would have had any real sense of Robert or Ned's characters. I don't believe he had ever met either of them, certainly not since the rebellion started. I suspect he would have made about the same calculation regarding Ned as Robert, just because it's what most people would assume.

The reason why Robert manage to maintain peace(mostly) for 15 years was that the was charismatic, carefree and gave leeway to the most ambitious to thrive.

House Tyrell was seemingly on the outs for much of the period. I don't think Ned would have been any worse for the Tyrells than Robert was (indeed, with no threat of Stannis taking the throne, the Stark monarchy would arguably be preferable to them in many ways).

[It's Not That Littlefinger]

i dont think people would care about ned's gods. he was respectful about other religions and hey, blackwoods. nobody cares about them. people seem to be really tolerant about religions in westeros (except for lord of lighters). he was married to a southerner and had an alliance with the arryns too, so he had a pretty strong power backing. .