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Did Varys want to keep Robert Baratheon alive? Why?


Ser Meryn Frey

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From a Game of Thrones, when Ned is in one of the black cells and ask Varys what he wants ...



“Peace,” Varys replied without hesitation. “If there was one soul in King’s Landing who was truly desperate to keep Robert Baratheon alive, it was me.” He sighed. “For fifteen years I protected him from his enemies, but I could not protect him from his friends.




Why would he lie to a dieing man? Why would he want to keep Bob alive? The biggest threat to Aegon (fake or whatever) would have been a united kingdom with Robert against the GC and the Martells and some of the Reach. I think Robert, Tywin and Ned would stop them to the ground very quick. This is, however, not the question of the thread.



Why was Varys saying that?


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I imagine he wanted to keep the realm stable for just a little bit longer while planning for Aegons landing was still in place. I doubt he wanted Aegon to rule over the chaos and destruction that the WOT5K caused, so keeping Robert alive was essential to his plans. I think Varys was looking to create an unstable monarchy that could be easily broken, but not a realm split into several pieces ass that would be harder to conquer.


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I think his original plan was, when Aegon was ready, to kill Robert, reveal that Joffrey was not Robert's son, create division within the realm, and have Aegon arrive with Golden Company. This way, Aegon would be seen as the hero who vanquished the incest-born abominations.



However, the Lannisters derailed this plan when they killed Robert to early and Aegon was not ready to land


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I think the easiest answer is what Jorah told Dany, that Robert Baratheon is headstrong enough to meet the Dothraki horde in open combat as opposed to staying behind the city walls. If Varys did intend to invade with a Dothraki horde and/or the Golden Company then they probably wanted someone headstrong that wouldn't use the city's fortifications to their benefit, as Tywin or Eddard would have.


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I think the easiest answer is what Jorah told Dany, that Robert Baratheon is headstrong enough to meet the Dothraki horde in open combat as opposed to staying behind the city walls. If Varys did intend to invade with a Dothraki horde and/or the Golden Company then they probably wanted someone headstrong that wouldn't use the city's fortifications to their benefit, as Tywin or Eddard would have.

varys seems to dislike unnecessary death, robert reign was so easy to destabilize. if varys' puppet lands with golden company and tens of those of dothraki how long until the unhappy lord kept out of power like the tyrells and martels join up or renly betrays them and gives up the stormlands too?

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knowing varys, i'm sure he would have preferred a (relatively) peaceful succession. discrediting robert's heirs and introducing aegon as a substitute would likely have been easier to organise than the targaryen reconquista.

obviously robert himself would hate the idea, as would stannis, but the way it plays out in my head robert dies naturally another decade down the line, aegon has secured a good marriage alliance, and everybody still kind of hates stannis

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varys seems to dislike unnecessary death, robert reign was so easy to destabilize. if varys' puppet lands with golden company and tens of those of dothraki how long until the unhappy lord kept out of power like the tyrells and martels join up or renly betrays them and gives up the stormlands too?

I'm curious, if we are discounting a Dothraki invasion (and I'm definitely open to discounting it) why did Illyrio and Varys go through the trouble of securing the wedding pact between Drogo and Dany? Was perhaps the Dothraki horde meant for something else?

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knowing varys, i'm sure he would have preferred a (relatively) peaceful succession. discrediting robert's heirs and introducing aegon as a substitute would likely have been easier to organise than the targaryen reconquista.

obviously robert himself would hate the idea, as would stannis, but the way it plays out in my head robert dies naturally another decade down the line, aegon has secured a good marriage alliance, and everybody still kind of hates stannis

i always thought that if it was not for melisandre stannis would have been assassinated by varys a while ago.

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knowing varys, i'm sure he would have preferred a (relatively) peaceful succession. discrediting robert's heirs and introducing aegon as a substitute would likely have been easier to organise than the targaryen reconquista.

obviously robert himself would hate the idea, as would stannis, but the way it plays out in my head robert dies naturally another decade down the line, aegon has secured a good marriage alliance, and everybody still kind of hates stannis

The problem with this is that Varys seems to want to introduce Aegon as some sort of saviour after making the current regime to look innadequate in the eyes of nobles and common folk. At some point, he needed the realm to be in chaos or at least, divided.

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The plan may have truly included Dany & Drogo invading Westeros. I know that many believe it was Varys idea to get rid of Viserys & Dany by sending them of with the Dothraki, but what if it was part of the plan.

Drogo either fulfils his promise to Viserys or for Dany, tries to conquer Westeros. The Dothraki attack, Robert would meet them in the field, if the Dothraki beat & kill Robert, Aegon arrives to vanquish the savage intruders & claims the throne. If Robert defeats the Dothraki, Westeros would be significantly weakened, leaving it ripe for Aegon to attempt a invasion.

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I'm curious, if we are discounting a Dothraki invasion (and I'm definitely open to discounting it) why did Illyrio and Varys go through the trouble of securing the wedding pact between Drogo and Dany? Was perhaps the Dothraki horde meant for something else?

i don't discount dothraki but by themselves to some places like the north dorne iron islands and the vale they not much of a long term threat to that region. the vale is obvious so mountainous that it doesn't make a great environment for dothraki style combat. just imagine them trying to move through the mountains if they landed some how (crazy dangerous) by sea and attacking the vale by land is just watching them die on the bloody gate (it would be worse for them than the unsullied battle at that one free city) . Dorne present a similar problem for attacking by land and sea but even if you get foothold they are well versed in guerrilla warfare and dothraki are not a desert people. The north is impossible to attack by land too and by sea landing is crazy dangerous. Also even if they do make landing safely the north weather is going to kill them faster then swords or arrows ever could. For the shirtless dothraki attacking the north in summer is like attacking russia in winter. the ironborn beat them before they even make a landing.

An invasion of only dothraki would unite the realm against these "outsiders" and "savages" that's why you need a figurehead like aegon that would split unhappy and powerful leaders away from the rest of the kingdoms. the dothraki give them the force of arms they need to split the realm cause they are not back powerless figureheads and peaceful solutions could be found for the other kingdoms.

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From a Game of Thrones, when Ned is in one of the black cells and ask Varys what he wants ...

Why would he lie to a dieing man? Why would he want to keep Bob alive? The biggest threat to Aegon (fake or whatever) would have been a united kingdom with Robert against the GC and the Martells and some of the Reach. I think Robert, Tywin and Ned would stop them to the ground very quick. This is, however, not the question of the thread.

Why was Varys saying that?

No one knew Ned was going to die (well Joffery did). It was expected Ned would take the black and go to the wall. So yes, this definitely could have been a lie.

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Perhaps Varys truly did want Robert to remain on the throne? After all, the years that he ruled were regarded as fairly prosperous compared to years past. His plan may have been to wait Robert out and introduce Aegon at his death, while revealing the bastard children.



Or maybe he knew that if Robert died too soon that Tywin would take control and would be a tougher opponent for Varys to outwit.


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The plan may have truly included Dany & Drogo invading Westeros. I know that many believe it was Varys idea to get rid of Viserys & Dany by sending them of with the Dothraki, but what if it was part of the plan.

Drogo either fulfils his promise to Viserys or for Dany, tries to conquer Westeros. The Dothraki attack, Robert would meet them in the field, if the Dothraki beat & kill Robert, Aegon arrives to vanquish the savage intruders & claims the throne. If Robert defeats the Dothraki, Westeros would be significantly weakened, leaving it ripe for Aegon to attempt a invasion.

i think they planned on killing stannis. doran the golden company and lets say 20,000 dothraki are more then enough to get the reach thinking they could get a foothold back in power by switching sides. Renly wants to stay in some position of power i could see him jumping ship too with the stormlands he was just a kid during robert's rebellion right? reveal cersei kid's are not roberts and suddenly the vale north and riverlands are not united with the west. Everything gets blamed on the lannisters and tywin then varys has a puppet ruler he controls.

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