Jump to content

Why didn't Illyrio hire the Unsullied for Aegon?


Alex Storm

Recommended Posts

We know that he knows about the Unsullied since he had some of them guarding his house. He had a lot of money and had three dragon eggs to sell as well. If I were him I would have given Viserys and Dany to Robert, collected the ransom (I'm guessing would be pretty big for the last two living Targaryens), and then used all that money to buy the 8000 Unsullied (don't remember the number of unsullied dany gets in the books so I'm just going to go with the number the show says she has, hopefully its the same). In doing so, he can almost double the army of Aegon,who would now have 18,000 great fighters since he already had 10,000 golden company sellswords.




Link to comment
Share on other sites

We know that he knows about the Unsullied since he had some of them guarding his house. He had a lot of money and had three dragon eggs to sell as well. If I were him I would have given Viserys and Dany to Robert, collected the ransom (I'm guessing would be pretty big for the last two living Targaryens), and then used all that money to buy the 8000 Unsullied (don't remember the number of unsullied dany gets in the books so I'm just going to go with the number the show says she has, hopefully its the same). In doing so, he can almost double the army of Aegon,who would now have 18,000 great fighters since he already had 10,000 golden company sellswords.

viserys and dany could get you through marriage dorne or the reach or something which is a lot better then get 8,000 unsullied.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

viserys and dany could get you through marriage get dorne or the reach or something which is a lot better then get 8,000 unsullied.

I don't think there plan was ever for Viserys and Dany to succeed and get alliances in Westeros. I think somewhere in the text Illyrio even admitted that he never thought Dany would survive the Dothraki Sea and when Viserys decided to go too instead of waiting in Pentos, I'm sure they knew he was a lost cause as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, they were slaves, and that wouldn't go very well in Westeros. Aegon hasn't shown any particular opposition to slavery so it's not likely that he'd manumit them. Plus, of course, there are only 8K of them and they're really expensive. And they have no record against heavy cavalry, which is the backbone of a Westerosi army.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think there plan was ever for Viserys and Dany to succeed and get alliances in Westeros. I think somewhere in the text Illyrio even admitted that he never thought Dany would survive the Dothraki Sea and when Viserys decided to go too instead of waiting in Pentos, I'm sure they knew he was a lost cause as well.

it was not part of the plan but it's better option than unsullied was my point. i think he means after her husband dies. too but i would have to look it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, they were slaves, and that wouldn't go very well in Westeros. Aegon hasn't shown any particular opposition to slavery so it's not likely that he'd manumit them. Plus, of course, there are only 8K of them and they're really expensive. And they have no record against heavy cavalry, which is the backbone of a Westerosi army.

Good point about no experience against heavy cavalry but surly warriors as experienced as the Unsullied would help in some way for Aegon.

Also, how many horses can an army possibly have? I can't believe that the bulk of an army would all be on horseback

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unsullied are not worth the money on the battlefield. They are mainly suited for duty as palace guards and stuff like that.



Furthermore, they are weird, foreign, heathen, castrated slave soldiers, ticking off basically every checkbox of the Westerosi's "enemy?" checklist. it would cost Aegon any possible support he could get in Westeros.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point about no experience against heavy cavalry but surly warriors as experienced as the Unsullied would help in some way for Aegon.

Also, how many horses can an army possibly have? I can't believe that the bulk of an army would all be on horseback

well consider that robb gets together quickly a force of 20 thousand it would not even need for most the army to be on horseback for the cavalry to have one man on horse for every unsullied robb didn't even get most of the north let alone the biggest force in the 7 kingdoms make more sense to try for something else.

using slaves could unite the rest of the 7 kingdoms against him

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe he did, maybe Daenerys may have unwilling got to them first. Remember Illyrio did sent two different messengers to Dany to come back to Pentos, so much could been explain by that time but she didn't go back




Unsullied are not worth the money on the battlefield. They are mainly suited for duty as palace guards and stuff like that.



Furthermore, they are weird, foreign, heathen, castrated slave soldiers, ticking off basically every checkbox of the Westerosi's "enemy?" checklist. it would cost Aegon any possible support he could get in Westeros.




Battle of Qohor them a different story. 3000 vs 12000 and they didn't break. having that on any battlefield is a boon


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unsullied are not worth the money on the battlefield. They are mainly suited for duty as palace guards and stuff like that.

Furthermore, they are weird, foreign, heathen, castrated slave soldiers, ticking off basically every checkbox of the Westerosi's "enemy?" checklist. it would cost Aegon any possible support he could get in Westeros.

I get what your saying about Westeros possibly uniting against the slave army, but by that logic then they would 100% unite against an army of savage Dothraki who are coming to burn, rape, and enslave everything they can find.

So, Varys and Illyrio's original plan would have never worked to weaken Westeros for Aegon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Battle of Qohor them a different story. 3000 vs 12000 and they didn't break. having that on any battlefield is a boon

Yeah, the mighty Dothraki, too dumb to walk and breathe at the same time. Might as well provide credentials by breaking up some hooligans after a football match. The necessary skill is about the same.

I get what your saying about Westeros possibly uniting against the slave army, but by that logic then they would 100% unite against an army of savage Dothraki who are coming to burn, rape, and enslave everything they can find.

So, Varys and Illyrio's original plan would have never worked to weaken Westeros for Aegon.

Only if they associated the Dothraki with Aegon. But they are Viserys'. A strawman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only if they associated the Dothraki with Aegon. But they are Viserys'. A strawman.

Yea the dothraki were supposed to invade with Viserys as the figurehead but it seems like a lot of people are agreeing that Westeros would unite against a slave or savage army from Essos and thus a united Westeros would easily take apart the dothraki. Then when Aegon lands, Westeros would already be united and he would have no chance. So, Illyrio's plan would backfire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because invading Westeros with an army of strange foreign slaves is just about the worst way to raise support for Aegon.



It's not like 8000 unsullied are going to win you anything in Westeros either. You can just marry Aegon to literally any major lord and get the same amount of men and you don't need to spend all of your money doing it.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea the dothraki were supposed to invade with Viserys as the figurehead but it seems like a lot of people are agreeing that Westeros would unite against a slave or savage army from Essos and thus a united Westeros would easily take apart the dothraki. Then when Aegon lands, Westeros would already be united and he would have no chance. So, Illyrio's plan would backfire.

Viserys invading with the Dothraki wouldn't have been their whole plan. It's hard to guess what it was but judging form the improvisations we have seen Varys make we can assume it would have involved some high profile assassinations and alliance breaking.

It's also pretty easy to predict other destabilizing factors ie. Iron Born uprising once the Iron Throne is weakened

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe he did, maybe Daenerys may have unwilling got to them first. Remember Illyrio did sent two different messengers to Dany to come back to Pentos, so much could been explain by that time but she didn't go back

Battle of Qohor them a different story. 3000 vs 12000 and they didn't break. having that on any battlefield is a boon

battle of qohor was not against armor cavalry of westeros. Even then he could have been outflanked and kill but the Dothraki were just too stubborn.

Viserys invading with the Dothraki wouldn't have been their whole plan. It's hard to guess what it was but judging form the improvisations we have seen Varys make we can assume it would have involved some high profile assassinations and alliance breaking.

It's also pretty easy to predict other destabilizing factors ie. Iron Born uprising once the Iron Throne is weakened

yeah the tyrells have been excluded same with the martells so try to join up with them. kill robert blame it on the lannisters and reveal cersei's infidelity to break up the north riverlands and vale away from the west.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, we don't know what exactly Illyrio can afford. If he had the hypothetical money for eight thousand unsullied, however, he could certainly afford to hire a few more free companies in addition to the Golden Company, but he didn't.



But conquering Westeros solely by the force invading from Essos isn't the plan, though. Land with enough swords to look a serious, proper army, win a battle or two, conquer a castle or two, wave the red dragon proudly for everyone to see, and, hopefully, see lords of the realm flocking under his banner.



Sadly, Jon Connington, Varys and Illyrio do not read this forum and hence are unaware of the established fact that the Targaryen claim to the Iron Throne is null and void. So I guess the poor sad fools are in for a huge disappointment.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...