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What if Brandon hadn't ridden to King's Landing?


Floki of the Ironborn

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Let's assume that when Brandon heard about Lyanna's disappearance, he was at Riverrun and was able to be restrained from going by Hoster Tully or something like that. Hoster meanwhile sends ravens to Rickard and Jon Arryn explaining what's going on.

What do you think happens from there?

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Brandon is described pretty much as a stark version of prime robert ie huge ,full of energy , excellent warrior and screws anything that moves


Id think the rebellion still goes similar except you have one more huge dude to put front and centre fighting while ned, jon and hoster do the strategic stuff.


assuming neither of the stark guys gets himself killed in the new timeline brandon stays married to cat whereas ned is married off to someone useful and does his duty

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Brandon is described pretty much as a stark version of prime robert ie huge ,full of energy , excellent warrior and screws anything that moves

Id think the rebellion still goes similar except you have one more huge dude to put front and centre fighting while ned, jon and hoster do the strategic stuff.

assuming neither of the stark guys gets himself killed in the new timeline brandon stays married to cat whereas ned is married off to someone useful and does his duty

Theres no evidence thats how it was. I agree with everything else.

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Let's assume that when Brandon heard about Lyanna's disappearance, he was at Riverrun and was able to be restrained from going by Hoster Tully or something like that. Hoster meanwhile sends ravens to Rickard and Jon Arryn explaining what's going on.

What do you think happens from there?

we wouldn't have the story we read. Things will be different

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The rebellion may never well happened. The kick-off to the whole thing was Aerys killing the Starks and demanding Ned and Robert's heads, so if Brandon never went there's a good chance for resolving the situation peacefully.

A lot would depend on how Rhaegar and Lyanna were tracked down. Aerys would still be a volatile factor in the whole thing, but it's possible his blaming would shift to Rhaegar. The Kingsguard was able to find Rhaegar at the Tower of Joy in the real timeline so we can assume they would be able to here, but from there a lot would depend on how he deal with his dad, the Starks, and Robert.

I doubt anyone would have accepted "I need Lyanna for this prophecy" as an explanation, and even if Lyanna herself said she was in love with Rhaegar and wanted to be with him Rickard and Brandon aren't just going to leave it at that. Something would need to be done to deescalate the situation, and short of Rhaegar deposing Aerys and naming Rickard Hand I don't really see what that could be. Hell, even that would have been a hard sell, since it would still screw over Robert.

If the rebllion did still occur the results would be the same, except Brandon would marry Cat and Ned would wait for a while until Rickard assigned him a bride. Robert would still wind up with Cersei, and Tywin may have declated for the rebels from the start with their superior leadership.

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Tywin may have declated for the rebels from the start with their superior leadership.

Superior leadership? I assume you mean the fact that Brandon would have been leading as well? 'Cause we're talking about a man who marched up to the capital of the Seven Kingdoms with a handful of companions and yelled for the Prince and royal heir to "come out and die".

Brandon does not seem like the guy I'd want in charge of a lot of soldiers' lives.

If you mean Rickard then yeah I'll buy that. But Brandon would have been no use in any kind of leadership role. As a warrior, sure, but not a leader.

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If you mean Rickard then yeah I'll buy that. But Brandon would have been no use in any kind of leadership role. As a warrior, sure, but not a leader.

Yes, I meant Rickard. Should have specified, I suppose, but Brandon would have presumably been similar to Robert and led from the front while his dad and Ned planned from the rear, which would have been very effective.

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Anyway, to take a real crack at this.

Assuming Brandon can somehow be restrained to not rushing off and doing something stupid... well, Rickard presumably sends a letter to Aerys demanding Lyanna's return.

From there, Aerys could do one of a few different things:

He might stand with his son and wave it off by saying Targs can do whatever they want. This in turn prompts Rickard, Jon Arryn, Hoster, and Robert Baratheon to discuss taking action. This leads to a Rickard's Rebellion, spearheaded by Rickard, his two elder sons, Robert, Jon, and Hoster.

Aerys sees this as a chance to get Rhaegar out of the way, whom he sees as plotting against him as it already is. He disowns his son and literally throws him to the wolves. Rhaegar has to either flee or try to usurp his father and become the King. This leads to more conflict within the royal family, especially if Elia Martell flees with her children back to Dorne to rally the Dornish in trying to place her children on the Iron Throne.

Aerys demands Rhaegar return Lyanna to her family, but forbidding any vengeance on Rhaegar himself. From there, Rhaegar and Lyanna have to co-operate or else be forcibly separated. Lyanna protests, saying she's pregnant with Rhaegar's child, in which case she's forced to abort the fetus. Rhaegar is reprimanded by his father while he's forced to live with Elia's outrage for the rest of his life.

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If they got married. :P But I don't thinkthey kneel to Princes. They kneel to Kings. :)

He still would be his superior (if they had gotten married).

"Cousin Robert. Prince Jonyon wants to play horse. On your knees".

"I love Lyanna, I love Lyanna, I love Lyanna..."

"What?"

"Nothing. Erm... come here braa-- kid".

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Aerys was already very paranoid about Rhaegar, so without the Stark-killing business I see no reason for the king not to blame his son for all the trouble. The Kingsguard finds him and Lyanna, takes them back by force. With the king still alive and quite safe in this version, the KG is still bound to Aerys' orders over Rhaegars, unlike the actual ToJ scenario we get in the books where they know shit it hitting the fan.



Presuming Lyanna gets to Kings Landing before dying from childbirth I assume she and Rhaegar would problaim their polygamous marriage, Elia would consent, and it would upset Aerys very much. I have no idea what he would do, but I assume it would be very very bad due to his thinking Rhaegar is trying to wrest the crown from him.



In the event the Rhaegar family lives, I expect the lordly families are forced to accept it and Robert marries someone else. The Starks might eventually accept it once Rhaegar and baby Jon visit, but since we know Lyanna dies from childbirth they might be pretty pissed for a while. Cat and Brandon get married. Ned and Ashara get married.



The Southron Ambitions theory goes on as planned.


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I don't see it ending in any other way but a rebellion. Why would the Starks and Robert put up with the Targs shit? Their alliance would be even stronger because Rickard is still alive. I still see Rhaegar getting killed by Robert at some point, if Brandon doesn't take him out first. The only difference would be Ned's storyline.

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