divica

Book stannis wanted to give castles of the NW to his southerns and winterfell to the karstarks… The north won t support him with him doing things like this... And all the people you mentioned don t support stannis. Lady stoneheart and the riverlands would support a stark because of kin or because he is robb's heir and LS knows that robb named jon… White harbor won t support stannis without rickon and he looks very far away. Most people believe the reeds know about robbs will. Then robb's plan was exactly the oposite you are talking about. He wanted to go back north... And the divided north is because some people will want to follow robb's will, some the boltons, some rickon and some stannis. And stannis can t unite the north! I would bet that the clans will abandon him now that farya is safe and he seems doomed… And even if they don t leave him now they will after winterfell is taken because they didn t swore themselves to stannis. They joined him to save farya and kill boltons and so far they have come to dislike stannis and his southerns that worship r'hllor and burn people alive…

But in westeros the lords already have a lot of influence on the crown. Most kingdoms operate almost independently only paying taxes to the king, answering his call to war and obeying the laws… In westeros the kings even have to constantly forge aliances to hape the support of the high lords to make certain decisions… The closer you look the less absolute power the kings have... No. The wars started because stannis spread the word that joff was a bastard and the north revolted because joff killed ned. As long as there are lords with thousands of soldiers that answer to them there can t be diplomacy in westeros. It doesn t make sense… And even if a council choses a king it doesn t mean that if a person some lords like more apears they won t support him... The only thing this method of chosing a king offers is a sucession crisis with a potential war each time a king dies… IT would be much better to have a sistem similar to the Iron islands where the nobles can chose the next king among the descendents of the dead king. It should garante that someone like joff doesn t become king and at the same time minize the risk of war because normally siblings don t go to war between themselves...

The roman empire had a republic phase and a empire phase. I think you are talking about the republic phase where there were wars, poiltical plots, bribes and whatever to win elections into positions of power (and I am not sure how romans rose in the military). But in this phase they didn t have a single leader. However, in the empire phase the emperors chosed their heirs that took their position after they died. The papacy is a more interesting example. However the pope's power is a very special kind of power. First, I think there was a certain taboo about going against the pope because of religion. Then the pope didn t use his armies to impose his will, the cristians would do as he said...

Which midle age history are you talking about? Because I know of no monarchy where the kings didn t have heirs to take their place. If you are talking about monarchies where the king doesn t have absolute powers they did exist. However you are ignoring the major problems with the sistem the show established. Everytime a king dies there would be potential to start a war. As long as close to half the kingdoms suported 1 person and the other kingdoms supported another person then they would need to fight in order to decide who would be king. Then no king would be able to trust the lords because it might be better for them if he dies and they can chose someone that would be more beneficial for them. Given that the kings are chosen from the powerful families they would always favour some families over other families. This would lead to war… And I am sure you can think of more problems with this sistem. It is very flawed! The sistem of the iron islands is much better!

Or lysa didn t want to have kids with jon arryn and took something to kill the babies. I don t think there is a problem with robin getting phisical better. The problem is that the kid has mental issues that would take years to cure...

With lisa dead if grrm wants he can have people toughen up robin. Otherwise just marry sansa to Harry... It is kind of indiferent….

To be fair he isn t the endgame king in those original plans… I would say faegon will take the role bran has in there.

I don t see how Bran being useful because of his visions would make people want him to be king. It sounds like something that religious people or maesters might be interested. As the old gods are only important in the north and people don t really respect maesters I don t see how it could lead him to kingship... Then if bran isn t in charge of the north why would people think he should be in charge of all of westeros? And why wouldn t the other regions want Independence? Why would dorne accept bran as their king? And every lord has knowledge about the history of westeros that took them years to learn. Is bran going to learn what taxes to apply with his visions? Bran should only become a candidate to being king if he shows people his leading abilities...

IT depends on how he contibutes. If it is based on his warging abilities or vision powers what does it matter about his abilities as king? Even if he becomes a war hero it doesn t make him king material. He needs backing and experience!

But one problem I see is that bran's powers are creepy. Nobody would be comfortable with bran being able to see into their past or warg into animals and spy them... Then, even if we ignore the fact he may not be able to have children he doesn t have a claim. Which means that there is no reason for the other kingdoms to acept him instead of becoming independent. He would need to have something to buy their loyalty... Then the entire porpuse of the last 2 books was for us to see how some characters rule and give them experience. Are we suposed to acept that bran is the final king without ruling anything before? What does bran know of politics? Of presiding court? Of managing a realm? taxes? He is a kid that got his education interrupted and then went to learn magic… It is a very cheap blow to have him a king out of the blue... The only way that it makes sense to have bran as king in the end is if he becomes KitN in winds and he is the one that decides how to gather everybody against the others. However at this point this seems very unlikely.

Better story than the tv series… You could say that the children found some others from some ancient time and used magic to release them because they were losing the war. Then things got out of control... I liked the idea that jon will transform the NW into some knight order that keeps the peace and order in the 7 kingdoms… It is original.

But those powers are kind of creepy… Did people like bloodraven? No...

But stannis doesn t know it and has no reason to believe anything the manderleys tell him. The moment he conquers winterfell and names some northern or one of his southerns warden of the north he loses the north. The moment he rewards one of his southerns with the dreadfort or another free castle he loses the north (and he already wanted to give them castles of the NW so he would defenitly reward them now) And what does stannis know about preparing the north for winter and the others? The problem is that stannis can t unite people against the others. He can t even unite the north… Even with rickon people will think he and wyman are only using rickon as a pawn. And robbs will that places jon as his heir will also cause division... Stannis conquering winterfell might acelarete the conflict with the boltons but it creates a lot of other dificulties… While jon or rickon represented by jon can unite the north easily and even get support from the vale and riverlands. Besides being a much better choice to get more aliances from the south with danny or faegon. Stannis can t do anything of these… He is and obstacle to preparing the north agains the others... And for me there is also something inhuman about roose that will be important for the upcoming conflict with the others... The best he can do is go to the Wall because he belives he is AA and will stop the others there...

Me too. I still have no clue why people would accept bran on the IT but I agree with everything else.

I knew it! Have you noticed how complicated the new method to choose kings is? No heir of a great house can be king. Otherwise one of his siblings becames the head of the house and the sons of the king become nobodies. Then what happens if a king acts to improve the status and power of his familly? who can stop him? People from diferent famillies that control the kingdoms can t marry otherwise the choosing process doesn t work. If a war happens how can the king trust in the great lords? As long as the king dies their familly can rise. And it is much easier to have loyalty to a familly instead of a random person that changes from time to time.

Because he hasn t gone to castle black (he left with farya)? because there are no boats for him to take?

No. Theon was published with dance. I am pretty sure.

You do know that the north is basically a war zone where more war is going to happen pretty fast right? I doubt the north will have that many fighting men that they decide to go on a suicide mission south… (remember that the clans were untouched by war so far)

Massey will return after months. He hasn t even left… By the time he arrives most of those conflitos will be resolved... ps it is a sample chapter published in adwd. I don t think we need spoilers...

Because stannis taking winterfell is completly useless. The north is divided and he can t unite it without a stark. Wether he has winterfell or not is completly indiferent… Ther northerns won t march south and won t completly join him… Then stannis has to return to the Wall to see how the preparations are going to man the Wall. And why would he leave the Wall if massey might arrive at any moment with sellswords? he can t leave the north… if massey returns and he isn t there what would happen? It makes sense that if stannis is defeated he goes hiding in the Wall waiting for massey… It even makes much more sense for stannis to face the other on the Wall than winterfell…. And no matter what you may think of ramsay roose is a very interesting villain. He probably wiil have a backstory and it makes sense to have him vs a stark… Roose vs stannis is kind of useless...

Not seeing any of it happening. After the fiasco with robb and with winter here the northmen won t leave the north.

It can go both ways. Either seen as a miracle or as an abomination… But if the old gods are involved the northerns will love it

He is far from mel and shireen… what can he do? He can t abandon his troops and escape alone… And stannis won t ever burn shireen without mel influencing him...

Come on, he will go south with wath army and do what against danny and faegon's armies? The north won t follow stannis south. He has close to 600 soldiers before these battles... Stannis simply doesn t have the means to do anything until massey returns...

If he burns shireen it will be out of desperation. It doesn t need to be because of the others… If mel convinces him that his survival is crucial to save the realm and the only way for him to survive is to burn shireen he would do it.