Angel Eyes

It would subvert expectations quite nicely.

Well, the Catelyn trusting Littlefinger part is a definite problem. Catelyn tells Ned not to trust Robert on the basis of their old friendship, but says to trust Littlefinger because they grew up together. Anyways, most people wouldn't trust the person who had a crush on their current wife/significant other. With not warning Cersei, yes it's fundamental to who he is, but that still makes it a stupid move that accomplishes nothing but losing his head. As far as Sansa and Arya are concerned, Arya's already shown to resent Sansa from her first POV chapter and Sansa enables bullying from Jeyne, she's an accomplice by inaction at best. Plus Tyrion gives as good as he gets (drugging Cersei in ACOK).

My perception of Ned Stark and Tywin Lannister is that they're two sides of the same concept: subverting the idea that a good man should be a good ruler. Ned is a generally decent man, frosty behavior aside, whose decision to give mercy to Cersei gets him disgraced and killed, while Tywin is a ruthless man (Rains of Castamere, Rhaenys and Aegon, Tysha) who was nonetheless an effective politician for years in King's Landing (Ned lasts a year at most). Each has similar backgrounds: became friends with a future King and served as comrades-in-arms with them (as well as alongside a Baratheon), love their wives, had a younger sister who was betrothed to unsuitable men, and had kids who are mirrors of each other: Jaime and Robb are valiant warriors who muse on their failures as heroes (Jaime kills the Mad King to save the city but is reviled for it, Robb joins a war to rescue his relatives but fails utterly), Cersei and Sansa are beautiful women who had hopes of becoming Queen that were dashed by abusive relationships and also pick on a younger sibling (Tyrion for Cersei, Arya for Sansa) Ned and Tywin each have a son who is crippled (Bran is paralyzed, Tyrion has dwarfism)

Let's just watch her destroy Aegon and/or Daenerys against all odds, shall we?

Technically I don't believe this theory yet, but given how Martin is, I'm inclined to at least be open to things. This is simply a rundown of how it would work.

A placeholder since the skull would be in Dorne. I've never been sure how much Viserys factored into Doran's plans since Doran made no moves to help him during his exile even though Viserys was his intended son-in-law. It's as if Doran either wanted Arianne to be abused by Viserys or set up the betrothal for nothing.

How the head got to King's Landing? Someone brought it.

Theoretically, Robb's head would have been sent to King's Landing per a missive by Joffrey to Grand Maester Pycelle as mentioned in the Small Council meeting after the Red Wedding. Tywin didn't exactly do anything to countermand him.

But does Doran know that?

That's if Aegon doesn't get infected first. In general, I see Doran in particular as a subversion of the chessmaster archetype; he has all these grand plans for revenge but none come to fruition because he doesn't move even to protect his assets (read: Viserys). By the time he's taken action, every target is already gone and the pawns have gallivanted off on their own thing. It would be as if the target of the 47 Rōnin had died of a cold before they took revenge.

My point is that Ned and Catelyn's marriage already tied Hoster to the rebels and he wound up shooting them in the foot with the other since Lysa was unhappy with a husband who was four times her age and Littlefinger found a vulnerable link to pick at and break the alliance apart.

Maybe not even the North, given how the Karstark sons were saying that Bran should kill himself (which also makes Tyrion appear rather foolish).

I don't think so; Ned and Cat would have aligned the Tullys with Robert's cause without needing Jon and Lysa's match.

Or maybe Tywin had Tysha's throat slit and dumped her corpse in a privy.

I just think that Tywin meant to throw Tyrion off completely; since whores are everywhere, there's an inordinate amount of places she could be.

I thought Victarion killed her.

Plus Oldtown in Obara's case. As for Oberyn losing the trial, Martin wanted to subvert Inigo Montoya.

Well, like how you suggested, Sansa does wind up being all alone in the show which is what I was getting at.

Like how she ended in the show?

Well, I wouldn't put it past Jaime to choose not to know; he'd already lived through the Sack of King's Landing where the kids he was supposed to protect were killed on Tywin's orders and their mother raped. There's no way he couldn't know unless he blinded himself to it. When it comes to Tyrion's bastards I'd say that most wouldn't want to keep his. There's always that outside chance of their child inheriting Tyrion's dwarfism and given how Tyrion is marginalized even at the upper echelons of society, they'd at least think twice. As for getting someone else to care for the kid or funds from the father? Forget about it for Tywin will make a Mountain of trouble for you.

I always wondered why Jaime decided to go along with Tywin on that...

That's the other thing; did they even need the Jon Arryn/Lysa match if Catelyn was already going to be bound to the Rebellion via marriage to Ned?

Something during Catelyn's first chapter in ASOS says that Hoster wasn't the type to sire illegitimate kids, so I would imagine that Hoster would disapprove of Walder's open acknowledgement of them. As far as selling both daughters, he chose to follow through Catelyn's betrothal with Brandon by swapping Ned in, but with Lysa, he could have chosen to marry her away from the land of the schmuck who sired a bastard on her, who Hoster knew was a bad influence.

Always wondered how disguising Jeyne as "Arya" would be pulled off and allowed. Technically Ramsay would be bedding an 11-year-old.

Do you think it's possible that Catelyn dislikes Jon because Ned looked out for him like Walder and Hoster made his dislike of Walder's practices plain? Hoster wasn't just a jerk but also an idiot.