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Idea for a Robert's Rebellion miniseries [Book Spoilers, discussion of R+L=J and other theories]


clair de lune

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Hello all! Long time lurker, excited to make my first thread.



On a whim a few days ago I started thinking out how a Robert's Rebellion miniseries could be told on the screen. I wanted to share my ideas, hear feedback, or any holes or inconsistencies some of y'all may notice. Here goes!




Game of Thrones: Robert's Rebellion




Part I: The Tourney at Harrenhall


1. The Joust


--Prologue: At Summerhall, Aegon V and a host try to hatch the remaining Targaryen dragon eggs. The procedure goes horribly wrong, and the fire becomes unstoppable. As they all die and Summerhall burns, Rhaella gives birth to Rhaegar outside the castle. Aerys watches as his family and the castle he was Prince of is burned, and we see the beginnings of his madness. Flash forward to present day and we meet Rhaegar Targaryen, singing to himself as he waits among the ruins of Summerhall. He holds a small council in the ruins, talking of usurping his mad father. They all plan to hold a larger council at the Harrenhall tourney, and depart for King's Landing. Present Day: The episode sets up Westeros of the day: the politics, major players, etc. We see King Aerys holding court with his faithful Hand, Lord Tywin. We see Squire Jaime Lannister and at Riverrun meet the Tullys, as well as Peter Baelish. Rickard Stark sets up betrothals of Brandon and Lyanna, and informs Lyanna she will be going to Storm's End after the tourney. Eddard and Robert journey from The Eyrie to the Inn at the Crossroads to meet the other Stark siblings. All major houses prepare and leave for Harrenhall. Jaime and Cersei hatch a plan to be together in King's Landing. Throughout the main part of the episode, Howland Reed travels to the Isle of Faces, ending the episode with what he sees or learn there (something of the rebellion to come, or that Summerhall meant the end of the Dragons/Targaryens).


2. The Melee


--Major action of The Tourney at Harrenhall. Rhaegar cancels the planned council when Aerys shows up at the feast of the tourney. Whole Knight of the Laughing Tree storyline (with Lyanna being the KotLT). Jaime joins the Kingsguard and Tywin leaves Kings Landing and resigns as Hand, taking Cersei with him to Casterly Rock. Rhaegar is sent by King Aerys to find the Knight of the Laughing Tree, where he meets Lyanna. Ned and Ashara fall in love. Lord Rickard tells Lyanna she will go to live at Storm's End. The last night of the tourney, Lyanna and Rhaegar share a moment on the shore of God's Eye.




Part II: Southron Ambitions

3. The Prince That Was Promised


--In King's Landing, Rhaegar and Elia grow distant in the wake of Harrenhall, even while their second child grows in her womb. Aerys continues to go mad and become more cruel. Lyanna spends a loveless year at Storm's End with Eddard and Robert, constantly rebuffing Robert's advances and insisting they wait until their marriage. Aegon VI is born; when word reaches Storm's End, Lyanna decides that Rhaegar never really loved her. Brandon bids farewell to his northern lady love before going south to wed Catelyn Tully. Just as they have begun to forge a bond, Robert and Lyanna make love the night before he and Ned leave for The Vale by sea to visit Jon Arryn. Rhaegar sets out for Oldtown in search of manuscripts about The Prince That Was Promised that only reside at The Citadel. In the Kingswood on the way to Riverrun for Brandon's wedding, Lyanna encounters Rhaegar. She disappears in the night, and word reaches Brandon on the Kingsroad, who turns course to King's Landing.



4. The Mad King


--Brandon is taken prisoner in King's Landing. While Rickard travels to the Capital, word reaches Eddard and Robert at The Eyrie. When Gulltown does not respond to Jon Arryn's summoning of the banners, they storm the city and Eddard sets out for White Harbor while Robert heads back to Storm's End. Brandon and Rickard die, and Aerys' madness finally overtakes him. The news greets Lord Eddard when he lands at Sisterton and sups with the Lord of the Sister Islands. Jaime learns the truth of being a Kingsgaurd, first at the Stark execution and again that night when Aerys and Rhaella conceive Daenerys. Robert sets out to stomp the Storm Lords that oppose him at Summerhall.




Part III: Robert's Rebellion

5. Family, Duty, Honor


--Robert now holds the might of the Storm Lands, but makes flight after the Battle of Ashford. The Targaryen army leaves King's Landing, first for the Trident before learning that Robert is at Stoney Sept and changing course. Ned lands at White Harbor and learns that Benjen already called the banners and sent the northern host south to Moat Cailin under Roose Bolton. When Ned arrives at Moat Cailin, he wins his first test as a lord by bending the northern lords, but especially Bolton, to his will. Stark and Arryn's forces join on the Kingsroad, and strike across the Riverlands to Stoney Sept. Rhaegar reappears in King's Landing. A day's ride from Riverrun, Hoster Tully traps the Stark/Arryn army between two small rivers unmarked on most maps. He treats with Ned and Jon, and Ned faces his second test as a lord. A smuggler from Flea Bottom named Davos Seaworth is hired to smuggle a host of soldiers into Storm's End by night. The River Lords use boats to move a combined host of foot quickly to Stoney Sept. Brynden Tully leads a host of horse along the river. The Battle of the Bells takes place.



6. Ours Is The Fury


--Ned and Jon are wed at Riverrun. Aerys schemes to burn King's Landing. Robert officially declares that he means to take the Iron Throne, indicting House Targaryen in a letter sent to every major and minor house in Westeros as well as all nine of the free cities. Davos Seaworth's ship falls into a storm near Shipbreaker Bay and crashes on Tarth, where he is taken prisoner. Upon receiving the letter from King Robert and his Lords Declarant, Lord Tywin marches the Westerland army, but to where nobody knows. Jon Connington is exiled, and the Targaryen army heads to the Trident. Conditions become dire at the Siege of Storm's End. Three Kingsguard arrive at the Tower of Joy, where Lyanna is revealed to be and we see she is pregnant, leaving open ended the question that it is either Robert's, from the night before he left for the Vale, or Rhaegar's child. The Battle of the Trident begins, and Robert kills Rhaegar in single combat.



7. Kingslayer


--Lord Frey finally joins his troops to the Baratheon army. The Castellan at Tarth sends Davos Seaworth to complete his smuggling assignment, with a different type of cargo. Robert interrogates Barristan Selmy and the Northern forces charge south for King's Landing when they learn that Lord Tywin heads there as well. At Riverrun, Catelyn and Lysa learn they are both pregnant. The Lannisters sack the city and Jaime forsakes his vows. Ned finds Jaime on the throne. Lysa discovers she is not truly pregnant. Davos Seaworth saves the garrison at Storm's End. Ned and Robert have a dramatic argument when he arrives at the Red Keep. Ned sets out alone to finish the war in the South.



8. Tower of Joy


--Finale. Throughout the finale are flashbacks revealing Rhaegar and Lyanna's flight of love to the Tower, and the time they spent there while the war brewed. While it has been hinted that they ran away, up until now is has also seemed likely or realistic that Rhaegar really did kidnap and rape her. In present day, Ned lifts the Seige of Storm's End, and learns a bit more of what he'll find further south. In King's Landing, Robert is anointed by the High Septon and crowned. Ned and his seven companions arrive at the Tower of Joy and battle the three Kingsgaurd. Ned finds Lyanna dying in her bed of blood and promises to take baby Jon and raise him as his own. Ned returns Dawn to Starfall, where he breaks Ashara Dayne's heart with news of his marriage. Two weeks later, Robert marries Cersei Lannister and takes his first seat on the Iron Throne. Epilogue: In a final flashback of their time at the Tower of Joy, Rhaegar and Lyanna discuss their dream of a happy future together that will never come. The End.




Optional Subplot (not serious):

After Ned and Jon wed Catelyn and Lysa, the Riverlords propose marrying Robert and Cersei to secure the Westerland army. They also see the Westerland army as the biggest threat to their lands, which is partly why it is proposed. Robert refuses and insists that he will wed Lyanna when she is found. In a shock to book readers, Hoster Tully plays both sides of the game, instructing Lord Walder Frey to not arrive on time to the Battle of the Trident. If the rebel army's chances look sour, Frey is to sweep in and take the rebels in the rear, at which point the other Riverlords would join them. Catelyn finds out about this and tells Ned, who tells Robert who confronts Hoster in his bedchambers in the middle of the night and scares the piss out of him. Hoster, however, believes until his death that it was Lysa who informed on the plot. In the end, the Freys are still late to the battle.




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YAAAS. I would kill for a Roberts Rebellion prequel series. I love the more gritty war aspect of it, I love Rhaella (kind of an obscure character but I like her a lot), I would love to see Jaime run the Mad King through with his sword, Robert and Cersei's wedding, Lyanna's death UHG all of it.

PLEASE HBO PLEASE.

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Amazing descriptions!



The only change that I'd make is, after the Tragedy at Summerhall prologue, you should begin at Winterfell. Lyanna & Benjen sparring in the Godswood as they have since they were little, then Brandon arrives with news of Ned and Robert heading up to Winterfell... and Robert is eager to see his betrothed (or, if it hasn't happened yet, to ask for Ned's sister's hand so that his BFF can be his goodbrother).



Next things next... how about casting?


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Hi guys! Thanks for the thoughts. I want to first thank the moderators for approving the thread. At first I thought it wasn't approved because I didn't know to mark Book spoilers in the thread title, so I resubmitted it with some changes I had made, so I'm sorry for any confusion. :)



I wanted to let y'all know I've updated my original post, adding spoiler warnings to the thread title, and updating the outline with some changes and additional details I had added when I tried to resubmit the thread. I even added an optional subplot, which is completely crackpot and meant in jest. Following are a list of changes from the original to the new outline:



-Robert and Eddard go straight to Harrenhall instead of going to Winterfell first. The thinking here is that I really want the first episode to show these two friends during their wardship at the Eyrie, and this is the only time that can happen. We could even show that food fight they once talked about, and baby Mya Stone.


-Episode 2 has no real changes except specifying that Lyanna is KotLT in this version of the story.


-Episode 3: a few events, namely Aegon VI's birth, are reordered (although you should bear in mind I don't think the order of events within each episode are set in stone).


-Instead of going to the Eyrie after the tourney, Eddard goes to Storm's End with Robert and Lyanna. This is where we would get the scenes between Ned and Lyanna where they talk about Robert.


-I also rephrased a few sentences about Robert and Lyanna's relationship development throughout the episode.


-I also gave Rhaegar's motivation for going south: he is seeking manuscripts about the PTWP at the Citadel.


-Episode 4: No changes, although I will point out that I made a change from the books by having both Robert and Ned storm and depart from Gulltown; in the books, Ned goes northeast from the Eyrie with a fisherman (or something like that).


-Episode 5: The Targaryen army first goes to the Trident and then Stoney Sept, instead of departing south before going to Stoney Sept.


-The Stark/Arryn host gets trapped between two rivers that aren't well known to people not from the Riverlands (remember when Arya & Gendry get to a river that isn't on Lord Bolton's map in ASOS?). In my original post, they get encircled when their host gets too close to Riverrun.


-Ned faces a second test as lord when he brokers the Tully alliance with two marriages. (Robert is absent from this episode except at the end with the Stoney Sept battle, so this ep. is very Ned-centric)


-Episode 6: No changes except for correcting a typo that misspelled "Siege".


-Episode 7: No changes


-Episode 8: No changes


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Amazing descriptions!

The only change that I'd make is, after the Tragedy at Summerhall prologue, you should begin at Winterfell. Lyanna & Benjen sparring in the Godswood as they have since they were little, then Brandon arrives with news of Ned and Robert heading up to Winterfell... and Robert is eager to see his betrothed (or, if it hasn't happened yet, to ask for Ned's sister's hand so that his BFF can be his goodbrother).

Next things next... how about casting?

Only one who could be the same actor as in series is maybe Hoster Tully and Jon Arryn (maybe Jaime?),other should be lot younger,any ideas for Robert and Rhaegar?

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The only change that I'd make is, after the Tragedy at Summerhall prologue, you should begin at Winterfell. Lyanna & Benjen sparring in the Godswood as they have since they were little, then Brandon arrives with news of Ned and Robert heading up to Winterfell... and Robert is eager to see his betrothed (or, if it hasn't happened yet, to ask for Ned's sister's hand so that his BFF can be his goodbrother).

Next things next... how about casting?

My reasoning for staying at Summerhall right after the prologue is that I want to establish Rhaegar as early on as possible and establish that Aerys' madness which we see a hint of in the prologue has gotten worse and that many lords doubt his leadership. Plus I specifically have this image in my head of Aerys' face lit by the flames of the burning castle, fading into Rhaeger's face years later, with him standing on the same spot his father stood. I definitely think after the scene at Summerhall we should get to Winterfell ASAP. Possibly the order should be: Prologue->Summerhall->King's Landing->Winterfell->The Eyrie->Riverrun

Only one who could be the same actor as in series is maybe Hoster Tully and Jon Arryn (maybe Jaime?),other should be lot younger,any ideas for Robert and Rhaegar?

Well, I can't speak to her abilities as an actor, but the young woman playing Cersei in season 5 flashbacks could certainly play her again.

I've mentioned in a thread on the Casting sub-forum that I think the top choices for Lyanna Stark should be Emmy Rossum and Kaya Scodelario. I think Oona Chaplin would be great as Lyanna as well, but that probably wouldn't work given her role in the series.

I like Bill Skarsgard for Rhaegar.

Robert could be convincingly played by one of the Hemsworth brothers (all of whom have blue eyes, god bless 'em), but I have a feeling there's someone better out there.

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I hope for a scene with bessy with the great big tits you can bury your face in 'em. thank the gods for bessy and her tits



also im think it would be better if the baby shouldn't be shown at the ToJ and the episode should end with "promise me ned"



maybe a scene at starfall at the end and a scene with Wylla


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I know that readers would love this, but I wonder what kind of response it would get from Unsullied. The history of RR is only hinted at in the show, so I think it would confuse a lot of viewers.

I think I've provided a significant amount of exposition at the beginning. What do you think needs to be added to help Unsullied?

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