Was there a way that Balon could have regained Riverlands?

[UFT]

we know balon's goal was a mix of revenge, independence and reliving past glories of house hoare. 

so could he have taken harrenhall and the riverlands during the war, rather than the north?

i think he could have allied with king joffrey (he tried that IIRC but after invading the north already, tywin wasnt interested in an alliance), and moved his army in. this would make joffrey's side much more powerful and he would probably let balon have riverrun. 

 

 

 

[TMIFairy]

9 minutes ago, UFT said:

 moved his fleet into the Trident.

To do this you either:

1 - take "the long way around" and go around Dorne

or

2 - emulate Hoare and portage the ships to the Green Fork.

This requires an understanding with Walder Frey as otherwise the Ironborn only get to the Twins and can't go further downstream.

[Moiraine Sedai]

4 hours ago, UFT said:

we know balon's goal was a mix of revenge, independence and reliving past glories of house hoare. 

so could he have taken harrenhall and the riverlands during the war, rather than the north?

i think he could have allied with king joffrey (he tried that IIRC but after invading the north already, tywin wasnt interested in an alliance), and moved his army in. this would make joffrey's side much more powerful and he would probably let balon have riverrun. 

 

 

 

The Lannisters will never give the Riverlands away.  It's too valuable to Westeros and borders the Westerlands and the Reach.  No one wants to share borders with the Ironborn.  Short answer, no.  Balon can't take the Riverlands by force.  

[cpg2016]

On 7/16/2017 at 11:17 AM, Moiraine Sedai said:

The Lannisters will never give the Riverlands away.  It's too valuable to Westeros and borders the Westerlands and the Reach.  No one wants to share borders with the Ironborn.  Short answer, no.  Balon can't take the Riverlands by force.  

The Lannisters didn't own the Riverlands.

[Sullen]

Considering the Riverlands were where most of the fighting was occurring during the WotFK and that Balon's whole MO is essentially to take as much as possible, with as little effort as possible, pissing off as little big players as possible, then absolutely not.

I do believe that his alliance offer to Tywin might have been accepted had Tywin not already come up with the Red Wedding to get rid of Robb Stark though. If Balon had been more expedient and conciliant in his alliance offer/pledge of loyalty, he might have easily tripled the amount of land controlled by the Ironborn.

[Ser Tristan Flowers]

He could never, ever hold the Riverlands. It has no natural defenses and lies too close to the Crown- and Westerlands. Holding the north for more than one winter would be a challenge, but the Riverlands? 0%.

That alliance we´re talking about is really nonsensical anyway and in best case just a temporary truce. MAYBE you could tolerate an independent iron king when he´s sitting on his island twisting his thumbs, but a rival king that holds a huge swathe of land in the middle of your empire? Yeah, that sounds like a great source of stability. At the end of the day the Lannisters would deal with Balon one way or another, taking the Riverlands of all regions would only accelerate this.

[Dorian Martell's son]

On 7/16/2017 at 3:17 AM, UFT said:

we know balon's goal was a mix of revenge, independence and reliving past glories of house hoare. 

so could he have taken harrenhall and the riverlands during the war, rather than the north?

yes, if the book was written differently with a different plot  

On 7/16/2017 at 3:17 AM, UFT said:

i think he could have allied with king joffrey (he tried that IIRC but after invading the north already, tywin wasnt interested in an alliance), and moved his army in. this would make joffrey's side much more powerful and he would probably let balon have riverrun. 

All snark aside, there were 4 armies in the riverlands. Balon and his wet behind the ears sailor boys are only good at taking undefended locales. As seen in the books, when push comes to shove, the IB get their asses kicked all over the place until euron takes over 

[GyantSpyder]

Sure. Two ways, but neither of them fit Balon's desires or character:

- Re-assert the Ironborn's historical edge in magic, technology, and organization which is what previously allowed the Ironborn to dominate the Riverlands. The only reason to believe this edge might still be possible to reassert is that Euron might be doing it.

- Participate in the insurgency/counterinsurgency game being played by the Brotherhood without Banners / R'hllorists and the Brave Companions / Sparrow Movement. If Balon had changed his character completely and decided what he really wanted to do was rule the Riverlands, he could have declared that Gregor Clegane being allowed to harrow the Riverlands was a sign the king was illegitimate, and he could have sentenced Gregor to death himself and sent his own people after him. Those people could have then started teaching people a modified version of the Old Way and baptizing people in fresh water instead of saltwater. He could have plundered the Westerlands and stolen food and given it to the Riverlands. It's a long shot, but the other people were doing stuff like this, so why not him?