Is Robert Baratheon another Mad King?

[Jon_Stargaryen]

27 minutes ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

Plus, you know, that never happened, until the events of AGOT. It doesn't take an extremely observant reader to conclude that Viserys was full of shit.

Where does Robert say he never sent assassins after them?

He clearly has spies that know where they are (Mormont) and they are being protected by a powerful magister, then a massive Khalasar, making the idea of killing them pretty fatal.

[Jon_Stargaryen]

58 minutes ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

Another thing being neither of them had literally anything to do with Brandon's crime. Even if you think Robert and Rickard were trying to overthrow Aerys, which has no actual support, how on god's green Earth does Ned get the death sentence or even accused of anything?

What crimes did Dany commit?

Oh, okay...

[Dorian Martell's son]

3 minutes ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

I wouldn't call Jon Arryn/Ned Stark able or accomplished. Both of them were shit as Hand.

Jon Arryn made peace with Dorne. Brokered the marriage with cersei and uncovered the the twincest before anyone
So, you really do not know what you are talking about with Jon. Ned was crap, but he was chosen because of trust in a childhood friendship

5 minutes ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

Also, none of them were Targaryens, and his instability is fairly specific.

Madness is not specific. A hatred for a specific pair of people is not madness. Obsession maybe, but not madness. And the obsession is entirely rational, as they are the surviving members of the dynasty he overthrew. 

6 minutes ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

He married Cersei because Jon Arryn said so (which is one of his few competent acts as Hand).

Have you read the books? 

[Universal Sword Donor]

9 minutes ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

What crimes did Dany commit?

Oh, okay...

Never said she committed one. Ned was never a threat to the crown before Aerys called for his head.

Dany, however, was a threat to the crown as soon as she married Drogo and became pregnant. Viserys had, as we know and Robert knew, been trying to raise money, allies, and ships to reconquer the seven kingdoms long before Dany became pregnant. Both were threats to the crown.

You can argue over whether or not it was moral to do so, but Ned and Dany are clearly on different levels regarding the validity of their ordered deaths.

[ravenous reader]

5 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Yes, but Bob wasn't mad. He was a lot of negative things, but crazy was not one of them 

Indeed, he was not mad; he was corrupt!  He sold his soul to Tywin in the 'deal made with the devil' when he turned a blind eye to the murder of the Targ children in exchange for the propping-up of his rule.

5 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

So what. Bob was wrong and ned was right. That does not mean bob was crazy in any way. Bob was scared of a potential rival. Scared does not equal crazy 

No, in fact, he was pragmatic and utilitarian in his approach, not unlike Bloodraven, whom many revere as a paragon of fearless rationality. Dragonspawn grows up to be dragons -- reproduction is the highest form of warfare-- never a truer word was spoken!

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Eddard II

The king frowned. "A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it."

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing.

This time, Ned resolved to keep his temper. "Your Grace, the girl is scarcely more than a child. You are no Tywin Lannister, to slaughter innocents." It was said that Rhaegar's little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to face the swords. The boy had been no more than a babe in arms, yet Lord Tywin's soldiers had torn him from his mother's breast and dashed his head against a wall.

"And how long will this one remain an innocent?" Robert's mouth grew hard. "This child will soon enough spread her legs and start breeding more dragonspawn to plague me."

"Nonetheless," Ned said, "the murder of children … it would be vile … unspeakable …"

A Game of Thrones - Eddard VIII

"The narrow sea would still lie between us. I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water."

The king took a swallow of wine and glowered at Ned across the council table. "So you would counsel me to do nothing until the dragonspawn has landed his army on my shores, is that it?"

"This 'dragonspawn' is in his mother's belly," Ned said. "Even Aegon did no conquering until after he was weaned."

"Gods! You are stubborn as an aurochs, Stark." The king looked around the council table. "Have the rest of you mislaid your tongues? Will no one talk sense to this frozen-faced fool?"

From a certain Bloodravian perspective, Robert is the sensible one here!

5 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Yes, that is what Bob was scared of. He was scared that somehow the most legendary fighters in all of essos would cross the sea, crush his lickspittle forces and take him down.  That is a valid fear, and it does not make him crazy 

Until he did care, and promised to take his army to westeros 

Oh, for sure -- Bobby B did not breed craziness, only irony. Robert in his legitimate fear of dragonspawn did more to spawn dragons than perhaps anyone!  Had his persecution of them not led to Dany's exile, the dragons would never have been born.

1 hour ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

I bet you will. And your disagreement will falter again as it seems you are only repeating what you have already stated. 

Charming as always...

1 hour ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

If you would read the book again with a focus on Bob, you would see his obsession with destroying the last targs are a minor footnote in his rule. There was one bit early on talking about killing Rhaegar and one bit later about Killing Dany. That is it. Aside from that, we have his hand uncovering his wife's treachery and infidelity. We have the plot of his bastard Heirs. We have a plot by littlefinger that killed his first hand, we have a plot by Cersei, originally kill him in a tourney melee, and later to kill him on a boar hunt.  The literal actual downfall came from his twincesting wife who plotted to kill him.
His lost love was never a love. He didn't know her and she did not know him. He claims a great love for her, but he could not keep his soon to be royal member in his soon to be royal pants. You are correct about the connection between the loss of his betrothed and his hatred for the targs, but that is not madness. That is literally 1+1=2.  The only true love Bob ever had was fighting. Nothing more and nothing less

 His obsession did not cloud his judgement in any way. He picked an able and accomplished ruler as his hand. He took a marriage to the most powerful house in westeros. She showed great compassion to people like Ser Barristan, whom he could have killed, Jamie or Varys who he pardoned. None of that is a sign of madness. Lyanna was and is a fantasy for him. A yearning for a time when the world was ahead of him, instead of a weight that burdened him. In an early Ned chapter he talked about leaving the throne and heading to Esos to fight battles after riding ahead of the party. He hates his life as king. That is not madness, it is regret. 

Poetic stuff. 

[Lollygag]

This thread starts to make sense to me if the OP is upset we didn’t get Jon Stargaryen in the story as written and is wanting to make this more palatable by painting Jon's usurper in the worst possible light.

 

[Dorian Martell's son]

1 hour ago, ravenous reader said:

Indeed, he was not mad; he was corrupt!  He sold his soul to Tywin in the 'deal made with the devil' when he turned a blind eye to the murder of the Targ children in exchange for the propping-up of his rule.

Corrupt, self centered, morally weak and suffering from long term alcohol addiction too!

1 hour ago, ravenous reader said:

No, in fact, he was pragmatic and utilitarian in his approach, not unlike Bloodraven, whom many revere as a paragon of fearless rationality. Dragonspawn grows up to be dragons -- reproduction is the highest form of warfare-- never a truer word was spoken!

He seems to be terrified of the little things. Children, emotional intimacy, responsibilities and respectful treatment of women. 

2 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

From a certain Bloodravian perspective, Robert is the sensible one here!

<3 Bloodravian is my new favorite word! And really, If the killing of Rhaegar's didn't bother him, Killing a teenage Dany wouldn't bother him in the slightest

2 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

Oh, for sure -- Bobby B did not breed craziness, only irony. Robert in his legitimate fear of dragonspawn did more to spawn dragons than perhaps anyone!  Had his persecution of them not led to Dany's exile, the dragons would never have been born.

This seems to be a running theme in the books. If you try to work against your fears, they will come true. Look at Cersei.

2 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

Charming as always...

2 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

Poetic stuff. 

Thank you.  I can't rely on being charming all the time 

[Ralphis Baratheon]

4 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

The only true love Bob ever had was fighting. Nothing more and nothing less

Bobby did love his Ned and for a time his Ned loved him back.

[White Ravens]

8 hours ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

So, what you're saying is Aerys was in the right for demanding Ned and Robert's heads?

That's not at all what I was saying and you know that.  Don't put words into people's mouths.  It's dishonest and it's not just me that you are doing it to, either.

On 3/10/2018 at 8:33 PM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

All thoughts are welcome. Please provide feedback.

 Why bother?

[Geddus]

On 12/3/2018 at 2:25 AM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

Technically, we don't know if he ever actually sent men after them before that.

Viserys seems to think so, and Robert never specifically said he hadn't.

Everyone else just went along with Robert. It's their thing. That's why no one ever stopped him from feasting the Seven Kingdoms into financial insolvency; that's why no one ever stopped him from getting in bed with every whore he came across. Robert's small council was full of yes men.

He'd made it clear that he was going to have her killed from the start, and going against that would have been in direct contradiction of the king's wishes.

Robert never said he didn't send assassins except for that time he did (A Game of Thrones, Eddard II):

"I should have had them both killed years ago, when it was easy to get at them, but Jon was as bad as you. More fool I, I listened to him."

Renly confirms (A Game of Thrones, Eddard VII):

"The matter seems simple enough to me. We ought to have had Viserys and his sister killed years ago, but His Grace my brother made the mistake of listening to Jon Arryn."

So no assassins were ever sent after the two Targaryen, before Daenerys became a real threat. That aside, if killing children is a sign of madness, well then... Tywin is mad. Jaime and Theon too. Olenna Tyrell? A lunatic. Bronn says he would kill a child if the pay is good enough, is he crazy too? A lot of Varys' little birds die when their tongues are cut, I guess the eunuch is mad as well. The goldcloaks sent after Robert's bastards all belong in an asylum. And so on.

[Bernie Mac]

12 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Jon Arryn made peace with Dorne.

He actually did not. They were still planning rebellion, just waiting for the time they'd have a capable chance.

Doran makes it quite clear that he did not have the power alone to do anything. That any sort of rebellion would be a crushing defeat for his side. 

12 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Brokered the marriage with cersei

Come on, this is hardly an achievement. No Lord was going to turn down the offer of their daughter marring the new young King. 

12 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

and uncovered the the twincest before anyone

No, Stannis brought the news to him and I'd imagine that Varys definitely knew before Stannis and Jon. There are question marks over when Littlefinger and Pycelle found out, but the claim that Arryn discovered the twincest found out before anyone is clearly wrong. 

12 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

So, you really do not know what you are talking about with Jon. Ned was crap, but he was chosen because of trust in a childhood friendship

I don't think they are. Jon could not get Robert to curb his spending, allowed the realm to get into huge debt. Could not convince the King to set aside men like Janos Slynt. It was Jon who hired Littlefinger which doomed Robert's reign. Jon could also not convince Robert to do his most important job as King and properly raise his heir, putting his own legacy at risk. 

All in all Jon was a pretty mediocre Hand, not the worst the realm had ever seen but certainly not a good Hand. 

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, Bernie Mac said:

He actually did not. They were still planning rebellion, just waiting for the time they'd have a capable chance.

Doran makes it quite clear that he did not have the power alone to do anything. That any sort of rebellion would be a crushing defeat for his side. 

Come on, this is hardly an achievement. No Lord was going to turn down the offer of their daughter marring the new young King. 

No, Stannis brought the news to him and I'd imagine that Varys definitely knew before Stannis and Jon. There are question marks over when Littlefinger and Pycelle found out, but the claim that Arryn discovered the twincest found out before anyone is clearly wrong. 

I don't think they are. Jon could not get Robert to curb his spending, allowed the realm to get into huge debt. Could not convince the King to set aside men like Janos Slynt. It was Jon who hired Littlefinger which doomed Robert's reign. Jon could also not convince Robert to do his most important job as King and properly raise his heir, putting his own legacy at risk. 

All in all Jon was a pretty mediocre Hand, not the worst the realm had ever seen but certainly not a good Hand. 

 

That seems a little harsh. Robert was a terrible king, and bound to not listen to anyone-if he couldn't heed the words of the man whose been like a second father to him since he was a boy, who would he listen to? He's not a great hand-but mediocre seems a stretch. I'd say average. LF had proven highly competent; no reason for Arryn to pass up the man.

[Bernie Mac]

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

That seems a little harsh. Robert was a terrible king, and bound to not listen to anyone-if he couldn't heed the words of the man whose been like a second father to him since he was a boy, who would he listen to?

Arryn indulged the man who he raised as a son. A bad job is still a bad job even if there are mitigating reasons for it. 

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

 

He's not a great hand-but mediocre seems a stretch. I'd say average.

Mediocre is a synonym of the word average. They mean the same thing. 

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

LF had proven highly competent; no reason for Arryn to pass up the man.

Littlefinger seems to have been chosen to appease his wife more than his competency. Arryn perhaps did not understand Litttlefinger's practices, which seem to have worked to get the realm further in debt while making Littlefinger incredibly rich and influential. 

Littlefinger, even more so than Varys, has worked in destabilising and since it was Arryn who has given Littlefinger the means to do so then he takes some responsibility for his actions. Hiring Littlefinger is cerrtainly not a positive on Arryn's career. 

[Unacosamedarisa]

47 minutes ago, Bernie Mac said:

Littlefinger seems to have been chosen to appease his wife more than his competency.

It's likely that Jon Arryn was made aware of Petyr's existence through Lysa. But, it was Petyr's competence in his role that saw him rise from his position in the Vale, to King's Landing, and eventually his place on the Small Council as Master of Coin... 

Quote

Ten years ago, Jon Arryn had given him a minor sinecure in customs, where Lord Petyr had soon distinguished himself by bringing in three times as much as any of the king's other collectors. King Robert had been a prodigious spender. A man like Petyr Baelish, who had a gift for rubbing two golden dragons together to breed a third, was invaluable to his Hand. Littlefinger's rise had been arrow-swift. Within three years of his coming to court, he was master of coin and a member of the small council, and today the crown's revenues were ten times what they had been under his beleaguered predecessor . . . though the crown's debts had grown vast as well.

Tyrion IV, ACoK. 

[Cas Stark]

Robert wasn't mad, not even close.  Depressed, self medicating with booze and whores, yes.  Irresponsible, yes. Resentful of the expectations of being king, yes.  Bored, yes.  Wasted his potential, yes.  Mired in self pity as the most powerful man in Westeros, yes.  Did all of these failings set the stage for his murder and the subsequent war, yes.  He's actually among the most tragic characters in the series.  A handsome, good, brave, charismatic man is destroyed by getting what he sought, precious.

[the trees have eyes]

On 11/03/2018 at 4:33 AM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

Now this is the moment of his most potent madness (that we're made aware of), and his ridiculous spending is considered less madness and more fiscal irresponsibility, but let's remember what this was about:

He threatened a man who refused to poison a pregnant teenager.

We also know from later Cersei chapters that he frequently raped his wife.

Robert expects the Small Council to agree with him that the news of Dany's marraige to a Dothraki warlord both gives the Targaryen heirs the means to attack and attempt to unseat Robert and raises the high probability that Dany will have more Targaryen heirs to prolong the threat to the Barratheon dynasty.

They all do. Except Barristan who finds it offends his sense of honour.  And Ned.  Ned, who Robert relies on and expects to do his bidding.  Ned who is supposed to be firmly in his camp downplays the threat and defies him.  And so they argue and Robert loses his temper as he often does.  There is not a hint of madeness in a man losing his temper or saying things he later forgets or regrets.  We all do it.  The triggers will be different and the words will be different but people argue, friends and family say awful things to each other then it all blows over and they make up.  Robert has a temper but there is no signs at all that he is on the slippery slope to madness as you allege.  No more than anyone else.

Robert gets very very drunk and then visits his wife's bedchamber.  Cersei later tells us that she has not had sex with him in years and that he is so drunk that the next morning he has no memory of whatever they did.  It's a sad, unpleasant picture of a very unhappy marriage and an abusive one but, again, that doesn't indicate madness at all.  Just unhappiness in an arranged marriage, incompatible spouses and a drunken husband claiming his (quite legal in Westeros) marriage rights.  Sad but not mad.

On 11/03/2018 at 2:36 PM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

The level of madness is debatable (clearly not Aerys or Viserys mad), but we see from him- from what little exposure we have of him as an actual King- that he has a spark of madness. How is this any different from Aerys taking out Ser Illyn's tongue.

The level of madness is non-existant. 

On 12/03/2018 at 1:53 AM, Trigger Warning said:

Having children with better claims than you murdered is basically par for the course with royalty. In context I wouldn't consider someone mad for ordering it. 

Indeed.  Blackfyre pretenders were a problem for generations.  There is a good chance that either Viserys or Dany will pose a significant threat to Robert (see Khal Drogo and Doran's marriage pacts).  It's ruthless pragmatism and realpolitik but it is absolutely par for the course.  Ned is too hoonourable and too naive to see it.

On 12/03/2018 at 3:02 AM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

He fired Ned for not being party to his assassination of a fourteen year old girl.

No, Ned resigned his position.  He metaphorically threw his resignation in Robert's face when the rest of the small council approved the decision.  It seems Ned was the odd one out not Robert.

On 12/03/2018 at 1:29 PM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

Actually, the rest of the show shows how wrong Robert was. She had no real desire for the throne until Robert tried to poison her and her unborn child. She'd been acclimating to the ways of the dothraki, until Robert threatened her life and her child's life. That's what pissed her and Drogo off, prompting him to promise her Westeros.

And both were simply 14/15 year old children until a certain point. Drogo's armies were just that: Drogo's.

Even if she wanted to lead them, not enough men would have followed her, and Drogo had made it clear he didn't care about the Iron Throne.

(This last bit was somewhat off topic. I just felt the need to clear up a common misconception)

The Show?  Really?  This is the book forum.

In the books the whole marriage between Dany and Drogo is based on a promise from Drogo to help Viserys regain the throne.  Dany tries repeatedly to convince Drogo to help her regain the throne. The attempt on her life (and his son) convinces Drogo to agree but the Targaryen children are very much set on taking their inheritance back and were seeking the means to do so.  Robert was not wrong there.

On 12/03/2018 at 1:36 PM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

What would you base this off of?

We only have a small section of his reign as a litmus test, and that small section showed him beating his wife, condoning rape and murder, screaming obscenities and threatening anyone who opposes his will (even the bad ones), and attempting to assassinate a couple of orphans.

That seems fairly unhinged to me.

You say that he doesn't find joy in rape or murder, but he certainly found some joy in it if he continued to do it to his wife. Also, you say that it isn't rape in a feudal society, but there are no other examples of a husband raping his wife (other than the truly depraved)

Unhinged?  This is silly.  It's political calculation to take out the Targaryen heirs.  The Ottoman sultan kept an harem with lots of young women and would have children by many of them.  On succession the new Sultan would have all his brothers and half-brothers strangled so they could not vie with him for power.  It's cruel and it's ruthless but that is how power politics works at the peak.

On 12/03/2018 at 1:44 PM, Jon_Stargaryen said:

That's nice and all, but there are levels to madness in this world. Aerys wasn't actually mad before Duskendale; he was actually a better King than Robert (he didn't rape his wife, he didn't burn people, he kept himself groomed, etc.)

So my main point is that Robert is certainly on the madness spectrum, based on his violent outbursts towards people who certainly aren't his enemy (though Cersei would eventually be) and his insistence that all people who had were related to Aerys or Rhaegar had to die to the point of ranting about dragon spawn, despite not having any role in their deeds.

If that doesn't sound like madness to you, there's no point in trying to convince you.

Is the madness spectrum a thing or did you just make it up?  I'm curious.  We have an autism spectrum but I've never heard of a madness spectrum.  I reckon by your definition we would all be on it if we lost our tempers.

20 hours ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

And that's just it. His fixation with eradicating Targaryens isn't just about politics. It's a fixation that he has with murdering the last of the line that he blames for taking something that was never actually his.

The key word in that is fixation. He still dreams about killing Rhaegar, despite the time that has passed; he still sends assassins after a pair of orphans who pose no threat to him (they're living off the charity of others). He beats and rapes his wife- which is something we don't see from anyone else, aside from the depraved and insane.

Maybe everyone else's threshold for what qualifies as madness or mental disorder is MUCH higher than my own.

I'd put the threshold somewhere near rape and constantly hunting a pair of children. Clearly the goalpost is a bit further for everyone else.

My bad.

Fixation is debatable.  It is certainly a key event that he has not been able to fully accept and move on from.  Much like Cat has not been able to fully accept and move on from Ned bringing Jon to WF.  Or Hoster Tully on his deathbed complaining that the Blackfish should have married as he ordered him to.  Are they both mad?  It's good to get closure and move on but sometimes that's hard but failure to do so doesn't make one mad just troubled and unhappy.  Holding a grudge is pretty normal behaviour, nothing really odd here, just something sad.

15 hours ago, Jon_Stargaryen said:

I wouldn't call Jon Arryn/Ned Stark able or accomplished. Both of them were shit as Hand.

 

2 hours ago, Bernie Mac said:

All in all Jon was a pretty mediocre Hand, not the worst the realm had ever seen but certainly not a good Hand.

These are pretty harsh judgments.  Robert is the Donald Trump of Westeros.  His ego and irresponsibility are absolutely uncontainable.  Jon Arryn managed a combustible psersonality and all-powerful boss as well as anyone could have.  You would have more luck restraining his spending than restraining Trump from entering into a trade war or unbalanced tax cuts.  Guys like that dont listen and they are the ultimate authority.  Other than the easily crushed rebellion by Balon the realm healed from civil war that had wracked it and the Barratheon regime would have been well set but for Cersei.

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, Bernie Mac said:

Arryn indulged the man who he raised as a son. A bad job is still a bad job even if there are mitigating reasons for it. 

Quote

Arryn tried to convince Robert of the error of his ways-failed. Unlikely anyone in his place could do a better job. 

1 hour ago, Bernie Mac said:

Littlefinger seems to have been chosen to appease his wife more than his competency. Arryn perhaps did not understand Litttlefinger's practices, which seem to have worked to get the realm further in debt while making Littlefinger incredibly rich and influential. 

Littlefinger, even more so than Varys, has worked in destabilising and since it was Arryn who has given Littlefinger the means to do so then he takes some responsibility for his actions. Hiring Littlefinger is cerrtainly not a positive on Arryn's career. 

Hiring him was perfectly reasonble in hindsight-Arryn's marriage to Lysha was not of love, doubtful he'd give such a important position merely to give a little delight to his wife-little finger was proven a chance to prove his compentacy as @Unacosamedarisa points out.

[Bernie Mac]

35 minutes ago, Unacosamedarisa said:

It's likely that Jon Arryn was made aware of Petyr's existence through Lysa. But, it was Petyr's competence in his role that saw him rise from his position in the Vale, to King's Landing, and eventually his place on the Small Council as Master of Coin... 

Tyrion IV, ACoK. 

At that stage I kind of doubt that the relationship, certainly to the degree that Lysa was infatuated with Littlefinger, was known by Tyrion. He'd never suspect that it was Littlefinger who was able to convince Lysa to murder her husband. I think it was a bit more than simply alerting her husband to him, though obviously it was not the only reason. 

7 minutes ago, the trees have eyes said:

These are pretty harsh judgments. 

They are really not. He was an average Hand, his performance was not good. 

7 minutes ago, the trees have eyes said:

 

Robert is the Donald Trump of Westeros.  His ego and irresponsibility are absolutely uncontainable. 

Do you think Robert is alone in this? That he was the first King with an ego, the first King who was irresponsible? No, of course not, it goes with the job. I dare say that many of the previous Kings, being raised as Prince's, would have egos that far exceed that of Robert. 

If anything Robert's ego was in check. He was aware that the realm was not fully behind him, that he had to appease certain factions to stay in power and was vigilant of outside threats to his throne. 

7 minutes ago, the trees have eyes said:

Jon Arryn managed a combustible psersonality and all-powerful boss as well as anyone could have. 

He didn't though. He let Robert do whatever he wanted to the detriment of the crown, the realm and Robert's dynasty. He mismanaged him. 

7 minutes ago, the trees have eyes said:

You would have more luck restraining his spending than restraining Trump from entering into a trade war or unbalanced tax cuts.  Guys like that dont listen and they are the ultimate authority. 

Tywin had the same issues with an extravagant spending Aerys a king who was more trigger happy than Robert ever was.

Arryn's not dealing with issues that every single other Hand in the last three centuries has had to deal with.  

 

[redriver]

No evidence of hallucinations,delusional ideation or any other thought disorders.So no,not mad at all.

The impression I get from the OP is that madness is worse than badness.At least insanity is some sort of defense.

[Varysblackfyre321]

On March 11, 2018 at 7:41 PM, Universal Sword Donor said:

Pretty much any ironborn. Hell Vic condones the rape of Maesters

Victorien condones treating men who don't adhere to his culture's view of what makes a man abusively in whatever fashion-including sexually. He's no problem so much with maestors(even he'd admit they have their uses), but the the one Euron had given him was too "girly" in his mind, and thus deserved to be treated like a "woman". He's a perfect example of toxic masculinty.