Lord Lannister

Hi, we're the Golden Company. Your King Stannis hired us to break the Tyrell siege, which we did. Now just open those gates?

If I only had a dime for every "why don't people like what I like" thread....

How Sam was treated is pretty much why the Night's Watch is a joke. It takes a teenage boy pulling strings to get the "radical" idea of having Sam, one of the few literate ones there, work as a scribe instead of being trained as one of many fighters there. Makes you wonder how many others didn't make it or are barely getting along, when they have gifts elsewhere.

You're saying all those women would've been interested in him if he wasn't king? I doubt it myself. I wouldn't even say he "gave the country peace" given his indifference pretty much set up the succession crisis that immediately followed his death. As for Rhaegar, you can blame a lot of crap on him, but he didn't "destroy" said peace. At best he was the spark that lit the pyre that Aerys had been stacking and soaking in oil for years. Though Brandon's "come out and die" certainly threw it's own set of sparks too. It was inevitable that something was going to light it. The die wasn't cast until Aerys decided to burn Rickard.

Oh I meant more Sansa stays loyal to the crown after her family rebels, thinking it best for the realm and wanting to live her fiction of being a queen. Though she'd quietly try to influence things to be more lenient towards her family. Even if they thought she was a traitor. She showed some of this in betraying Ned to Cersei but they threw it in her face, quite literally and that was that.

I think the story would've been far more interesting if Joffrey and Cersei treated Sansa decently after the rebellion and she was fully on board with them, reluctantly or not.

I thought Aerys just wanted to continue the family incest tradition and Jaehaerys used that as an excuse to justify it? Only read through TWoIaF once, so maybe I remembered it wrong.

I will say Dany's infertility isn't exactly a given. The person who stated her womb dried up had something of a negative agenda towards Dany. As for Jon, literally hasn't even happened yet to become a point of debate. I don't see Dany making it though. Dying in child birth is a possibility given the narrative of all three major characters in the series having mothers who died giving birth. She also could go down in the heroic sacrifice, though Jon seems a more likely candidate for that.

Mace or Margaery could very well put a piece of paper in front of Tommen for him to stamp, naming Mace Tyrell, Regent. He could then name one of his men, like Randyll Tarly, Hand of the King. Cersei would have a damn hard time undoing that.

I'd have to say no as well. He's stood up against authority in the past because it was the right thing to do.

While Barritsan was party to the events leading up to the Rebellion too, as you wish. He married Rhaella solely because he wanted to continue the family tradition of incest even those she wasn't fond of him according to Barristan. One of his reasons for naming Tywin Hand of the King was how impressed he was with the brutal way he crushed the Reynes and Tarbecks. He slept around a lot and there was his thing for Joanna Lannister, which all too likely was more than just rumor and crude remarks on his part. He locked Rhaella in a tower convinced she was cheating on him and that was the reason behind all her stillbirths. Yet had no problem sleeping around himself. Raised taxes on Oldstown and Lannisport just to piss of Tywin. Made a lot of such choices effecting the whole realm for that reason. Removed Illyn Payne's tongue for suggesting Tywin ruled the kingdom. Beheaded his son, Jaeherys' wetnurse for "letting him die." Later decided to blame his mistress for poisoning him and tortured confessions out of her and her family. All that before the Defiance and Rebellion both. So the pattern of behavior was there and just got worse. The act itself? So long as everyone involved is consenting, nothing. When you neglect the realm and responsibilities to pursue your own carnal pleasures, only using your position to do so, there's plenty wrong with that.

I'd take a well intentioned idiot over a sadistic madman. Or even a whoremonger. As for Barristan, I can't buy into the "only following orders" argument as being what should be done. He may have been physically brave, but he's a moral coward for not only standing by as a tyrant commits atrocity after atrocity, but actively defending said tyranny.

Maybe. Though given Robert's disdain for "counting coppers" such a person doesn't seem likely to last long in their post. Robert would soon replace them with a yes man of some sort and continue doing as he did. This might even make the realm face a financial crisis sooner. Whatever else Littlefinger did with his scheming, he was good at efficiently procuring revenue, which is as much how he got the position, with Lysa's influence. A replacement, especially a yes man, isn't likely to be as good.

I don't think the question should be if anyone else could do what Barristan did. I think it should be should Barristan have done it? Things may well have turned out better if Aerys was killed and Rhaegar ascended the Throne.

Sadly, for the assassin, it was the beets that were poisoned.