Angel Eyes

So in ACOK, a riot breaks out in King's Landing the day Princess Myrcella is sent to Dorne after Prince Joffrey starts shouting for someone who threw dung at him. We all know the story, etc. But what would be the series of events if, to give an example, one of the rioters throws a stone at Joffrey and it sinks into his head Goliath-style, killing him? Everything else happens as if canon: The Hound rescues Sansa, the High Septon, Ser Preston, Ser Aron are killed, Tyrek is missing, Lady Lollys is raped, etc. Now what? Tommen has to be crowned, there's a couple armies (the Tyrells who are responsible for the food shortage though they might be headed home after Renly's assassination, Stannis Baratheon) bearing down on the capitol, Lord Tywin is preoccupied with Robb Stark in the Riverlands and Westerlands north of the capitol. Alliances, hostage exchanges are on the table.

I had a thread sometime ago asking why Aegon's kids were born relatively late and why there were only two, with Aenys being born in 7 AC when Aegon was 34 and Maegor when he was 39; in contrast Ned Stark had five legitimate children (six counting Jon as illegitimate) by a similar age or other Targaryens like Viserys II who sired all three of his kids by the time he was 16.

There's also a theory that Cersei is Gendry's mother and she hid him away so that only her children with Jaime would inherit. https://screenrant.com/game-thrones-cersei-gendry-mother-theory-explained/

Perhaps. I just don't see Jaime leaving Lady Stoneheart's presence alive, given his liking for realistic consequences.

Or Lady Stoneheart hangs him.

On the other hand, would Lyanna wind up like Cersei if she were married to Robert?

I had a thread years ago discussing Robert.

Plenty here don't trust the show. It would be like Martin to just give the royal authority to a non-character.

Which is per the norm for Tywin on the other hand.

I found a drawing of Sam unmasking a White Walker as Craster.

So taking the concept of for want of a nail, how would the show have progressed if Tommen and Margaery had conceived a child on their wedding night during "High Sparrow" (Season 5), ala Ned and Catelyn and the child is born early Season 6? Cersei naturally wouldn't like it since she considers Margaery the "younger and more beautiful queen", but from then onward? Assuming good writing of course.

He's still dumb in the books, he's just built up as this cautious schemer and what we see out of him is... quite pathetic. A bit like how informed attributes became the norm in the show.

As far as the Tyrells and Martells were concerned, who was available? From what I'm aware, Arianne was seven at the time and the only known legitimate female Martell, while maybe Janna was available (Mina was already married to Paxter Redwyne since Horror and Slobber were born at that point). The "who was available" tends to come up as to why Lysa married Jon Arryn.

Without going into the show with logistics, just look at King's Landing: A city of 500,000 people, which is stretching it by medieval standards (about the size of Constantinople c. 500 C.E.), primarily fed by food from the Reach no less than 500 miles away (Highgarden is 900 miles away), making it a big deal when Renly besieges King's Landing. This would require a rather large bureaucracy to organize, funding, distribution, as well as control over neighboring kingdoms, would it not? And yet it's shown that the Crown is rather hands-off in ruling. Unless most of the population subsists on each other...

Everything that people complain about in the show (logistics, subverting expectations, sudden bad things happening out of nowhere, unpleasant shifts in characters) is present in the books, just on a larger scale.

Hypothetical question: Say in ASOIAF or beforehand, Hoster and Edmure Tully died, the latter without issue (let's just say, for the sake of simplicity, he hits his head on a lintel). How would the Tully succession proceed from there? Brynden Blackfish is unmarried, so the title would pass to Catelyn's children... which poses its own problem since Robb, Catelyn's eldest living child, is heir to House Stark. Would it fall to Bran?

I think there's a theory out there somewhere that Pycelle is of Westerlands origin, and may hold some residual loyalty to House Lannister.

Well, Sansa's going that way in the books too. As for Doran... his plans were never great in the first place, just ask Viserys when Doran left him out to dry.

I wonder if GRRM overestimated stamina in that book. How does somebody burn through so much wine, women (plus a knife and boots) over two weeks? Anguy must have steel for a liver (plus more down below).

If that were the case how come he left Rhaenys and Aegon to the hounds so to speak? There were 7 Northerners who rode to the Tower of Joy: Ned, Howland, Lord Dustin, Martyn Cassel (Rodrik's brother and Jory's father), Ser Mark Ryswell, Ethan Glover (the lone surviving member of Brandon's ill-fated party to the Red Keep), and Theo Wull (I think he was adapted out).

I don't think that's the case; if it were Aerys would have married Joanna and Rhaella.

I have two. The first is that Summerhall had a library of Targaryen history particularly on years between Daeron II and Aegon V, which also explains why there's little information on the Targaryens during that time (Daeron's daughter, Aerion's son Maegor, Aegon's sisters) because it all went up in smoke. Rhaegar also goes there because he mourns the loss of information (as well as being born in tragedy). The other is that Lysa and Sweetrobin are both suffering from lead poisoning.

Something that I find interesting about Robert's Rebellion is that when Lord Commander Gerold Hightower went to find Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at the Tower of Joy, he and Rhaegar swapped places: Hightower stayed at the Tower to guard Lyanna while Rhaegar went to command the King's army. Between the three Kingsguard there, I find Hightower's placement there quite suspicious; Arthur Dayne and Oswell Whent were Rhaegar's close friends and in on his plans with Lyanna, but Hightower, as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, would have been counted on as a commander for the royal army, as had happened during the War of the Ninepenny Kings when Ormund Baratheon was slain and Gerold had taken command of the combined Westerosi army. So in theory, what about that tower and its occupants was more important than commanding the royal army and taking an active role in military matters, as Lewyn Martell, Barristan Selmy, and Jonothor Darry had at the Battle of the Trident? What about Rhaegar's orders was more important than King Aerys' orders? Lyanna was already guarded by two Kingsguard, why were three needed? Even if Rhaegar and Lyanna had conceived Jon Snow (unproven as of yet in the books) and Jon is/was the Prince who was Promised, he would have been illegitimate... unless Rhaegar had annulled his marriage to Elia making Rhaenys and Aegon illegitimate (man those kids would have had it rough, being disowned by both grandfather and father, if they'd even survived the Sack of King's Landing).

And from Varys he could direct an assassination.

Wouldn't they have at least some knowledge of how the Dothraki operate via Jorah?