Brynden"Bloodraven" Rivers

Agreed, the Northerners are hardened by winter and cold weather but for the Stormlands, it is only the Marcher Lords. I would argue that martial houses would also be the House Mallister, the Shields and a lot of Dorne.

Most of it is assorted. They come from The Battle of The Bells, some from Mace Tyrell's host and Gulltown loyalists and Houses Darry and Mooton.

If around 50 houses can only raise around 10,000 and this includes the city of King's Landing, that means that the Crownlands are super depopulated.

We know that kingdoms weren't super loyal or Westeros wouldn't have a history of such bloodiness. Also even if the system does protect itself, what about foreign invasions? The Triarchy, Braavos and Volantis are all threats that could easily take KL with a fleet and around 40,000 selllswords.

This doesn't do anything if there are no people to farm and cultivate that land. It's not arguing about how much land the Crown owns. It's how fortified and strongly held the Capitol of the Seven Kingdoms is. The answer is, even with potential expansion, the armies of the Crownlands are useless.

Ok I'll clarify. After Aegon III, why wasn't there a fortification of the crownlands. The Dance of the Dragons showed how weak and vulnerable the crownlands were. Borros Baratheon, Kermit Tully, Cregan Stark and Ormund Hightower's armies are able to make good progress into the crownlands without anyone stopping them. Houses Rosby and Stokeworth are super ineffectual and field like 500 and 600 men each. Against the 35,000-45,000 men that the Riverlands and Stormlands can raise, this is pathetic.

Most of the Royal Navy is crewed by men from Massey's Hook, Claw Isle, Swordfish Point, Driftmark, Dragonstone and the islands surrounding them. Not from areas like Rosby, Stokeworth, the Antlers and Duskendale.

This doesn't help against massive armies from the stormlands or the riverlands both of whom are pretty rebellious and rowdy. If you want to keep KL militarily secure, you need the same armies that your neighbors have. In order to do that, you need more peasant levies in the Crownlands which is some of what you said, expanding the Crownlands. But to ensure your army is good enough, you do some drilling and train the peasants or provide foreign mercenaries gold and lands to settle in the crownlands.

It's not a standing army, its just populating the crownlands a little more with peasant levies who can be raised during times of war. As I've pointed out before, the gold cloaks are the primary form of defense and they are unreliable at best.

In Fire & Blood, we learn about the development of King's Lading and how Aegon I, Maegor I, Jahaerys I, Viserys I all contributed to the building of King's Landing. But one thing I never understood is how the Targaryens rely on only the Red Keep and the gold cloaks to defend themselves from a rebel army. This is exemplified in the Battle of the Blackwater, Sack Of KL and Borros's siege. The only major towns, castles and keeps are Stokeworth, Rosby, Duskendale and Rook's Rest. All these petty lords raise around 5,000 men combined which is super pitiful for an area as big as Venezuela. If I was one of the founding Targaryen kings, I would either hire foreign mercenaries and/or offer incentives to move to the Crownlands to establish strong houses and bannerman like other regions. I would also hire Kingslanders to build more forts and keeps around the Crownlands area and generally increase the population of the area by building more towns and ports. This way, if either the Riverlanders or Stormlanders attack King's Landing, it isn't a one sided battle and more of a challenge. Another thing I would do would be to set a Royal Precedent to ensure that houses in direct proximity to KL excluding the lords of the narrow sea must always fight for the King/Queen who sits in KL. They cannot be punished for that act and cannot face legal consequences for actively supporting the reigning king. This would make the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms much more secure and independent in my opinion. What would you do to ensure King's Landing's security from invaders?

From the wiki

It has to be either Roose or Walton and Walton is at KL so it's Roose.

Definitely agree, she should have gone full dragon on the Yunkish and like anyone who started slaving. She also should have allied with Cleon.

how about we just archive this topic for being super off-topic? That sounds like a good idea.

Why is this still alive?