Universal Sword Donor

Right now in the North the best is probably Hosteen. In the RL, it's probably the hound. In the crownlands, I have to go with Gregor. In the stormlands, it's probably someone from the GC on their way to SE. In the Reach, it's probably Garlan or Andrik. In Dorne, Areo most likely. In the Vale, Lyn Corbray has the best reputation but I'm not sold.

Who's to say that was the only thing he had in mind? Cersei was offering a lordship for Tyrion's head.

Karstark's actions were worse than Robb's. Robb dishonored a critical, peevish ally No surgarcoating that is very bad. Karstark, however, killed defenseless prisoners and set a disturbing trend for noble captives in enemy hands. That's brutal for anyone who currently has relatives imprisoned by the Lannisters (at varying points post ASOS Rickard himself, the Umbers, Manderly, the Glovers, Robb himself (his heir!!), and possibly a few others I am missing).

The Ironborn in ACOK/ASOS But I think you mean north, and that's a valid point. It's been centuries at the very least

It's absolutely not. Both kings were opposing him by force of arms regardless of whether or not they were burnt alive in a castle or on the field of battle. He didn't, so you can stop bringing this up. She didn't have the option, so again this is irrelevant. Twice over irrelevant, actually, since Argilac met them outside SE and the SE garrison seized Argella and opened the gates. Completely and utter supposition flying in the face of Aegon only made an example of it because he locked himself in HH. It wasn't like Aegon locked him inside himself. So again this is irrelevant. HH was war or are we going to ignore all the scorpions and crossbowmen who were promised Tully's maiden daughters for bringing down dragons? That is entirely your head canon. Right and after Aegon braved scorpion and crossbow bolts to burn the Kingspyre tower, the IB bent the knee as well. You can't say HH was utterly defenseless. It was defended and we know that Meraxes died from a scorpion bolt in the eye launched by castle defenders. Are you under the impression that Harren wasn't aware they were dragonlords? It would make his statement about stone burning all the more confusing. No one disputed this. Not even sure why this is being brought up Why are you even bringing this up? No one but yourself has broached this lien of debate, let alone myself. You're treating a heavily defended HH and its burning as magically different than a heavily contested battle where another king and his line were burned to death. They simply aren't appreciably different and neither were the reactions of the populations they ruled.

I'm not sure how this is relevant at all to my point. The intent is irrelevant. What actually happened is relevant. No need to put the cart before the horses if both are consumed by dragon flame. Both the Gardeners and the Hoares opposed Aegon with force and were wiped out. I said nothing about them attacking Highgarden. I'm talking about what actually happened. Hypotheticals and potential head canon are great but irrelevant to the points you made. He eliminated two ruling lines with dragon fire (and spear/bow) and neither one was lamented or fought back for by the bannermen after if happened. It's bears resemblance to what Mace did after the sack of KL when he didn't really have anything left to fight for. Yes Aegon's primary goal was freeing the Riverlanders from being under the tyrannical yoke of IB oppression, not conquer them himself. We know he offered the IB lordship over themselves but do not know if they would have kept the RL. Showing the realm what dragons could do had already been done and he had to show them again at the Field of Fire.

Not that many guys burned at Harrenhal. It wasn't a dragon holocaust. It was relatively modest, totally in line with the losses suffered in a normal battle - perhaps even less so. It was a very impressive show of force and likely scared the survivors who saw the dragons in action for their life, but it was more show than slaughter - and that's the reason why Aegon succeeded. My point being, in cased it wasn't apparent, was that the FoF and HH were basically equally devastating to the ruling line of a kingdom/region. You asserted the reach wouldn't capitulate if Highgarden were treated the same, but when their ruling line was wiped out the Tyrells and the entirety of the Reach bent the knee as well.

Is burning alive with all your male relatives on a battlefield really any different than burning alive with all your male relatives inside a castle?

It's kind of a hint and they might have been weakened, but they remain the second strongest house in Dorne, despite having participated in 3 BF rebellions. Doran exiled Oberyn for killing their lord in a duel and had to send Frog boy to serve as a ward (as anhonor / hostage?) years later. They weren't *that* powerful in the first place, given the sheer number of kings Dorne had and they don't seem to have lost any power, prestige, or martial responsibilities. The fact it took 11 years and a Martell lord's life to finally beat them doesn't really sound like a crushing to me either. The Martells were a pretty weak house. Until the coming of Nymeria, no Dornishman would ever have counted them amongst the great powers of the country. Indeed, though surrounded by kings on every side, the Martells themselves never presumed to claim that title, and at certain points in their history, they willingly bent the knees to the Jordayne kings of the Tor, the pious Allyrions of Godsgrace, the many petty kings of the Greenblood, and the mighty Yronwoods of Yronwood. We also know that Nymeria increased their fighting strength 10x and they ruled land 30 miles wide and 150 miles long, and we at least see the landscape from Sunspear to the Water Gardens. It's pretty brutal -- well I do like a cool sea breeze -- for farming or anything similar. I would be very surprised if the Yronwoods couldn't give the Martells a run for their money if all of Dorne sat out, especially with the Martells lacking a suitable military leader in their current scenario. Increasing the size of the their lands would make sense in pretty much any other story or real life, but hands down the most consistent thing we've seen in ASOIAF is conquered foes bending the knee and being confirmed in their lands and titles. Aegon did it with everyone he conquered. Robert did it with most and didn't increase his own personal holdings (SE went to Renly, DS to Stannis). Tywin left the Reyne and Tarbeck lands -- at least their castles -- were left vacant after he crushed them, despite Castamere possibly having producing gold and silver mines.

Pretty easy actually. The Goths (visigoths iirc) destroyed the canals going into rome and they suffered bad. If it's more formidable, though, I'd point to Alexander rerouting the Euphrates (might have been a roman) or the Lezarde at Harfleur as real world examples of ancient or medieval armies moving rivers. As to where it leads or where it comes from, we don't really have much of an idea. Maybe maps from LOAIF are better but I haven't seen much detail that would let us know one way or another. People get thirsty real quick though

It's not really impregnable. Actually it's quite vulnerable, just not for the common reasons. If the sweetwater river is disrupted or re-routed, the population is pretty well screwed. The only water left is the lagoon water, which has to be boiled. Firewood is expensive as hell in Braavos and has to be brought in by barge. We don't know if it's brought it through the titan or downriver from the forests inland. Either way, they are going to be hard pressed to provide enough for the entire city to have potable water and that can be cut off almost completely it the inland river ways are blocked or set up for ambushes.

WRT to the Ryswells, I am fairly certain they were retconned to be stronger. They aren't listed as a principal bannerman of the starks but then they are a primary force in the north and an important ally of Roose. We never see any actual Ryswells south of the Neck on Robb's campaign, and they really aren't mentioned till ASOS (spearmen at that). Yet we see there are four Ryswells that essentially rule the Rills and they are named and prominently mentioned in AFFC and ADWD. They rule an area the size of the Karstark and Umber lands. Much like lady Dustin, I'd imagine they kept most of the strength back otherwise people would not be feting lady Dustin, herself a Ryswell, as a rival for power to Roose. Roose has the majority of the strength at WF, so the two families combined have to be able to raise a similar or larger amount to fight him off.

Kevan basically confirms it in his epilogue. He says Tywin was waiting for Aerys to summon him back to KL but he never did.

That’s not the same scenario though. One was a contested throne (Aegon/Rhaenyra) and the other one was a few hundred people against the entire realm

FWIW I think the Boltons were losing, but yeah the fighting wouldn't have been done just like that.