Trigger Warning

The fighting's already pretty fantastical as it is.

Maybe they just offered a decent dowry and Robert needed some feast cash.

Think he was probably a little bit busy.

In a system where individuals have direct control over huge numbers of troops sometimes it's better not to poke the tiger.

Probably the same reason Anguy wins 10,000 dragons in an archery competition and Theon and his boys can climb an 80 foot wall, descend into a moat and then climb a 100 foot wall (which is about twice as high as the Aurelian Walls) with... grappling hooks. GRRM is all over the place when it comes to scale.

According to lady Hornwood Ramsay was gathering men at the Dreadfort for the Hornwood succession crisis, makes sense that they'd maintain a strong garrison at the Dreadfort in the expectation of retaliation especially after Ramsay is captured.

It'd likely be as effective, the causeway is the fundamental problem for the attacker rather than the fortress itself. They can't really get enough men and material up the road at once to make taking those towers practical and beyond that what are they gonna do if an army just sits on northern end of the causeway. Barring the Moat being completely undefended it'd probably always be more practical to make a short seaborne landing.

I've brought up how dumb I think it is that the defence of King's Landing was collapsing before they captured a section of wall or breached a gate in the past but I have to accept that that's what GRRM wrote but that being said I'd rather assume that during the Blackwater the defence was falling apart because of the morale of the raw gold cloaks rather than some fundamental problem with King's Landing's defences. It's a huge city with big walls, if we assume that the walls of King's Landing don't mean shit then neither does any wall in the setting. Like I said I'd rather just assume that it's the specific circumstances that matter when GRRM writes about some castle falling even if I think it stretches suspension of disbelief rather than a fundamental problem with fortifications simply not working for some inexplicable reason across the entire setting. There's absolutely no reasonable reason to assume King's Landing should be easy to take, Tywin himself says 1 man on a wall is worth 10 below. You're right about the Red Keep, by all accounts it's an absolute monstrous fortress yet the fandom barely ever pays it any mind.

Tywin's contribution to the rebellion is way too undervalued on this board. Just because the war was essentially won doesn't mean that securing the capital, storming the citadel, removing the royal family and offering up the throne to Robert on a platter in one day isn't a contribution that Robert would want to reward, the fanbase looks at besieging King's Landing with its massive walls and fuck off huge central citadel as no biggie constantly whenever attacking King's Landing comes up.

After sending Hightower to find Rheagar I doubt Aerys was even thinking about where and what they were doing. He probably just assumed they were all working to suppress the rebellion under Rheagar's orders, the guy was planning on immolating himself and the entire city anyway I doubt that he gave a shit where the Kingsguard were.

I think Jaime would go down fighting, I can't see him breaking his oath for the sole purpose of saving his own life. The guy charged Robb's bodyguard in the Whispering Wood just for a shot at killing him and jumped into a bear pit with one hand to save Brienne, self preservation especially in battle just isn't one of his priorities. EDIT: I think I replied to this post out of the context of the discussion, I don't think he'd just let himself get fried for no reason but I think he'd die defending Aerys from attackers

Why bother risking it when he can just not do anything and maintain his position as one of the most powerful people on the continent, don't see how that makes him a buffoon either.

Aerys probably manages to immolate King's Landing at some point just because the circumstances of his death changed.

Could easily go either way though I still maintain that Stannis the Mannis' military genius is a fandom meme, the guy's a threat because he's competent and tenacious not because he's a tactical genius. Stannis' only really impressive feat of command is Fair Isle but it's a naval battle which means absolutely dick all as far as battlefield command goes especially when it consists of luring an idiot into the only place where his entire fleet can be enveloped by massively superior numbers. No one ever seems to take points off him for marching off to King's Landing with two armies bigger than his own within relief range of the city and getting subsequently dicked down, or fucking off into a blizzard to besiege a monstrous castle with no supplies, sure he might end up pulling something miraculous off in Winds at Winterfell but fundamentally it's dumb as fuck. Anyone else would get called out but not Stannis. I can't reconcile these points with him being a military genius or even a particularly gifted strategist, nor have we ever even seen him command anything close to a pitched battle so how on earth can we know he's so good tactically.

Renly would be much better off marrying his child to a powerful vassal, stopping Shireen and Myrcella having children with a claim is important but gaining legitimacy by having his own children marry one of them is negligible when he's already usurped several claimants that are obviously ahead of him. Renly's gonna be called a usurper his entire reign, his children too. Marrying off Shireen to a son won't change that but gaining more allies may stem the potential turbulence of his rule.