Stannis's role in the death of King Robert Baratheon

[Lord Varys]

2 hours ago, Fisch said:

He doesn't need a power base to say anything, I grant. But if you accuse the queen of cuckolding the king with her brother and getting three bastards by him, and that queen is the daughter of a LP and Warden of the West, and you suspect that Jon Arryn was poisoned for this knowledge (and, therefore, that there are spies in the court who know things you tell people even outside of Cersei's circle), then you might want strong power behind what you say, in case the news gets into the wrong hands or isn't taken well.

And I don't see a reason not to take Martin's quote as the real deal vis a vis Stannis's feelings.

Actually, Martin outright states that Stannis and Robert didn't like each other/weren't close. That cannot be disputed. George only considers it a possibility that this might be an explanation for him doing nothing to warn Robert of the things that might be coming.

As to the whole thing - Stannis doesn't have to paint the whole thing as 'Jaime is the father of your children'. He could just as well approach Robert and carefully talk about the looks of his children, the fact that historically there weren't any Lannister-Baratheon children with blond hair, and the fact that Jon Arryn investigated the implications of this and then suddenly died.

In fact, Stannis could even have reversed the whole chain of events chronologically, telling Robert that it was Jon Arryn who had certain suspicions first and only brought him in later.

Stannis wouldn't have needed any strong power for any of that, and neither would have needed it for writing a letter or sending a messenger to Ned, Renly, Barristan, or Robert himself.

There wasn't even a good reason for him to leave the capital, actually. Jon Arryn was poisoned, he was not outright murdered by Cersei's thugs, and one should assume that a man like Stannis would actually not be afraid of knives in the dark or poison in his salted water. 

[Fisch]

3 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Actually, Martin outright states that Stannis and Robert didn't like each other/weren't close. That cannot be disputed. George only considers it a possibility that this might be an explanation for him doing nothing to warn Robert of the things that might be coming.

I'm not sure why I shouldn't consider the author's "possibility" the most informed and the most likely.

As to the rest - I just don't see any reason not to believe that Stannis genuinely thought Robert wouldn't listen to/believe him about the kids. You can say she should have done this or that, but with that lack of faith and trust, it's hard to see what he realistically could have done.

And Jon Arryn wasn't afraid of being poisoned either.

[Lord_Ravenstone]

6 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Actually, Martin outright states that Stannis and Robert didn't like each other/weren't close. That cannot be disputed. George only considers it a possibility that this might be an explanation for him doing nothing to warn Robert of the things that might be coming.

As to the whole thing - Stannis doesn't have to paint the whole thing as 'Jaime is the father of your children'. He could just as well approach Robert and carefully talk about the looks of his children, the fact that historically there weren't any Lannister-Baratheon children with blond hair, and the fact that Jon Arryn investigated the implications of this and then suddenly died.

In fact, Stannis could even have reversed the whole chain of events chronologically, telling Robert that it was Jon Arryn who had certain suspicions first and only brought him in later.

Stannis wouldn't have needed any strong power for any of that, and neither would have needed it for writing a letter or sending a messenger to Ned, Renly, Barristan, or Robert himself.

There wasn't even a good reason for him to leave the capital, actually. Jon Arryn was poisoned, he was not outright murdered by Cersei's thugs, and one should assume that a man like Stannis would actually not be afraid of knives in the dark or poison in his salted water. 

GRRM's word is the closest thing you'll find to the truth if you don't want to take it as the outright truth.