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Why the hell doesn't House Baratheon have a Valyrian Steel Sword?


JWittoBeast

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20 minutes ago, Stormking902 said:

Even the Sea Snake with all of his wealth and influence on both Westeros and Essos wasnt able to buy a VS sword because they are just that rare, Tywin was trying for years to purchase a VS sword from poor houses but even they refused to sell there familys most prized possesssion. Simply put the Dondarrions could afford to buy one sure but they never found one is the problem. 

Sidenote, but the story of Tywin being rebuffed by other houses when approached for their swords doesn't quite ring true for me. I mean, I know it's canon, what I mean is it doesn't strike me as making much sense. Surely there would have been some sum of money that would have convinced some house or other. 

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14 minutes ago, SirArthur said:

A Durrandon VS then. There isn't really much difference. As well as Hoare. There must be a Hoard VS out there right ? 

I don't see why. How the valyrian swords are distributed seems pretty random. The Arryns, Gardners and Martells don't/didn't have valyrian swords either. Neither do the Hightowers, Florents, Tullys, Blackwoods, Brackens, Royces, Boltons etc, etc. Being a powerful or paramount house doesn't guarantee possession of a valyrian sword.

I think all the valyrian swords on the Iron Islands were stolen from other houses. 

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On 8/26/2016 at 1:21 AM, JWittoBeast said:

"House Lannister, you get Brightroar, House Stark you get Ice, House Tarly you get Heartsbane....House Baratheon? Nope you get nothing sorry, but House Targaryen gets to keep 2 Valyrian steel swords for ourselves."

 

Are you under the impression that the Targaryens are just handing them out? Ludicrous.

Those families all had their weapons for centuries. Baratheon being such a new house is why they don't have one. Perhaps house Durrandon had one, but it's never stated.

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1 hour ago, Shouldve Taken The Black said:

Sidenote, but the story of Tywin being rebuffed by other houses when approached for their swords doesn't quite ring true for me. I mean, I know it's canon, what I mean is it doesn't strike me as making much sense. Surely there would have been some sum of money that would have convinced some house or other. 

Money cant buy everything your ancestral VS sword would be one of those things that even the poorest of houses would never sell because it means so much to there family. 

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here's the thing tho, Houses Martell, Arryn, Tyrell and Greyjoy aren't known to have Valyrian Steel Weapons either, even if they are great houses.

But House Baratheon is of Valyrian descent...House Celtigar has a Valyrian Steel Axe, and they aren't that great of a house.

And there ARE Valyrian steel weapons outside of westeros, if I remember correctly Khal Drogo had a Valyrian Steel Akhr, I do think that House Baratheon would have a Valyrian Steel something.

 

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2 hours ago, Stormking902 said:

Money cant buy everything your ancestral VS sword would be one of those things that even the poorest of houses would never sell because it means so much to there family. 

I get that logic, which is what Tyrion thinks, but unfortunately I'm of the rather cynical persuasion and think everyone has a price.

Still, that's the canon so so be it. 

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1 hour ago, Sand-Dragon said:

here's the thing tho, Houses Martell, Arryn, Tyrell and Greyjoy aren't known to have Valyrian Steel Weapons either, even if they are great houses.

But House Baratheon is of Valyrian descent...House Celtigar has a Valyrian Steel Axe, and they aren't that great of a house.

And there ARE Valyrian steel weapons outside of westeros, if I remember correctly Khal Drogo had a Valyrian Steel Akhr, I do think that House Baratheon would have a Valyrian Steel something.

 

The Baratheons are an unrecognized bastard line. Maybe they would have got a sword if the Targaryens had a spare, but they didn't so they didn't.

You're not remembering quite right. The vs arakh was owned by a member of the Windblown.

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1 hour ago, Sand-Dragon said:

here's the thing tho, Houses Martell, Arryn, Tyrell and Greyjoy aren't known to have Valyrian Steel Weapons either, even if they are great houses.

But House Baratheon is of Valyrian descent...House Celtigar has a Valyrian Steel Axe, and they aren't that great of a house.

And there ARE Valyrian steel weapons outside of westeros, if I remember correctly Khal Drogo had a Valyrian Steel Akhr, I do think that House Baratheon would have a Valyrian Steel something.

 

The Greyjoys did have one for a bit when Dalton Greyjoy took Nightfall off a dead pirate. I'm still curious how it ended up with the Harlaws.

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On 8/25/2016 at 11:21 PM, JWittoBeast said:

They are LITERALLY FROM Valyria and they were Aegon's main supporters, yet they don't even have a Valyrian steel sword?

"House Lannister, you get Brightroar, House Stark you get Ice, House Tarly you get Heartsbane....House Baratheon? Nope you get nothing sorry, but House Targaryen gets to keep 2 Valyrian steel swords for ourselves."

The Author did not see fit to give them one. That is all 

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4 hours ago, Shouldve Taken The Black said:

I don't see why. How the valyrian swords are distributed seems pretty random. The Arryns, Gardners and Martells don't/didn't have valyrian swords either. Neither do the Hightowers, Florents, Tullys, Blackwoods, Brackens, Royces, Boltons etc, etc. Being a powerful or paramount house doesn't guarantee possession of a valyrian sword.

I think all the valyrian swords on the Iron Islands were stolen from other houses. 

House Hightower DOES have a sword, Vigilance.

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5 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

The Author did not see fit to give them one. That is all 

This--because it would have been wasted on them. Robert used a warhammer exclusively (and if he'd had a VS sword, there would have been no particular reason to reforge Ice into two; Joffrey would have inherited Bob's). Stannis has (f)Lightbringer, which would probably be less impressive if he also had the family VS. And since Brienne took Renly's sword after he was shadowbabied, which was subsequently stolen by the Brave Companions, Oathkeeper would not be as big a deal, either--plus I think Renly's sword was supposed to matter just because it was Renly's, not because it was Valyrian steel. So no VS for House Baratheon.

Also, as @Shouldve Taken The Black and @ChuckPunch said, the house has only been around since the conquest, and its founder was rumored to be a Targ bastard. The Durrandons would have had to have the sword already, but the current crop of Baratheons just doesn't need one.

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I'd assume the Targaryens didn't bring anyone to Dragonstone capable of forging Valyrian steel. They only have two of the swords themselves and they were dragonlords, perhaps each sword is a massive undertaking and such artisans rare even within the Freehold or maybe they didn't prioritise dragging one along when they were fleeing. 

"Hey incredibly skilled magical sword forger wanna come live in the arse end of nowhere, world's gonna end I swear down."
"I'll pass."

More likely though GRRM neither thought to give them one nor thought it was particularity important that they have one honestly I feel the whole VS sword stuff is pretty slapdash and that GRRM just wanted some cool named swords for particular people, I find it hard to believe the richest man on the continent couldn't convince someone to part with one when there 200 or so blades, it's just a line to make them seem cooler. 

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On 4/18/2018 at 8:42 AM, Radish Knight said:

Wouldn't make sense for a war hammer.
Valyrian steel is famous for being incredibly sharp, durable and lightweight, which makes it perfect for bladed weapons. Robert's war hammer was so heavy Ned couldn't even lift it.

Not quite right. If I recall the VS blades are light because they could be made much thinner than regular blades because of their high durability. If we assume the density is the same a VS sword is lighter because there is less material used compared to ordinary swords. A regular sized VS hammer would have nearly the exact same weight as an ordinary steel hammer. If anything the VS hammer would be a bit a bit heavier since impurities are expelled from VS and those impurities generally have a lower density than steel. 

A VS hammer would have no benefit over a regular hammer and would use much more of the material than for blades. It makes much more sense to use the VS to make bladed weapons were VS advantages over regular steel can really shine, (or used for armor in Eurons case). 

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1 hour ago, Mainstroke said:

Not quite right. If I recall the VS blades are light because they could be made much thinner than regular blades because of their high durability. If we assume the density is the same a VS sword is lighter because there is less material used compared to ordinary swords. A regular sized VS hammer would have nearly the exact same weight as an ordinary steel hammer. If anything the VS hammer would be a bit a bit heavier since impurities are expelled from VS and those impurities generally have a lower density than steel. 

A VS hammer would have no benefit over a regular hammer and would use much more of the material than for blades. It makes much more sense to use the VS to make bladed weapons were VS advantages over regular steel can really shine, (or used for armor in Eurons case). 

Interesting, I didn't recall that they were lighter due to being thinner (which would make a lot more sense). I always assumed that Valyrian steel itself was simply lighter.

Thanks for the clarification. :thumbsup:

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On 18/4/2018 at 8:05 PM, Therae said:

This--because it would have been wasted on them. Robert used a warhammer exclusively (and if he'd had a VS sword, there would have been no particular reason to reforge Ice into two; Joffrey would have inherited Bob's). Stannis has (f)Lightbringer, which would probably be less impressive if he also had the family VS. And since Brienne took Renly's sword after he was shadowbabied, which was subsequently stolen by the Brave Companions, Oathkeeper would not be as big a deal, either--plus I think Renly's sword was supposed to matter just because it was Renly's, not because it was Valyrian steel. So no VS for House Baratheon.

Also, as @Shouldve Taken The Black and @ChuckPunch said, the house has only been around since the conquest, and its founder was rumored to be a Targ bastard. The Durrandons would have had to have the sword already, but the current crop of Baratheons just doesn't need one.

I don't know, a VS sword justified the first Blackfyre rebellion. It would give some legitimacy to Stannis's claim, The Lannisters are still traumatized over the loss of brightroar, and Ice was part of the terms of peace that Robb sent to Kingslanding. 

And part of the value of Renly's sword was in fact that it was VS. 

I'd say that Valyrian Steel is fairly important and more so to a family that just recently came into power and that still needs to justify their legitimacy.

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26 minutes ago, Sand-Dragon said:

I don't know, a VS sword justified the first Blackfyre rebellion. It would give some legitimacy to Stannis's claim, The Lannisters are still traumatized over the loss of brightroar, and Ice was part of the terms of peace that Robb sent to Kingslanding. 

And part of the value of Renly's sword was in fact that it was VS. 

I'd say that Valyrian Steel is fairly important and more so to a family that just recently came into power and that still needs to justify their legitimacy.

No, his sword was not VS. Absolute 100% not. Why would he want Lightbringer if that was the case?

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