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Mad Lannisters


Kandrax

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For the same reason that Seutonius described early Roman emperors like Tiberius and Gaius as raving lunatics while the emperors he answered to, Titus and Domitian, were noble warriors and wise, capable rulers. You can say what you want about the past, particularly when it's already recorded history at the Citadel, but you takes your chances when telling the truth about the present.

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I guess for the same reason because contemporary historians don't feel compelled deify George W. H. Bush during the reign of his son, or John Adams during the reign of his son.

Historians caper to power, but they are still historians. When people lose power - when they retire or die - they become objects to be dissected and investigated by historians. And very few people aside from them care what they do.

Very few people kings in a medieval setting care whether historians praise all their predecessors, even if they are descended from them all. That would be both insane and stupid. Kings in such settings have to care about remaining in power and managing a kingdom. Precious few people care what happened fifty years ago, let alone five hundred.

It might be not well-advised to throw dirt and legendary founding figures (like Aegon the Conqueror) or great kings and heroes like the Old King or the Young Dragon, but even that should be something historians can do. Grand Maester Kaeth wasn't exactly nice to the grandfather of Kings Aerys I and Maekar, and today his treatise is apparently well-liked by people who understand it.

Yandel didn't whitewash all that much about the Lannister role during the Rebellion. He sucked up to Robert who he praises in a ridiculous manner, but Tywin only gets his due. He was a great man, a much more competent man than Aerys II; you don't have to twist the truth to stress that fact.

What he did is that he did not mention Tywin's role (or rather the rumors about Tywin's role) in the murders of Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon.

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23 hours ago, Kandrax said:

They weren't member of same family.

They might not have shared direct lineage, but they were all "caesers", meaning they all ruled by the same right as previous emperors. But since all the old emperors are dead and buried, it didn't matter if a few of them were cuckoo.

As I recall, there were times when the title Lord of the Rock did not go directly from father to son either, so the current lord can't even claim direct descent from the ancient Kings of the Rock.

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The book is written for Robert, but in the end it goes to Tommen. For that reason the story about Elia and her children was replaced by that nonesense (Elio and Linda even thought about using a different kind of colour for that specific page to show the replacement, but then had to dismiss the idea) and the role of Eddard and Stannis during Robert's rebellion was reduced. Otherwise Yandel does not seem to feel oblieged to show just how great the Lannisters and Tywin are. He mentions Tywin's lack of humour, his troublesome relationship to his siblings and that his actions during the Reyne Tarbeck rebellion were considered as brutal by some people. But he bases his writings about Tywin heavily on the accounts of Pycelle who might be Tywin's biggest fanboy.

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