Bran the Bad Choice

[The Marquis de Leech]

I stumbled across this interesting article, which makes some interesting points based off real-life historical precedent with Elective Monarchies:

https://acoup.blog/2019/05/20/new-acquisitions-elective-monarchy-and-the-future-of-westeros/

In short, the Six Kingdoms is inherently screwed, and Bran was a terrible choice for King. Oh, and the article makes the case for King Edmure, which is always appreciated.

(That said: the article does get one thing wrong. There has been a traditionally elected lordship within Westeros, namely the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Which, curiously, seems to have been the puppet of the Starks at various points, what with children being elected to the position...).

[Zumbs]

Interesting and insightful article.

One point that I have been considering myself is the fundamental failure of how Varys thinks: While the ruler certainly has a great deal of influence in how the people living the realm fares, the ruler rules under circumstances given by the organization and culture of the society. If the society is robust and healthy, even a mad ruler will find it hard to seriously mess things up, whereas a fragile and sick society (e.g. the 6/7 kingdoms) will easily break, regardless of the disposition of the ruler.

[WeDoNotKneel_HailMance]

12 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

In short, the Six Kingdoms is inherently screwed, and Bran was a terrible choice for King.

Yes. As the show, the show's history, and actual history all display, hereditary monarchies are bad systems. They become problematic, because

• A) whenever there are problems in the realm (like the Mad King burning lords alive), the quick & easy response is "Its the ruler's fault, let's either overtake said ruler by conquest or prove that they aren't the rightful ruler" (like Robert's rebellion). 
• B ) There's always war whenever they are heir issues, which is common (e.g. Blackfyre rebellions, war of 5 kings).

Now, instead of hereditary monarchy we have elective monarchy....which is actually even WORSE because you're still open to problems in the realm being addressed by conquest (A above), AND basically every time you've created heir issues (B above) literally every single time a king dies.