Did euron kill balon using a faceless man?

[Daenerysthegreat]

I for one don't think euron has the funds to afford that type of murder. The dragon egg he could have given might have been enough to kill an merchant but not a king. 

In the first book we hear littlefinger mention to the usurper that they can't afford to send an faceless man to kill dany. This source is verifiable I think anyone can catch littlefingers lie. The usurper who gave away 100000 dragons for a tourney can't afford an faceless man for a mere princess that too an beggar one. So how can euron afford to kill balon ? 

The dragon eggs are valuable but if they were that rare how did magister illyrio even afford them. The usurper is far richer than magister illyrio but if the usurper can't afford to kill dany so can't illyrio.

[EggBlue]

15 minutes ago, Daenerysthegreat said:

I for one don't think euron has the funds to afford that type of murder. The dragon egg he could have given might have been enough to kill an merchant but not a king. 

In the first book we hear littlefinger mention to the usurper that they can't afford to send an faceless man to kill dany. This source is verifiable I think anyone can catch littlefingers lie. The usurper who gave away 100000 dragons for a tourney can't afford an faceless man for a mere princess that too an beggar one. So how can euron afford to kill balon ? 

The dragon eggs are valuable but if they were that rare how did magister illyrio even afford them. The usurper is far richer than magister illyrio but if the usurper can't afford to kill dany so can't illyrio.

I disagree. it was a faceless man. the only question regarding that event could be how Euron afford it which could be answered either by dragon egg or any other unknown treasure that Euron had found during his long voyage to Valeria.

of course Robert can't afford hiring a super expensive assassin for a teenage girl in savage land. he is a begger king in all but name. You see, the thing about "affording" something is that it doesn't just mean you have the money for something or not. it's also about whether it worths it or not . Robert loves tourneys so he spends on them but he won't use that much money on a task that could be done with no expenses. and I think we could agree that Illyrio's extremely wealthy considering the way he looks down on Casterly Rock and its wealth which is one of crown's biggest loan lenders at aGoT.

[Megorova]

Euron did hired a Faceless Man to kill his brother, though he paid not with money. In exchange for Balon's death, Euron gave to that FM a valuable information. And because of that information that FM went to Oldtown. That information Euron has found out from Shiera Seastar/Quaithe/the Three-Eyed Crow, while he was one of her disciples.

One of Euron's eyes is connected to Shiera by blood magic, that's why after he betrayed her, he covered that eye, to prevent his ex-teacher from spying on him thru that eye. That's why Euron's nickname is the Crow's Eye - because he is the third eye of the Three-Eyed Crow. While him and Shiera were pals, he found out from her a lot of Targaryen secrets, including something, confirmation to which could be found at the Citadel.

So that's why that FM (Syrio, Jaqen, Alchemist, fakePate) went to the Citadel, where he can get access to that information. I have no idea what that information is, but could be that it has something to do with Rhaegar and Lyanna. It could be either their wedding certificate, or Jon's birth certificate, or maybe something else.

[Tucu]

When Barth travelled to Braavos to demand the return of the 3 dragon eggs, the Sealord threaten to use a certain guild to murder key people in KL (including Jaehaerys). Then he offered a more peaceful option: gold; the Iron Bank forgave all its loans to the Iron Throne. Barth accepted. Braavos values dragon eggs.

[WhatAnArtist!]

It's mentioned a couple of times in the books that a single dragon egg would be worth enough to buy a whole army of sellswords, so I definitely think that Euron could afford to hire a Faceless Man. I don't think a Faceless Man is more expensive than a whole army of sellswords, though I might be wrong on that. If there are specifics on the prices I'm not aware of, I'd be glad to hear them.

As for the issue of Robert's vs. Illyrio's wealth - Robert and his kingdom have no real, solid wealth - it's all built on a massive pit of debt, mostly to Tywin. Illyrio does not seem to be in debt at all; as a businessman he's far better with his money than Robert "start the joust before I piss myself" Baratheon. 

[Daenerysthegreat]

3 minutes ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

It's mentioned a couple of times in the books that a single dragon egg would be worth enough to buy a whole army of sellswords, so I definitely think that Euron could afford to hire a Faceless Man. I don't think a Faceless Man is more expensive than a whole army of sellswords, though I might be wrong on that. If there are specifics on the prices I'm not aware of, I'd be glad to hear them.

As for the issue of Robert's vs. Illyrio's wealth - Robert and his kingdom have no real, solid wealth - it's all built on a massive pit of debt, mostly to Tywin. Illyrio does not seem to be in debt at all; as a businessman he's far better with his money than Robert "start the joust before I piss myself" Baratheon. 

If a faceless man could be bought by a dragon egg to kill a king what’s stopping the usurper,Tywin, Stannis etc to buy an dragon egg and kill their enemies.Its simply not worth that, if I have to make an estimate I’d say that an dragon egg is worth 20000 gold dragons max, that can buy you an army of sell swords but the army will be small and not of great repute

[WhatAnArtist!]

1 minute ago, Daenerysthegreat said:

If a faceless man could be bought by a dragon egg to kill a king what’s stopping the usurper,Tywin, Stannis etc to buy an dragon egg

Would it be that easy? Both Illyrio and Euron lived in Essos and had connections there. It might have been far easier for them than if Tywin sent someone across the Narrow Sea with the instructions "get me a dragon egg" and nothing else.

[CamiloRP]

I don't think he did, in fact, I don't think he was involved at all. What motive does he have for killing Balon? he doesn't care about the Seastone Chair and I imagine convincing Balon to team up with Dany and take over Westeros would be far easier than convincing the Ironborn to follow an exile, and then to convince them of the same plan he would have to convince Balon of.

Also, why would you pay an assassin to kill someone else if you where gonna make yourself the prime suspect anyway? Wouldn't it be smarter to wait a few days after the assassin's done it's deed?

[WhatAnArtist!]

5 minutes ago, CamiloRP said:

I don't think he did, in fact, I don't think he was involved at all. What motive does he have for killing Balon? he doesn't care about the Seastone Chair and I imagine convincing Balon to team up with Dany and take over Westeros would be far easier than convincing the Ironborn to follow an exile, and then to convince them of the same plan he would have to convince Balon of.

Also, why would you pay an assassin to kill someone else if you where gonna make yourself the prime suspect anyway? Wouldn't it be smarter to wait a few days after the assassin's done it's deed?

Euron still needs the ironborn to fulfil whatever mysterious satantic goals he has. He's powerful, but he can't do whatever he wants alone.

[CamiloRP]

1 minute ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

Euron still needs the ironborn to fulfil whatever mysterious satantic goals he has. He's powerful, but he can't do whatever he wants alone.

Yes, and he could've gotten them by convincing Balon.

[WhatAnArtist!]

1 minute ago, CamiloRP said:

Yes, and he could've gotten them by convincing Balon.

That's an assumption, not a fact. We don't know that Balon would have been willing to go along with Euron's plans. Balon was a very proud man and wanted to be king and wanted to be powerful personally. He didn't want to do others' bidding, or feel like he was being used (see his reason for rejecting Robb's offer in ACoK). Balon was also not an idiot like Victarian. 

[CamiloRP]

2 minutes ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

That's an assumption, not a fact. We don't know that Balon would have been willing to go along with Euron's plans. Balon was a very proud man and wanted to be king and wanted to be powerful personally. He didn't want to do others' bidding, or feel like he was being used (see his reason for rejecting Robb's offer in ACoK). Balon was also not an idiot like Victarian. 

Yes, is an assumption, like it was an assumption in Euron's mind that he could get the support from the Iron Born, I mean, he could, but he could be as certain of it as he would be of Balon's support. In fact, I think there was something magical happening in the Kingsmoot, based on the parallels between it and the LC election and the whole weird thing with the magical horn. Euron had little chance to gain the support of the IB, he's an exile and the IB had all but lost at this point, why would they support his plans? it makes more sense for them to support Asha's view. But Balon wanted war, and he wanted to win, why would he reject Euron's proposal if it meant a solution to his problems? 

[Daenerysthegreat]

45 minutes ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

Would it be that easy? Both Illyrio and Euron lived in Essos and had connections there. It might have been far easier for them than if Tywin sent someone across the Narrow Sea with the instructions "get me a dragon egg" and nothing else.

Euron didn't live in essos, actually why would tywin even need to send someone over the narrow sea just get an egg from kings landing or dragonstone. 

[WhatAnArtist!]

1 minute ago, CamiloRP said:

why would they support his plans?

War and conquest was still the most highly valued thing among ironborn men. They also weren't really losing the war decisively until Dance, when Stannis took Deepwood and the Boltons took Moat Cailin. Euron was a strong and confident man with raiding and battle experience, and promised them exactly what they wanted - raiding and plunder and glory. It's not a surprise that he won.

Asha was a woman that wanted to end the war. The ironborn wanted neither of those things. Martin went out of his way to point out just how sexist (even by the standards of the series' world) and glory-hungry the ironborn were. There's no way they'd ever accept Asha as their ruler. That was inevitable.

[Daenerysthegreat]

2 minutes ago, CamiloRP said:

Yes, is an assumption, like it was an assumption in Euron's mind that he could get the support from the Iron Born, I mean, he could, but he could be as certain of it as he would be of Balon's support. In fact, I think there was something magical happening in the Kingsmoot, based on the parallels between it and the LC election and the whole weird thing with the magical horn. Euron had little chance to gain the support of the IB, he's an exile and the IB had all but lost at this point, why would they support his plans? it makes more sense for them to support Asha's view. But Balon wanted war, and he wanted to win, why would he reject Euron's proposal if it meant a solution to his problems? 

It's different I think, euron didn't just show up out of nowhere. He sat on the seastone throne for days and had jewels and other treasures. He was also victarion's elder brother and asha's uncle, in the misogynistic ironborn society a male uncle means a lot more than a daughter

[Mister Smikes]

3 hours ago, Daenerysthegreat said:

I for one don't think euron has the funds to afford that type of murder. The dragon egg he could have given might have been enough to kill an merchant but not a king. 

In the first book we hear littlefinger mention to the usurper that they can't afford to send an faceless man to kill dany. This source is verifiable I think anyone can catch littlefingers lie. The usurper who gave away 100000 dragons for a tourney can't afford an faceless man for a mere princess that too an beggar one. So how can euron afford to kill balon ? 

The dragon eggs are valuable but if they were that rare how did magister illyrio even afford them. The usurper is far richer than magister illyrio but if the usurper can't afford to kill dany so can't illyrio.

I'm fine with all of this.  But you fail to suggest an alternate interpretation of the Ghost of High Heart's vision.

But perhaps the standard interpretation is just a poor fit anyway.  Why would the faceless assassin who killed Balon be wearing a drowned crow?

One alternate interpretation that occurred to me is that the "bridge that swayed and swung" is the rickety bridge to the Isle of Ravens.  The man without a face is Fake Pate a/k/a the Alchemist.  And the drowned crow he is wearing represents Sam, signifying he has adopted Sam's face and likeness.

[WhatAnArtist!]

2 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

Why would the faceless assassin who killed Balon be wearing a drowned crow?

It's not meant to be literal. The assassin is "wearing a drowned crow" because the assassin was hired by Crow's Eye, who was "drowned" (i.e. Ironborn).

[Lord Lannister]

I think Melisandre's line about sacrifice applies to Faceless Men pricing. It went something like if a man with a thousand cows gives one to god that is nothing, if someone with only one cow sacrifices it, it is everything. 

When Euron would've hired that assassin that dragon egg would've been everything he had just about. Which is why when Robert inquired about hiring the Faceless Men the price was prohibitively expensive. Because that wasn't everything to a noble or king.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

I don't see why he wouldn't do it himself.  Euron was always going to get the blame anyway. A faceless man would seem to me to be an unnecessary expense that achieved nothing he couldn't have accomplished himself.

 

[Daenerysthegreat]

21 minutes ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

I don't see why he wouldn't do it himself.  Euron was always going to get the blame anyway. A faceless man would seem to me to be an unnecessary expense that achieved nothing he couldn't have accomplished himself.

 

Now he can't assasinate balon himself it's too risky. An assasin always has the risks of being killed or worse caught in the process. 

49 minutes ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

It's not meant to be literal. The assassin is "wearing a drowned crow" because the assassin was hired by Crow's Eye, who was "drowned" (i.e. Ironborn).

Thats exactly what I was thinking.