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What could Aegon I have done Differently to make Things Better?


Craving Peaches

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By better I mean more stable, fewer casualties etc.

Personally I would have married Argella, not spent ages killing people in Dorne, made sure the Night's Watch didn't decline, spilt the Reach up into 2/3 regions and given all the marches to the Stormlands, prohibited my heirs from entering into polygamous and incestuous marriages, granted more city charters, done a proper codification of the law, and named myself High King/Emperor and not just King.

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3 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

By better I mean more stable, fewer casualties etc.

Personally I would have married Argella, not spent ages killing people in Dorne, made sure the Night's Watch didn't decline, spilt the Reach up into 2/3 regions and given all the marches to the Stormlands, prohibited my heirs from entering into polygamous and incestuous marriages, granted more city charters, done a proper codification of the law, and named myself High King/Emperor and not just King.

Polygamy is prohibited.  But the Targaryens cannot give up Brother-Sister marriage because Azor Ahai/The Promised Prince has to come from two Targaryen parents. 

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If he wanted to keep things as peaceful as possible and prepare Westeros for the second Long Night, which is now the canon reason why Aegon conquered in the first place, I would focus on keeping everything in the riverlands as peaceful and prosperous as possible.  If he had fully supported the breadbasket of Westeros, he could have ensured a steady supply of food grown in that area and sold amongst all the lordships to supply the common people, which would go a long way towards preserving peace overall.  Particularly in the North, Dorne, and the Iron Islands, a steady and fair trade of food and goods would have gone a long way towards placating people.

From there, he should have established far more draconian (excuse the pun) policies against land grabs by Lords.  Harsh, public and swift punishments for encroaching on your neighbors would encourage Lords to look inwards to improve their lands, rather than trying to increase their holdings through conquest. Speak softly and carry a big fucking Dragon.

His support of the local religion seems like a misstep at first glance, but I don't think it was, after consideration. Religious suppression, in the real world, has a history of backfiring.  Regular people's lives are harder than the rich and powerful. Forcibly removing a source of hope breeds uprisings.  I think it's good that he adopted the local customs, at least to a degree. He should have immediately removed the military component of the religion though. Many of the worst atrocities in our own history were done in the name of religion and I can only assume the same would go for Planetos.  People should have been free to worship what they want, but the use of force to spread a belief system defeats the purpose.  If the belief system works well, it will spread on its own, no force required.

From there, he should have prioritized the North.  Torrhen Stark bent the knee, and he should have been adopted as the best ally of the Targaryens, given his proximity to the whole reason they invaded in the first place.  His family controlled the largest overall land mass, and while much of it was infertile, the people there were/are tough.  Population isn't everything....sparsely inhabited areas might not have the same amount of human capital....but the people living in such areas have to manage a much larger area and anyone capable of such a task deserves some attention, as do the people who make such a place their home.  Frankly, such people and populations deserve a lot more credit than they get, in Planetos and our own world.

Lastly....Aegon utterly failed to connect his conquest to the whole reason for his conquest: The Long Night.  He and Daenys were dreamers.  Most of Planetos retains memory of the first Long Night.  He never brought it up.  Particularly amongst First-Men families, that angle would have made things much more palatable. That was, IMO, his biggest mistake.

As icky as it is, I don't really think the incest that was common practice amongst the Targaryens was avoidable. They legitimately did have a special bloodline and, while they did mate outside of the family regularly....I think there was a good reason to try and preserve their blood.  It's icky, and disgusting, and would not fly in the real world.....but I don't think it contributed to Planetos problems.  As far as I can tell, most of the Targ madness stems from magical visions.  But if they'd lost those visions....nobody would have been prepared.  Still really icky to look at your sister and go "i'd hit it."

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21 minutes ago, Damsel in Distress said:

I say let Visenya loose on the rebellious Faith of the Seven.

That would backfire instantly unless only the militant fanatics are being targeted. What he should do is get support from the moderate members of the Faith and the High Septon against the Faith Militant.

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33 minutes ago, Daenerysthegreat said:

Send Visenya to Dorne instead of Rhaenys. There will be some initial casualties but fewer ones in the long term.

I think I'd rather send no one to Dorne and just leave it. No point in massacring innocents, complete waste of time and Dorne isn't rich or valuable anyway.

36 minutes ago, Daenerysthegreat said:

In our world, not in their world

I don't know, they have deformed babies and people like Maelys the Monstrous and a few crazy people. Sounds like it could be due to inbreeding to me.

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He could at the very least try...

Seriously, the only thing he did with the unification was bite off a part of the income of each region, and remove the titles of Kings of the ruling houses.

No bond of any kind was made between the houses or region, the only attempt was the unfortune marriage between Arryn and Stark that ended with both parties killed.

Jaeharys was the one that made it Westeros into a Kingdom, before him what Aegon, Aenys and Maegor left makes the HRE looks functional.

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31 minutes ago, Arthur Peres said:

Jaeharys was the one that made it Westeros into a Kingdom, before him what Aegon, Aenys and Maegor left makes the HRE looks functional.

HRE lasted for ~1000 years and that was with external threats. Targs couldn't manage 300 with few external threats to speak of. Yes HRE was smaller area than Westeros but still...

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Aegon lived three hundred years before the events of the books.  He had no way to control a future that far in the distance.  He could not stop Robert's rebellion.  It was not justified but it was necessary.  Daenerys can only be Queen Daenerys if she had to grow up outside the royal court.  The leader who will lead the people out of the darkness needs the kind of strength that comes from having to face and overcome adversity.  The decadence of growing up in a castle as a privileged child of lords and kings do not lend themselves to producing a strong leader.  

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6 hours ago, Rosetta Stone said:

Aegon lived three hundred years before the events of the books.  He had no way to control a future that far in the distance.  He could not stop Robert's rebellion.  It was not justified but it was necessary.  Daenerys can only be Queen Daenerys if she had to grow up outside the royal court.  The leader who will lead the people out of the darkness needs the kind of strength that comes from having to face and overcome adversity.  The decadence of growing up in a castle as a privileged child of lords and kings do not lend themselves to producing a strong leader.  

Not doing so doesn't tend to produce good rulers either

its a balance between being spoilt rotten (Joffrey) having the education to rule (Jon) or even neither (Viserys)

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10 hours ago, Rosetta Stone said:

Aegon lived three hundred years before the events of the books.  He had no way to control a future that far in the distance.

Yes, but what he could have done was marry Argella to gain land without bloodshed, and not spent ages killing people in Dorne. That was stupid and cruel.

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15 hours ago, Arthur Peres said:

He could at the very least try...

Seriously, the only thing he did with the unification was bite off a part of the income of each region, and remove the titles of Kings of the ruling houses.

No bond of any kind was made between the houses or region, the only attempt was the unfortune marriage between Arryn and Stark that ended with both parties killed.

Jaeharys was the one that made it Westeros into a Kingdom, before him what Aegon, Aenys and Maegor left makes the HRE looks functional.

Holy Roman Empire was in fact highly functional, at least during the Middle Ages. I don't know where that idea of "dysfunctional HRE" comes from - if it really was memetically incompetent as people seem to think, it wouldn't have lasted as long as it had, wedged in between France, Hungary and Poland - all of whom were major European powers at some point or other during the Middle Ages.

As a matter of fact, turning Westeros into Holy Roman Empire would be a very good idea. It is really the Polish Commonwealth you do not want to emulate; HRE is fine. Not perfect, not even very good... but fine.

11 hours ago, Rosetta Stone said:

Aegon lived three hundred years before the events of the books.  He had no way to control a future that far in the distance.  He could not stop Robert's rebellion.  It was not justified but it was necessary.  Daenerys can only be Queen Daenerys if she had to grow up outside the royal court.  The leader who will lead the people out of the darkness needs the kind of strength that comes from having to face and overcome adversity.  The decadence of growing up in a castle as a privileged child of lords and kings do not lend themselves to producing a strong leader.  

In reality, all good rulers were either a) brought up in the castle or b) climbed ranks in the military. Both of which are relatively high class life (average soldier in feudal Europe or Byzantine Empire was still richer than 90% of the population, regardless of whether we are talking landed soldiers, mercenaries or standing army troops). You need education to be able to rule properly; plucking a kid from street and making him/her a king simply because they have "faced adversity" tends to lead to rulers who are either a) incompetent due to lack of education, b) mentally unstable or even insane due to harsh life, or c) both of these at the same time.

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35 minutes ago, Aldarion said:

Holy Roman Empire was in fact highly functional, at least during the Middle Ages. I don't know where that idea of "dysfunctional HRE" comes from - if it really was memetically incompetent as people seem to think, it wouldn't have lasted as long as it had, wedged in between France, Hungary and Poland - all of whom were major European powers at some point or other during the Middle Ages

There's this common misconception I've seen where people think the HRE was like the less functional decentralised late stage HRE (~1700-End, post 30 years war etc.) for the entirety of its existence, which just isn't true. During the middle ages most kingdoms were decentralised just like the HRE was. And even at the very end the HRE was dissolved by the Emperor abolishing the title (I think), Napoelon wasn't able to claim it. So even it that respect they did better than the Targaryens - who were usurped.

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48 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

I think he did all these to prove how manly he is. He isn't called Aegon the Impotent for no reason. 

So potential Queen Argella would be disappointed in him? And he was compensating for something when he tried to conquer Dorne...Now it makes more sense.

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