Your ranking of the Five Kings of the WOT5K

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

In your opinion how would you rank the five kings of the eponymous war from worse to best as characters and as kings you would root for ?

Here's my ranking :

The worst is of course Joffrey who is a completely hateable, despicable character with his arrogance, cruelty, sadism and cowardice but who's of course also a complete disaster as a king, only doing what he wants to do, oppressing the smallfolks, making new ennemies on a whim and having zero political or war intelligence. Thankfully for the Lannisters Tyrion and Tywin managed to reduce the damages caused by him or they would have sunk deep in the ground.

The second worse is Balon Greyjoy, the reactionnary, short-sighted, prideful and delusionnal king of the Iron Islands who's a very poor ruler and strategist unable to see that his attempts to bring back the Old Way, make the Iron Islands independant without any allies and a very weakened Iron Throne and his plan to conquer the North are doomed to fail and who's in addition an abusive father to Theon and who stabbed in the back the only person willing to help him get independance because of a petty grudge against the Starks.

In the middle is Renly Baratheon, the king in Highgarden who's not without some strategical and political intelligence and who has some positive traits and who had the biggest army of the five kings and knew how to make himself loved of the smallfolk. However Renly wanted to be king mainly to satisfy his own ego and attention, was willing to destroy the laws of succession in Westeros which could have led to big problems and potential conflicts later,he also seems to be lacking or at least naïve ans inexperienced in the military field unlike Robb and Stannis and he has unlikable traits such as him being willing to kill his own brother without any hesitation and mocked his own niece and Brienne behind her back.

Stannis is the second one, of these five kings he's imo the best written and most interesting character, he has a very interesting personnality, is a serious, dutiful, blunt, determinated and is a very good commander who alienate many people because of his behavior but who proves to be able of inspiring true undying loyalty from his troops, gets some nice developement as a character over the books as he grows less rigid and more flexible, proves that he's able of listening to other's opinions such as Davos' and express regrets over his failed relations with his brothers and Renly's death.

And of course Robb Stark is the king I root for the most. He was a nature, brave and honorable boy and king, a military prodigy and he also shows a deeper and more complex side in Bran's last chapter in AGOT and in Catelyn's chapters in ACOK and ASOS, showing hints of doubts and uncertainity over his choices and the positiion he's stuck in, as well as a good understanding of northern politics that contrasts with the idea of him being bad at politics. Unfortunately he had the problem of being young and inexperienced, and has the flaw of being too trusting and to give his trust to wrong persons such as Theon, but above all to Roose Bolton and Walder Frey. 

[Craving Peaches]

1. Renly

2. Robb

3. Balon (if I'm Ironborn)

4. Joffrey

5. Stannis

[Wm Portnoy]

1. Joffrey.  Tywin was running the show.
2. Balon.  What was wrong with the Greyjoys rebelling when Renly and Robb are already rebelling. 
3. Stannis
4. Renly
5. Robb

 

[astarkchoice]

1)stannis: one realm one god one king!. Stannis stannis stannis! Stan the fucking man is the forums fav for good reason...somehow.serious and hilarious ,interesting and dull all at the same time. Its hard not to root for an underdog esp one backed by a solid mate like davos.(acting as the angel to mels devil on his shoulder) the only king who gives a shit about the north 

2)robb: gotta love the boy military genius ..lot heaped on him and he delivered in spades until his hormones undid him.

3)renly: just above the last 2 as he wasnt cruel to anyone but still an self obsessed idiot who betrayed his brother and kingdom for 0 gain. 

4)balon: stark loyalists hate him for picking the north over lannisters  which wasnt his worst decision .....that was abusing and leaving.out his son! The one that actualy has lived in  the north and  knows its geography,peoples and lords  was equaly  parts  cruel and moronic

5) joffery: slappable monster too slow in dying

[Arthur Peres]

The worst of all is Balon Greyjoy. No one has anything nice to say about the guy, not his brothers, not his people, not even his daughter. He had the worst pla, his actions do not make sense to a point it could be argued that he is insane. He is the most incompetent of the five. 

The second worst is Joffrey. He was cruel, he lacked basic empathy and told the people to eat their own dead, he was petty, and was on a clear path to become a monster as bad as Aerys. His only saving grace is that he died soon, and did not reach his full potention.

Stannis is almost as bad as Joffrey, Stannis was given several oportunities to save his brothers, but he left Robert to die and killed Renly. Stannis at every single oportunity that he was given to be a better man, failed miserable. Meets Ned's widow? let's rant about petty jealous, make a alliance with a brother? no let's kill him. Accept the fact that he was sulking on his island and missed the timing for his declaration and was letting the realm burn? no, lets blame Robb and acuse him of "conquering" the riverlands... Stannis might be the biggest hypocrite of all the five kings, quite a feat when we have Balon in the mix.

Renly showed he didn't care about laws, despite the fact he was the master of laws, he had the power to end the war in one or two moves, but decided to sit on his hand and do nothing. He took for granted the homage of Dorne and the North, he was given a choice to go after the Lannisters or his brother, and he choose to go after Stannis despite the fact Stannis was not a threat and the Lannisters were. Renly is the most disapointing of the five.

Than there is the only one of the bunch that was actually trying to be a decent king, Robb. But the sad truth is that he failed at it. Robb was cursed with the worst luck in the series, he was betrayed by his bannerman, best friend and even his own mother.

[StarkTullies]

If this was about my opinion of them as kings, regardless of circumstance (assuming they came to the throne peacefully without contention), my ranking would be:

1) Robb

2) Stannis

3) Renly

4) Joffrey

5) Balon

Renly is more likable than Stannis, but while all three Baratheon brothers are supposedly completely different, Renly has more in common with Robert than people think.  While I think Renly is more inclined to attend small council meetings and would actually like being king, they are both the "party kings".  Also Renly supported Robert's plan to murder Daenerys and her unborn child.  "Gallant, yes, and charming, and very clean. He knew how to dress and he knew how to smile and he knew how to bathe, and somehow he got the notion that this made him fit to be king."  Olenna sums up Renly's qualifications pretty nicely.

Joffrey is awful but Balon is worse.  Joffrey would throw temper tantrums on the Iron Throne, but in peacetime I suspect he would only provide stories to the public about the crazy acts of "the mad king" without causing too much damage.  Balon, in peacetime, causes war.  He wants to bring back "the old way", but his old way involves rape, murder, and plunder.

In the context of the War of the Five Kings, my ratings are slightly altered to:

1) Robb

2) Stannis

3) Renly

4) Balon

5) Joffrey

Robb has no claim to the Iron Throne, but he's not making a claim.  The ruling family incited genocide against the Riverlands before he was declared king and before the North and Riverlands declared independence, so yeah, they have a right to rule themselves and Robb is their chosen king.

I was reluctant to keep Stannis at #2.  His treachery in using blood magic to murder his own brother makes him despicable... but Renly intended to kill Stannis in battle, so that isn't much different.  Stannis is the rightful Baratheon heir to the throne.  All the reasons why Renly would be a likable king but not worthy king are the same, but he has no claim to the throne at all.  You might say claims to the throne are meaningless, but if Renly starts a precedent that any person can start a war at any time to claim the throne, then the realm would be a disaster.

Initially I was going to very reluctantly list Joffrey as #2.  A terrible person and not the "rightful heir", but I was thinking how keeping him on the throne would avoid war, and that is more important than Stannis's legitimate claim.  I was prepared to defend Joffrey's reign that the Hand rules while he is underage... but his Hand is Tywin Lannister.  Tywin started the war (genocide) in the Riverlands before Joffrey was even king... so letting Joffrey keep the throne to avoid war is moot.  Just like Aerys deserved to be overthrown for his atrocities, so does Joffrey.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

1 Stannis.

2 a rebel

3 an usurper

4 an opportunistic adventurer

5 an abomination

[sifth]

Renly

Robb

Stannis

Balon

Joffrey

[James Arryn]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:23 AM, Craving Peaches said:

1. Renly

2. Robb

3. Balon (if I'm Ironborn)

4. Joffrey

5. Stannis

To me the top 2 are clearly those here, but the other 3 are interchangeable. The first two would be fine rulers in most circumstances, the latter 3 are disastrous in most, for differing reasons. 

[James Arryn]

On 12/18/2022 at 3:22 PM, StarkTullies said:

You might say claims to the throne are meaningless, but if Renly [b]starts[/b] a precedent that any person can start a war at any time to claim the throne, then the realm would be a disaster.

 

The/his entire point was that if he indeed were the one starting it, at the very least, he would not be in the position he was in in the first place, the Targs would still be in charge. Or the Durrandons. 

[Craving Peaches]

3 hours ago, James Arryn said:

To me the top 2 are clearly those here, but the other 3 are interchangeable. The first two would be fine rulers in most circumstances, the latter 3 are disastrous in most, for differing reasons. 

Yes, they are all equally bad and if I had to follow any of them it would be because I had no other choice. But I think the case can be made that Balon is marginally better than Joffrey, if you are ironborn.

[EggBlue]

1. Robb Stark : he's the first king I supported in the series and I will NEVER change his spot . 

2. Renly : he's an ass and a usurper , but he and Margery would have made great monarchs 

3. Stannis : he's arguably the rightful king and is just . BUT , his involvement with the Red Woman brings him down .

4. Joffrey : ok , he could've easily be the character I hate the most , if it wasn't for Ramsay . but num.5 just deserves his place far too much

5. Balon Greyjoy : ok , Joffrey is a psychopath but Balon is just soooooo stupid and petty, and makes absolutely no sense .