#yohn royce

[warlockwyll]

Sansa Stark week 2024 Friends & Foes: Friends

[alemoncakelife]

If Sansa Stark has no supporters then Yohn Royce is dead. If Sansa Stark has no one to hate other houses with then Yohn Royce is dead. If Sansa Stark has no one to go to go into battle with then Yohn Royce is dead. If Sansa Stark-

[goodqueenaly]

Hi I loved your thoughts on Myranda Royce and was wondering what your thoughts were on Bronze Yohn? He seems an honourable sort but almost a bit to Ned Starkish for his own good. Do you think him and Sansa will end up saving each other by bringing down Littlefinger?

I think Bronze Yohn Royce is in many ways about as typical a Westerosi aristocrat, and specifically a blue-blooded Valeman, as we’re likely to find throughout the Seven Kingdoms. Even before we meet Lord Royce on page, we hear of him through social-political reputation: he is the head of Ser Waymar’s “ancient house with too many heirs”, the great lord whom Lord Commander Mormont was too afraid of insulting to refuse the under-experienced Ser Waymar command of his fatal ranging, the high-ranking guest of Winterfell welcomed at table with Lady Catelyn and in the yard and at hunt with Lord Eddard. His place among the top tier of Westerosi aristocracy has been long assured: Royce attended both the tourney of Harrenhal and the tourney at Lannisport, tilting at both, and defeated at least Thoros of Myr at the melee held to celebrate Joffrey’s twelfth birthday. Nor does Lord Yohn appear less than impressive when he comes into the story himself: Sansa counts him among the “heroes of a hundred songs” who pass by her at the Hand’s tourney, and almost reverently describes his namesake runic armor to Jeyne Poole. Indeed, Catelyn indirectly acknowledges Bronze Yohn’s stature in Westerosi, and particularly Vale, aristocracy by describing Nestor Royce as “Bronze Yohn’s cousin, from a lesser branch of House Royce”; even another aristocrat in his own right should, in Catelyn’s mind, be defined by his relation to the much greater Lord Royce.

Unfortunately for Bronze Yohn, being so typically aristocratic has at times influenced his decision-making, occasionally leading to unwinnable situations where traditional blue-blood lines of thought and operation simply do not work. If Royce was not alone in rejecting Tyrion as a bridegroom for one of his female relations, his refusal reflects the widespread ableism found among Westeros’ elite. Along with the majority of the other great (male) aristocrats of the Vale (at least according to Kevan Lannister), Lord Royce sought to court the widowed Lysa in order to exercise power as a sort of jure uxoris regent; unwilling, perhaps, to engage in a sort of Ainslie Bond-like approach to forcing Lysa into an aristocratically appropriate marriage (much less actually trying to imitate the historical Earl of Bothwell), and convinced that the Vale could only be ruled by an Arryn or one of the highest birth who was himself (specifically himself) closest to an Arryn, Bronze Yohn was perhaps, like his countrymen, stuck with simply trying to woo Lysa into marrying him in order to effect the changes he wanted. Even more problematically for Bronze Yohn (and his allies), in their approach toward Petyr Baelish the Lords Declarant were simply outmatched, caught by the very aristocratic forms they were trying to enforce. Certain that only a blue-blooded Valeman would do to raise Jon Arryn’s son, disdainful of the relatively lower born second husband of Lysa Tully controlling the Arryn heir, Bronze Yohn was, like his allies, limited to making bald but impotent threats against a man with sufficient personal and royal resources (themselves largely one and the same, of course, as the late great Steven Attewell explained) not to be intimidated by such posturing. In turn, Bronze Yohn seems to have poured at least some of his energies into cultivating the would-be Arryn heir, Harry Hardyng, staging (in every sense of the word) a melee at Runestone and knighting the victorious Harry thereafter; it is perhaps not unlikely, if no better for it, that Bronze Yohn, intractably opposed to Littlefinger, encouraged young Harry to look down on Littlefinger - a snobbishness that for Harry has extended, at least initially, to open rudeness toward “Alayne Stone”.

However, Bronze Yohn’s ironclad (or should it be bronzeclad?) belief in his aristocratic position does not preclude him from a willingness to act in the name of honor, and to lead his family accordingly. While he might have been pursuing Lysa as a suitor, Bronze Yohn was nevertheless not shy about “stirring up all sorts of trouble”, in Lysa’s opinion, by demanding that “[Lysa] call [her] banners and go to war” on the side of Robb Stark - a recognition by Lord Royce, I think, not just of the historical kinship between Stark and Royce (and the threat to him personally, as one of those identified in Cersei’s initial demand for homage) but also of the generally dishonorable conduct of the Lannister-Baratheon regime. Too, though Yohn Royce obviously did not know about the secret agreement between Lyn Corbray and Littlefinger (nor, by extension, the pretended dramatics Lyn acted out during the Lords Declarant meeting), Bronze Yohn responded with honorably appropriate fury - denouncing the man he believed was his ally to defend the hallowed tradition of guest right (even where the beneficiary of that tradition, in this scenario, was the much-loathed Petyr Baelish). Likewise, I think due credit should be given to Bronze Yohn for raising at least two of his sons (certainly those two most familiar to us as readers) with a sense of duty and bravery even in the face of unwindable odds: though both Waymar and Robar demonstrated some of the haughty self-assurance typical of young Westerosi aristocrats of their rank (albeit perhaps not totally for Waymar), both also proved willing to die in the name of honor - Waymar distinguishing himself as a man of the Night’s Watch in doing battle against the Others, Robar allowing Catelyn and Brienne time to flee while he himself fought the grief-stricken Loras Tyrell following Renly’s murder.

Ultimately, I do believe that Bronze Yohn will be an ally to Sansa, both because of that aristocratic standing as well as his personal sense of honor. Sansa already considered revealing herself to Bronze Yohn when the latter came with the Lords Declarant to the Eyrie, and while she decided against doing so in the moment, she had no way of knowing that her reasoning was wrong: Royce did want to fight for Robb, and with Sansa the last remaining legitimate Stark (or so Sansa and Bronze Yohn believe for now, anyway), I think there is a very good chance that Royce will want to fight for her once Littlefinger’s plan to reveal her kicks into gear. Moreover, if Sansa, learning of Littlefinger’s crimes against her family and her friend Jeyne, calls upon northern and Vale lords to cast him down, I firmly believe Royce will be first in line, ready and more than willing to cast down the man Sansa knows was responsible for Jon Arryn’s death (among much else).

[dalekofchaos]

How Robb could've won the North's independence

Realistically, it would be impossible for Robb to win the War of the Five Kings unless he teamed up with Stannis or somehow got married to Margaery Tyrell(Robb goes to treat with Renly instead of Cat, Renly dies and Robb convinces the Tyrells to join forces, only condition:marry Margaery). But it would've been possible to win The North's Independence.

Before we get into the how he could win, let's look into how and why Robb lost.

Sending Theon to Pyke. The beginning of the end. On one level Robb was right to trust Theon, because we see from Theon's POV chapters that he intended to stay true to Robb's cause…. up until his father rejected him and sent him to reave the West coast and Moat Callin with the other Ironborn. It's only after Theon has been rejected by his father and forced to serve on a ship with another captain (putting the heir to the seastone chair lower in rank than a battle commander) that Theon cracks and decides to do something big to prove he is a worthy heir to Balon Greyjoy. But Cat is also right: because she expected that something could go wrong. Now, she expected that Theon would betray Robb from the off, because she has a nasty suspicious streak and really assumes the worst about everybody - think of all the times she bleats that Jon can't stay at Winterfell as he'll usurp Robb's rights, and ask yourself: has there been any indication that Jon would ever do this? No. Jon could have worked his way up to captain of the Winterfell guard as a Stark bastard, and Robb would have been better protected by his much loved brother than anyone else. But because Cat is so deeply entrenched in her belief that bastards are grasping stealers of birthright, she cannot allow that possibility to even be discussed. Same thing happens with Theon. Cat knows more about Ironborn culture than Robb, and she appreciates that Theon has been a Stark prisoner for years whereas Robb unfortunately thinks of Theon as another adopted brother. But she fails to adequately explain to Robb that her concerns about Theon are not about Theon's character per se, but about Ironborn culture. She anticipates that something could go wrong - she doesn't see exactly what happens to turn Theon against the Starks, but she had enough knowledge of the Ironborn to make a case to Theon and Robb that Balon Greyjoy was a cantankerous old prick who would not be willing to provide a naval fleet to a king he has no interest in pledging his loyalty to in any case.

Not Informing His Uncle of His Plans: Edmure threw back the Lannister forces at the Battle of the Fords. Because of this, Robb is unable to encircle Tywin's host, as he had hoped to surround and capture them further within the Riverlands. I'm not so sure that Robb actually had that "plan" in Riverrun. I think he hammered out the details of the trap somewhere in the West, and didn't think Edmure would interpret differently. As to the trap itself: oh no, Tywin's cause would have been lost for sure. If he delayed for even a few hours, he'd be late to the rescue of King's Landing - Lannister Plot ArmorTM struck again. And the thing is, if he crossed the Trident, he'd be caught between Robb, Edmure and Roose - you can forget about the Red Wedding then: Roose and Walder are dipshits for sure, but they're above all opportunistic dipshits. With Tywin caught between 3 different forces, at least one of which - Robb - is way, way better at guerilla hill-war that Tywin (who never seems to win anything unless he outnumbers his enemy at least 2:1), that's it for the Lannister army. Meanwhile, Stannis takes KL, but keeps pissing off everyone with his charming personality, so his reinforcements are dubious. But Stannis is a man of honor and of his word and he would've given the Starks Sansa. Dorne would be pleased that Tywin and the Mountain dies and extends an alliance with The North. The Tyrells just fuck off in Highgarden. The Ironborn are dealt with and would be at death's door until Euron returns. Stannis has Varys and Littlefinger executed and Lysa just sulks with Sweetrobin in The Eyrie. The Starks regain The North and the Starks reunite and most importantly Robb is the one who goes to the Wall and helps prepare the North for The Others.

Beheading Rickard Karstark: Karstark, feeling the need for vengeance due to his son's deaths, slaughters prisoners of war Tion Frey and Willem Lannister. Due to this act, Robb sentences Karstark to death and beheads him personally. This leads to the Karstark' abandoning ship and heading home. Rickard and the Karstarks had been some of, if not, his most loyal vassals. When Ned was imprisoned and Robb called his banners Rickard answered bringing as many men as he could unlike many other Northern Lords who held back men in reserve for their own interests. Or the Umbers who threatened to go home unless he got his way and had to be threatened to stay and help Robb free his father. When Winterfell was captured and Bran and Rickon's lives endangered the Karstarks were one of the few Northern Houses to send men despite the large distance to Winterfell. Despite all this, despite the fact that two of Rickards sons were killed as they were protecting Robb from Jaime Lannister, or his heir was captured being sent into a battle that Robb knew they were going to lose Robb still gave Rickard Karstark the harshest punishment he could instead of being lenient like his own advisers suggested and keeping him prisoner or sending him to the Wall. Now this move was especially stupid as the remnants of the 2,000 Karstark foot was with Roose. Robb was actually worried about them turning on Bolton, which was a real possibility, but instead they worked with Roose to take down Robb at the Red Wedding. Would Roose have had the confidence to act without those Karstark numbers? Being lenient with Rickard might have still lost those Karstark men but they would never have helped in the Red Wedding. Karstark sacrificed a lot and while killing those two Lannisters was bad, no one would have cared if it had been on the battlefield. Their age has little to do with it, both sides would have had casualties of similar ages in the battles.

Marrying Jeyne Westerling: Robb was betrothed to a daughter of Walder Frey; however, this act broke that vow, thus leading to the Frey's feeling betrayed and withdrawing home. This act of defiance towards the Frey's is later paid in kind via the Red Wedding.

With that out of the way, here is how Robb could've won The North's Independence.

If we’re looking at deposing Joffrey and extinguishing the Royal Branch of House Baratheon-Lannister, then no. Too many riches, lords, and men support them for the Stark/Tully coalition to mount an offensive. They’d be enveloped, surrounded and destroyed.

If we’re looking at the independence of the North, then its possible, but Robb is going to have to do some unpleasant/unhonorable things, because here’s the ultimate goal:

Getting behind Moat Calin and fortifying for the Winter.

If Robb can do that, then he’s pretty much untouchable.

So, how do we get there?

First things first, don’t tie the knot with Talisa/Westerling and marry Roslin Frey like he agreed to. That stupid marriage should never have happened in the first place.

Eddard Stark survived the stain of a “bastard.” Robb can too, which may not even be a problem since Westerling never became pregnant (probably due to her mother). Robb marrying for love was so out of character that we’re just setting aside the Talisa incident.

Next, its time to get the Northern Alliance some breathing room for their strategic retreat.

Robb needs to recognize that Edmere is an idiot and needs his uncle Blackfish to watch over his shoulder the whole time. If he does so, then Robb’s cannon plan in season 3 works. The Mountain and his Ravagers are drawn out of Harrenhal, surrounded and annihilated.

That not only deals a blow to Lannister prestige, but also wins them brownie points with the Brotherhood Without Banners. Enough so that maybe they let Robb know that they have his sister.

That with a nice sack of cash will firmly place the BWB on the Stark side, so long as Robb can keep his Northmen in line. They are going to be the Stark’s eyes and ears as well as turn the Riverlands into the Spanish Ulcer for the Lannisters.

Which brings us to Karstark.

At the beginning of season three, the Kingslayer is gone, so Karstark goes berserk as a result. Instead of beheading the man, Robb should parlay with him instead. Use his anger to help with the retreat, while at the same time, put him in overwhelming situations where a stray arrow or well-timed blade may get through his guard.

In other words, suicide by Lannister.

Karstark won’t notice, he’s too bloodmad, his focus will solely be on killing Lannisters. The problem will eventually resolve itself. And if not, mayhaps the BwB can help, for another sack of cash of course.

So now Robb has his space.

The BwB and Karstark are disrupting the Lannister/Tyrell logistics, inflicting lop-siding losses on demoralized and green Lannister/Tyrell levies (most of Lord Tywin’s professional force was either wiped out at the Whispering Woods or at Blackwater and the Tryrell “impressive” force of 80,000 are farmhands who’ve never seen a blade in their life).

Now comes the hard part, withdrawing the Riverlords and what’s left of their men behind the Moat.

After two years of war, the Riverlords have maybe 15–20 thousand men left. Add on to Robb’s own 15,000 Northmen, and Robb can command an impressive 30,000 battle hardened soldiers.

And every one of those men are needed in the North:

To remove the Ironborn.

To fortify the Moat, the White Knife, and the Stoney Shore.

To deal with the Wildlings, Stannis, and ultimately, the White Walkers.

But the Riverlords are stubborn. They don’t want to abandon their homes to the Lannisters. Who would? Moreover, to abandon their homes to fight a supposedly Northern problem? That’s adding insult to injury.

Hence why marrying Roslin is so important. It means that Robb can’t just pack up and go home. He is now permanently tied to the survival of the Riverlands.

The marriage carries a promise: that Robb will return. Just as Doug MacArthur returned to the Philippines.

Combine that with parting with 5000 men to garrison the strategic and symbolic castles throughout the Riverlands (Riverrun, Oldstones, The Crossroads, the Twins, and Seagard), Robb and the Tullys command the displayed area:

With all three forks of the Trident under the Stark Banner, the Starks can send constant supplies, provisions, and ferry BwB raiding parties. The long-ships they need to navigate the forks can easily be supplied by the ironwood of House Forrestor and designed by captured Ironborn in exchange for clemency.

In canon, The Blackfish claimed that Riverrun could hold out for two years, and that was with an unprepared Riverrun. With a proper strategic retreat, a proper supply route along the three forks, that time frame for Riverrun and all other hard nuts in this system could be raised to near indefinite, or at least until Winter hits.

Until Gunpowder came around, it was almost nearly impossible to take castles. The loss of life in an assault was just too much for farmhand levies. The only way to break a castle is through a siege, and well supplied Trident prevents such castles from starving out.

So, by leaving behind say 5000 men, using the Lannister plunder Robb acquired from his expedition west for payment and loyalty, maximizing the continued harassment and disruption by the BwB, and taking advantage of impetuous, but slow thinking lords looking for glory and blood, the Riverlands could hold out until at least Winter, at which points all sides would have to retire.

Its a stalling game, basically.

Now, with that secured, Robb will then take the remaining 10–15 thousand Rivermen with him North to deal with the Ironborn. Which is a piece of cake, since most already left for the Kingsmoot, and while being incredibly skilled sailors and marines, fighting on the Green Land makes them worthless.

Winterfell is secured (unfortunately still razed), the North is liberated, and the Southern choke points are fortified with the Rivermen:

The warmer climate is better suited for them.

It keeps them close to the Riverlands just in case the Lannisters/Tyrells attempt to make an incursion.

That will then allow Robb to use his reinforced 20,000 battle-harden Northern Banner Army to force Mance Rayder into submission.

Unlike Jon Snow, Robb will clearly explain to everyone that a potentially treacherous Wilding is infinitely superior to a definite enemy wight among the White Walker force.

As for the Wildlings, Robb uses Jon Snow and Mance Rayder to keep them in line as they in turn man the Wall and reap up the final harvest before Winter sets in.

As for Stannis, without a proper logistics network (The Nights Watch and the North will not help him), his mercenary army either dies or defects to Robb.

Stannis is imprisoned, Melisandre either stays to help Robb and Jon or runs away.

While the North digs in for the fight at the Wall, the events of the South happen as they do in cannon:

Joffrey is murdered.

Tyrion is blamed and flees.

Sansa disappears to the Vale.

Tywin is killed by his own son.

Cersei single handily destroys the Lannister/Tyrell Alliance.

The Faith Militant rises and imprisons everybody.

Euron wins the Salt Throne and begins ravaging the Reach.

FAegon invades and secures the Stormlands.

With the South in such chaos, the incursions into the Trident diminish, as Lannister, Tryrell, Dorne, Ironborn, and FAegon are too busy fighting each other.

The line of supply along the Trident is strengthened by the spoils of war that came with Stannis, and Stannis’ mercenaries are sent South to warmer climates and better opportunities for plunder.

Sansa, who by now has become a political player in her own right, tricks Sweet Robin into declaring for Robb, and rallies the Knights of the Vale to the Stark Banner.

Who knows, maybe even taking out Littlefinger in the process.

So now Robb’s dominion looks like this:

His army around Moat Calin and South now compose of:The ~5000 Garrison of Rivermen. The 10–15,000 Rivermen ready to march. The ~1000 Partisans of the Brotherhood. The fresh 40,000 Knights of the Vale. The 6000 mercenaries that abandoned Stannis.

Meanwhile up North, Robb with his 20,000, the 50,000 Wildlings, and remnants of the Night’s Watch are ready to fight a grueling war of attrition against the Walkers at the Wall.

And if Tycho Nestoris is aware of the White Walker threat, then Robb’s got Bravoos’ armory and the Iron Bank on his side as well.

Robb doesn’t need to beat the South into submission. Not anymore. Arya is safe in Winterfell. Rickon is safe at Skagos. Bran is missing, but NOT in the South, and Sansa now commands the Vale with Yohn Royce.

All he has to do is hold out, using Darry, Riverrun, and the Oldstones as choke points.

The Royal Navy was destroyed at Blackwater. The Iron Fleet and Redwyne Navy annihilated each other when Euron went South, so the choke points can’t be bypassed.

Robb has won defacto independence.

Assuming they survive the Long Night and the rest of Winter, then Robb can coalesce his forces and reclaim the God’s Eye Basin, thus maintaining his pledge and duty to the Riverlords and increasing his prestige.

And the South will still be too divided to mount a proper counter offensive.

A treaty is eventually signed with whoever is left and Robb wins his independence, and with the wealth of a restored Riverlands, and untouched Vale and revitalized North, becomes the most powerful man in Westeros.

And if Robb listens to Roose Bolton more, explains himself to him, and rewards him for his victories, it may be enough to dissuade him from betraying him. After all, Roose is a pragmatic man, and will always back the winning side.

Robb was no longer on the winning side when he married Jeyne Westerling, executed Karstark, and lost Winterfell, the seat of his authority. If he plays his cards right, and doesn’t restrict himself with his honor, he could avoid the first two and quickly rectify the third, thus snagging victory from defeat.

The South was unified with the marriage of Margarey/Joffrey and the iron hand of Lord Tywin. Kill the union and the Hand, and you kill the alliance. And then, the war looks a whole lot less hopeless for the Starks.

And since Robb is now the most powerful man in Westeros AND has married Roslin Frey, the Late Walder Frey may be hesitant with his blade.

Justice has been restored. The North, the Vale and the Riverlands stand united. The Red Wedding never happens. The Starks are reunited and they fight off the Long Night and bring peace to the realm.

THE KING IN THE NORTH!

[thetinksessays]

How Game Of Thrones Should Have Ended

Introduction

I have no idea why I am doing this. The thoughts just came into my mind and I decided to write them down. Anyway, let’s lay out the scenario I have decided to go with.

Everything is the same as GOT show canon until after the Long Night. After that is when I am going to meddle, but I am keeping some things from the final three episodes, like Daenerys burning King’s Landing and Jon killing her. Bite me, Dany stans.

We’re going to go kingdom to kingdom here, starting from beyond the Wall and descending southwards. Let’s go!

Beyond The Wall

This stays mostly the same, if I’m honest. I actually really liked Jon returning to the Wall and beyond. It was where he seemed happiest. But in my ending Jon and the Watch/Wildlings regularly trade with the North and Jon is allowed to visit Winterfell whenever he wants.

The North

We’re sticking with Sansa as Queen of the North and Northern Independence here. But Arya and Bran stay in the North. Not necessarily in Winterfell- maybe Bran goes to Greywater Watch with Meera? And Arya gets her own keep, Bear Island? Dreadfort? Karhold? Last Hearth? There are many she could choose from.

I know the topic of Sansa and marriage is a controversial one, but realistically either she or Arya is going to have to marry someone. There’s going to need to be more little Starks eventually and I’m not sure Bran can father any children, so it will have to be either Sansa or Arya.

I’m 50/50 on whether Sansa should marry again. On the one hand, she has so much marriage related trauma that she probably doesn’t want to marry again. On the other hand, I think it would be nice if she got a chance for a loving husband. Not sure who said loving husband would be. A Northern man, though.

A Glover? Or Tallhart? Cerwyn? Manderly? The show’s never explicit on who among the Northern noble houses died or even exists in show canon, so I don’t know who is and is not alive.

The Iron Islands

The Iron Islands should be an independent kingdom. There is no reason for Yara to just agree to be ruled by Bran. Though, she was stupid enough to think Daenerys would allow her (Yara) to rule the Iron Islands independently, even though she (Daenerys) proclaimed herself the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms every other second. Maybe Yara’s just stupid. She is Theon’s sister, after all.

(I joke. I love Theon, he’s one of my favourite characters.)

But, yes, Yara should be Queen of the Iron Isles.

The Vale

While I think the North, Iron Isles and Dorne should all be independent, I don’t think the Vale, Riverlands, Westerlands, Stormlands, Reach and Crownlands should be independent.

They all worship the same religion and have roughly the same culture, unlike the North (different religion and culture), Iron Isles (different religion and culture) and Dorne (same religion* but different culture).

So Robin Arryn, obviously, is the Lord of the Vale with the assistance of Lord Yohn Royce, who was nowhere near badass enough in the show. We were robbed of Badass Bronze Yohn.

…I don’t really have much more to say here. I could discuss who Robin should marry, but that’s far more speculative and headcanon-y than I want to get here. Let me know if you want me to write a GOT/ASOIAF ships essay.

*I’ve always thought it was odd that the Rhoynar didn’t seem to bring their religion to Dorne? They brought and kept their system of rulership but no religion? Odd.

The Riverlands

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the Riverlands. Edmure is their lord. They’re not independent.

I do have one thought about what I’d want the Riverlands to do: border defences! The Riverlands don’t have mountains or the Neck or any other natural border defences, but after being used as a battleground over and over again they can, and should, build manmade defences. Have watchtowers every so often along the borders. Build a big fence. Something!

The Westerlands

The big question for the Westerlands is who is the Lord? Jaime, in my ideal ending, went back to kill Cersei, not save her, and died while doing so, fully redeeming himself in death. All of their children are both bastards and dead, and Kevan and his sons are all dead too.

I can’t remember if the show includes the existence of Tywin’s sister Genna and her offspring, but if they did they’re likely all dead too as they were Freys and, well, winter came for them.

So the only living Lannister of the main branch is Tyrion. Who murdered the last lord and betrayed all of the kingdoms by advising Daenerys during her conquest attempt. I do not think he should be awarded for that.

Who, then? Some distant Lannister cousin, I suppose. If memory serves me correctly, the show does mention Stafford Lannister, if only in talking about his death in battle against Robb. Stafford has a son, Daven, who seems like a cool dudebro type guy. Let him be lord. It would be fun.

The Stormlands

Here is where it gets interesting. I’ve said I think that most of the kingdoms should stay under the rulership of one King, but not who that king should be. Well, here it is, step forward King Gendry of House Baratheon, First of That Name.

As there are no legitimate Baratheons left and Gendry is the last of Robert’s bastards left (except maybe Mya and Bella, whom if memory serves the show ignores. Again, we were robbed of Mya, at least. Though Bella seems cool.), he is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, not any Targaryens.

This does throw into question his legitimisation- if Daenerys was never truly queen and didn’t have any right to the throne, does her legitimisation of him actually count?- I suspect most people would be willing to ignore that.

Anyways, if Gendry is King, who is the lord of the Stormlands? I have no idea. One of Robert’s other bastards? The guy had like seventeen of them, there must be others out there somewhere? Or maybe someone like Davos or one of the more trusted lords- Selwyn Tarth? An Estermont?- is lord regent until Gendry’s second son is of age? But that would be close to twenty years, assuming Gendry marries and begins producing offspring pretty quickly and manages to produce two sons straight away.

Who knows.

The Reach

This one is easy. I can’t remember if there’s even a passing mention of them in the show, but regardless we know that at least one of Mace Tyrell’s two older sons must exist in the showverse. Otherwise he wouldn’t allow Loras to join the Kingsguard.

So Willas Tyrell, Mace’s eldest son, is Lord of the Reach.

Dorne

In the show, for unfathomable reasons, they choose to have a random Martell cousin show up at the council deciding who the next king is. Now, there is a Martell cousin in the books, Manfrey Martell, but he’s described as ancient and dude in the show clearly is not. So I’m not sure if that’s meant to be him or a different random cousin the show pulled out of its arse.

I’m sure that at some point the show made reference to Oberyn having eight daughters, so the youngest five Sand Snakes (Sarella, Elia, Obella, Dorea and Loreza) do exist in the show.

I don’t know if a male legitimate cousin comes before a female illegitimate niece in Dorne. They don’t do male first primogeniture and are more lax about bastards, but does that mean a bastard would inherit over a trueborn?

An Aside About the Unsullied and Dothraki

I liked the show’s ending for Grey Worm. Sailing off to protect Missandei’s birthplace? Lovely. But what about the Dothraki? The show just sort of forgets about them, as I recall. And surely not all of the Unsullied want to go to Naath.

Here is where I get quite Daenerys critical, so be forewarned.

Daenerys took quite a lot of the Dothraki’s warriors with her. I assume not all- surely there are khalasars that don’t follow her- but if memory serves she’s got most of them. Even if these Dothraki manage to make it back to the Dothraki Sea- and that’s a long sea voyage and an overland trek without the protection of a ‘queen’ and her dragons- what’s going to be left for them?

We never see any Dothraki women or children in Westeros. Daenerys clearly left them behind. Did she leave any warriors to protect them? Will any returning Dothraki be able to reunite with wives and children or have they all been taken by other khalasars?

So no families left. I doubt other khalasars are going to be willing to accept Dothraki who left their homeland to follow the woman who burned down their sacred temple into their khalasars.

All in all, there doesn’t seem to be much point in these Dothraki returning to Essos. So what to do with them in Westeros?

Ditto for the Unsullied. They’ve got no reason to return to Essos either. They were slaves there and I doubt Daenerys’ no slavery (except for herself and her advisor) policy lasted long after she left.

Daario likely fucked off back to a sellsword company or was overthrown and killed as soon as the dragons were gone, let’s be real.

Now there are lots of areas depopulated after the wars. Many parts of the North and Riverlands don’t have noble houses and probably don’t have many peasants either. Maybe the Dothraki and the Unsullied could set up shop there.

But while the Unsullied might be content to live in one place, the nomadic Dothraki aren’t. So what to do when they inevitably want to roam?

It doesn’t help that the show is confusing as hell about how many Unsullied and Dothraki there are after the Long Night then again after Daenerys’ burning of King’s Landing.

I have no solution here. Something to think on.

Conclusion

I really don’t know why I wrote this. I started off thinking I had solid ideas for all of the kingdoms, but I really didn’t. But this was fun. Let me know what you think!

[psstwantsomecheese]

Jaime after he learns Robert gave him another title nobody asked for

[beyondmistland]

Is Bronze Yohn Royce a Vale analogue for Ned Stark?

I think its less that they're analogues and more that they're cut from the same cloth (or archetype).

Thanks for the question, anon

[dailysansastark]

Sansa Month day 20: Potential Friends/ Allies