theoldgods:

It does kind of make me sad that they’ve taken the atheism in Team Dragonstone and put it on Davos instead of Stannis.

Davos becomes more religious after Blackwater, not less. Stannis was never religious to begin with, and while we can argue the degree to which he truly believes in R’hllor (always a point of contention since we’re never in his head), he does explicitly say in ACoK that he’s doing it only for opportunism and repeatedly refuses to allow sacrifices to R’hllor in ADWD (he tells the queen’s men, who want to burn Asha, to essentially fuck off and “pray harder,” because half his men are not R’hllor-worshippers).

I’d say it doesn’t really matter, but it adds to this whole “Stannis is deeply in thrall with the evil sorceress Mel and is also an eager convert” thing HBO sometimes does, which is just no.

stormdicks:

What inspired this post was me wondering, basically, who the hell is Renly? Is he what he appears to be—entitled, superficial, cruel to a brother who claims to love him? What motivates him? Is it nothing but desire for power and glory? Then I was inspired by unapologeticallybaratheon’s meta post about the origins of the animosity between the Baratheon brothers and I knew I had to write all of this down. It’s an edit of an earlier post I made, but there were some things I really wanted to add.

Here are my ideas about what might have been going on in Renly’s mind.

During the Siege of Storm’s End, a nearly year-long battle where Stannis held an increasingly weary garrison against the Tyrell and Redwyne fleets, a six-or-seven year old Renly was held inside the garrison to keep him from being taken hostage. Unapologeticallybaratheon reminds us that Renly also faced “starving to death for a year because [his] brother started a war that [he didn’t] understand and [he] could lose [his] life over.” And I can imagine him resenting Stannis just as much as Robert for what happened. Here’s an eight year old kid who’s probably not old enough to understand things like duty or honor or the reasons people go to war, or that people are trying to keep him safe by having him inside the castle. He just likes to run around outside and charm people and play make-believe games. And all of a sudden he’s trapped in the keep, there are enemies literally at his door, everyone around him is preoccupied and scared, and on top of that he’s eating rats and nearly starving.

And then there are people who think Stannis should surrender. At least one of them, Gawen Wylde, actually tries it and is executed by Stannis. So there may have been whispers around Renly, whispers that Renly heard. Accusations. Resentment. Why doesn’t Stannis just surrender so we can eat? So Renly may well have put two and two together and begun to blame his brother for that year that he was scared and starving. DISCLAIMER: I FUCKING LOVE STANNIS and I’m not trying to blame him for any of this stuff; he was doing his duty as a lord and a soldier and obeying his older brother, which is what he was supposed to do (and on top of that he was just nineteen himself). I’m just trying to see it from the point of view of a little kid who is just wondering what the hell is going on and, as people do, trying to pin responsibility on someone for it. He likely can’t blame the Tyrells, at least not anymore, since he now has a close relationship with the family and he certainly can’t resent his beloved Loras for any of it. So Stannis is a convenient enemy. I can see Renly looking back on it and thinking, the Tyrells were everything I wanted to be, cultured and powerful and beautiful; they were my escape from Stannis and people like him. How can I blame them for anything? Obviously Stannis was the one getting in the way. I should have been on their side of the blockade.

Plus Stannis is Stannis, so likely he wasn’t especially comforting or emotionally available if Renly needed him. Again, we don’t know, and maybe Stannis was a super affectionate brother, but he doesn’t strike me as the type to express emotion even if he felt it strongly—especially if he felt guilty for putting Renly in that situation; I’m thinking he’d try to avoid any reminders so he could keep himself strong. Remember how he can’t bring himself to say Edric Storm’s name? And then Renly sees that people get executed for leaving, and quite possibly he becomes scared of Stannis—is this what happens to people who just want to eat? Add this to what looks like a fundamental incompatibility in temperament and communicative style and you’ve got the beginnings of a very dangerous schism.

Read More

sergendry:

Rereading the AGOT chapter in which Eddard meets Gendry is like a fist of emotions right through the chest.

Between Eddard feelings and Gendry feelings and Stannis feelings and overwhelming Baratheon feelings

I just…

Almost shyly, the boy led them to his bench, and a steel helm shaped like a bull’s head, with two great curving horns.

actually

The boy shoved a fresh fall of black hair off his forehead. “She died when I was little. She had yellow hair, and sometimes she used to sing to me, I remember. She worked in an alehouse.”

cannot

“Did Lord Stannis question you as well?”

“The bald one? No, not him. He never said no word, just glared at me, like I was some raper who done for his daughter.”

“Mind your filthy tongue,” the master said. “This is the King’s own Hand.” The boy lowered his eyes. “A smart boy, but stubborn. That helm … the others call him bullheaded, so he threw it in their teeth.”

cope

Ned touched the boy’s head, fingering the thick black hair. “Look at me, Gendry.” The apprentice lifted his face. Ned studied the shape of his jaw, the eyes like blue ice. Yes, he thought, I see it.

with this

“If the day ever comes when Gendry would rather wield a sword than forge one, send him to me. He has the look of a warrior.”

#one day i will write a better version of gendry and stannis meeting again and all will be good #one day i will write about all three of these idiots together and it will be even better and perhaps my heart will make it through intact #my beautiful baratheon bastard blacksmith of badassery and befuddlement #this ridiculous feedback loop of emotions #gendry and stannis feelings lead to gendry and shireen feelings and stannis and shireen feelings #and musings on patriarchy and why we value father-son relationships differently than father-daughter #because that’s my thing with stannis and gendry at its core #stannis wanted a son so goddamned badly and here in front of him is yet another one of robert’s byblows mocking him with his very existence #and gendry has no father but he still has an uncle.but does that even mean anything given their relative circumstances? #gendry is not edric with a noble mother to alleviate a little of the bastard shame #and now the tv show is doing this melisandre and gendry thing and i just want stannis and gendry to interact so badly but i am so afraid of #ugh god #send help #i am without hope #Gendry’s demeanor and Stannis’s anger+pain+resentment and Eddard’s casual almost fatherly intimacy of touch will be the end of me

croclock:

Ok hey I wouldn’t ever call this meta, just a lot of last-minute ramblings about Stannis Baratheon, feel free to comment or criticize or show me how dumb I am for interpreting everything wrong:

Read More

souberbielle:

SPOILERS FOR ALL THE BOOKS

Okay, here goes. This is the first part of what will probably be a really long series, in which I attempt to explain everything Petyr Baelish has ever done. Instead of starting with canon and building my theories outward, I’ve decided to organize this chronologically, so some of these things may seem like bizarre assumptions at first. Feel free to ask me for my reasoning on any point. For this series, I’m only going to look at things that happen during the books or immediately before them, but I’ll happily try to explain other stuff if asked and/or after I’m done with the main project.

I love debating, so please feel free to argue with anything I write here. As far as I’m concerned, if my theory can’t stand up to criticism, I should get a new theory. All I ask is that you try to stay in the realm of logic and courtesy, which means explaining yourself, being specific, and not engaging in ad hominem attacks.

Also, I don’t know how to format, so I’m sorry if this is awful. I’ll try to improve for future installments.

                Alrighty, time to begin…

Grand Unified Theory of All Things Petyr Baelish: Introduction

Since I’m doing this chronologically, instead of topically, I thought I’d start out with a list of major theories/assumptions I’m including in here. All of these will be explained at some point, but I may well use them to bolster other claims before I properly introduce them. If you want me to address them before that, just let me know.

• Petyr Baelish genuinely loves Catelyn Tully.
• Petyr Baelish and Renly Baratheon were friends and allies.
• Petyr Baelish was Jon Arryn’s protégé.
• Petyr Baelish did not manipulate Joffrey into killing Eddard Stark.
• Petyr Baelish is not a psychopath.
• Petyr Baelish drew most of his political support from Jon Arryn and Cersei Lannister.
• Petyr Baelish is not attracted to Sansa Stark in and of herself.
• Petyr Baelish is motivated chiefly by ambition and desire, not revenge or hate.

If you think there’s anything major that I forgot to put in here, tell me and I’ll add it.

Additional note: I’m not specifically citing my canon sources in here, but I’ll provide them if asked. I just don’t want this to take any more time away from my productive activities than it already has.

Part One, The Original Plan

The very first thing Littlefinger does, as far as the main plot of the series is concerned, is hint to Stannis Baratheon that his brother’s children might not be true Baratheons. Canonically, Varys strongly implies this happened, but I generally don’t like to take his word for anything. However, Littlefinger’s later actions and motivations at the time strongly suggest he did do this.

It’s interesting to note that this is one of the few times, perhaps the only time, that Littlefinger is not acting in response to anything. There is no reason to suspect that he needed to act when he did, or act at all. This first move is motivated chiefly by ambition. It is a strike against a political enemy, and a gamble for power. Everything else he does during the course of the series is simply dealing with and capitalizing on the consequences of this first action.

Littlefinger does not like Stannis Baratheon. He says as much to Ned Stark, and backs it up by opposing Stannis whenever he can, even when it strengthens parties he does not truly support. He thinks Stannis is too unyielding, too harsh, and too honor-burdened to be a decent ruler. Before Littlefinger makes his move, though, he has no reason to suspect that Stannis will do anything but continue to grudgingly go along with whatever King Robert says, and King Joffrey after him. In this case, why give Stannis information that could potentially lead to his taking the throne? It comes down to the other reason for Littlefinger’s dislike of Stannis: Stannis is bad for business. Literally, in that one of his pet projects is outlawing prostitution, and figuratively, in that Stannis does not like Littlefinger and has the potential to do him some serious political harm.

Everything about Stannis leads him to despise men like Petyr Baelish. He is dedicated to his principles; Littlefinger, by his own admission, has no more than a shred of honor. Stannis is dedicated to the truth; Littlefinger lies for fun. Stannis is an uncompromising idealist; Littlefinger is practical and politically-savvy. Stannis is a martial man; Littlefinger would rather stay home counting coppers, thanks. Stannis will do what he believes is right, regardless of how many unspoken rules he breaks; Littlefinger practically wrote the rulebook for the game of thrones. Stannis does not understand laughter or mockery; Littlefinger answers everything with a quip. It’s easy to see how Littlefinger would view him as a serious threat, especially if he feared Stannis might be named Hand after Jon Arryn’s death. Stannis certainly thought he would be, as he broods about it later. Meanwhile, even if Jon Arryn was grooming Petyr as his successor, there was no reason to trust that Robert would honor that preference. Better to get rid of, or at least discredit, Stannis before he could challenge Littlefinger’s claim to the position and influence at court.

It’s also important to point out that Littlefinger couldn’t have anticipated that Stannis would bring Jon Arryn into things. Ned himself notes that Stannis and Jon were never close, and Stannis doesn’t like asking for help from anyone. In Littlefinger’s original plan, Stannis would do his investigating alone and alone bring his conclusions to Robert. Since Robert never liked Stannis and since Joffrey and Tommen’s illegitimacy would make Stannis the heir, Stannis would likely be laughed at, dismissed, and possibly punished for trying to usurp. At worst (for Littlefinger), Stannis would simply go back to Dragonstone to grind his teeth and fume. At best, he would end up at war with the crown, a war he could never win, as Stannis is not exactly famous for attracting followers. The war would end with Stannis executed or exiled for treason. As icing on the cake, Littlefinger might be awarded the now-unclaimed Dragonstone, either by making himself invaluable in some way to the king, as he did later with the Tyrell alliance, or simply by being a friend to major political power players like Jon Arryn, Renly, and the Lannisters, any of whom might wish to see their ally granted a major seat of power – and placed in their debt.

Thus, Littlefinger gambles, hoping to eliminate Stannis and win Dragonstone. Even if his venture goes sour, he can hold up the fact that he was the one to set Stannis on the right course, paint himself as a man of honor after all, and (to quote the show) retain his position – and his head. Unfortunately for Littlefinger, Stannis breaks pattern and takes his suspicions to Jon Arryn…

Part Two, Plan B

 Littlefinger liked Jon Arryn, if not as a man, as a valuable tool. It was Jon Arryn who gave him his first appointment as master of customs for Gulltown, Jon Arryn who brought him to court and sponsored his rise to master of coin, and Jon Arryn who may have been setting him up to be the next Hand of the King. With Jon dead, Littlefinger’s power base would be weakened, and, even if he hadn’t been responsible for his death, Littlefinger would be suspect, since he could reasonably think (as Jaime and Cersei Lannister did) that he would succeed him as Hand. Nevertheless, once Stannis involved him, Jon Arryn had to die.

Had Littlefinger done nothing and allowed Jon and Stannis to inform Robert of his children’s paternity, there would have been a war, but not the war he wanted. His two main patrons, Jon and Cersei, would be on opposite sides, and Littlefinger would have to choose one. If he chose the losing side, he would almost certainly be executed. Even if he picked the right side (which would almost certainly be Team Baratheon) he would run the risk of being killed during the war, and afterward find himself in a world where Stannis Baratheon was considered a hero for revealing the truth, allotted even more power, and possibly given Littlefinger’s place as Hand-to-be.

 If, however, Jon Arryn died before he could tell Robert the truth, there would be no war, or, even better, there would be the war against Stannis which Petyr had initially hoped for. Stannis, spooked, would retreat to Dragonstone, or else take his claim to Robert alone. Nobody on Team Baratheon would suspect Littlefinger of anything, especially if he took care to frame the Lannisters, and Jon’s death would make Lysa an eligible widow. Meanwhile, if he, as I suspect he did, told Cersei what he had done, the Lannisters would think him their certain ally and he would gain their trust.

 To make matters even better, Jon Arryn decided to send his son away to Dragonstone, which made manipulating Lysa into poisoning him absurdly easy – and set up a second person with a motive to place the blame on, if need be. Thus, as we know, Petyr had a chat with Lysa and convinced her to slip some Tears of Lys into her husband’s wine. Additionally, to keep suspicion away from them, he told Lysa they couldn’t marry right away. In fact, they couldn’t marry until someone else told them to. Petyr instructed Lysa to retreat to the Eyrie with her household, shortly after Jon’s death, and there remain, withholding support from either side in the upcoming war until Petyr told her otherwise. The idea, he told her, was that, once the king and council started fretting about Lysa’s inaction, perhaps worrying that she meant to support Stannis, Littlefinger would offer to solve their problem. He could wed her, become Lord Protector, and deliver the armies of the Vale. Of course, he would add, it wouldn’t be seemly for Lady Arryn to wed someone as lowborn as he was. Perhaps, if the king were to grant him, say, Dragonstone…

Part Three, Damage Control

After the deed had been done, Littlefinger met the queen somewhere out of the way of Varys’ hearing, perhaps in the godswood, and told her a tale. First, he told her he had arranged the murder of Jon Arryn. Why? Because he was going to tell Robert the truth about her and Jaime, and Littlefinger acted to protect his friends the Lannisters. He told her he’d had Jon’s squire, Hugh, poison him, in exchange for knighthood, which Cersei could arrange, no doubt. He asked her to cover up the murder for him, since it had been done in her name and he was really no good at these things. Thus, he got the Lannisters to actually frame themselves. If anyone investigated the death, he would notice that Hugh was knighted soon after Jon Arryn’s death, for no apparent reason, and at Cersei’s urging. He might notice that the Lannisters were acting very defensive about the affair, and that, as soon as he tried to question Ser Hugh, the newly made knight would die in a convenient accident – stabbed in the throat by the lance of a Lannister bannerman, say. Indeed, Littlefinger’s plan worked like a charm, as Ned Stark, Stannis Baratheon, and even Varys believed the Lannister/Hugh story. As an added bonus, Petyr Baelish now had Cersei’s full confidence – he had killed for her, after all.

 The only thing left to do was wait to be named Hand of the King and, eventually, Lord of Dragonstone and Lord Protector of the Vale of Arryn, sire a son on Lysa, and establish himself as the most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms. Except Robert didn’t name Littlefinger Hand at all; he chose Eddard Stark.

Robert may not have announced his intention to name Ned as his Hand, but it was just as clear to the court as it was to the Starks, when Robert started making plans to ride north. Thus, Littlefinger had time enough to prepare. He went to Lysa, before she left King’s Landing, and had her write a coded letter to Catelyn, implicating the Lannisters, especially Cersei, in her husband’s death. Petyr may never have met Ned Stark, but he knew him by reputation, an honorable, straight-forward man who had seen Jon Arryn as a second father. There was next to no chance he wouldn’t look into his friend’s suspicious death – and, though the Starks were no friends to the Lannisters, they were no friends of Petyr’s, either. With the letter, Littlefinger set them on the wrong path before Lord Stark (and his wife, who worried Petyr even more, because Catelyn had always known him too well) could think of turning his eye on him. Meanwhile, Lysa departed for the Eyrie according to plan, there to wait for war with Stannis, and for word from her beloved Petyr that they could be married at last.

To be continued…

warpoets:

I feel as if not enough people talk about the Baratheons . The Baratheons as a family, as brothers. And it’s understandable because they don’t behave in that way; from the very first book they’re removed from one another in a literal sense, (Renly judges Robert and allies himself with the Tyrells, Stannis is on Dragonstone) and this separation pierces their relationship to a bitter extent, ultimately resulting in the murder of one brother by another. I know asoiaf is full of shock and scandal and I suppose we’re all desensitised to immorality, but you can’t escape the fact Stannis murdered his brother, his own flesh and blood.

And this is in Westeros, where brotherhood is almost a constitutive value of the state: take the Nights Watch, the realm’s last defence has lasted thousands of years not because of funding or fortresses but because of the belief in the bonds of brotherhood. The men of the Night’s Watch have none of the grandeur or breeding of the Baratheons: they’re poor men, bastards, rapists, runaways, but their status as black brothers is enough to keep the night that never ends at bay. The Kingsguard, too, aspires to create bonds of brotherhood. The Brotherhood without banners, again, not truly related but a singular force for good in the bleak lives of the common folk. The Baratheons have nobody else in their family besides their brothers, they are the royal brothers so-to-speak.

And we readers don’t even react to Renly’s death with the extreme sadness, or the repugnance you’d expect of fratricide. Sure, we mourn Renly but we ultimately accept that Stannis killed him. And why? Because we don’t see the Baratheons as true brothers.

But we should abhor it. We should mourn far more than the loss of Renly. We should mourn the loss of the Baratheon dynasty, because they could have been magnificient. Their characterisations are obvious to the point of symbolism: Robert: the warrior king, brash and sexual and a fury on the battlefield; Stannis: intelligent, just and stoic- unpopular but relentless in pursuing the good of the state; and Renly; the charming baby of the family, able to capture the hearts and minds of the people with his beauty and clemency. Their qualities are diverse but harmonious: together they form a trinity: military strength, reason & justice and passion. Those three attributes are what’s needed for a successful regime, be it monarchic or otherwise. The will and happiness of the people (provided for by renly) creates a legitimate and prosperous state and hampers revolts or mutinies. A just legal system (thanks stannis) and well-considered policies ensure economic longevity. Military strength (good ol’ robert) creates security.

Together, not alone, they would’ve made the perfect King. Hell, Clausewitz states passion, reason and chance are what’s needed for effective military and political strategy.

But, this is Westeros, and we are all songs in the end. Robert’s warmongering skills are useless in peacetime, Renly falls to praise and money, and seeks brotherhood with a more beautiful ‘soft’ family, missing all the grit and realism of his blood brothers. Stannis, though a true statesman equipped with reason, uses a drastic new religion to plug the gap left by his lacking military and people skills. They fail because they separate.

And that I think, is why Robert only formed a stop-gap in the war, rather than establishing a lasting monarchy and peace. He was only a third of the trinity, only one branch of a set of antlers. Sure, his was the fury, but he’d forgotten to add the ours into the bargain, forgotten, tragically, that sacred westerosi notion of brotherhood, so swept up was he in waging a war. Left alone without reason to guide him, he fell into gluttony and waste. Stannis and Renly were all that were left, crowned Kings in their own right, but naivity and optimistic popularity never had a chance against unwavering legal convictions. Renly and Stannis were two stags left from three, leaderless, and when you think of two stags, well, they’re bound to butt heads aren’t they?

The Baratheons were true brothers, more than the Night’s Watch or the Brotherhood without Banners- they were blood brothers and as a unit possessed characteristics that would’ve made them unbeatable. But they were swept up in that perennial Westerosi court vice of pride and self-interest when together they could’ve been the united fury that swept Westeros away from the madness and incest of the Targaryens and into peace and prosperity. The tragedy of the Baratheon brothers is their lost potential and their failure to see the glory of their own brotherhood.

xylodemon:

Whether the Beach Scene in Walk of Punishment worked for you or not, it did serve to highlight one thing about Stannis that is very true to the books — he is an incredibly lonely person, and he believes everyone in his life will dismiss, reject, or abandon him at some point.

In the Prologue of A Clash of Kings, we meet Maester Cressen, who was the maester of Storm’s End when Stannis was a child. Interestingly, he followed Stannis when Stannis moved his household to Dragonstone after Robert’s Rebellion. During the occupation of Winterfell, Maester Luwin told Theon he served “the realm, and Winterfell,” and he also said “so long as you hold Winterfell, I am bound by oath to give you counsel.” Since maesters are sworn to a keep rather than a family, Cressen’s relocation was unusual, and was likely prompted by the fact that he considered Stannis a son.

Stannis, my lord, my sad sullen boy, son I never had, you must not do this, don’t you know how I have cared for you, lived for you, loved you despite it all? Yes, loved you, better than Robert even, or Renly, for you were the one unloved, the one who needed me most.

Shortly before that passage, he quotes a letter Stannis’ father wrote from Volantis.

We have found the most splendid fool. Only a boy, yet nimble as a monkey and witty as a dozen courtiers. He juggles and riddles and does magic, and he can sing prettily in four tongues. We have bought his freedom and hope to bring him home with us. Robert will be delighted, and perhaps in time he will even teach Stannis how to laugh.

He goes on to say that Patchface never did teach Stannis how to laugh, because he lost his wits in the shipwreck that killed Stannis’ parents.

I stopped believing in gods the day I saw Windproud break up across the bay. Any gods so monstrous as to drown my mother and father would never have my worship, I vowed.

Chances are, Stannis didn’t have anyone to share his grief with. Renly was still a baby. Robert was at Storm’s End when it happened, but it’s likely Robert and Stannis’ relationship was already awkward, if not strained. There isn’t much to work with, in terms of their childhoods, but we do have Maester Cressen’s thoughts.

His lord’s face swam up before him, not the man he was but the boy he had been, standing cold in the shadows while the sun shone on his elder brother. Whatever he did, Robert had done first, and better.

We also have an anecdote from Stannis.

When I was a lad I found an injured goshawk and nursed her back to health. Proudwing, I named her. She would perch on my shoulder and flutter from room to room after me and take food from my hand, but she would not soar. Robert called her Weakwing.

The last doesn’t detail their relationship too much, but it does tell us something about Robert’s attitude toward Stannis in general. Stannis was a sad child with little to please him, and Robert openly mocked one of the few things that made him happy.

Unfortunately, things worsened rather than improved. Robert became close friends with Ned Stark while fostering at the Eyrie, and he came to openly consider Ned his brother, something that obviously hurt Stannis deeply, because he is shown to still be nursing a grudge about it some fifteen or twenty years later.

Why should I avenge Eddard Stark? The man was nothing to me. Oh, Robert loved him, to be sure. Loved him as a brother, how often did I hear that? I was his brother, not Ned Stark, but you would never know by the way he treated me.

Depsite their estrangement, Stannis chose to back Robert during the Rebellion. This amounted to treason, and he admitted to Davos in A Storm of Swords that it was not an easy decision to make.

Aerys? If you only knew… that was a hard choosing. My blood or my liege. My brother or my king.

[…]

It still angers me. How could he think I would hurt the boy? I chose Robert, did I not? When that hard day came, I chose blood over honor.

At eighteen, Stannis held Storm’s End against a siege and sea blockade. He had a garrison of 500 men, and they survived by eating horses and dogs and cats, and eventually rats. Had Davos not arrived with his salt fish and onions, they might have been forced to eat their prisoners. In the aftermath of this, Robert dismissed Stannis’ contributions completely.

I held Storm’s End for him, watching good men starve while Mace Tyrell and Paxter Redwyne feasted within sight of my walls. Did Robert thank me? No. He thanked Stark, for lifting the siege when we were down to rats and radishes. I built a fleet at Robert’s command, took Dragonstone in his name. Did he take my hand and say Well done, brother, whatever should I do without you? No, he blamed me for letting Willem Darry steal away Viserys and the babe, as if I could have stopped it. I sat on his coucil for fifteen years, helping Jon Arryn rule his realm while he drank and whored, but when Jon died, did my brother name me his Hand? No, he went galloping off to his dear friend Ned Stark, and offered him the honor.

Once Robert became king, Stannis should have taken Storm’s End, but Robert gave it to Renly, who was only seven years-old. Stannis got Dragonstone, which had smaller lands and incomes and less bannermen. Stannis took it as a slight, and if Cersei can be believed (it’s hard to know what Robert did and did not tell her truthfully), Robert meant it as a one.

The most telling piece in the Robert/Stannis puzzle is probably Edric Storm. Robert had so little regard for Stannis that he fathered a bastard during Stannis’ wedding, on the marriage bed.

As for Renly, it’s hard to say what kind of relationship he had with Stannis early on. Stannis was thirteen when he was born. Their parents died shortly after, and Maester Cressen more or less raised them while Robert split his time between Storm’s End and the Eyrie. I do think it’s safe to assume that Renly’s claim for the Iron Throne hurt Stannis as much as it angered him. In fact, this was Maester Cressen’s first thought when he heard the Stormlords had declared for Renly.

Oh, Renly, Renly, dear sweet child, do you know what you are doing? And would you care if you did? Is there anyone who cares for him but me?

When Robert rebelled against Aerys, Stannis backed him as his younger brother, but when Stannis made rightful claim for Robert’s throne, Renly defied him. And to add insult to injury, he made common cause with Mace Tyrell, the man who tried to starve Stannis to death fifteen years earlier.

—

One of my favorite parts of the series is when Stannis and Davos are reunited after Blackwater, and Stannis says I missed you, ser. I cannot imagine what that admission cost him.

xylodemon:

roosebaldton:

histruequeen:

can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that the Hand of the rightful king of Westeros was once a desperately poor, illiterate boy from the slums of King’s Landing, and that the king’s other top advisor was once a slave and has risen to the power she has now through years and years of pain and effort and sheer will

they’ve made themselves who they are now, through their own work and through where they’ve placed their faith (in Stannis, in god… the same thing as the case may be) and out of everyone in the entire world these are the two people Stannis has chosen to rely on most

#NO BUT STANNIS WOULD BE A SHITTY KING BECAUSE HE REFUSES TO BEND #THAT’S WHY HE TAKES ADVICE FROM A FORMER SMUGGLER AND A FORMER SLAVE #GOOD ARGUMENT

And when Stannis gets to the Wall, he takes strategy advice from a bastard half his age — a bastard whose father he never really liked. The fact that he can admit when someone knows more about a given situation than he does, regardless of who they are or where they come from, is a terrible failing. He would clearly be the worst king who ever kinged.

drogontheburninator:

Just need to say something (though I’m hardly a Stannis expert):

When people say Stannis puts the needs of the realm before himself, they’re talking about the time he was the only person who responded to the Night’s Watch’s pleas for help to fight the White Walkers. (Maybe not everyone has read that far in the books, but uh if you haven’t it might be wise to put your judgments of characters aside until you have. Or at least put them out of the tags.)

Robb Stark ignored those pleas. Balon Greyjoy ignored them. Joffrey ignored them. Renly ignored them (or probably would have, if it got to him before he died. I don’t think he was alive when they sent those letters so idk). Dany might have ignored them too? We don’t really know, she wasn’t in Westeros at the time.

The point here is that Stannis is the only one to recognize that the realm is in serious danger from the Others, and that the War of the Five Kings won’t mean shit if everyone is a blue-eyed zombie.

Did he make selfish choices before that? Sure. Did he make mistakes? Sure.

But none of those things negate the fact that he’s the only one who is able to put their stupid war aside and deal with a real problem.

Not to mention the fact that he’s really the only one of the people fighting over the throne who wants it not because he wants it, but because he believes in the law and the law says it’s his, so he has to fight for it whether he wants to or not.

Balon, Joffrey, Renly, probably even Dany to some degree although I think she thinks she has to fight over the throne because it’s her birthright - they all want power for power. Even Robb Stark is fighting a war over vengeance, not for the good of the realm.

So it’s actually not “bullshit” to say he’s the only one who cares about Westeros, because when the biggest actual threat to Westeros in thousands of years is brought to his attention, he’s the only one who actually bothers to do a goddamn thing about it.