That’s a really interesting question. You can hear my answer here.

I don’t think it goes that far, quite. Tywin certainly feels that Tyrion can contribute to the House by providing heirs – hence the marriage to Sansa. He just hates him as an individual and a symbol. 

I don’t know. It’s definitely weird.

I don’t think it would change much. I think Tywin’s attitude has hardened into stone by this point. 

Of all time is a bit much, so let’s focus just on ASOIAF characters: 

I think Brienne would without thinking about it. Ser Barristan, post-defrocking, ditto. If it wasn’t a joust and more of a duel/trial by combat, Syrio Forel certainly. Jon probably would, Robb as heir probably shouldn’t. Loras and/or Renly would probably do it, but more for the PR than for the vows. Sandor probably wouldn’t because he thinks knighthood is bunk, but if Gregor was on the other side he probably would. Ned would probably object to the whole concept of a trial by seven – the two men should be the only ones fighting it out. 

Oberyn might do it for the lulz as might Jaime if the Kingsguard thing wasn’t an issue. 

I think Sansa would want someone to stand up for him, but obviously couldn’t do so herself, maybe give him her favor or pray for him. Arya in AGOT would want to, Arya from ACOK on would probably be too survival-focused unless it was closer to the situation with Sam in Braavos. Dany would probably order Belwas or Barristan or Jorah or Daario to be one of his seven. 

A placeholder can still be quite effective. Jonnel One-Eye, Barth Blacksword, Rodwell all never had kids, but seem to have been effective lords. 

Not leading in battle is harder to deal with, but I think Bran could get around it if it was known that he was a greenseer. The North follows the Old Gods and the greenseers are/were the closest thing the Old Ways had to a priesthood, so I could see Bran becoming a priest-king figure, venerated and feared. Good luck plotting treason against him when every tree and every bird is his spy. when the land itself and all living creatures on it are his weapons. 

Because Robert likes Ned, so he made sure they got to be battle buddies while he sent his father-in-law to attack an island far enough away so that he didn’t have to deal with him on a regular basis. And because Ned’s a responsible adult and Robert isn’t.  

I’m not so sure about this whole Aegon/Visenya/Rhaenys thing. 

I think the fans are making too much of that w/o much grounding in the prophecy itself. 

I think he went for Lyanna because of the ice part of the fire and ice, and because there was a mutual attraction. 

poorquentyn:

racefortheironthrone:

Much more the second. Euron, Balon, Dagon, Dalton, etc. There is a pattern. 

Aw, and we usually agree!

I think Victarion, not Euron, is meant to represent the continuation of the pattern you cite. After all, it’s the former who runs on a Change Nothing Because Balon Was Awesome platform at the kingsmoot:

“When Balon was wed, it was me he sent to Harlaw to bring him back his bride. I led his longships into many a battle, and never lost but one. The first time Balon took a crown, it was me sailed into Lannisport to singe the lion’s tail. The second time, it was me he sent to skin the Young Wolf should he come howling home. All you’ll get from me is more of what you got from Balon. That’s all I have to say.”

And indeed, only someone as profoundly incurious as Vic would stick to such a blatantly unworkable organizing principle as the Old Way. We see it plainly in Balon’s first rebellion: the Ironborn want independence, but what they do with that independence (reave, rape, and enslave) is so antagonistic to their ultimately more powerful neighbors that it inevitably costs them said independence.

Far from following the pattern, Euron perceives that contradiction and sets out to resolve it; so too does Asha, but they put forth opposing solutions. Asha wants her people to abandon the slave-state attitude toward labor that you’ve talked about before, and instead commit themselves to peace and farming. (“Little late for that,” says the entire North.) Euron wants them to stop subsisting on table scraps and instead take the table; no backlash from the mainland if the mainland belongs to us! That’s well beyond anything Dalton, Dagon, or Balon proposed; it’s a pretty big jump from robbing and running away to conquering the planet with dragons. Indeed, that’s what Euron is counting on–that deep down, the Ironborn know that (Balon’s revanchist approximation of) the Old Way isn’t working even for them, and that they either need to pack it in or back it up with flying WMDs. Naturally, they go with the latter. 

I’m not saying Euron is going to succeed at his goals, but that said goals are on an entirely different plane from those of his forebears. He’s a break in the pattern, and it shows in his thinly veiled contempt for his people and their values. As I’ve said before, the Old Way is nothing more to Euron than his first language in harvesting pain, and he’s less a pirate than a monster wearing a pirate suit. (Hence eyepatch.) 

Fair enough, but the Hoares thought they could rule Westeros too. Look what happened to them. 

His popular reputation might well have been different. Instead of being seen as a blackhearted villain, more of a tragic hero forced to choose between two oaths. 

Ned probably would have a different attitude towards him and the Lannisters.