I think the plan would have been to capture Tywin, force Tytos to either abdicate or name a Reyne as heir, and then turn around to Jaehaerys and say the Lannisters can’t keep the peace, only we’re strong enough to. 

Seems to have been a guess based on timelines from AGOT Jon IV and AFFC Sam II. 

I’ sure it happens in Dorne, but unlikely to happen between regions. 

• First, travel is slow and difficult at the best of times, and Dorne adds mountains and deserts to the question. Heiresses do pop up one’s own region, with less difficulty involved in wooing. 
• Second, ruling ladies and heiress aren’t the same thing – in Dorne, marrying a ruling lady means wealth but no power. Consider the difference between Lady Hornwood vs. a Princess of Dorne; the consort doesn’t get the fief in the latter case. 
• Third, there’s the historical and cultural baggage. Much of the South has been warring against Dorne for thousands of years, Dorne itself isn’t too keen on much of the South, etc. 

That was my reading of the WOIAF chapter, but this is a heavily retconned area that is more than a little confusing. 

Well, as I discuss in my Laboratory of Politics series, I don’t buy the argument that the Shavepate was the assassin. I do think Hizdahr was in league with the Sons of the Harpy, although more of a self-interested patsy than the Harpy. 

So I’m fine with it. 

I have a feeling that Davos will end up as a Maester Cressen figure helping to raise the next Lord of Storm’s End. 

It’s a tricky situation, because we haven’t really seen the case of a house holding multiple holdfasts directly, and we’re told that there’s a tradition of not allowing that, and instead creating cadet branches.

My guess is that they’ll create cadet branches rather than trying to have the same family rule both locations. 

I think the issue is that the Lannisters are mostly tapped out. They started the war with 45,000 men under arms – they lost 3,000 men at the Whispering Woods, 8,000 at the Camps, and 10,000 at Oxcross, and an unknown number at the Green Fork, the retreat from the Green Fork, raids and counter-raids in the Riverlands, the Battle of the Fords, and the Battle of Blackwater, which I think adds up to anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 men. 

So at the point that Tywin dies, I think the Lannisters have about 12-15,000 men in Tywin’s army and another 2,000 or so that Daven has pulled from the garrisons of Casterly Rock and the Golden Tooth and the survivors of Oxcross. Of Tywin’s army, 2,000 gets sent to Dragonstone (1,000 of them die), 800 go with Jaime, 450 or so go with Tywin’s funeral escort, and the rest are demobilized when their lords leave for the Westerlands.

It’s not a question of affording any more – those 10,000 or so men have been under arms for the better part of two years, much longer than any normal term of feudal service. Tywin’s force of personality kept them them in the field, but once Tywin is dead, they’re not going to stay put, especially when the identity of the actual lord of Casterly Rock is so ambiguous. 

Keep in mind that Kevan says that after the 2,000 men at Dragonstone have lost half their numbers, and Jaime’s forces have merged with Daven’s at Riverrun. 

There’s no evidence of remobilization or re-routing, and Daven’s inability to actually control the siege is strongly suggestive that he doesn’t have more troops than the 2,000 that the Freys have.