Robert is not a good king. I am afraid that few people in the Seven Kingdoms, inside and outside the court, would not admit this. However, although this guy is full of wine, sex, wealth and everything, and his life is luxurious and corrupt, he understands very well in his heart - he does not like and does not trust the Lannister family. The original good prime minister and his adoptive father died, and he didn't want to take care of things but only wanted to have fun. He couldn't let the entire country fall into the hands of the queen's family.
The country's power centers need to be balanced.
Then, he thought of his good brother, Ed Stark, whom he had forgotten in the north.
But if you want to ask the Guardian of the North to come to King's Landing to serve as Prime Minister, things are not that simple.
It's a long story. The society of Westeros operates under a typical but slightly weird feudal system: On the surface, the king is similar to the Emperor of Zhou in ancient China, and the major dukes are princes. But the problem is -
today's differences Among the eight major families that control the nine regions of Westeros, except for Robert's own family, none of them were enfeoffed and supported by the ruler sitting on the Iron Throne.
The reason why his war to destroy the Targaryen dynasty and obtain the Iron Throne was called "The Seizer" was precisely for this reason: Baratheon did not change the dynasty in a real sense at all, but only replaced the Dragon family on the throne. Just lost the throne...the kingdom is still the same as it was after Aegon conquered the Seven Kingdoms.
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It goes without saying that the four houses of Stark in the north, Lannister in the west, Arryn in the Vale, and Martell in Dorne were the crowned kings of their respective territories before Aegon's conquest. The ruler of the title - is not only recognized by the vassals, but also has the ability to rule. After being conquered, he just gave up his original title and honored Targaryen as king, and continued to live life as usual in the territory.
The Tullys and Tyrells of the Riverlands and the Reach, as well as the Greyjoys of the Iron Islands, only surrendered from the powerful lords and affiliated families under King Heron and the King of the Reach because they surrendered quickly enough. Just "upgrade" and replace the first two and become the new owner of three pieces of land.
Only the Baratheon family reached the top class because the founder of the family, Orys Baratheon, followed Aegon and made great achievements during the War of Conquest. And even if he takes over the Stormlands, he must occupy the Storm King's castle, marry the latter's daughter, and adopt his banner, family crest, and motto in order to make his rule stable.
From a modern perspective, there is no comparison between Aegon's conquests and Qin Shihuang's feat of destroying six countries to unify the world and establish centralization. The former only relied on the dragon as a powerful weapon to win every key battle. At best, they subdued the Seven Kingdoms. In fact, they did not have the energy and appropriate administrative system to manage the Seven Kingdoms and build them into one. They could only The next best thing is to let other countries recognize their dominance.
However, it's not that Aegon doesn't want to make progress, but that he has no choice but to do so: due to the special climate and environment, the world of Ice and Fire has backward technology, a vast territory and sparsely populated areas, and underdeveloped transportation and is unable to maintain a sufficient standing army. If the whole country cannot implement orders day and night, it will be difficult for the royal government to maintain its strength, and centralization of power will indeed be difficult to achieve.
It is for these reasons that "eliminating the roots" is a very rare concept in this world: even if the original ruler is really wiped out, the winner still has to choose a local to fill the former's position, even if the aristocracy is eliminated and officials are appointed to centralize power The situation of ruling, the sky is high and the emperor is far away will also make the bureaucrats quickly evolve into warlords, separatist power, and defy the king...
Anyone who tries to change the situation and break this status quo will have to face terrifying resistance. And this is probably the most vivid example of "backward productivity restricting the development of superstructure".
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Three hundred years have passed, and the family occupying the Iron Throne has changed from Targaryen to Baratheon. As the youngest of the eight major families, Robert, with insufficient background and unstable foundation, neither supported him after the Reaver War. Any emerging loyal family does not have such a powerful weapon as the dragon... Sitting on the Iron Throne, ruling seven families that are older and deeper than their own, but do not have the strength and means to solve this unstoppable situation. The once powerful warrior Being a king is actually quite uncomfortable. No wonder he indulges in drinking and hunting all day long.
This is another true manifestation of "it is easy to conquer a country but difficult to defend it". In order to stabilize his own rule, Robert had to marry the daughter of the disgusted Lannister family, and left his adoptive father, Duke Arryn, in King's Landing as prime minister. In addition, he had a marriage relationship with the Stark and Tully families and fought side by side. Only through friendship and the formation of a huge noble alliance of five families can the remaining three families of Tyrell, Martell and Greyjoy be forced to submit obediently to Targaryen like they did to Targaryen in the past hundreds of years.
Having said so much, I actually just want to explain one thing: the person sitting on the Iron Throne only has the title of king, and is actually at the same level as the other seven countries in terms of identity and strength. The control of the seven kingdoms is entirely determined by strength. Strength and weakness and the level of means determine: if you have the upper hand, you will be the common master of the world, the king of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the "First Men", the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and the guardian of the entire territory; once you are weak, you will immediately He will be brought back to his original form: he is just a big noble like everyone else, but he can still be the target of robbery and invasion.
Robert couldn't drag Eddard Stark, the actual ruler of the North, out of his comfortable home with just an edict and bring him to King's Landing to wipe his own ass... In addition, the relationship between the two was more like a brother than a brother. He has to go personally to the king and his ministers, both emotionally and rationally. Not only that, he also wanted to form a close relationship with his in-laws so that the great alliance of the deer, wolf, lion, eagle, and fish families could continue even after his death, so that Baratheon could be like the other seven families. For generations.
Although Robert was a bastard king, he was born into a noble family and his basic power skills and strategic vision were not bad at all. So...he's here, and he's going to stay for a while.
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Whether it is Gary and Will who are closely related to the Night's Watch Rangers, or the higher-ranking Waymar Royce, Benjen Stark or even Lord Commander Mormont, or after arriving in Winterfell, The kings, queens, and a lot of Baratheons, Starks, Lannisters, etc. they saw were actually different from the images Iger saw on the screen before he traveled through time. This made him understand: what he was traveling into was a real world, not a TV series.
Fortunately, the recorded history, the development of the plot so far, and the personalities and temperaments of the characters he has come into contact with are still very different from the stories he is familiar with. This is a huge golden finger that allows him to easily "meet the audience" with just a little preparation. People speak their own words, and ghosts speak their own lies." He interacts with every character he has an impression of in a targeted manner.
I have to mention it here. The two people who came to his room tonight are out-and-out important characters: without any plot analysis and just looking at the data, Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow, no matter how much they are described in the original work, In terms of the number of lines and scenes in the play, they are all key figures who undoubtedly occupy the first and second place - even the Dragon Mother can only be ranked third.
If we talk about heroes based on their existence, it would not be an exaggeration to say that these two are the protagonists. Because of this, there are countless character analyzes of the growth, mental journey and personality characteristics of these two people that I saw on the Internet before traveling through time. The so-called bystanders clearly... ...Iger may have a better understanding of the two "protagonists" than they do themselves.
The evidence of the existence of the White Walkers did not scare away the bastards, but accidentally made Jon decide to join the Night's Watch earlier. This was a small accident, but it was innocuous, and Egger had no intention of interfering. The boy who has not yet put on black clothes is still a small character, but the dwarf nicknamed the Little Devil has already gained influence due to his noble birth and wisdom... Now, Egg has received the latter's promise to help, although it is only a verbal agreement. , but given his understanding of his character, Iger boldly decided to trust him.
But things are not that simple. After all, Tyrion is not a king, nor is he even the powerful head of his own family. He is just a noble child, and everything he owns comes from his powerful and wealthy father, Duke Tywin. Although he is a candidate for the theoretical heir to the Lannister family, he is actually completely excluded from the core of power. He does not claim to help him leave the Great Wall, but he will definitely be able to do so.
In addition, according to the original plot development, the dwarf himself would not be able to successfully leave the North and return to King's Landing or the West.
Therefore, before actually accepting Tyrion's help, Iger may have to worry about him first.