That Robert was not the father of Cersei’s children appears to be a popular rumor, even if there is no real proof. (As somebody said, no DNA tests.) Robert never knew; Ned found out for sure, the dying Robert was carried back to King’s Landing & Ned didn’t enlighten him. But Ned had sent a message to Stannis & he spread the word. Anyway, the people are crowded into the city because the countryside is full of marauding forces–legitimate soldiers or just maurauders for the heck of it? We’re not sure. But food is short–unless you’re a fat prelate! And the massacre of Robert’s by-blows, supposedly ordered by Joffrey, has proven him to be a “bastard” in the larger sense. He’s just not a lovable kid!
Not being legitimate, Gendry has no claim to the throne. On Earth & probably in Westeros, an acknowledged bastard, born to a noblewoman, might possibly get some backing–if there were no better heirs. But he’s the son of a barmaid & probably doesn’t know his father’s identity. He was part of the proof that Robert’s children must all be dark-haired–genetics on that unnamed planet not being the same as our Earth genetics. At this point, though, the death of the boy with the bull helmet has been reported back to the Lannisters; hair color was apparently not part of the description given out. So the hunt for him may not be all that important now, with things getting worse all over.
I would agree with all of this, and would only add that while Gendry has no “natural” claim to the throne, he could still be taken up by one faction or another as their poster child, or he could come into his own and start a new faction and be recognized provided he beat down every other contender.
But yeah, I reckon his value (and risk to the Lannisters) is not so much as a potential claimant to the throne and more as concrete evidence for the twincest.
I was actually spoiled to the fact that Margaery kills Renly from a distance using black magic, but I didn’t know when it would happen. I’m actually surprised that Renly was offed so quickly. With the whole love-triangle thing, it seemed to me they were setting up an interesting story that would develop into an exploration of how a homosexual king can manage to keep things going.
Bear in mind that Robert had the strongest claim to the throne (as Ned once mentioned), which means that arguably, if all of the Targaryens had dropped dead of the plague, there’s a good chance that he would ended up king anyway. Nobility and royalty were pretty much intertwined in the medieval world, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Robert didn’t have some Targaryen ancestry.
Am I the only one with a bad feeling about the dude with the upside down man on his chest who sent his son and garrison to retake Winterfell? I don’t doubt his loyalty (because if he’d been truly disloyal he would simply have left town during the night and taken Winterfell anyway), but something about the guy simply doesn’t seem right.
Also, Jon is way too soft. Fine, the wildling he caught was pretty darn cute and all, but on the other hand he and his mates just offed her friends, possibly a boyfriend or a brother among them. There isn’t a chance that leaving her alive could end any way than badly, so he should have just sucked it upp and lopped her head off in a clean swipe. Now he’s stuck with a prisoner who’s hindering him from returning to his comrades, whom he can’t feed and who will kill him and bring doom to his comrades at first opportunity.
Please try not to become too angry at me for making this post. But …
I wonder if Dany even deserves to get her dragons back.
I wish I could create animated gifs. I would love to create a picture of a real tiny 4 foot tall Dany looking up at some big 7 foot tall dude like the Mountain and squeaking at him, "I will get my dragons back! Even if I have to get them back with fire and blood! I will get them back!
My point is just that at this point, she is becoming almost a comical little cartoon who keeps squeaking at much bigger and more powerful people her stupid threats. Any one of them could just swat her with the back of their hands and she has nothing to back up her threats.
That Lord of Spices was completely within his rights to tell her to piss off when she expected/demanded that he give her his ships so that she could try and get back her throne.
Without any army or allies to back her, she is just a little loudmouthed pipsqueak.
Six episodes so far and all Dany’s done is kill her followers in the desert and lose her dragons. I so loved her storyline last season. For this season they should have brought back the exposition whores to quickly tell us what’s going on across the narrow sea. I’d rather watch simulated sex than that awful wig and wooden line readings.
Dany deserves to get her dragons back if she can go & get them. Nobody will hand them to her.
During the first season, we saw her grow in power from a frightened child bride to the worthy consort of a warlord. (Not a “nice guy”–but she had no choice.) After disaster struck, she took a huge risk & was rewarded with three living creatures that nobody in the world ever thought to see again.
The next step is up to her. What are her natural or “supernatural”* powers? Does she have any allies left? (Ser Jorah will surely be back.)
The world of the books/show is not Earth. “Supernatural” could just refer to powers or creatures unknown to the few educated people–perhaps lost in old books or legends…
This is so very true - Viserys was a kid who grew up wielding a lot of power (kind of like Joffrey), then was cast down and couldn’t function as nor bear the ignominy of being a powerless nobody in his new environment. He’s a character we love to loathe because we never saw his pre-pawn phase, we never saw him with any dignity, so he comes out as a petulant little bitch. When he says “to get my throne back, I’d let Drogo’s entire tribe fuck you, all 40.000 men and their horses”, he’s extra-loathsome.
Dany never really knew enough of the original power to be corrupted by it, so she comes into the show as this frightened little lamb. Then we see the sacrifices she makes, the innocence she loses and her regalness wielding her newfound power for the benefit of her peeps. And then she’s cast down and now she can’t function as anything else than the Khaleesi, demanding respect she cannot command. Someone catching the show right now would love to loathe her, because she’d come out to him as nothing but a petulant little bitch. But to us, when she goes all “FIYA AND BLUHD !”, she’s a tragi-comic figure.