While I respect Varys, he doesn’t strike me as good leader. I could easily see him as a major figure, but more as a right-hand man to the formal leader. Think Kissinger.
Strangely, I think Littlefinger would make a fantastic democratic leader. In a democratic society, he might be corrupt - but he wouldn’t be out for personal gain. Instead, he would try to manipulate the people’s opinions but would undoubtedly be more than willing to build a strong and stable society. That would be best for him, personally, and he would probably consider it a point of pride. He’d also probably be extremely good at building support, at least in an era before god-awful canned public speeches were considered normal.
Against Stannis it would be a hard choice indeed. For all his faults, Stannis is something of a visionary and able to make hard choices for the national good (at least as he sees it). And further, he’s a natural leader at least as much as Robert, and able to command the loyalty of the powerful and wise.
A debate between them would be awesome. And probably would have five different murder attempts, but they’d both survive.
Actually that’s not what he burned them for. He burned them because he’d ordered them to do a thing, and he made it into law that the thing should be done, and yet they didn’t do the thing.
He’s not burning them out of zealotry, it’s just that laws are laws and the concept of breaking the law is something Stannis has a smidge of a *problem *with. But hey, tough on crime, that’s good, right ?
No way in hell would I ever vote for Stannis. The only things, slightly, in his favor is he didn’t want to be king, it was just the law. He does TRY to be fair.
However, he dumped his gods very quickly when he thought another god could help him achieve his goal. He also had NO problem urging Jon Snow to break HIS solemn vow, again, to achieve his goals. I think his true colors have been revealed.
He’s also too rigid, break not bend, to paraphrase his maester. And he showed that same maester an appalling lack of loyalty.
Agreed that Tyrion makes poor life choices, but what bad strategic decisions did he make? Perhaps sending Myrcella to Dorne, but we don’t know if that prevented them from entering the war of the 5 kings. On the plus side he took the Vale completely out of the war (although they wouldn’t have entered anyway because of Littlefinger), organized the defense of King’s landing to repel an overwhelming attacker, and organized the Tyrell marriage that won the war and secured the strongest possible alliance for his house. This was while being undercut at every step by his batshit idiot sister and the worst king possible.
He also began to turn around the kingdom’s finances that Robert and Baelish deliberately fucked up and increased food stockpiles for the winter. IMO Tyrion’s up there with anyone else, as far as strategic mind.
Now I think the fact that almost everyone hates him would undermine a Tyrion presidency, but that’s not really his fault.
I’m going with a write-in: I think that Jaime Lannister would be a good choice. He’s shown that he has the guts to do the ‘right thing’ when the situation calls for it, and I think he’s shown a great deal of personal growth over the course of the series. He’s gone from being a brilliant, but immature, swordsman to a real leader of men.
No one in Westeros is going to vote for a Kingslayer. Which goes double for Tyrion, since the common assumption is that he is both a Kingslayer and kinslayer. It would be like a convicted sex offender running in the USA.
“It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it…Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Add new to the list of people that despises Stannis’ treatment of religion. He does not believe in the Seven, that’s cool. But actually, he does not believe in the Lord of Light either. He just uses the fancy new religion and Mellisandre as mere tools to get followers and secure power. Ironically, I have more respect for her than him; no doubt she’s crazy, but she at least believes in the shit she does.
Littlefinger. smiling bandit gives good reasons why he would be a good democratic ruler. I’d vote for him to have all of us not have to live through chaos. Chaos is his ladder, but if he gets power he would be perfectly willing to skip the ladder and rule. Unless he is ruling he will institute chaos and for Westeros that means more war and more instability for the common people.
Littlefinger is utterly unprincipled and fiendishly ambitious. He is politically skillful and cunning, to be sure, but that’s not enough to be a good public official in a democratic state IMHO.
Unless he has an eye for Essos too. All hail the First King of the Andals and First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Emperor of Essos!
But seriously, Littlefinger is an obviously strong candidate. In addition to his other strengths, he would also be a star at the Presidential debates. Now imagine a debate between Stannis and Littlefinger.
(I feel bad picking on Stannis. I like the guy, at least parts of him.)
As in the poll title, which character you personally would vote for. In the former scenario though I think Tommen would actually have a shot backed by all that Lannister influence.
