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News and discussions relating to George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, his Westeros-based short stories, "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" TV series, and all things ASOIAF - but with particular emphasis on the written series.
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Ormund. I was just starting to like you Ormund. Now you seek to put Daeron on the throne?
Rhaenera? Aegon? Aemond? Daeron? One more and we'd have five potential claims!
But also... Helena is pregnant, right?
Also fucking Daemon. Forced to choose. Your wife or your daughter. I'm sure that won't cause issues later on.
Also is Sunfyre really dead? How is Aegon going to make his comeback? What does Larys really want? He seems too opportunistic to just truly believe in Aegon.
I think aegon is larys's insurance, or perhaps even fare, to get a ship to somewhere safe for himself
I wonder if Larys needs Aegon as proof that whatever money is hidden away he should have access to.
If we assume he knows where the Crown's money is, he can't just show up as Larys and ask for the money. At best he is the former Lord of Harrenhal and former Master of Whispers. But with Aegon he is technically still the Lord of Harrenhal and the Master of Whispers AND he has the "one true king" with him.
Someone might have fucked over a poor club footed man. But the King? (Well probably still, but it's less likely.)
During the Small Council meeting where Daemon brought the head of "Sheepstealer's rider", Rhaenyra stared at it while the Small Council continued to discuss other matters. Among these other matters was Mysaria (ED: Torrhen) mentioning that the Iron Bank wasn't returning their calls when they asked about a loan. Seems safe to assume that that's gonna come up later.
I think Larys keeps a lot of plates spinning and fires lit just in case. Keeping Otto alive in the black cells, for instance.
With this, it seems that we can conclude that Gwayne is some sort of ubermensch, managing to turn out decent and normal after being raised in that psycho family.
Perhaps Otto never wanted to actually usurp Rhaenyra's throne, and only did so because the "main branch" of the Hightower family ordered him to. The way Orwyle describes the correspondence, it almost sounds like Otto was a servant delivering daily progress reports to his boss.
Back in Season 1 when Otto's older brother (and Ormund's father) Hobert was alive, I seem to recall that in the one conversation we saw between them, Otto seemed to be trying to tell Hobert that Viserys was steadfast in his decision to keep Rhaenyra as heir, and Hobert was having NONE of it.
I think the answer is that Otto is just a better man/father/game player.
As a second son he had "nothing" and rose to become basically king and did a pretty solid job.
In addition his children, Alicent & Gwayne, largely obeyed their father and became good people.
Ormund however was raised to be a leader and heir. He probably saw Otto level up and thought that should have been him. He listened to his father, who was probably pleased to see Otto succeed since as the older brother he probably "guided" him into the role and could take credit. But once Ormund was in charge he wanted to be his own man and that's why he cut off correspondence.
Otto put his child on the throne (ish) as Queen Alicent and then his grandchildren on the actual throne. If Otto can do it, so can Ormund. So he's going to put "his son", Daeron, on the throne.
Putting Daeron on the throne seems to be an adjustment to the original plan, and Ormund seems to only have come up with it in response to learning that Aemond would not be bringing Vhagar.
That's a good point.
He gave his whole speech about Targaryens being weird/unnatural, and he called Daeron a Hightower.
So maybe he decided Aegon "dying" and Aemon disappearing as a sign.