You are adviser to the monarch of Westeros (RAR)

[FaxModem1]

Due to a twist of fate, you are fated to be Hand of the King, with a monarch under your reign. Who do you serve, and what policies do you pursue?

Discuss.

[The Romulan Republic]

Has to be Jon or Daenerys. Much as I despise hereditary monarchy, I don't think Westeros going straight to a republic is viable, a strong monarchy is arguably preferable to feudalism, and anyone but a Targaryen sets a precedent that the only legitimacy is "I have an army" (aka the Renly Principle). Jon is the better candidate in most respects- I believe he has the rightful claim even if you leave Westerosi misogyny aside, as he's the elder, and frankly he's a better person. However, Danny has more backing, and dragons, so she may be the only viable choice.

If I'm going to be Hand, I'd rather work with Jon, though. I feel like he'd be more likely to take my advance consistently, but also know when not to follow it better.

No option for co-rule by Jon and Danny, eh?

Sigh... Danny, but Jon if you take the dragons out of the equation.

Policies... that depends very much on time frame. Am I twenty years out from the White Walker invasion? Ten? Five? One? Post-invasion? In general, I will move toward a stronger centralized monarchy, a standing professional army, upgrades to infrastructure, programs to help the destitute find work or at least provide them with food, education, and health care to the extent feasible, and judicial reforms to expand the rights of women, children, and the poor/non-aristocrats. Mandating that all prisoners convicted of a capital crime must be given the option of the Wall over death will provide an alternative to the death penalty and give the Wall badly-needed man power. If post-Wall collapse, perhaps reinvent the Night's Watch to serve some other purpose.

My policy towards Tywin (depending on time frame) and the Iron Islands and its "not slavery but yeah actually its slavery" would be "Just give me an excuse."

Edit: As soon as I feel confident enough in the nobility being neutered, I advise the abolition of trial by combat. The Faith Militant got one thing right, at least.

[The Romulan Republic]

Oh, I also advise a more diverse Small Council. Reps from various parts of the realm, different faiths, etc. A woman or two on the council. A commoner or two who rose on merit, like Ser Davos. Its pretty clear that being part of the social elite isn't a requirement, since Varys (a foreign-born eunuch of no noble title) and Littlefinger (a minor noble) were both on the Council, and the standards for Joffrey's Cersei's council seemed to basically just be "is a lacky of the Lannisters".

[Tribble]

I’d say Joffrey, if only because that would give me the opportunity to off that whiny lil sadistic bitch a few seasons early. With any luck I may be able to take out Cersei as well, this solving at least half the show’s problems.

Also My other choice would be to join the Night King as his chief white walker- after all, he’s competing for the throne too, in his own way

[Solauren]

I'm willing to serve "King Tommen Baratheon", right from his Coronation, if he instead arranges for me to marry Margery Tyrell.
(I'm assuming I take over right after Tywin is killed, and that I have Qyburns knowledge, as I'm effectively replacing him, but looking like me).

It will be on my advice, that he can't marry a woman that was previously married to both his uncle, then his brother.
I also advise that his mother marrying Sir Loras, given the rumors about him and his uncle, would not be appropriate.
I suggest a marriage to his Hand should placate the Tyrell's, and we can always arrange for Sir Loras to marry another Lannister.
(I'll suggest to Cersei it could always be someone that she dislikes)

If he listens to me (which I'm sure Cersei would encourage him to) and actually does that, great, I can work with him.

That probably saves Margery from death, if not all the Tyrell's.

This probably also saves Tommen's life, as he won't commit suicide over Margery's death.

I still expect Cersei to find a way to annhilate her enemies, however. As such, I will help her as happily as Qyburn does in TV-Canon. (Most of Westros problems can be linked to the noble fighting, so Cersei may have done the Seven Kingdoms a big favor wiping most of them out).

I will not attempt to make a Flesh Golem, however. I won't even hint it's possible.

I have to get to know Cersei before I decide how to kill her. Quite frankly, without the Golem, there are several times she'd be vulnerable enough to just stab her. I'd also work on creating a firearm to try to use to assassinate her.

After that, when Daenerys Targaryen arrives, and when the Undead threat is revealed, I actually advise Tommen to send forces to the North.
(And since I High Garden hasn't been sacked, no Golden Company will be hired). This will leave King's Landing way open for the Targaryen forces (Daenerys + Jon) to invade and capture it.

At the same time, we'll retire to High Garden for a short time. Then not go back, and watch King's landing fall to the Targaryen forces.

When Daenyerys and Jon comes to have a word with us, I admit I was playing Tommen like a fiddle, killed Cersei, and made sure that King's Landing was open to them. I tell them it was the only way I could think of to protect my beloved Margery from Cersei and 'the family of inbreed Lannisters'.

- - -
Assuming I can't find a way to kill Cersei, when forces are assembling to go fight the Undead, Margery and I will 'ride to High Garden to communicate this to her father', including yes we saw a moving dead man. That's should get us the hell out of the Capital. If Cersei points out she has no intention of sending forces North, a Raven sent from High Garden, with the seal of the Hand of the king, would further add to the deception, by making them think forces are coming.
That Raven of course would be 'Cersei isn't coming, we're going into hiding, long live Daenerys Targeryon'

= = = =
If Tommen doesn't take my advice, I'm sailing to Slaver's Bay to join up with Daenerys. I'd be a much better Hand of the King then Tyrion was once they left Slaver's Bay. I might be able to wrangle a marriage to Sansa out of Jon and Daenerys for good service. (Like I have a chance to marry Daenerys once she meets Jon)


Before anyone says 'But, you said you'd serve Tommen!'

I did. Just as loyally as anyone else serves in Game of Thrones does.

[The Romulan Republic]

There's a certainly an advantage to being Hand for Tommen- he's a weak, inexperienced, and unimposing, unaggressive king who can be easily steered by a strong-willed and persuasive Hand.

[Solauren]

There's a certainly an advantage to being Hand for Tommen- he's a weak, inexperienced, and unimposing, unaggressive king who can be easily steered by a strong-willed and persuasive Hand.

Exactly what Tywin, then Cersei and Margery were doing.

I'm just being honest with myself about it, and ready to cut and run

[Ender]

King Robert.

The hard part of all of this is always the game of thrones itself. It is easy to list out social improvements, but the point is that you need to have a base of power and maintain that base against all comers. That means picking your allies, out maneuvering your enemies, etc. It is easy to say "be the good and just king" but if you do that you will rapidly find your lords in rebellion against you.

That leads us to the case for Robert where

1) gives you the most time to prepare
2) gives you the most resources to use
3) you have foreknowledge of what policies your competition will pursue and respond (eg Tywin buying up crown sovereign debt, just have Baelish knifed in an alleyway, Ironborn rebellion timeline, etc)
4) easily manipulated king
5) you start with high popularity but a depressed economy
6) We know what events Martin looked at for his worldbuilding and what he changed and how they interact, so you can game it out.

3 and 6 being the most critical, with 1,2, and 4 following, and 5 giving you an opportunity to blunt contests for power because your lords will be slower on the jump in getting things going.

So you have no public funds, a pressing need to rebuild, and shit credit. Your potential lenders are all utter enemies either independently (Tywin), fraudulently (Baelish and his minor nobles + bank of bravos) or in aggregate (Varys and the Magisters). Instead of going to each of those in turn and ending up real damn broke, just copy William III and incorporate the Bank of Venice England Westros and issue banknotes from the limited bullion you have left, bringing them in as investors but maintaining monetary and fiscal control - you are moving from commodity money to representative money which gives you a great deal more flexibility. And hey, as Robert has the biggest standing army, a forced loan is possible if it comes to it, though that is much less than ideal. Use this to build up a navy in preparation for the ironborn rebellion and a merchant fleet, that will mean ironworks and forest clearing/land conversion (just as it did for William) which boost agricultural space. Adopt the finish northern policy of land redistribution after the black plague winter die offs and enclosure to pivot to more egalitarianism in the long run and give your self a more stable popular legitimacy in the immediate. As you do that, hit them with crop rotation and the cast iron plow (from your ironworks) to goose food production. So now you are doing large developments in the cities of key lords, Tywin still wants stability to preserve his family, and you are getting the small folk on your side.

To get this wood, iron, and food you are producing around you will need transport infrastructure, start with roads but also institute the standard 40 ft container (or similar) and capture the economic advantages. As you have folks traveling on king roads instead of on protected roads by local feifs they aren't paying feudal tolls, internal tariffs or the like which gives you a large coherent market. The gains they are seeing elsewhere from your developments should be enough to mollify the lords, but on general principles make an example of the Freys, and keep the Faceless Men on retainer. Primary focus of the roads you want them running East-West across the north from White Harbor, across the Vale, and across the reach, then greatly expanding the King's Road and building some in parallel. You want both standard roads, and pulled rails for the movement of those shipping containers. Idea is you wand to make it exceptionally easy to move goods from Essos across Westros and then put them out to sea again, allowing you to get good international trade as merchants seek to cut months off sailing around Dorn from the narrow sea while slowing trade in Lannisport and Dreadfort (giving the former a slow decline and blocking the latter from rising), and making it very easy to ship or march large amounts of material to the Wall.

Teach the maesters calculus and have them start going. This will allow you to start designing bigger ships and address boiler explosions. The latter is important because while we are shooting for a high pressure rack and pinion engine - the equivalent of the Salamanca will do for our purposes, and we don't need many of them. Start using those pull rail lines for driven rail. This will cut road travel time down making it even easier and more desirable to move goods across the continent to your ports, and move armies to the Wall.

General idea is try to leapfrog 200 years from the war of the roses to the aftermath of the english civil war in a mere 20 years while maintaining control through a trade strangle/bribery and good old fashion assassination while you build out mass support and legitimacy from the laboring class. That way in 20 years you have massive amounts of food and the ability to mass produce weapons, raise troops, and move them north to the wall.

Big question is how the Iron Bank reacts to a competitor bank opening, but a state backed bank isn't really in the same market as a merchant bank and doesn't compete the same way, but they may disagree and have a stable of assassins they can hire so...

[The Romulan Republic]

So, I picked Danny. Question is, when do I become her Hand? I'm going to assume at the start of her reign, which I count from after her brother died and she got the dragons. So end of season one. Going with the show because I know it better than the books.

So I start in Essos. I advise her to pursue the same basic strategy as in canon- get the Unsullied, take the slave cities. I advise her to either execute or exile all the masters, garrison the captured cities well, and restructure their society from the ground up.

I try to shield her from some of the harsher experiences she suffered. Maybe she'll turn out less ruthless and hardened and stubborn that way. Hopefully the Butterfly effect will keep Barristan alive. I advise her to take Tyrion's council on those areas where he actually knows his shit, but not trust Varys, if they show up. Jorah can stay. Previous spying or not, he's loyal now, and far too competent to dispense with without good cause.

The biggest thing I do is try to get Danny to be less dependent on the dragons, pointing out their weaknesses and encouraging her to focus on building her conventional forces, and to try to encourage laws to expand the rights of women and children in her territory.

I also try to encourage literacy and introduce the printing press. And steer her away from the Red god.

[K. A. Pital]

Kill the masters,
Free the slaves

I kind of like Daenerys the liberator so I start working with her on modern shipbuilding to rule the seas. all while seeding the ideas of abolition not only of slavery but also of serfdom.

Eat that Targarien Restoration, samurai.

[Vendetta]

King Robert.

The hard part of all of this is always the game of thrones itself. It is easy to list out social improvements, but the point is that you need to have a base of power and maintain that base against all comers. That means picking your allies, out maneuvering your enemies, etc. It is easy to say "be the good and just king" but if you do that you will rapidly find your lords in rebellion against you.

The other obstacle is that the king still has all the real executive power so you have to work within the personality of that individual and other constraints of their situation.

So an advisor to Robert has to deal with the fact that he's still going to drive the kingdom to bankruptcy with his legendary feasting and whoring, and the fact that his heirs are still incest children, his Queen will absolutely have you assassinated if you try and get rid of them (A Lannister always pays their debts, that means revenge as well), and the next king is going to be a psychopath who is likely to overturn anything you do out of ignorance and spite.

It might well be best to wait until the end when you've got more of a blank slate to work with. Daenerys has a tendency to swoop off to the next great moral crusade rather than making sure solutions stick, but a more detail oriented Hand could work within that framework and actually achieve something.

[Ender]

King Robert.

The hard part of all of this is always the game of thrones itself. It is easy to list out social improvements, but the point is that you need to have a base of power and maintain that base against all comers. That means picking your allies, out maneuvering your enemies, etc. It is easy to say "be the good and just king" but if you do that you will rapidly find your lords in rebellion against you.

The other obstacle is that the king still has all the real executive power so you have to work within the personality of that individual and other constraints of their situation.

So an advisor to Robert has to deal with the fact that he's still going to drive the kingdom to bankruptcy with his legendary feasting and whoring, and the fact that his heirs are still incest children, his Queen will absolutely have you assassinated if you try and get rid of them (A Lannister always pays their debts, that means revenge as well), and the next king is going to be a psychopath who is likely to overturn anything you do out of ignorance and spite.

The feasting and whoring strikes me as an asset, he can just be kept amused easily. Easier to pay off someone who desires a roll in the hay than someone who wants to conquer a new port city.

The Lannisters are fairly easy to handle really, Robert kept Jaime in part of the Kingsguard when Tywin wanted him to come back and take over Lannisport. Give Tywin what he wants. Tywin is happy, and you've done away with the Joeffery problem. You lose Jaime as a quasi hostge for Tywin's loyalty, but we know he is fully committed to the throne so long as Cersai is queen when Aryn and Robert had no certainty.

As for Robert's actions leading the bankruptcy, wasn't that largely because Baelish was embezzling and leveraging things and cooking the books to go into debt to the iron bank and buy things and bribe to build his own power? Feasts and whores are expensive, but not that expensive.

[The Romulan Republic]

Joffrey is what Faceless Men are for.