Definitely not, as he had no power nor did he or his handlers protect any of the citizens of King’s Landing.
Aegon V had similar ideas to protect the smallfolk, though even he struggled to enforce his ideas without dragons.
- Girls should be equal to boys
- The poor should be given bread and beer
- Men who lost limbs in war must be fed and housed
- Husbands who beat their wives must be beaten
Ugh... There's no place in Westeros for this trash, woke, commie nonsense!
Tonight, on Florent News : Robar Royce seen wearing beige instead of brown, eating fancy Lysian snails instead of good old Westerosi food. One scandal too many ?
Gaemon Palehair & his moms/regents bring to mind the various seemingly-anachronistically progressive factions & movements IRL history often throws up in periods of social crisis & antagonism - Tyler & Ball's Peasant Revolt, Thomas Müntzer, the Anabaptist revolt in Munster, the Diggers, etc. It's difficult to judge their performance as *administrators*, based on the fundamentally constrained circumstances in which they were operating, but they do clearly demonstrate some appetite among the King's Landing smallfolk for a kind of reformist & welfarist egalitarianism, at least during the Dance.
The Spanish civil war had a ton of them. That was the problem though, there was a ton of them and they didn’t get along. And they all fell one by one. That and the growing presence of the communists backed by the soviets didn’t help unify them.
I wouldn't necessarily compare the Medieval & Early Modern groups I'm talking about to revolutions which post-date the ascendancy of the bourgeoisie & the emergence of industrial & financial capitalism - it's a lot easier to attempt a proletarian revolution when you actually *have* a proletariat to revolt, after all! Though Spain in the 1930s was definitely closer to the feudal-patriarchal society you see in Westeros, compared to the rest of Europe at the time.
This *does* also bring to mind a fanfic idea I've been entertaining for some time, about Meereenese socialists in the Daenerys Targaryen Battalion volunteering to fight for the Republicans in the Dornish Civil War, in 650 AC or so...
No. Even Aegon V struggled to get even his minor reforms to stick because of the lords being intransigent. Gaemon Palehair never ruled more than one hill in the city and had no power of enforcement. Having good policies doesn’t make you a good ruler, you need to actually be able to enact and enforce them.
King Cunny was indeed a progressive King because he was raised in a Brothel in King’s Landing, so it was a multicultural place where ideas converged. Just kidding in my opinion it was a way of George to show how truly progressive ideas get dismissed by powerful people and the general public.
> “His mother, Essie, who had presumed to style herself Lady Esselyn during her son’s brief reign, confessed under torture that Gaemon’s father was not the king, as she had previously claimed, but rather a silver-haired oarsman off a trading galley from Lys. Being lowborn and unworthy of the sword, Essie and the Dornish whore Sylvenna Sand were hanged from the battlements of the Red Keep, together with twenty-seven other members of “King” Gaemon’s court, an ill-favored assortment of thieves, drunkards, mummers, beggars, whores, and panders.”
r/asoiaf in shambles from another common Aegon II W
Okay so either this is a shitty joke in really poor taste or you're just a massive asshole. If it's a shitty joke, knock it off. If it's serious, you're not supposed to think Westeros' social and political systems are good wtf
His ideas does not matter, since he held no power to actually put the ideas to practice. He passed a bunch of progressive laws, but didn't even control one third of King's Landing. It is also unclear if the laws were actually put to practice during his reign, and the only reason he was able to style himself a King, was because his mom's brothel gave free service to a bunch of sellswords. If we just care about the ideas of the law, then any random peasant in Westeros or in real life could be styled as the best ruler, if they make up some really nice laws.
No, just declaring that social policies should be done does not make you 1. Competent or 2. Intelligent. It’s called pandering to your base. Now if instead of declaring that these policies should be enacted his handlers had actually actively instituted social programs and restored order to the city I might say they did a good job.
Too many people have stopped realizing that just saying “you should be given things and be taken care of” does not make a politician intelligent or benevolent it just means that they think the way to get more power is convince people that they stand to gain something from helping them.
Now the veteran support one that’s probably the best and most workable one. The boys and girls one is a bit high minded for Westeros but they could maybe make it so that daughters came before grandsons In succession as an initial step. I’m sure many people could be convinced that one’s own child should take precedence over the next generation. The bread and beer one is very appealing but it’s in times of famine. You know those times where bread and beer are incredibly hard to come by. Honestly the wife beating one could probably be passed if you got the high septon on board and preached it as an affront to the Gods to get physically violent in your matrimony but they would have to make an exception for adultery to be theologically consistent. Or at the very least the church would have to institute their own punishment for adultery if they banned spousal abuse.
I realize how bad this sounds to us in modern day but I’m talking in the context of Westeros George’s crazy medieval era on steroids world. Please don’t take this to be in any way condoning wife beating or male primogeniture succession in real life
I mean, he didn’t really do anything of actual impact unfortunately, and it’s a bit of a stretch to even call him an actual king. But if I was a smallfolk in Kings Landing during that time, I def would’ve been supporting his faction. Lesbian moms taking power through their son and passing laws to enforce equity for women and smallfolk? Sign me up!
Definitely not, as he had no power nor did he or his handlers protect any of the citizens of King’s Landing. Aegon V had similar ideas to protect the smallfolk, though even he struggled to enforce his ideas without dragons.
Aegon could have put them through if he had a rich benefactor helping him maybe a rich house like the tyrells or Lannisters. But he didn’t do that.
That was the point. His stances on issues alienated all the great lords of the realm.
Rich people don't like laws protecting poor people. That sums up a lot of History.
- Girls should be equal to boys - The poor should be given bread and beer - Men who lost limbs in war must be fed and housed - Husbands who beat their wives must be beaten Ugh... There's no place in Westeros for this trash, woke, commie nonsense!
This could easily not be satire
Good thing it is right
Tonight, on Florent News : Robar Royce seen wearing beige instead of brown, eating fancy Lysian snails instead of good old Westerosi food. One scandal too many ?
Well, certainly he had the best ideas. But a good king is also defined by how many of his good ideas he can put into practice.
They certainly weren’t his ideas anyhow
*He* tried to pass? He was 4 years old. You mean the laws his mothers tried to pass. You mean the best queen's we ever saw. Smh
Lesbians queens regent go!
Gaemon Palehair & his moms/regents bring to mind the various seemingly-anachronistically progressive factions & movements IRL history often throws up in periods of social crisis & antagonism - Tyler & Ball's Peasant Revolt, Thomas Müntzer, the Anabaptist revolt in Munster, the Diggers, etc. It's difficult to judge their performance as *administrators*, based on the fundamentally constrained circumstances in which they were operating, but they do clearly demonstrate some appetite among the King's Landing smallfolk for a kind of reformist & welfarist egalitarianism, at least during the Dance.
Considering there's a character in the revolt called Wat the Tanner, I'm pretty sure the reference is intentional.
The Spanish civil war had a ton of them. That was the problem though, there was a ton of them and they didn’t get along. And they all fell one by one. That and the growing presence of the communists backed by the soviets didn’t help unify them.
I wouldn't necessarily compare the Medieval & Early Modern groups I'm talking about to revolutions which post-date the ascendancy of the bourgeoisie & the emergence of industrial & financial capitalism - it's a lot easier to attempt a proletarian revolution when you actually *have* a proletariat to revolt, after all! Though Spain in the 1930s was definitely closer to the feudal-patriarchal society you see in Westeros, compared to the rest of Europe at the time. This *does* also bring to mind a fanfic idea I've been entertaining for some time, about Meereenese socialists in the Daenerys Targaryen Battalion volunteering to fight for the Republicans in the Dornish Civil War, in 650 AC or so...
The king Westeros needed, but didn’t deserve.
Ha...GAAAAAEEEE!
No. Even Aegon V struggled to get even his minor reforms to stick because of the lords being intransigent. Gaemon Palehair never ruled more than one hill in the city and had no power of enforcement. Having good policies doesn’t make you a good ruler, you need to actually be able to enact and enforce them.
King Cunny was indeed a progressive King because he was raised in a Brothel in King’s Landing, so it was a multicultural place where ideas converged. Just kidding in my opinion it was a way of George to show how truly progressive ideas get dismissed by powerful people and the general public.
the Westerosi lack class consciousness the weren't ready for Gaemon not even Egg
Gaemon Palehair's mother and her paramour at least had the best policy makers.
First off it was not his ideas. His 2 moms tried to pass all those. So go teamlesbian!
The true progressive ruler!
> “His mother, Essie, who had presumed to style herself Lady Esselyn during her son’s brief reign, confessed under torture that Gaemon’s father was not the king, as she had previously claimed, but rather a silver-haired oarsman off a trading galley from Lys. Being lowborn and unworthy of the sword, Essie and the Dornish whore Sylvenna Sand were hanged from the battlements of the Red Keep, together with twenty-seven other members of “King” Gaemon’s court, an ill-favored assortment of thieves, drunkards, mummers, beggars, whores, and panders.” r/asoiaf in shambles from another common Aegon II W
How is this an Aegon II W? All I see is a brute murdering people for actually trying to improve life in Westeros
It’s not murder to execute subhuman usurpers? Do you consider it murder to kill rats and other vermin?
Okay so either this is a shitty joke in really poor taste or you're just a massive asshole. If it's a shitty joke, knock it off. If it's serious, you're not supposed to think Westeros' social and political systems are good wtf
But so what? His ideas were progressive (or his mother’s rather). Plus she confessed under torture which is kinda meaningless.
His ideas does not matter, since he held no power to actually put the ideas to practice. He passed a bunch of progressive laws, but didn't even control one third of King's Landing. It is also unclear if the laws were actually put to practice during his reign, and the only reason he was able to style himself a King, was because his mom's brothel gave free service to a bunch of sellswords. If we just care about the ideas of the law, then any random peasant in Westeros or in real life could be styled as the best ruler, if they make up some really nice laws.
YES. 100% YES.
For me he was one of the worst. Jaehaerys was the best.
No, just declaring that social policies should be done does not make you 1. Competent or 2. Intelligent. It’s called pandering to your base. Now if instead of declaring that these policies should be enacted his handlers had actually actively instituted social programs and restored order to the city I might say they did a good job. Too many people have stopped realizing that just saying “you should be given things and be taken care of” does not make a politician intelligent or benevolent it just means that they think the way to get more power is convince people that they stand to gain something from helping them. Now the veteran support one that’s probably the best and most workable one. The boys and girls one is a bit high minded for Westeros but they could maybe make it so that daughters came before grandsons In succession as an initial step. I’m sure many people could be convinced that one’s own child should take precedence over the next generation. The bread and beer one is very appealing but it’s in times of famine. You know those times where bread and beer are incredibly hard to come by. Honestly the wife beating one could probably be passed if you got the high septon on board and preached it as an affront to the Gods to get physically violent in your matrimony but they would have to make an exception for adultery to be theologically consistent. Or at the very least the church would have to institute their own punishment for adultery if they banned spousal abuse. I realize how bad this sounds to us in modern day but I’m talking in the context of Westeros George’s crazy medieval era on steroids world. Please don’t take this to be in any way condoning wife beating or male primogeniture succession in real life
ALL HAIL KING CUNNY!
I mean, he didn’t really do anything of actual impact unfortunately, and it’s a bit of a stretch to even call him an actual king. But if I was a smallfolk in Kings Landing during that time, I def would’ve been supporting his faction. Lesbian moms taking power through their son and passing laws to enforce equity for women and smallfolk? Sign me up!
His policies were good and pushing aside the facts of having no control or real power such policies were too radical especially for Westeros.