Hoster is still politicking? Wild!
[X] Plan: Booze, glorious booze!
For now I like this version the most, as it relies on us continuing legitimacy from King Robert's reign.
Right, this is clearly some sort of supernatural phenomenon, no amount of stress causes nightmares this vivid and consistent.
Thus, my best bet is the Shade of the Evening. It might clarify the prophetic nature of these currently vague and tormenting visions, and give Cersei a better idea of what's happening (and a glimpse of the future, perhaps).
Sorceress Cersei go!
This is unfortunate, though, if expected. My next pick for Master of Laws would be Garlan Tyrell - he's certainly suited for the job, and it's another prize to offer the Tyrells, since we're no doubt competing with Renly here.
Renly may offer Mace himself the Handship.
This is encouraging! Especially the part about her heading to KL directly, since it means they're clearly taking this at least a little seriously and not just stalling for time. The Tyrells are powerful and ambitious bed-partners, as the Lannisters discovered in canon - but having the Reach aligned with King Joffrey's dynasty is just too good a prize to turn up, especially since the 'Tully Gambit' hasn't turned out like hoped.
Yeah, but remember that they are very much ready to assassinate our boys together with Baelish. It's not as dangerous as having them marry Myrcella, but even with Tommen alone the Tyrells eventually took too prominent of the position at court in canon to Cersei's detriment.
Baelish no doubt has devious plans for further financial fuckery, though.
In canon there's an implication he's using funneled money for a debt scheme, buying out the various lords' prominent debts to the IB to get them as his yesmen, with the same Braavosi set of ships appearing in various towns as in the town of a Vale lord that had his money problems resolved by Baelish.
We need Baelish, he's the only person Lysa would possibly listen to. If we can convince him it's in his best interests, he'll not only get Tyrion freed, but potentially bring the Vale into the war on our side.
Well, Lysa is fully under his control, and in canon it was Baelish who manipulated the events to start the war early (Varys and Illyrio wished to prepare the Targaryen cause further), and, more importantly to him, to kill Ned Stark, freeing up Cat, and (almost) killing Tyrion, freeing up Sansa. With us sending Sansa back home, Baelish will be more than ever interested in getting us in conflict with the Tully-Starks, if only for a chance to get the redheads as his spoils. And even KNOWLEDGE of Baelish's obsession with Cat/Sansa is OOC info that Cersei can't act upon. HARRENHALL is his other obsession, and the one he's more ready to talk about when being asked what he wants, but getting it to him once again incentivizes him to make us hate the Tully-Starks, so there is a redrawn map of the Riverlands, and the possibility of him getting Harrenhall (IIRC he did not give it to Janos Slynt in this scenario, unlike canon).
The one hope is that Baelish treats the request for "peace with the Tullies at any cost" seriously, and plans his diplomatic trip, and everything around it, to his favor, so that it will be Hoster/Edmure giving him Harrenhall, instead of us, seeing him as "their" man in the court. Maybe if he marries Lysa early that'd be possible, but then there is Ned, who'll certainly inform everyone at Riverrun about how nasty Petyr is, so...
What I'm saying is, there is a rather slim possibility that Baelish's goals can be achieved without the Tully domain being redrawn, and the Stark family falling apart.
We should probably send a letter to the Twins 'encouraging' them to keep their gates shut. The usual bribes - court positions, betrothals, maybe even supporting them as LP of the Riverlands if we completely give up on winning over the Tullys. Just keep Robb sitting high and dry on the wrong side of the Trident.
Let's not be cross now while the Tullies are still relatively amicably talking. Walder Frey loves marriages, we can offer those to him.
That's the crux of the matter. I was honestly considering offering Cersei as a match for Edmure - he's been refusing matches arranged by Hoster, and our dear protagonist's beauty is legendary. But if we're talking with Hoster, I doubt he'd bite. So what else can we offer to sweeten the pot?
Well, we can offer positions, marriages, or lands. Lands would be coming from the redrawing of the map after defeating some houses currently in rebellion. Right now, those are houses under Renly and Stannis...
...This may sound crazy, but maybe even Cracklaw Point. The land is full of Targaryen-loyalist Riverlanders anyway, and for the Riverlands it will mean less crown control over their shipments in the Inner Sea.
Who the hell even knows what's going on here. Maybe Jaime's going after Clegane? Or maybe he's in a cell right now as a hostage. I guess we can only find out.
Most likely he's going after Tyrion. Especially if the Tyrion/Catelyn discussions happened same as in canon, and she's not so angry at the idea of potentially freeing him.
I do think trying to undermine Tywin is a complete non-starter. It just wouldn't work, it'd completely poison our relationship with real political implications, it's just a bad idea.
Well, what is HE going to do? Support Stannis and Renly and hope he's allowed to have an early retirement in peace?
Tywin is a bully, whose MO is built upon myths he spreads around his figure. There is NOTHING he can threaten us with without risking his own dream.
