Game Of Thrones: 10 Stupidly Easy Decisions That Would've Solved Everything

2. Stannis And Renly Join Forces

In most of the cases of preventable catastrophes in Game of Thrones, the bad came from an error of some sort rather than outright bullheadedness. It's easy for us to point out how ridiculous it is to be honorable in Westeros or to not behead important political figures on a whim, but the characters are generally not so self-aware as to see just how awful some of their ideas really are. And then there are Stannis and Renly Baratheon. Stannis, as the middle Baratheon brother, is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne after Robert's decease. He is also rigid, unpleasant, and humorless. Nevertheless, his legitimate place in the line of succession as well as his experience as a commander at least made him a preferable prospective king than Joffrey. Sadly for him, however, the liege lords to his seat at Dragonstone could afford him few men. Renly, on the other hand, didn't really have a good reason for pursuing the throne at all beyond his desire to be king and was more popular than Stannis. There was no substance to his campaign, but his status as lord of all the Stormlands and alliance with the Tyrells secured him an army that dwarfed all others in the Seven Kingdoms. Together, Stannis and Renly might have swept the Lannister armies, retaken the Iron Throne in the name of the Baratheons, and produced some properly blue-eyed black-haired children to fill the Red Keep. Instead, the brothers elect to do battle against one another before even facing the Lannisters, in a conflict that would leave Renly dead and Stannis is possession of a massive army with no trust in him, ultimately losing him the Battle of Blackwater and prolonging Joffrey's reign. Come on. They knew that it was a bad idea.