Game of Thrones: 10 Things That Make No Sense About The Arryns

While perhaps not as famous as some of the other Great Houses of Game of  Thrones (such as Lannister, Stark, and Tully), House Arryn is still a force to be reckoned with, as they showed at the famous Battle of the Bastards. After all, they have a fearsome army of their own, and their primary fortress, the Eyrie, is almost utterly inaccessible to an invading army.

However, for all that they are a powerful house with a powerful army, there’s quite a lot about the Arryns that doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny and, in fact, doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense at all.

10 How Did Robin Suddenly Become So Competent

One of the most extraordinary things revealed in the finale of the series was the fact that somehow, in the intervening years since his first appearance, Robin has gone from a disturbing youth to a young, attractive, and seemingly confident man. Somewhere along the line, he seems to have also learned how to be a decent ruler. A lot of this is left unexplained, however, and so viewers just have to sort of figure out what happened on their own.

9 Why Was Lysa So Absolutely Bizarre

From the first moment that she appears on the screen, Catelyn’s sister Lysa Arryn makes it clear that she is not at all like her sister. While Catelyn at least seems to have some political instincts (however flawed), Lysa seems more than a bit unhinged. After all, who can forget the fact that she was nursing her son at a point long past when that should have been the case and, of course, trying to throw Sansa out the Moon Door. However, the viewer isn’t really given explanation as to why she is so deranged, and even the pseudo-explanation that she loved Petyr Baelish doesn’t really explain all of it.

8 Why None Of The Bannermen Ever Stepped In With Lysa And Robin

The pathological relationship between Lysa and her son Robin is one of the first things that the viewer learns about the noble house of Arryn. It also soon becomes clear that Lysa intends to keep an iron grip on her son and his upbringing. While this is understandable to a degree, what is much less clear is why the other bannermen in service to Arryn, such as the Royces, would stand by while their domains were basically being run into the ground.

7 Why Was The Vaunted Bronze Yohn And House Royce So Useless

Speaking of bannermen. One of the most notable of House Arryn’s bannermen is Yohn Royse (known as Bronze Yohn). While the books show him as a very capable warrior and counselor, the series takes a very different approach.

In fact, the viewer is sometimes left wondering what, exactly, the Yohns and the other loyal retainers are actually doing, other than letting their ruler come under the domination of an interloper in the form of Petyr Baelish.

6 How Petyr Established His Authority Over The Arryn Bannermen So Quickly And Easily

There’s no question that Petyr Baelish is a cunning and ruthless operator, willing to sacrifice almost anyone on the altar of his own blighted ambition. There’s no mystery about how he manages to ingratiate himself with Lysa, considering her frequently professed love of him. What makes less sense, however, is how he manages to secure such a strong hold over the entirety of the Vale in the aftermath of her death nor, for that matter, how he managed to convince literally anyone that he wasn’t the one responsible for her death.

5 Why Jon Didn’t Just Hurry Up And Tell Robert The Truth About Cersei’s Betrayal

Poor Jon Arryn. Few would dispute that he was a fairly decent King’s Hand, running a kingdom for a king who clearly had no interest in doing it himself (it’s well-known that Robert would rather spend his time womanizing and drinking than attending to the affairs of the kingdom). And, of course, it was his investigations that revealed that Cersei’s children with Robert weren’t his after all. What is rather nonsensical, however, is why he would take so long to just tell Robert about it, rather than continuing his investigations far past the point where he needed to.

4 Why They Seem To Have So Little To Do With The History Of Westeros For A Great House

While it’s easy to see the ways in which the other Great Houses have managed to exert their influence on the history of Westeros-after all, almost every one of them tells a story about their ancestors in the course of the show-House Arryn is largely absent from the collective memory of Westeros. While some of this could be explained by the fact that they prefer to keep themselves holed up in the Vale, one would think that a house of their stature would at the very least have something important said about them before Jon came on the scene.

3 How Jon Didn’t Have More Of A Good Influence On Robert

Speaking of Jon Arryn. It’s well-known that before he was Hand he was responsible for fostering Robert (as well as Ned Stark). Given this, it’s rather strange that he didn’t manage to have a stronger influence on Robert, as he clearly did on Ned.

For that matter, it’s rather inexplicable that a man with as strong a sense of duty as Jon Arryn wasn’t able to convince Robert to become more engaged in the running of the kingdom that he’d done so much to gain.

2 Why They Didn’t Just Obliterate The Hill Tribes

The hill tribes are one of those groups that appeared early on in the series but seemed to gradually fade into obscurity. They are, of course, the men who inhabit the Mountains of the Moon. While House Arryn has clearly managed to beat them back, given how strong the forces of the Vale appear to be at the Battle of the Bastards, it’s sort of strange that they didn’t just bring that terrible force to bear on the enemy that was always lurking on their doorstep.

1 What Their Endgame Was During The War Of The Five Kings (And Subsequently)

Lysa was one of those people who really couldn’t see anything outside of her child, and so she decided to keep House Arryn largely detached from the larger conflict known as the War of the Five Kings. It’s a little unclear what, exactly, she was going for, or what she hoped to accomplish once the war was over. What’s more, it’s also unclear what exactly House Arryn hoped to accomplish once the realm returned to some measure of normality after its long spell of unrest.

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