Game of Thrones theorycrafting: Who becomes king if Tommen dies? 

didn’t spend much airtime on the death of Princess Myrcella Baratheon, a relatively minor character. But after doing a little digging, Chris Taylor over on 

we may have overlooked the most significant thing about her death: that King Tommen Baratheon now has a new successor to the Iron Throne. (Technically, as bastards, neither Tommen nor Myrcella have legitimate claims to the throne, but if most of the people in Westeros can keep up the charade that they’re the legitimate children of King Robert Baratheon, so can we.)

Tommen is a sweet, naïve king, which probably means his chances for long-term survival are slim. Assuming he dies without an heir of his own, and with the current generation of Baratheons all but destroyed, the author puts forth some interesting and surprising speculation about who the next rightful claimant to the throne would be.

The most obvious candidate may be King Robert’s bastard son, Gendry. Even though we haven’t seen him since Season 3, he’s seemingly the only one left on the show with legitimate Baratheon blood, seeing as Stannis, Renly, and Shireen are all dead. But to have any shot at sitting the Iron Throne, he’d have to be legitimized by Tommen, which isn’t going to happen.

To find the next family related to King Robert, you have to go back a hundred and fifty years prior to his birth. According to a detailed Baratheon family tree*, nobleman Corwen Baratheon married a woman named Leyne and had six children. One was Robert Baratheon’s great-great-great grandfather, Arion. Corwen’s only other child whose lineage survived was his daughter Elyanna. She married Lord Mathin Lannister. By now, you can probably see where this is going: Mathin’s family line leads straight to our favorite deceased Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister.

This means that, if he had outlived Stannis and Shireen, Tywin would have technically been the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms by rights, instead of just by practice. Wild.

With Tywin dead, the Iron Throne would pass to his eldest son, Jaime. However, Jaime has made vows to the Kingsguard, and made it clear he has no interest in ruling, so he’s out. Next up is Tywin’s second son, Tyrion. Tyrion may not make such a bad king, but he was sentenced to death for regicide. Plus, he’s throwing his support behind Daenerys Targaryen, who wants to take the Iron Throne by force. He’s not going to sit the throne any time soon.

That means there’s one person left for the Iron Throne to pass to, and she’s wanted it for a while now: none other than the former Queen herself, Cersei Lannister.

You’re welcome, Westeros! The chances that the Lannisters will retain control of King’s Landing seem very slim, but this shows that her dream of having absolute power is possible. The only issue, apart from the fact that no one in Westeros may have made this connection, is that Cersei’s last son would have to die for the power to pass to her, and she doesn’t want that to happen. Still, with that prophecy kicking around, who knows what’ll happen?

It seems that the legitimacy of that particular family tree is in serious doubt, so do take everything with a bucketful of salt. Still, it’s nice to dream…

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There are no such Lannisters or Baratheons officially. Those people are fan creation from a Role Playing game. The following blog entry explains it all very well.

Officially you need to get a life,and stop being a kill joy.Go out,have fun.

Those in forum houses shouldn’t throw Hodors.

But what about Margery? Wouldn’t she be the next in line after Tommen? She is his wife, after all.

That was my thought. If they’re going to leave it open to queens Margaery has more of a claim than Cersei who’s now just the former queen and queen mother.

Nope, wives don’t suddenly get their husband’s genes.

This post seems to miss the whole point of the series. The person who becomes king in Westeros is the person who has the power to make everybody else accept him/her as king. Robert didn’t become king because he went to ancestry.com and discovered he had a more legitimate claim than Aerys, and neither would Tommen’s successor.

Exactly! Cersei is running out of relatives/friends so I can’t imagine everyone just sitting back and letting her be queen. Especially the Tyrells.

Train him in swordsmanship and he’d be unstoppable. He has giants blood

Mathin Lannister and Elyanna are fan creations for an unofficial RPG. They are not official GRRM canon. If it is not ASOIAF, Dunk and Egg, or the World Book, it is not canon.

Canons….GRRM,would split his pants laughing at your comparison to a religious experience. Your a mess

Besides the fact that she is currently in jail, Margaery is still the queen. If Tommen dies, won’t she be the one sitting down on the Iron Throne? I suspect Cersei won’t like it and will try everything to prevent it, but the Tyrells are cunning so this could become a very interesting storyline

Yes, and the Tyrells are certainly outnumbering the Lannisters now.

How dare you! Everyone knows it would be a Bracken.

I think it would actually go to Kevan Lannister’s line. not Cercei. It’s a male dominated culture where a woman technically does not attain any birthright (except for Dorne>a la Dorne master plan ;) )

So it’s obviously not going to be him sitting on the throne any time soon.

It seems I can’t post anything here from my laptop. What happened? Im trying with another …

I’ve had lots of posting problems myself. Problems posting from my laptop, from the iPad. Messages also being labeled as spam.

why are all my posts being deleted? it keeps saying because of spam?

I’m pretty sure Margaery would become queen since she’s actually married to the king.

Jon “Stark” is going to be revealed as R+L’s son and King by rights. You heard it here first.

There’s still Robb’s final act as king legitimizing Jon. If that turns up, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t, that might also open the door for legitimizing his birth. I’m a bit foggy on the law, though.

it’s gonna be Ramsay (Snow) Bolton. and everyone is gonna pisssssed….

Baratheon doesn’t matter anymore. If the king dies, his next male relative becomes king. That is Jaime. A vow as kingsguard wont bind him if HE is king.

So yeah, long live king Jaime! He’ll hate every minute of it.

Of course, there may be no king or queen – the High Sparrow could swoop in for the win. Not my choice, personally. Not that King’s Landing may matter much once the winter sets in.

I always thought’ it would be an Estermont. Robert, Stannis, and Renlys mother was an Eastermont so an uncle or nephew to Robert by his mother’s line. I have no clue. It will probably be Littlefinger anyway until he’s ousted.

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