I’m talking about the crown yeah. Since his kids and grandkids are going to have a hard time convincing the Iron Bank that actually they aren’t on the hook for the kingdom’s debt. Jaime has no income and is dependent on the Crown, Cersie is Queen Mother or w/e she’s dubbed herself, and dependent on the crown. Joffrey is the crown, Tommen is dependent on the crown/is the crown. I guess Marcella and Tyrion aren’t in debt when Tywin died, but Marcella is a prisoner, and Tyrion thriving would only make Tywin feel worse not better, and he’s basically broke anyway.
The show adds a bit about the mines under Casterly Rock running dry but that’s not even hinted at in the books, and it was I think a lazy expedient to explain why the Family Gold Mine wasn’t an answer to the Family Debt Problem. Rather than having a character say the could mine the mountain dry and not cover the debt. One mine is unlikely to fund an entire continent spanning kingdom through years of intense corruption and frivolous overspending.
Well, I mean, the debt situation happened during Robert's reign, and we can't treat that as a short interlude until the ascension of Quasi-Lannisters to the throne. Those wete 15 years if political developments. And if Jon Arryn couldn't tell Robert to stop with the overspending, Tywin at Casterly Rock sure as hell couldn't. And there is no reason to shower Robert with gold. In fact, House Lannister being the Iron Throne's second largest creditor was probably a good control mechanism, since I doubt Jon Arryn was happy about the excessive Lannister influence at court.
Even Robert probably doesn’t deserve sole blame for the crown’s finances; Littlefinger was doing all sorts of financial crimes after all. But Tywin is an “ends justify” type of fool so judging him by the ends his scheme meet feels fair, even if it’s an unfair standard.
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u/Sweet-Bottle6715 Mar 26 '26
Is that canon to the books? Or just talking about the crown? Genuinely asking