The Best Small Council in Game of Thrones History

Who would be the best Small Council in all of A Song of Ice and Fire? Today we find out!

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Thank you all for watching! Character art in this video is by TheMico!

00:00 Ruling the Realm
00:57 Selecting a Council
02:00 Additional Rules Note
02:21 Master of Laws
03:39 Rebranding?
04:09 Lord Commander of the Kingsguard
05:29 Master of Ships
06:36 Grand Maester
08:12 Master of Whispers
09:40 Master of Coin
10:58 Hand of the King
11:53 The Smallest Possible Council
12:27 The Golden Council

[laurelsilberman]

The maesters examined Aerea’s infected body and diagnosed her with “holy shit that’s nasty”

[curtishay]

I’d have Davos as hand of the king. Always a voice of reason and he puts people in their place and brings them down a step in a geordie accent.

[TheGreendragon]

I love me some Tyland Lannister, but I'd go with Rego Draz as Master of Coin. Dude was Littlefinger without the debt.

[RGM-X]

I always thought the Master of Laws as a combination of the offices of Attorney-General and Chief Justice. Like, the officeholder is supposed to oversee most of the realm's criminal and security matters; manage the King's laws to ensure a proper, non-conflicting, and codified set of laws govern the realm (cause even the King needs to make sure he doesn't contradict himself); and act as the King's main legal advisor, interpretor, and adjudicator of the codified laws (of course the King is the ultimate adjudicator of justice and he has final say).

[jeanpaulsinatra]

Love the phrase 'accidentally does a coup'

[OcarinaSapphr-]

I think Bloodraven's devotion to his royal half-brother, Daeron, & then to Daeron's sons makes it pretty clear that his loyalty was to the stability of the realm - he made hard decisions at a hard time (he's essentially the sole reason the '2nd Blackfyre Rebellion' is more an honorific for the abortive fizzle-out that it was, rather than becoming another actual conflict, like the first or later ones); Daeron trusted him, Aerys I trusted him even more- & Maekar might not have liked Bloodraven (& was jealous of him being Hand) but he did trust him to hold his positions of Hand & Master of Whisperers once Maekar became King- & when Maekar died, Bloodraven was Lord Protector of the Realm - at that point, he could have arguably *forced* his control of the realm & become King or de facto king- but he didn't, & (in my head-canon) ensured the right person became King, as soon as he could, without giving way to the biased politics of other factions.
It's my head-canon that he also arranged his exit-strategy, as a means of giving Aegon a fresh start (with a healthy dose of fear, to keep his subjects in line for a while)- & to get him where he needed to go, without drawing any attention to it...

[richardtabor]

This was fun to think about. Ty for the content.

[Eanki_]

I'm convinced about your Master of Ships and Master of Coins and they are my new picks for my own small council fantasy lineup. Davos > Ned > Tyrion is still my ranking for my own Hand of the King though.

[chadsummerchild]

Jingle Bells as Master of Ships is a no brainer*, being the drowned god an all.

[Arkantos]

Eddard gets a bad rep because he trusted Littlefinger but I agree with pretty much every other decision he made as Hand, it just sucks that he was dumped into a very hostile situation. If you want a Hand that will actually make you a better king then it's Ned or Davos for me.

[ccorvid]

@quinn okay now do the best blunt rotation

[status_quo_post]

The best Master of Laws would obviously be Lord Quinn himself.
Sidenote: In the show there is also the position of Master of War which is interesting.

[eetretsim]

Hand of The King: Ser Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers

Grand Maester: Hareth

Master of Laws: Ser Kevan Lannister

Master of Coin: Rego Draz

Master of Ships: Alyn “The Oakenfist” Velaryon

Master of Whisperers: Qyburn

Lord Commander of The Kingsguard: Ser Criston “The Kingmaker” Cole

Advisor: Nymeria Sand

Advisor: Ser Torrhen Manderly

Advisor: Mathis Rowan

[FishBoneD]

I know he'd be hard to control but I would be curious about a Dagon Greyjoy master of ships. I feel like a lot of masters of ship are very defense minded so I would curious what an almost purely offence minded master of ships with the skills and charisma to make it work would do.

[sharmelfattakhov]

What I love about Game if Thrones is that basically all of the first small council member shown are actually really, really competent men who know what they're doing, including Pycelle despite what he's trying to show and maybe excluding Renly. Had they shared their interests the kingdom would be in its golden age, but as it stands Robert's council was just a snake den with each snake having it's own ambition.

[jgb]

There isn’t a perfect analogy to medieval England, but I’ve always guessed the Master of Laws was in charge of the system of courts at the king’s level and at the local levels. The other options lead back to the power of the Small Council or Hand of the King (chief justiciars / chancellors / curia regia / et cetera). Just a guess, though.

[coIdcrow]

I think two notable Hands are Baelor Breakspear and the Ned. Ned is the guy you can completely trust to do his duties, put him in an ideal small council and it's great. Baelor showed how good of a man he was in Dunk and Egg.

[cephalonbob]

Unironically a good pick for Master of Whisperers is that Witch from Maegor's reign as she seems to have the same power kit as Bloodraven yet doesnt pull as much aggro as also knows magic, allowing her to res Maegor from death possibly? Sure she has a thing for killing queens but only because she wanted to be queen and not share the position with a bunch of others.

[robertmolnar]

Idea for video who would be on Jon Sniws Dmall Council?

[Dimitris.Papastamatis]

the best possible council for me would be king : Ned / hand : Tyrion / laws : Stannis/ whispers : Varis / ships :Davos / maester : Aemon / commander :Barristan/ coin: Tywin