#baratheons

Tywin and Robert's supporters often, when analyze their favorite characters, avoid to discuss their deaths and how the narrative is actually trying to teach us a message : their deaths not only seems to satisfy Dante's law of retaliation, aka contrappasso, too meticulously to ignore the critic on their actions but seems even to leave no doubts on the fact that they are unredeemable characters.

[ Dante And Virgil In Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.]

Tywin is not just a mastermind that only act in a cruel and ruthless way to protect his family and you should not unironically think that his actions are goods. He is a greedy monster that condamned his direct bloodline to collapse after his death because he refused to let his position to the son that mostly resemble him and that most fit the his role, for him being a dwarf. He is incredibly myopic. There is a reason for which GRRM give to him a Dantesque punishment according to the law of contrappasso : he only cares about power and pride and legacy and for this he dies on a throne yes, but a throne of fecis killed by his own son. A man who forced his dwarf son to watch as his soldiers take turns raping the only woman that has ever really loved that son because she is poor and not noble is not a man who use violence only to protect his family, but a monster that only cares for his "noble" name.

[ Tywin, by Magali Villeneuve ]

NO, Robert was NOT a good king: GRRM himself define him as someone better fit for violence and brutality than being a wise and rightful king. He lost his life among the mud and the dirty soil, but not in a valiant and dignified way, as a great king against a terrible enemy, he was just too drunk to mind his own actions and too fat to react against the animal that killed him. He did not lost his life against a great warrior to protect what is pure and good, like a king, but against a suina, an animal symbol of the inability to holds back instincts, addicted to sexuality and violence, a stupid and dirty beast. He did not lost his life leaving a legacy: his reign collapsed in a war that killed one of the two legitimate brothers he had and on the throne there is a bastard and not his blood. His reign was paeceful yes, thanks to Jon Arryn.

[ Robert Baratheon by FanArtWorlds ]

For those that are unfamiliar with italian literature Dante is the "father of italian language" and his masterwork is La Divina Commedia, in english the Divine comedy. In this work, divided in three books, Dante make a journey through the three kingdoms of after life : from hell, where the souls are condamned to the eternal damnation, to heaven, where the angelic creatures sing the praises of the Lord and the souls can finally lie in the eternal heavenly bliss, after crossing the purgatory, where the souls spent their times learning from their errors before reach heaven. Divina Commedia's first and most acclaimed book is Hell, where Dante create and explore the Contrappasso, the law that regulate Hell's punishments : contrappasso, from Latin contra and patior, meaning "suffer the opposite", is the punishment of souls "by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself." The souls are punished with a castigue that is similar or opposite to the crime the made in life :  sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets have their heads turned back on their bodies such that it is "necessary to walk backward because they could not see ahead of them."

[ Dante And Virgil In Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. ]

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die." (G.R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones)

Hi there!

I think it actually makes sense. Hear me out:

The Baratheons are a new dynasty. While an old dynasty would name their children after famous kings and queens (just look at the British Royal family for that), a new dynasty cannot just do that, especially the Baratheons.

Let's look at historical examples. Frederick Barbarossa was a king from the comparatively new dynasty of the Staufen and of his five surviving sons three had royal names (Heinrich, Konrad, Otto) that were a call back to the dynasties before the Staufen, the people Frederick wanted a connection to. Only one son got a "Staufen name" being called Frederick. Another son got the name of a close friend and two sons who didn't survive got names from the mother's side. William the Conqueror gave his youngest son a king's name (Henry), the son who was born after he had become King of England. The other sons before had names that were taken from the line of the Norman dukes. It was two centuries before the English kings took on English names (the three Edwards). So, your puzzlement is justified at a first glance.

On the other hand King Robert, first of his name, probably did not want to use any names of his Targ ancestors. He had ousted the last Targ and it would have been bad taste to go back to these ancestors (it is interesting, that although the Baratheons married some Targ princesses, Targ names really did not creep down into this family). The Baratheon ancestors' name were also not a good choice because the Baratheons had been loyal servants of the Targs for centuries - No the best association.

So, what was there to do? Robert's children needed royal names, Steffon, Ormund or Orys would not do.

The solution was to go far back in history and look for legendary kings. Now, Robert could have used names of the Ancient Storm kings, but that was a female line as well and since Robert wanted nothing more than have his peace, the choice to name his children after legendary Lannisters who had been kings was a good solution for the predicament he was in - and it probably had the additional advantage that it was one less thing he could fight about with Cersei.

That is my explanation anyway. Robert was also o.k. with Joffrey using the lion of Lannister alongside the Baratheon stag for his armour.

That is an in-world explanation that fits, I think, with naming customs that we know of and with Robert's general attitude.

Another reason is of course that there is also a Doylist reason: The hint at the true parentage of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen.