Your brother is dead. Do you know what that means? [Tommen hesitates in answering] I'm not trying to trick you.
It means I'll become king.
Yes, you will become king. What kind of king do you think you will be?
...a good king?
I think so as well; you have the right temperament for it. But what makes a good king, hmm? What is a good king's single most important quality?
This is hardly the place or the time.
Holiness?
Baelor the Blessed was holy, and pious. He built this sept. He also named a six-year-old boy High Septon because he thought the boy could work miracles. He ended up fasting himself into an early grave because food was of this world, and this world was sinful.
Justice?
A good king must be just. Orys the First was just; everyone applauded his reforms, nobles and commoners alike, but he wasn't just for long. He was murdered in his sleep after less than a year by his own brother. Was that truly just of him, to abandon his subjects to an evil that he was too gullible to recognize?
No. What about strength?
Yes, strength. King Robert was strong. He won the rebellion and crushed the Targaryen dynasty... and he attended three Small Council meetings in seventeen years. He spent his time whoring and hunting and drinking, until the last two killed him. So, we have a man who starves himself to death, a man who lets his own brother murder him, and a man who thinks that winning and ruling are the same thing. What do they all lack?
[thinks for a moment] Wisdom.
Yes!
Wisdom is what makes a good king.
Yes. But what is wisdom, hmm? A house with great wealth and fertile lands asks you for your protection against another house with a strong navy that could one day oppose you. How do you know which choice is wise and which isn't? You've any experience of treasuries and granaries, or shipyards and soldiers?
No.
No, of course not. A wise king knows what he knows and what he doesn't. You're young. A wise young king listens to his councilors and heeds their advice until he comes of age. And the wisest kings continue to listen to them long afterwards. Your brother was not a wise king. Your brother was not a good king. If he had been, perhaps he'd still be alive.
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