History Characters / GameOfThronesHouseBaratheon

* TheUsurper: [[SubvertedTropes Subverted]]. He's called this in-universe by the surviving Targaryens, as he essentially took the dynasty from them ''manu militari''. The same dynasty that was started in a very similar way by right of conquest, which is also pointed out in-universe. And given the Mad King tore up the social contract and lawful responsibilities of the Iron Throne, rendering House Targaryen illegitimate by calling for his and Ned's, two Great Lords, heads for committing no crime, without a trial, and previously made a mockery of the 'trials' of Rickard and Brandon Stark, calling Robert a usurper is pretty ridiculous.

* CarryABigStick: He uses his blacksmith hammer as a weapon. It must run in the family. When he joins Jon Snow, he uses a warhammer. [[spoiler:And he uses a dragonglass mace he forged himself for the battle at Winterfell]].

* DropTheHammer: His weapon of choice in days gone by.

* TheBerserker: After Yoren is killed in "What is Dead May Never Die", he charges at the Lannister soldiers armed only with his [[DropTheHammer smith's hammer]].

* CarryABigStick: [[spoiler:Uses a dragonglass mace for the battle at Winterfell]].

* DropTheHammer: He uses his blacksmith hammer as a weapon. It must run in the family. When he joins Jon Snow, he uses a warhammer he forged himself.

* WrittenByTheWinners: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Rhaegar Targaryen is a rapist and Lyanna Stark is a helpless martyr torn cruelly from Robert's loving arms by way of Robert's word and will alone. None of this is true. However, unlike many other examples of this trope, Robert genuinely believes this to be true, as he never learned that Lyanna loved Rhaegar instead of him. And considering Rhaegar betrayed his duties as Crown Prince by breaking the social contract in absconding with a Lord's betrothed daughter (while he was already married with three children no less), and that The Mad King murdered Ned's father and brother and called for Ned and Robert's heads all on false charges, there wasn't much evidence to contrary at the time, nor did any come to light until after Robert's death.

* InadequateInheritor: He invokes these tropes to justify why he should rule the Seven Kingdoms instead of Stannis. From Stannis's perspective, Renly was unjustly given the family seat at Storm's End, a castle he heroically defended against impossible odds in Robert's Rebellion as well as titles that Renly never earned with any significant accomplishment. Olenna Tyrell later admitted that that the Tyrells should never have backed Renly's impossible and incompetent campaign and "should have stayed well out of it".

* SevenDeadlySins: His lust alienates his family; and his excessive drinking (gluttony), sloth, wrath and pride all lead him to an early grave.

** Renly declaring himself a King was a key factor in the SuccessionCrisis becoming a War of Five Kings. Rather than a straightforward conflict between Joffrey and Stannis as Ned intended. Since Stannis hadn't yet recieved Ned's letter he didn't know of his claim until much later. Renly declaring himself King challenged the line of succession, as Robb Stark pointed out, which led to the North and Riverlands electing Robb as King in the North. [[ForWantOfANail Had it not been for Renly]], the North MIGHT have rallied behind Stannis as Ned intended, and there would have been a proper alliance against the Lannisters. [[SubvertedTrope Emphasis on might, as none of the Northerners wanted to serve him and Stannis would have been unwilling to accept an independent North.]]

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: The sweetest person in Westeros is sacrificed by her father on the eve of a battle with the Boltons and an upcoming ZombieApocalypse. Davos calls out Melisandre for burning her at the stake, providing the current page quote.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: The sweetest person in Westeros is sacrificed by her father on the eve of a battle with the Boltons and an upcoming ZombieApocalypse.

* BaritoneOfStrength: Mark Addy gives Robert a voice like rolling thunder. He was also a formidable fighter during his rebellion and even though the Boar skewered him, Robert still took the boar out with him.

* FourStarBadass: He has a keen military mind and was one of the best warriors before becoming king.

[[caption-width-right:300:''"[[HundredPercentAdorationRating You never wanted any friends, brother, but a man without friends is a man without power.]]"'']]

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: He's ''so'' popular among the Stormlanders that they ''all'' swear fealty to him instead of Stannis, even though the bannermen are technically committing treason (as Renly is duty-bound to obey Stannis). After Renly's sudden demise, Davos reports to Stannis that all the men grieve for his younger brother.

* JerkassHasAPoint: His plot to assassinate Daenerys and her child was definitely harsh (and fueled by his own petty hatred for her entire family). But as he later pointed out to Cersei, if the [[HordesFromTheEast Dothraki]] chose to invade Westeros with the Targaryens, the results would be catastrophic.
** [[SubvertedTrope Of course, it's his fault to begin with that this happened, because he was the one who tried to have her assassinated in the first place.]][[note]]Though this is also a case of EasyLogistics. The Dothraki would have a hard time even getting to Westeros, given the massive number of ships they'd need, the problems of transporting their horses with them, their own cultural aversion to sea travel and the resistance the Westerosi would no doubt put up, as detailed [[https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/138745-westeros-vs-dothraki-spoilers-probable/&tab=comments#comment-7536818 here]].[[/note]]

-->'''Robert:''' Let's say Viserys Targaryen lands with forty thousand Dothraki screamers at his back. We hole up in our castles. Wise move. Only a fool would meet the [[TheDreaded Dothraki]] in an open field. They leave us in our castles. They go from town to town, looting and burning. Killing every man who can't hide behind a stone wall, stealing all our crops and livestock, enslaving all our women and children. How long do people stand behind their absentee king? Their cowardly king hiding behind high walls? When do the people decide that Viserys Targaryen is the rightful monarch after all?

* AdaptationalHeroism: His claim for the crown is transformed from the naked power-grab in the books, genuinely usurping his legitimate brother, to an ideological rebellion by Renly and his supporters who argue that his intellect, his kindness and charisma makes him TheGoodKing and a better choice than his brother. His main KickTheDog moments (mocking Brienne of Tarth and Shireen behind their backs) is changed to sincerely respecting Brienne's abilities and service.
** This trope is [[AdaptationalVillainy zig-zagged]] when taking into account Renly's conversation with Ned Stark in the first book and season. In the books, neither Ned nor Renly made any mention of Stannis' claim to the throne, and Ned's decision to ignore Renly's offer to kidnap Joffrey without revealing his own plans made it clear to Renly as a sign of his loyalty towards Cersei, which was later confirmed in Renly's conversation with Catelyn. In the show, Ned makes a direct mention of Stannis' claim to the throne and his support for Stannis, which Renly rebuts by claiming Stannis' lack of charisma would not "make him a king", hence in a way making Renly come across as a bigger hypocrite than in the books. Moreover, in the show it's directly stated that Renly knows about Joffrey's illegitimacy, which was left ambiguous in the books.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his love for violence, even he's speechless when he learns the Mad King had been saying "Burn them all" for hours before his death. Even Cersei, who ''hates'' Robert, also points out that for all his flaws, Robert "never enjoyed cruelty".