Yes, this is true.... I forgot about that conversation.
Lannisters are more desperate to stay allies with the Tyrells than anyone realized earlier in the series, probably why Cersei is giving ground with Margaery and saying she will marry Loras.
Stannis may finally break them if he gets the Iron Bank on his side.... I still wonder why he didn't team up with Robb Stark, even if he had to betray him later cause he didn't want a King in the North.... if Robb and Stannis had teamed up, Robb coulda told Walder Frey to shove it.... Robb coulda hit King's Landing from the North and Stannis from the sea and Stannis would already be on the Iron Throne like he wants.
Renly, regardless of his taste for cock.... had the right idea as far as the war was concerned.... team up with the Starks and crush the Lannisters.
Because Stannis is legally the king and he's so fucked in the head when it comes to law that he couldn't fathom the thought of there being multiple kings in Westeros.
As soon as Rob Stark became "King in the North" he became Stannis's enemy. I think it's pretty easy to miss in the show, where in the books it's literally all written out for you, but Stannis doesn't want to be the king for the power or glory; he's doing it because he's
supposed to. Robert Baratheon died and all he left behind were illegitimate kids which means Stannis should, technically be on the throne. The dude is so fucking rigid, and he is so set in stone that he can't see it any other way; he wants to sit the Iron Throne because that's what the
law says.
Also, a lesser motivation is he was always a bit jealous of Robert, he was Robert's older brother and so he did resent him a bit for seizing the throne AND for being so brash and essentially free. However, he fully recognized that Robert won it by force, and Stannis is also self aware enough to know he's not a loveable guy, and that he isn't "popular", but that doesn't change the fact that he has the bloodline, and experience leading men (as a general, which he's always been billed as being a good one).
So, one of the things that neither the books or show ever explicitly address, and is something that's sort of a pet theory of mine (and other people) is that the older generation of people in the show remember, or at least had parents that talked about and remembered when Westeros was stable.
The Mad King that Robert over threw was completely bat shit insane and horrible, HOWEVER the Targaryan's did rule Westeros for hundreds of years. All those years were at least relatively stable, there were good kings and shitty kings of course, there were small wars like when the Greyjoys would rise up every once in a while (the show talks briefly about the Greyjoys and there attempted successions and usurping and such), but -nothing- like what's happening now.
So these older people in the show, people like Ned and Stannis and Jon Arryn (who's assination got the shows ball rolling), guys like them were raised on law, order, honor and all that jazz and weren't ready to deal with guys like Tywin and Littlefinger. I'm sure there were always guys like them, but, they weren't the ones in power, the Targaryans were around to keep that shit in check. I think, that when you get down to it there really is only one old guard type guy left in any sort of power, which is Stannis. I think that when you consider that all this insane chaos and shit is all pretty new, guys like Stannis just can't deal with it and it helps explain his motivation.
Remember in season 1, all Ned's talk about honor and shit? The very first scene we had with him, and one of the first in the entire show is him schooling Robb and his male kids that if you pass the judgement you gotta carry it out. That kind of code of honor and crap just doesn't work when your opponent is Tywin who takes out a massive enemy with a few letters, not a great sword. Robb died for similar reasons his dad did. Yeah, he won on the battlefield, yeah he was honorable and all that jazz, but he was his father's son, he believed in all that crap and because of that he didn't see the Frey's coming. Getting killed at his own wedding, when he ate Walders bread and drank his wine was completely unthinkable.
