Duncan Idaho Ghulha in King'slanding (rarish)

[The Yosemite Bear]

By means of some sort of transport a Clone of Duncan Idaho has been bred and transported as the bodyguard of a noble in time for the great turney in the game of thrones. This Ghoulha as after all the times that D.I. has been cloned, possesses all the reflexes and seduction skills of his counterparts (too much stress, and surviving being around too many killers etc) What changes?

[The Yosemite Bear]

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Duncan_Idaho?o=2800&qsrc=999

Superhuman reflexed master swordsman, with mentat training, could kill 19 superhuman sardukar before dying, and in possession of all his various incarnations memorites (his clone cycle started out as a programmed slave, and broke free of his conditioning regaining his memories including his death, the later ones remember his other deaths.) has dark curly hair, and is said to be very catlike. oh and hates Harkonnians or anyone who reminds him of them, and totally loyal to house atredies (though mostly because he's in love with lady jessica and some benegesserit)

basically most famous for being a feline agile superhuman swordsman/bodyguard, and a memetic sex god.

[PKRudeBoy]

Depends on which families retinue he's a part of, and if they listen to his advice. He would almost certainly be one of, if not the most deadly people in Westeros though

[The Yosemite Bear]

well he would also be showing up in time to seriously fuck over the mountain long before a number of other things happen....

[The Yosemite Bear]

well the only scary funny thought is that if Duncan had become Arya's "Dance Instructor" rather than the badass she got, the holding action would have involved a mountain of dead Lannister Gold Cloaks, and ordering in for food and wine Alex Dumas style.... (Than escaping when the King's Guard resorted to wildfire)

[Ralin]

well he would also be showing up in time to seriously fuck over the mountain long before a number of other things happen....

Why would Duncan be especially likely to fuck up Ser Gregor?

[The Yosemite Bear]

possibly reminds people of Raban Harkonnen?

[Irbis]

While no one has really skills to confront him directly, what stops people from poisoning his wine or putting crossbow bolt in his back while he sleeps? Or grabbing stuff of heavier calibre if he is too successful, like hiring Faceless Man or that assassination spell Stannis has? I don't recall later Dune books that well, how he would cope with these?

[Ralin]

While no one has really skills to confront him directly, what stops people from poisoning his wine or putting crossbow bolt in his back while he sleeps? Or grabbing stuff of heavier calibre if he is too successful, like hiring Faceless Man or that assassination spell Stannis has? I don't recall later Dune books that well, how he would cope with these?

Been awhile for me too, but I'm pretty sure he has Bene Gesserit-style body chemistry control by the end of the original Dune books. And I'm definitely sure he'd had his nervous system "upgraded to modern standards," which means he's really damned superhuman in terms of agility and such. So he'd probably be able to do things like snatch crossbow bolts out of the air, laugh off poisons, detect Faceless Men by being super-observant of body language, etc. We don't know what the limits of that assassination spell Stannis used were, but the only time we see it in action was when it killed Renly, and that was a sneak attack (albeit with a sword thrust strong/sharp enough to pierce a steel gorget) more than anything.

I know this sounds all wankish and I may be remembering some of the things he could do wrong, but...yeah, he could probably rip anyone in the setting apart in a direct confrontation, and he also has way more experience at intrigue and assassination attempts than anyone else there too.

[Gaidin]

Everyone's focusing on his fighting abilities. Is there anyone he'd bother making his sex slave and basically turn them into a puppet from behind the scenes?

[Broken]

For that matter, he was one of House Atredies War Masters along with Gurney Halleck. As Tufir put it, he helped train his House troops to within a hair as good (and some even better) as the Sardukar without their harsh upbringing as Caladan is mentioned to be a soft world. That might yield greater results even then the fact that he is likely the most lethal person in King's Landing.

[Vendetta]

While no one has really skills to confront him directly, what stops people from poisoning his wine or putting crossbow bolt in his back while he sleeps? Or grabbing stuff of heavier calibre if he is too successful, like hiring Faceless Man or that assassination spell Stannis has? I don't recall later Dune books that well, how he would cope with these?

Remember that he's from the Dune universe, and IIRC the Duncan ghola remembers all its past incarnations. That means that he remembers the ongoing vendetta between the Atreides and Harkonnen, where assassination of all forms was a fact of daily life, and three thousand years of serving Leto, and god knows how long with the Bene Gesserit.

Chances are that among the haphazard plotters of Westeros he's going to be the most paranoid motherfucker on the planet when it comes to dealing with attempts on his life, both covert and overt. He's had, after all, thousands of years of practise.

[Gaidin]

It's not even that he's got to be really paranoid by definition. Paranoid is something of the wrong word, even though hes spent thousands of years literally in positions where he's paid to be paranoid. It's just that he's had, functionally, as you say, millennia of experience. He'd see anything these amateurs try coming from a mile away for the most part without really trying.

[Ralin]

Other than magic shadow babies, presumably.

[Irbis]

It's not even that he's got to be really paranoid by definition. Paranoid is something of the wrong word, even though hes spent thousands of years literally in positions where he's paid to be paranoid. It's just that he's had, functionally, as you say, millennia of experience. He'd see anything these amateurs try coming from a mile away for the most part without really trying.

Dune doesn't really have magic, though, and he can't even familiarize himself with it by questioning his peers as Westeros is remarkably barren in that regard, all the dangerous tricks seem to be domain of Faceless Men and other obscure groups from eastern continent. What if his faction is somewhat successful in conquest of Westeros, and then Dany comes knocking with dragons? Can he even kill one before getting a faceful of dragonfire in response? Can he deflect a spell? Controlling chemistry is all well and good, but what about poisons that kill before he can notice anything is wrong?

As for seduction, the only viable targets are Cersei (but here we run into problem Robert and/or Jaime can easily ruin any influence she has) and Dany, perhaps the only pretendent that would actually listen to him over all other advisors.

For soldiers - forget it. Drafted illiterate peasants are too poor human material to be made a good army - at best, he can somewhat raise their effectiveness by tailoring their tactics to other lord's forces, but one person can't replace years of malnutrition, lack of good armours and arms, lack of training, and most importantly, lack of care about war. Knights would most likely see him as commoner reaching above his station, the only faction where he would be given really free hand in shaping its forces are again Dany's troops, maybe Black Watch or that militant Order of the Church, but these are apolitical, so far. No, most of his utility would lie in being better Varys/Jaime in one, IMHO.

[Gaidin]

Dune doesn't really have magic, though, and he can't even familiarize himself with it by questioning his peers as Westeros is remarkably barren in that regard, all the dangerous tricks seem to be domain of Faceless Men and other obscure groups from eastern continent. What if his faction is somewhat successful in conquest of Westeros, and then Dany comes knocking with dragons? Can he even kill one before getting a faceful of dragonfire in response? Can he deflect a spell? Controlling chemistry is all well and good, but what about poisons that kill before he can notice anything is wrong?

Moot point. There's a difference between the intrigue you expect someone like a chief of security to be able to handle, and what he's then able to do when a full grown dragon comes knocking at your door. If you want to assume he's got time to get in the good graces of a the functional equivalent of a Great House and train up their army and lesser houses, then we can talk about what he can pull off against something other than a Dragon or something from North of the Wall(presuming he can't properly arm his men to face them with the obsidian or whatever it was). But when that dragon comes knocking, he's damn well going to know his men need to disperse.

As for seduction, the only viable targets are Cersei (but here we run into problem Robert and/or Jaime can easily ruin any influence she has) and Dany, perhaps the only pretendent that would actually listen to him over all other advisors.

Eh, those two are hardly the only women in Westeros(or other places) with influence over a powerful House or group.

For soldiers - forget it. Drafted illiterate peasants are too poor human material to be made a good army - at best, he can somewhat raise their effectiveness by tailoring their tactics to other lord's forces, but one person can't replace years of malnutrition, lack of good armours and arms, lack of training, and most importantly, lack of care about war. Knights would most likely see him as commoner reaching above his station, the only faction where he would be given really free hand in shaping its forces are again Dany's troops, maybe Black Watch or that militant Order of the Church, but these are apolitical, so far. No, most of his utility would lie in being better Varys/Jaime in one, IMHO.

It's not like he trained everybody on Caladaan either. He took Caladaan's military and made it greater than what it was through training. The idea of him taking some House's forces and making it greater than what it is through training is not a stretch. Recruiting isn't required.

[The Yosemite Bear]

what would the faceless men compare to the facedancers? (which along with the 19 sardukar that the original killed, the clones were pretty good at killing facedancers that were sent his way, hell he survived fucking Alia?, not every time but he did survive at first)....

[Gaidin]

Face Dancers always had the feel more of spies than assassins. That might be the difference. Either way, the point of interest is that we could theoretically talk about Duncan Idaho's skill all day long, and after thousands of years of experience it's going to be kinda hard to take him down without unnatural help. But what about the character? Would he even be interested in the politics of the land? Would he even let himself become more than an extremely skilled Hedge Knight? Despite the downside for his health he abandoned the Bene Geserit/Honored Matre alliance/merger. Would he even stay in the south? Or would he be more interested in what's happening in the North, given that's more important for the world at large?

[LadyTevar]

Of all the Great Houses, I think Duncan would have been drawn to the Starks, due to Ned's similarities to Leto Antreides. It would then depend on if Ned sent him back with Robert, or kept him in Kings Landing.

In King's Landing, Duncan would have kept Stark from making as many mistakes (trusting Littlefinger, over-focusing on the death of the last Hand, etc).
If he'd gone North with Robert, then his grief over Ned would have had him in a murderously cold frenzy to make sure Robert survived to take the throne. There is a good chance there would have been no wedding, as Duncan knew not only troop tactics, but also knew how to set upa reliable spy network and may have picked up on the dupilicity.
Had the wedding been scheduled, Duncan would have seen the danger and have been the best one to save Robert (possibly killing the Duke along the way). Either way, Robert would have remained a threat to the Throne, even if forced to retreat to Stark Keep (and prevent it falling).

[Crazedwraith]

By Robert there, do you mean Robb Stark? And By Duke, do you mean Lord Walder Frey?

Since Robert was the name of the original king you confused me there slightly.

[LadyTevar]

Yes, Robb Stark.