Why the fuck wouldn't a kingdom genocide a subject whose sole economy is pillaging the rest of the kingdom?

Why the fuck wouldn't a kingdom genocide a subject whose sole economy is pillaging the rest of the kingdom?

>mfw Starks capture the Ironman's Bay

The GoT universe is like Europe in 1910. Nobody wants to make a move because they're afraid of the political fallout from other kingdoms.

It's really difficult to imagine that anyone would put up with the iron islanders' shit. Especially after Robert and Ned put down their rebellion, why on earth wouldn't you just clean out the place. They have no allies and contribute nothing to the kingdom, who would object?

Still doesn't make sense to me, seeing as a decade before Robert's death thete was a fullscale invasion and takeover of a non-compliant Iron Islands. Wpuld that not have been the perfect time to put the bandit kingdom to the torch?

The Greyjoys had the greatest Navy in the world, they still do evidently. Why would anyone fuck with them? They can just hop on their boats, sail to Qarth, hire some mercenaries and come back to fuck with your trade routes forever. They're also well-connected politically so no one is going to run into any war with them

Because the rest of the kingdom has dogs, so they're harmless.

>They can just hop on their boats, sail to Qarth, hire some mercenaries and come back to fuck with your trade routes forever

But isn't that all they do already, sans the mercs?

This is probably the best answer. The cost of exterminating them would probably be a lot more than just putting up with their shit or bribing them to go away.

Not sure, but I would imagine it would be like any other form of piracy. They get bribed to leave areas alone, so they get to collect money without actually having to fight most of the time. Just the threat of using their fleet would probably be enough to keep them afloat.

Why can't we lure their fleet to one place and torpedoe it with a green nuke?

A lot of their economy also comes from farming and fishing. The islands are bigger than they look. Also why would the majority of the kingdoms give a shit if random peasants are getting raped and pillaged if it has a negligible effect on taxes

Because they bent the knee to the Iron Throne and you don't fucking genocide subjects who have sworn fealty to you. In fact not being wiped out is usually what the feudal lord is promising in exchange for fealty.

Are you one of those autists who didn't understand why the red wedding was such a big deal?

Wew, true fan detected.

Why didn't the civilized world wipe out the barbary pirates?
Who knows.
Maybe they just didn't want to throw good men at it when a few pieces of gold would keep them off your back.

try to wipe out folks that could instantly hop on their 1000 ships and be everywhere in the duration of a week. it's like guerrilla warfare and that shit is expensive and frustrating

>blockade islands
>no food
>they all starve
>they get on their boats to fight you
>tiny territory means extremely limited resources for building a navy
>they can't do shit

You know it's funny that GRRM babbles about "MUH ARAGORN'S TAX POLICY" when he has completely retarded shit like this in his universe, he's a fucking hack. Where does all the needed wood come from for the supposedly largest fleet in Westeros? How can they even support enough people to be a threat in a direct confrontation with those tiny shit islands? It's like Cuba trying to go to war with the USA.

>their house motto literally means "we won't produce our own shit, instead we will still from others"

They rebelled in recent history. They should have used that opportunity to remove them once and for all.

>blockade islands
>blockade FUCKING islands
>blockade islands with biggest fucking fleet
Woah

"We do not sow" The islands are too rocky, windy and shitty to grow any major crops or allow them to be self reliant.

Their people subsist of others' grain and wealth for the most part.

They didn't have much of a flee by the end of their rebellion all those years ago, or by the end of last season.

It's fucking retarded how fast they are able to build gigantic ships with nearly no resources.

Just like the Vikings they're based off they're the niggers of Westeros

You don't know what a blockade is, do you? How are they going to get food for their population when enemy fleets are halting transports? How about wood to replace their boats and build new ones?

>but they have enough food and wood on their own islands

Then how can some bird shit islands support a large enough fleet to rival others that have massive territories with way larger populations, food production, and resources?

The Iron Islands gave up their "Old Way" generations ago. Balon Greyjoy is canonically a radical conservative / revivalist, and his view in the book was opposed at the Kingsmoot by Asha, the "progressive" candidate. The Iron Isles were developing a sedentary, greenlander economy, and had a lot of internal divisions, but their current position is one of political upheaval, and Balon's decision to raid the coast, and Theon's to take Winterfell, were taking advantage of the chaos of the Wot5K and out of left field / batshit, respectively.

Books both the Redwynes and Dragonstone fleets were more powerful. Iron Islands had thr biggest fleet but most were light raiding vessels, with the Iron Fleet being around 100 strong. The Dragonstone fleet was 150 warships and 100 smaller vessels and the Redwynes had around the same.