#did his words have some hidden meaning? Only Renly could vex me with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason

[aegonvi]

For a long time the king did not speak. Then, very softly, he said, “I dream of it sometimes. Of Renly’s dying. A green tent, candles, a woman screaming. And blood.” Stannis looked down at his hands. “I was still abed when he died. Your Devan will tell you. He tried to wake me. Dawn was nigh and my lords were waiting, fretting. I should have been ahorse, armored. I knew Renly would attack at break of day. Devan says I thrashed and cried out, but what does it matter? It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean.” Ser Davos Seaworth could feel his phantom fingertips start to itch. Something is wrong here, the onetime smuggler thought. Yet he nodded and said, “I see.” “Renly offered me a peach. At our parley. Mocked me, defied me, threatened me, and offered me a peach. I thought he was drawing a blade and went for mine own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests? When he spoke of how sweet the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning?” The king gave a shake of his head, like a dog shaking a rabbit to snap its neck. “Only Renly could vex me so with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason, but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother’s peach.” — ACOK, Davos II

[kingslayerstew]

Top 5 baratheon brothers moments

picked moments of them together, not individually

5. this anecdote is so 🥺

4. just any time stannis mentions robert at all

3. renly was four or five when this happened. he still remembers. he remembers his brother and only parental figure discussing whether or not they would have to start eating the dead bodies of people they knew in the near future. I can still see Gawen's face as they strapped him down.

2. "Renly offered me a peach. At our parley. Mocked me, defied me, threatened me, and offered me a peach. I thought he was drawing a blade and went for mine own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests? When he spoke of how sweet the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning?" The king gave a shake of his head, like a dog shaking a rabbit to snap its neck. "Only Renly could vex me so with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason, but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother's peach."

1. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke up my hands were clean.

[mostpraised]

“Renly offered me a peach. At our parley. Mocked me, defied me, threatened me, and offered me a peach. I thought he was drawing a blade and went for mine own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests? When he spoke of how sweet the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning? Only Renly could vex me with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason, but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother’s peach.”

- The One True King

[numbaoneflaya]

When you realize that the brothel that Robert hid in before the Battle of the Bells was called the Peach..but Renlys Peach...Enraging stannis who takes no pleasure in peaches fruits/brothels or otherwise... Asha with peaches running down her face... georgy whad in the hell are u on about still...

[rainhadaenerys]

There's an interesting parallel between Dany and Stannis in A Clash of Kings, the peach symbolism:

"I've brought you a peach," Ser Jorah said, kneeling. It was so small she could almost hide it in her palm, and overripe too, but when she took the first bite, the flesh was so sweet she almost cried. She ate it slowly, savoring every mouthful, while Ser Jorah told her of the tree it had been plucked from, in a garden near the western wall.

"Fruit and water and shade," Dany said, her cheeks sticky with peach juice. "The gods were good to bring us to this place." - Daenerys I ACOK

~

"All this of snakes and incest is droll, but it changes nothing. You may well have the better claim, Stannis, but I still have the larger army." Renly's hand slid inside his cloak. Stannis saw, and reached at once for the hilt of his sword, but before he could draw steel his brother produced . . . a peach. "Would you like one, brother?" Renly asked, smiling. "From Highgarden. You've never tasted anything so sweet, I promise you." He took a bite. Juice ran from the corner of his mouth.

"I did not come here to eat fruit." Stannis was fuming. - Catelyn III ACOK

The two moments are very similar, with Jorah and Renly offering a peach to Dany and Stannis, the mention of the peach's sweetness, the juice smears the mouth and cheeks, and the peach comes from a western garden (a garden near the western wall of Vaes Tolorro, and Highgarden is in the west of Westeros).

According to the ASOIAF wiki, this is what GRRM said about Renly's peach:

The peach represents... Well... It’s pleasure. It’s… tasting the juices of life. Stannis is a very marshal man concerned with his duty and with that peach Renly says: “Smell the roses”, because Stannis is always concerned with his duty and honor, in what he should be doing and he never really stops to taste the fruit. Renly wants him to taste the fruit but it’s lost. I wish that scene had been included in the TV series because for me that peach was important, but it wasn’t possible. (source - X, X)

For both Dany and Stannis, the peach represents the temptation of a simple life, a sweeter life, with simple pleasures. For Dany, it's staying in Vaes Tolorro with her people and living simply there. For Stannis, it's making peace with his brother.

Stannis rejects the peach. In his rigidity, he doesn't even consider the possibilities or a way to make peace with his brother (when Renly reaches for the peach he instantly reaches for his sword), and chooses to continue fighting for the throne:

"Renly offered me a peach. At our parley. Mocked me, defied me, threatened me, and offered me a peach. I thought he was drawing a blade and went for mine own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests? When he spoke of how sweet the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning?" The king gave a shake of his head, like a dog shaking a rabbit to snap its neck. "Only Renly could vex me so with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason, but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother's peach." - Davos II ACOK

Dany accepts the peach. She savors it while she contemplates how fortunate they were to have found a place full of fruit like Vaes Tolorro, unlike Stannis, who doesn't accept the peach, and doesn't even contemplate the possibility of making peace with his brother. However, Dany also eventually decides to leave this place full of peaches, and later, when tempted to go back, also decides not to return to Vaes Tolorro in favor of continuing to fight for the throne:

Yet even crowned, I am a beggar still, Dany thought. I have become the most splendid beggar in the world, but a beggar all the same. She hated it, as her brother must have. All those years of running from city to city one step ahead of the Usurper's knives, pleading for help from archons and princes and magisters, buying our food with flattery. He must have known how they mocked him. Small wonder he turned so angry and bitter. In the end it had driven him mad. It will do the same to me if I let it. Part of her would have liked nothing more than to lead her people back to Vaes Tolorro, and make the dead city bloom. No, that is defeat. I have something Viserys never had. I have the dragons. The dragons are all the difference. - Daenerys III ACOK

Both Dany and Stannis abandon the sweetness that the peach symbolizes, the simple pleasures of life and simple life that it symbolizes, in favor of doing what they think it's their duty, and choosing a more difficult path. The peach is a reminder of what could have been. Though it's important to also notice the contrast, how Dany and Stannis are also foils here, because while Dany does abandon the idea of staying in Vaes Tolorro, she still considers it, and she stops to appreciate its simple pleasures (like the peach) and how fortunate she was, unlike Stannis. Dany does what Renly tells Stannis to do but he doesn't, appreciate the pleasures of life because one might not be able to do so again:

"A man should never refuse to taste a peach," Renly said as he tossed the stone away. "He may never get the chance again. Life is short, Stannis. Remember what the Starks say. Winter is coming." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. - Catelyn III ACOK

Finally, I want to add that I saw someone saying that the following quote could be foreshadowing of Dany failing to conquer Westeros and being assassinated, because Renly also ate a peach and was assassinated:

"The high lords have always fought. Tell me who's won and I'll tell you what it means. Khaleesi, the Seven Kingdoms are not going to fall into your hands like so many ripe peaches. You will need a fleet, gold, armies, alliances—"

"All this I know." She took his hands in hers and looked up into his dark suspicious eyes. Sometimes he thinks of me as a child he must protect, and sometimes as a woman he would like to bed, but does he ever truly see me as his queen? "I am not the frightened girl you met in Pentos. I have counted only fifteen name days, true . . . but I am as old as the crones in the dosh khaleen and as young as my dragons, Jorah. I have borne a child, burned a khal, and crossed the red waste and the Dothraki sea. Mine is the blood of the dragon." - Daenerys II ACOK

However, I don't think that's the case. Just because Renly ate a peach and because he was assassinated, doesn't mean every person who eats a peach will die (and also, the main comparison here is between Dany and Stannis, who are both offered a peach, not between Dany and Renly - Renly being the one offering the peach, like Jorah). And to me, the peach as symbolic of a simple life and its simple pleasures seems very clearly established. The quote above is simply a continuation of the same symbolism: the Seven Kingdoms won't simply fall into Dany's hands like ripe peaches, she will have to fight for it. By choosing to continue pursuing the Iron Throne, she is choosing a more difficult path than simply staying in Vaes Tolorro and enjoying its peaches.

[a-libra-writes]

How do you think Stannis feels about Renly's death?

In the book he feels a great amount of guilt and imo he's a bit in denial that he had anything to do with it. I wish the books addressed it more, but alas, we don't have a proper Stannis POV. He says he mourns him, and I believe he feels a great deal of guilt as the older, responsible sibling who wasn't able to bring a "misbehaving" younger sibling to heel. And in the years that Renly's been an adult, they've actively disliked each other.

A pagebreak for the canon stuff after Renly's death -

From Clash of Kings, Davos II:

“Since Lord Renly died, he has been troubled by terrible nightmares,” the boy had confided to his father.

....

“Fools love a fool,” grumbled Stannis, “but I grieve for him as well. For the boy he was, not the man he grew to be.”

....

Stannis only seemed to half hear him. “I have no doubt that Cersei had a hand in Robert’s death. I will have justice for him. Aye, and for Ned Stark and Jon Arryn as well.”

“And for Renly?” The words were out before Davos could stop to consider them. For a long time the king did not speak. Then, very softly, he said, “I dream of it sometimes. Of Renly’s dying. A green tent, candles, a woman screaming. And blood.” Stannis looked down at his hands. “I was still abed when he died. Your Devan will tell you. He tried to wake me. Dawn was nigh and my lords were waiting, fretting. I should have been ahorse, armored. I knew Renly would attack at break of day. Devan says I thrashed and cried out, but what does it matter? It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean.”

Ser Davos Seaworth could feel his phantom fingertips start to itch. Something is wrong here, the onetime smuggler thought. Yet he nodded and said, “I see."

...

“Renly offered me a peach. At our parley. Mocked me, defied me, threatened me, and offered me a peach. I thought he was drawing a blade and went for mine own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests? When he spoke of how sweet the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning?” The king gave a shake of his head, like a dog shaking a rabbit to snap its neck. “Only Renly could vex me so with a piece of fruit. He brought his doom on himself with his treason, but I did love him, Davos. I know that now. I swear, I will go to my grave thinking of my brother’s peach.”

[coffereadsasoiaf]

Renly offered me a peach🍑. At our parley 🗣.

1. Mocked me, 

     2. defied me,

             3. threatened me, 

                      4. OFFERED ME A PEACH. 

I thought he was drawing a BLADE!🗡and went for MINE OWN!⚔️. 

Was that his purpose, to make me show fear???

Or was it one of his   p o i n t l e s s    j e s t s  ? 

When he spoke of  H O W  S W E E T  the peach was, did his words have some hidden meaning???

Only Renly could Vex Me So --- WiTh a PiEcE oF fRuiT.😒 

He brought his DOOM on himself with his TREASON, but I DID LOVE HIM, Davos🥺. I know that now.😩 

                                                   I swear

I WILL GO TO MY GRAVE THINKING OF MY BROTHER’S PEACH