Well, I think he would’ve held to a treaty, it’s more about the terms of the treaty. Robb was the first between the two to give the opposing side a treaty. And it’s more complicated than that (for me anyway, although mostly we’re talking in hypotheticals because really this is so much bigger than Robb and his decisions at this point. Which was half my point when I made those tags because I think what gets me is so many people say the RW is Robb or Jeyne’s fault and had Robb not married someone else besides ‘the Frey girl’ it never would’ve happened, and I just don’t believe that. I think by the time Robb betrayed the Freys, Tywin was already seeing clearly that he wasn’t going to win the war on the field alone and he understood that even if Robb was surprisingly good at leading his men, he was weak at understanding how political war is, which was also sort of one of the points I was making, that we all just use what we have to do what we have to even if we don’t enjoy doing it. That winning isn’t much more enjoyable than losing, you just get to survive and in that I was agreeing with what you were saying about the books not being a glorification of war but the opposite).
I don’t think Tywin was afraid for his own life (to be honest in a lot of ways I see Tywin as selfless as weird as that sounds to say, I feel like everything he does is for his house and his family, and like yeah a lot of it is because his name is attached to that house but I honestly don’t believe it’s solely pride and ego at work, but an understanding of the responsibilities of being the head of a major house), it was more about the idea of being prudent and not taking chances with the North rising up again in the future and taking their grudges out on his decedents (who would then have to spend more money and time and waste more men from the lands they own). When I said ‘he had to win to survive’ I meant the survival and prosperity of like…his entire family. Certainly I think pride and reputation worked a great deal into the equation (You don’t just stage an uprising against the Lannisters and get away with it, etc).
I dunno, tbh, I haven’t thought about potential peace between the Lannisters and the Starks as perhaps I should have? lol thinking about it now. Very interesting, but very complicated.