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Does anyone else agree that Robb was a bad King?


ADDB98

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Robb's mistakes were those of arrogance, the way I read it. Teenagers think they can do anything, and imagine what happens to your brain when you're pumped full of hormones AND you have a massive army at your back. Arrogance, and stupidity.

I'm not inclined to hold it against him, however, because it totally wasn't his fault. Teenagers also tend to ignore their parents, and there was nothing Catelyn or Robb could have done about the fact that a king going through puberty isn't the best idea.

All that happened was that the relationship and thought processes of the mother and son were written very realistically, because this is how people actually think.

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Let's just call it what it is. He was young and dumb and full of... do I really need to finish this sentence? lol I think you know where I'm going. PG-13 has it right. Robb was your typical teenager, thinking that he knew it all when he knew absolutely NOTHING. Good at battle strategy, completely ignorant to "the game", and completely full of himself after being titled KotN by his bannermen... or at the very least, felt as though he had to act overly confident to appease said bannermen. Having said that, Robb would have made an excellent king with a few extra years under his belt, but let's face it... the decisions of a king should not but put in the hands of a teenager.


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I chalk it up to him being young and naive. Yes he made some bad decisions, but I also think he made a couple of good ones. He did capture Jamie Lannister after all and never lost a battle. I mean I think that says a lot. And compared to who, because Joffrey was no where close to Robb as far as being a bad King.

Joffrey wasn't even a King either really, just a figurehead. Cersei, Tyrion and Tywin were all ruling for him. So in that sense Joffrey was smarter than Robb.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I agree. In my opinion he was awesome, and a great startegist, and maybe he could have crushed Tywin completely if Edumer wouldn't have attacked the Lannister forces on their way west.

But yeah, he mad horrible choices, he was hypocrite about honor, and chose when it suits him and when it doesn't. I always say honor brought both Eddard and Robb down. Aww, Starks.

But overall and although all, he was my favorite of the five kings.

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Robb never made many of his own decisions it was always his advisors and council.


The two decisions Robb did make that all his adviors and council warned him not to do where


-Sending Theon to Pyke


-Marrying whats-her-face



Robb was as good of a king as Tommen is currently.

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Let's just call it what it is. He was young and dumb and full of... do I really need to finish this sentence? lol I think you know where I'm going. PG-13 has it right. Robb was your typical teenager, thinking that he knew it all when he knew absolutely NOTHING. Good at battle strategy, completely ignorant to "the game", and completely full of himself after being titled KotN by his bannermen... or at the very least, felt as though he had to act overly confident to appease said bannermen. Having said that, Robb would have made an excellent king with a few extra years under his belt, but let's face it... the decisions of a king should not but put in the hands of a teenager.

:agree: Had he been allowed a few extra years to grow up (and not be killed) he would have made one of the best probably

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Unlike Robb this thread just wont die. Ive seen less resurrection in the entirety of the ASOIAF series :D



In the end, it's Robb's youth that did him in. He was an angsty teenager. He had angsty teenage urges. He acted on them. He broke the contract he had with Walder Frey, and he paid for it. Catelyn, was an innocent victim. She did nothign wrong, other than present to Robb the terms and stipulations of the agreement to cross The Crossing. His angsty attitude, got his mother killed. Sure, Walder Frey may have betrayed him anyway, but the motivation behind it, was Robb breaking verbal contract, marrying Jeyne, even after agreeing to marry one of the Freys in order to cross.



This thread is Grey Wind -- dead ;)


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  • 4 weeks later...

I think Robb was good with battle strategy, with the council of his bannermen, but when he made decisions from emotion, they were all wrong. Marrying a girl because he bedded her? Not necessary. Better to lack in honor to this minor family than to lose his ally in Frey. Sending Theon was obviously a mistake as well, but he did it because he loved his 'brother' and trusted him. Killing Karstark because he felt slighted was another emotional decision that screwed him over. So...I was sorry to see him die, but feel he did it to himself.


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I have to agree with you on this. I don't think that he was Bad(Evil), just like all teens they think that they know it all. Also, I think that Rob tried to be his father( see what that got him). Rob won a few battles at that start, & I think that did not help any. He refused to listen to his couselors ( Twyin, had it right. You have to listen to your advisers). He won battles & thought that he could do no wrong.



However, I think that what happens ( was suppose to happen).



John A, dying & setting things in motion. ( Or we could go all the way back to Lyanna & RT).



Bran getting pushed out the window( He had to other wise, I don't think that he would have ever met the 3 eye raven).



Ned going to Kings Landing: Setting Rob up to be the Lord of Winterfell, Putting Araya & Sansa on the paths that they are on now. & Most of all, setting Jon up to become the Person that he really is. Ned's Honor is wonderful, but also deadly. His honor does more damage to his family that he could ever know, & his 14 LIE that he has been telling is just the start.



Cat's anger issues also doe more damage toward rob and even pissed off her brother & such. I think her second guessing Rob ( Eventhough, she was right ) & makes rob, like all teenagers, do what they want to do even though it is not the best choice. I don't know what to think about the Letter to Jon. It is great that he wasn't jon to be his heir but, how would that look if jon gets an OUT with that letter. The 100 men that he would send in his place( nice but, still) the oath is for life( no exceptions, no excuses)



I do think that Rob was a Bad King? Yes, but never a bad person.


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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I got soooo upset when he married Jeyne Westerling. In my opinion she was completely useless. She only brought 50 men to Robb's cause, which resulted in losing hundreds more all because of her. Just like Jaime says, Jeyne wasn't worth losing a kingdom over. Another thing that irritated me about her is she wouldn't let Grey Wind hang out for court because he made her uncomfortable. Grey Wind isn't stupid.


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  • 2 weeks later...

If we speak with ignoring his age, he was bad king , very good military commander but politics destroyed him, as Lord Karstark said King who lost The North. Now if we have in mind he was 15 year old, he was very good... What decides for me is this, Westeros won't stop so Robb Stark can learn, he got in that situation ,he was the king, it was on him,so yes ,in my humble opinion he was bad king. He made some horrible decisions.


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  • 1 month later...

Really OP?? A bad king?? He married the Westerling girl cause he slept with her. I dont know if you are a dude or a girl,whatever ,but every guy on this forum will tell you what it is like being a 15-16 year old boy. You are 16 and girls throw themselves at you,what is your reaction??? And he still has so much honor,he marries the first girl he sleeps with cause honor is embeded in his brain. Killing Lord Karstark is also justifiable,he disobeyed his King and its not like he stole some peanuts,he killed a couple of innocent children in cold blood. Yes a Lannister kiled your son,that doesnt give you a pass on killing children. The only mistake Robb made was not taking the Twins by force and/or slaying that monster late Walder. But again honor is in his blood. He should have listened to his mother when it came to Walder Frey.

In my mind Robb Stark was the most suited man to sit on the throne. A good heart and a just mind. Still to this day the Red Wedding is the most shocking turn of events i ever read in a book. Robb had so much potential.

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I agree that Robb was a bad king because of all the awful Choices he made he ended up marrying Jeyne westerling instead of the Frey girl who he was supposed to marry, He killed Rickard Karstark by executing him and he messed up so many times that it was just unforgiveable, Rob wouldn't take advice from his mother and he locked her up in a cell.


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  • 2 weeks later...

He wasn't a bad king. He was honourable, he was just, he was successful in battle. But that in itself doesn't mean that the reign will be successful. GRRM has been interviewed saying that one of the themes is that ruling is *hard*, and balancing competing interests extremely difficult. You can be a good king, but still stuff up your reign. Having all the right qualities in a king doesn't mean everyone will lead a happy life, unlike what most fantasy books seem to imply. Robb is GRRM's vehicle for demonstrating this - Robb is an ideal king in almost every way, but his reign is a disaster. This is mainly due to rivalries between northerners, individual ambition, honour conflicting with common sense, and basically being in a no-win situation. Robb's allies are too fragmented and self-interested for his reign to be successful.


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