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Can Somebody Explain House Dustin to me?


Lopsang

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Honestly, I never really picked up on them much in my reading. I'll have to do a re-read at some point. But what's so great about House Dustin? Who is Lady Dustin? Why is she that important? Can somebody just give me some background?


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Lady Dustin is the husband of Willam Dustin, who fought at the Tower of Joy with Ned Stark. Lady Dustin hates Ned and the Starks because he only brought Lord Dustin's great red stallion back instead of his bones.



Also Roddy the Ruin was a Dustin, and thats enough to make them a badass house.



Edit: can't forget about Roddy


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Lady Dustin (when single) was a (probably one of the many) lover of Brandon Stark. Her father, who wanted her married to a Stark, looked like he wasn't very against this. According to her, Brandon was marrying Cat due to his father "southron ambitions" but he didn't like her. Because of course, Brandon was going to tell her "see, darling, you're just a fling. Byes". As, apparently, it was the Maester who suggested the idea to Rickard Stark, she also hates them all, those rats.

When Brandon died, she kinda hoped to marry Ned, but he married Catelyn instead. So, she grew resentful of the Starks (she says), and Cat, as she lost two men to her, the evil seductress. Then she married Lord Dustin, and the Rebellion started. He was summoned by Ned to go South and he was one of the seven men who were to the Tower of Joy (including Ned and Howland Reed) and he died there. Ned returned his horse to Lady Dustin, who now blamed him for taking her husband away, I mean, who did he think he was? Bringing his sister's bones but not those of some guy who married the girl Brandon dishonoured? Pfff...

Lady Dustin's sister was married to Roose Bolton. She was the mother of Domeric Bolton, the son of Roose that Ramsay allegedly murdered. So, there is no much love for Roose now that he has legitimised Ramsay.

Anyway, she kinda bonded with Theon, as both they wanted to be Starks. She claims she hates them for that and Ned's bones are now somewhere. She went with Theon to the Winterfell crypts and notices there are swords who are gone missing, one of them was Brandon's. Many believe this means she's there to check up that it's true that the Stark kids are alive, and if there is any kind of Northern Conspiracy, she's on. Either way, now we know that either Rickon or Bran have Brandon Stark's symbolic penis on their hands. Nice.

Also, she said this:

Barbrey: Lord Wyman is not the only one who lost kin at your Red Wedding, Frey. Do you imagine Whoresbane loves you any better? If you did not hold the Greatjon, he would pull out your entrails and make you eat them, as Lady Hornwood ate her fingers. Flints, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates … they all had men with the Young Wolf.

Roger: House Ryswell too. Even Dustins out of Barrowton.

Barbrey: The north remembers, Frey.

So, she's kinda cool.

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Ok; so let me recap what you just said.



House Dustin is a Northern house, and Lady Dustin is it's prime character in the novels. Dustin is embittered towards the Starks/the North because she blames them for her nephew's and husband's deaths. She came to Winterfell in the first place to essentially determine whether or not Bran and Rickon were really dead or not, but she came on the pretext of being in Roose's party or whatever. She doesn't like the Freys either because they killed some Dustins at the Red Wedding.


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Some think so.



Or she's just along with Roose because he is her brother in law. Perhaps she will betray her later, or already is. (And she acknowledges that Roose himself does not fully trust her, or anyone else).



I guess it matters how much she really does blame Eddard Stark - I think she loved Brandon Stark, and was perhaps loved by him as well. It is a tragedy for her that she never got to marry a Stark, but logically there would be lots of people to blame that are not Eddard Stark. She hates the maesters, that much is for certain.

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Ok; so let me recap what you just said.

House Dustin is a Northern house, and Lady Dustin is it's prime character in the novels. Dustin is embittered towards the Starks/the North because she blames them for her nephew's and husband's deaths. She came to Winterfell in the first place to essentially determine whether or not Bran and Rickon were really dead or not, but she came on the pretext of being in Roose's party or whatever. She doesn't like the Freys either because they killed some Dustins at the Red Wedding.

She's in WF for the wedding of Ramsay, like everybody else. He's marrying "Arya", after all. Her actions, whatsoever, doesn't look like loyalty to the Boltons, tough. We can't tell.
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Ok; so let me recap what you just said.

House Dustin is a Northern house, and Lady Dustin is it's prime character in the novels. Dustin is embittered towards the Starks/the North because she blames them for her nephew's and husband's deaths1. She came to Winterfell in the first place to essentially determine whether or not Bran and Rickon were really dead or not, but she came on the pretext of being in Roose's party2 or whatever. She doesn't like the Freys either because they killed some Dustins at the Red Wedding.

Or is she? There is some sort pretext, but ask your self this, Why would she tell Ramsey whipping boy, what she really thought of either the Starks, or Bolton houses? While she is up to something, there are too many questions about what she is doing, and why are questions we don't have answers for.

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The defining statement that is usually taken as affirmation of her hatred toward the Starks is actually anything but that. Read her statement carefully:



"It just so happens that all my favorite Starks are dead."



Look at the careful wording used.



That statement is not saying that she prefers Starks to be dead. It is actually saying the opposite. It is simply saying that she had some favourite Starks, but they are now dead. In fact, it is even hinting at the fact that she is upset about that fact.



She is playing the long game. And that game is some version of the Great Northern Conspiracy.


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I'm not sure that Barbrey is as much anti-Stark as she is consumed with her antipathy towards Eddard. She blames him for the bitter life she's had since her husband died at the TOJ but that's a far way from saying she want's all the Starks dead (though at this point she probably believes that they all are). Her "alliance" with the Boltons is probably because they're temporarily the strongest house left in the North and have the backing of the Freys and the Crown (and good luck on any support from the south getting past the crannogmen in The Neck if Bolton has to call on the Freys for more help when things go bad for him). If Stannis wins or if Sansa comes out of hiding and announces herself Lady of the North, and the other Northern houses align with either of them, she'll probably take House Dustin along with them. She doesn't appear to be particularly stupid so she probably won't sacrifice her house's existence by staying with Roose once the Bolton support begins to collapse. Her hatred of Ned seems to be a sticking point with her though so the odds of Ned's bones ever getting to the crypts in Winterfell might be no better than 50-50 if Barbrey has her way.


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Lady Dustin (when single) was a (probably one of the many) lover of Brandon Stark. Her father, who wanted her married to a Stark, looked like he wasn't very against this. According to her, Brandon was marrying Cat due to his father "southron ambitions" but he didn't like her. Because of course, Brandon was going to tell her "see, darling, you're just a fling. Byes". As, apparently, it was the Maester who suggested the idea to Rickard Stark, she also hates them all, those rats.

When Brandon died, she kinda hoped to marry Ned, but he married Catelyn instead. So, she grew resentful of the Starks (she says), and Cat, as she lost two men to her, the evil seductress. Then she married Lord Dustin, and the Rebellion started. He was summoned by Ned to go South and he was one of the seven men who were to the Tower of Joy (including Ned and Howland Reed) and he died there. Ned returned his horse to Lady Dustin, who now blamed him for taking her husband away, I mean, who did he think he was? Bringing his sister's bones but not those of some guy who married the girl Brandon dishonoured? Pfff...

Lady Dustin's sister was married to Roose Bolton. She was the mother of Domeric Bolton, the son of Roose that Ramsay allegedly murdered. So, there is no much love for Roose now that he has legitimised Ramsay.

Anyway, she kinda bonded with Theon, as both they wanted to be Starks. She claims she hates them for that and Ned's bones are now somewhere. She went with Theon to the Winterfell crypts and notices there are swords who are gone missing, one of them was Brandon's. Many believe this means she's there to check up that it's true that the Stark kids are alive, and if there is any kind of Northern Conspiracy, she's on. Either way, now we know that either Rickon or Bran have Brandon Stark's symbolic penis on their hands. Nice.

Also, she said this:

Barbrey: Lord Wyman is not the only one who lost kin at your Red Wedding, Frey. Do you imagine Whoresbane loves you any better? If you did not hold the Greatjon, he would pull out your entrails and make you eat them, as Lady Hornwood ate her fingers. Flints, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates … they all had men with the Young Wolf.

Roger: House Ryswell too. Even Dustins out of Barrowton.

Barbrey: The north remembers, Frey.

So, she's kinda cool.

Did she not lose a nephew to the RW also?

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Thanos



The antipathy towards Eddard is the attitude she presents to Theon. We don't know if it is in fact a true reflection of her views.



And lets go one step further. Even in that conversation with Theon, she drops some hints about Lyanna loving to ride horses in the Barrowlands or something along those lines.



So we don't know if maybe Lyanna was her favorite Stark of all. Maybe they were close. And once she finds out that Jon is Lyanna's child, well...


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I find it unlikely that she is angry at the Freys for the red wedding but not at the Boltons who were pretty damn obviously involved.

Yep. There's zero chance that Manderly, Umber and Lady Fustin don't know Roose was involved. His forces and his own self were the only ones to come back unmolested + Tywins backing. Enter the GNC.

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Also, there were like 3000 Bolton soldiers involved in the slaughter. Most of them just following orders and not knowing why they did what they did.



Does anyone seriously imagine that all of these 3000 guys are keeping their mouths shut when drinking, whoring, gambling or just loitering with other commonfolk?



News must have spread like wildfire. There is no way to keep a lid on this kind of thing.


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