Canon Claude

I mean, if that’s how kids are raised, to treat that as normal, then maybe they don’t care? I just finished reading “The Marsh King’s Daughter” and that book is told from the perspective of a girl who was raised in isolation by a mother who was being held captive, raped, and abused by the protagonist’s father, and she’s totally on board with it as a normal occurrence. It made me wonder about Rhaegar’s psychology. Sure, he’s not living in a vacuum, but this isn’t a feminist paradise we’re talking about, here. And he himself isn’t the nicest to his own wife, all things considered.

There’s always been this furious debate concerning Rhaegar and whether he was a hero, villain, something in between. But one thing I never hear being discussed by either his detractors or supporters is his position regarding the continued abuse of his mother by his father. We see the visceral impact it has on Jaime, how it helped push him to drive a sword through the king later on. But as far as I know, GRRM never really gave a clue about what living in such an abusive household did to Rhaegar. Did he not know? Did he ignore it? Did he ever object, or even challenge his father? Is that a reason why Aerys hated him so much later on? The only hints we really get are the fact that Rhaegar kept his family away from Aerys after Aerys made that racist jab, and of course the potential idea that Rhaegar was conspiring to remove Aerys from power.

Well said, though all that does remind me how weird it is that there’s no cadet branches of House Stark. Or House Baratheon and Tully for that matter.

That’s not technically true. Barbrey Dustin claims that she only sent a low number of troops to Robb, and we can assume that House Roswell did something similar.

Well, the first person suggested it, in fairness.

It makes sense to me. Rickard wants his heir to be fostered in the North, the place he’ll be ruling. Why not see more of it and understand the people better? Ned spent half his time touring the North and taking a hands on approach with ruling, so we can assume he must have learned that from either his dad or from Jon Arryn, or both. As to why send Ned to the Vale: why not? Rickard has little to lose and everything to gain by sending a second son out of the North. Plus it’s in Ned’s best interests if he wants to leave the North and seek his own fortune elsewhere, as the above guy alluded. House Dayne was willing to marry off a daughter to House Dondarrion, why not House Stark? And again, as has already been said, there’s no guarantee Ned will live in the North. He could very well have moved to the Stormlands and served Robert. Maybe he would have been able to start a cadet branch, we know how generous Robert is to his friends. Sure, but Ned was the one who did it. That’s how things worked out.

No need to get so defensive and patronizing. I never insulted your intelligence, I was asking for clarification of your arguments.

I’m confused. You use genetics and biology to justify Aerys not being Rhaegar’s father, and then you later claim that GRRM’s world isn’t meant to be realistic when it comes to the same subjects in order for boys and girls to procreate as 12 and 13 year olds. Plus, I doubt that sexual attraction to very young girls is an hereditary trait.

Was he? Where did it say that?

Out of curiosity, what draws you to that pair?

It doesn’t really matter what Stannis, Aegon, or anyone would want to do. The Lannisters are safe and sound inside a literal mountain that dragons couldn’t bring down. If the Starks needed two whole years to bring down the Dreadfort, I don’t even want to know how long a siege of Casterly Rock would last. And besides, it’s considered a very bad idea to replace a lord paramount. Rhaenyra practically lost her war once she started talking about replacing House Baratheon and House Lannister. And does anyone really think House Bolton or House Baelish will actually keep their newly won statuses by the end of the series? House Lannister won’t fall. They’ve been in charge way too long for that.

So you’re saying that Orton Merryweather is sowing discord by putting an obvious candidate for the Faith Militant in a powerful position in the Riverlands to upset the peace? That House Merrywearher is in league with the Golden Company? For some reason, I somehow missed that while reading. Is it a theory or canon?

While I certainly believe that Robert would beggar the realm with all his feasting and hunting, I can’t help but wonder whether he really could manage to spend six million dragons in fifteen years. We know that Robert, while a hedonist, was not a materialist. He didn’t give a damn about fancy stuff or owning a lot of possessions. He was given all sort of knives as gifts, but he only ever used the plain knife that Jon Arryn gave him. Things like that, plus the sort of men who held positions at his court, make me wonder whether it wasn’t so much Robert spending money as it was the others spending money under his nose. First, there’s Renly. Unlike Robert, Renly IS a materialist. He likes to dress well, for example, and we all know how expensive the world of fashion can be. I don’t know how much revenue the Lord of Storm’s End can demand, but I imagine it’s not that much. The Stormlands have no cities, nor are they very large. They’re more like the North than the other Seven Kingdoms in that they are a warrior culture which is more focused on rural lifestyles. So it wouldn’t surprise me if Renly was dipping into his big brother’s wallet for a few of his purchases. Janos Slynt is another corrupt guy to consider. Stannis brings up Janos’ corruption to Robert himself, and Robert just laughs it off. Again, no knowing how much money he was taking for himself, but there’s no denying that he was taking something for himself. The biggest contender, though, is Littlefinger. He’s the man with the books, the man who’s borrowing from everyone and manipulating the figures to suit his own ends. There’s no telling how much money he’s taken for himself, given how he’s never worried about debt or money. Whatever happens to the realm, he’s secured himself at least a dozen nest-eggs hidden away like a demented Machiavellian Easter Bunny. and yes, I do get that since Robert was in charge, so the buck stops with him, but like Ned said in the first book, it’s hard to imagine him spending all that money himself. I can definitely imagine why he’d want to ignore Stannis’ nagging, but Jon Arryn was supposedly his father figure, and it’s weird to think that Robert would blatantly ignore him too. Otherwise, why would Stannis even talk to Jon about the illegitimate kids?

The title is self explanatory. Given how many great characters are dead, and thus won’t be able to interact anymore, no doubt there’s a bunch of missed opportunities that you would have loved to read about. Any in particular, though?

Who was left to rally? And how could they hold off the armies of the Reach?