Roberts love of Lyanna, how real was it?

[HexMachina]

I don't see why people think that he didn't loved her. Some people can love someone whithout spending their lives together. Sure Robert had sex, and? Is sex the meter for someone's love?

Without spending their lives together yes. Barely having met each other? Not so much.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Without spending their lives together yes. Barely having met each other? Not so much.

We don't know that. I have a friend who when he was at university his girlfriend was living abroad and now they are married and he is a sailor he is traveling for 10-11 months each year, people can love a family member who they barely knew and they have died and so on.

[HexMachina]

We don't know that. I have a friend who when he was at university his girlfriend was living abroad and now they are married and he is a sailor he is traveling for 10-11 months each year, people can love a family member who they barely knew and they have died and so on.

Westeros doesn't have the benefit of things like Skype, text messaging etc. By which people can stay in touch. And the way Robert thinks of Lyanna, it's apparent he didn't actually know what she was like, but rather had his own ideas of what she was like. 

[John Doe]

It's not. If I remember correctly the only thing we hear him say about her is that she was more beautiful than a statue of her. 

Its not cheating if they are married.

 

What? A husband is not cheating on his wife if he marries another woman behind her back?

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Westeros doesn't have the benefit of things like Skype, text messaging etc. By which people can stay in touch. And the way Robert thinks of Lyanna, it's apparent he didn't actually know what she was like, but rather had his own ideas of what she was like. 

Only being in a job like that isn't a modern thing. Being a sailor for example is a job which has a history of hundreds of years. The fact that people are able to call or Skype doesn't mean that 50 or 70 years ago they had the same opportunity.

[UnViserion]

So for the simplified version, she hates cheater but it's ok for Rhaegar to cheat as long as it's with Lyanna alone and she also demanded that he abandoned his wife's physical needs ? It's ok to cheat as long as it's not on her ? That's rich, and guess what ? He still a cheater and she's the main accomplish

Put it this way, she knows being cheated on is hurtful and embarassing which was why she didn't seem eager to marry Robert, why did it to another human being ? Right,because the world revolves around her and Rhaegar alone, the other are just noises
That is a hypocritical behavior and selfish, somehow remind me of Caitlyn Jenner's behavior toward the gays

this is my thought on the matter ^^^

[FuzzyJAM]

Only being in a job like that isn't a modern thing. Being a sailor for example is a job which has a history of hundreds of years. The fact that people are able to call or Skype doesn't mean that 50 or 70 years ago they had the same opportunity.

It's possible to build a bond of love and then be separated.  I don't think anyone would deny that.  But the point is, no bond of love was ever created.  It's not that Robert met her, fell in love, and then they were kept apart.  They were never together at any point.  He didn't know her at all.

It's entirely possible to love someone you don't see often if you've already built a bond.  However, I don't think it's possible to have any real love for someone you know nothing about.  

[SilentDystopia]

I wonder if people are so blinded by older Robert (who is a shit person I am not DEFENDING king Robert I only will defend YOUNG Robert) that they can never see an alternative of him actually loving Lyanna like he loves Ned. Being faithful to her and such. Maybe would have started out rocky but grow to appreciate her. It amazes me how (SOME not ALL or MANY) people say that he would be the EXACT same way as he is with Cersei if he married Lyanna. I guess second chances and people change are not in your books then? 

How old is Robert when he has to go to war to save himself and his best friend life? Maybe 18-21? I'm sorry but even I know at that age a man like Robert would love all the ladies and the ladies would love him. 

[Dragonheart]

Well, what's so different between young and old Robert in order for us to tend to believe that he will be an alternative Robert at some point? Or that the reason of his older self was due to the loss of the love of his life? Young Robert was whoring and sowing bastards , older Robert was still whoring and sowing bastards. Young Robert was heavily drinking, older Robert was heavily drinking. Young Robert was claiming that he loved Lyanna and he was having fun like there was no tomorrow, older Robert was claiming that he loved Lyana and he was having fun like there was no tomorrow. This man is clearly described as exactly the same during the events of the books since before Robert's Rebelion till his death and I really fail to understand where some people base their idea that he would change if...

I guess, they just want to believe that because they like him and/or because they are romantic souls. But this has nothing to do with what the books provide us.

[HexMachina]

Only being in a job like that isn't a modern thing. Being a sailor for example is a job which has a history of hundreds of years. The fact that people are able to call or Skype doesn't mean that 50 or 70 years ago they had the same opportunity.

See FuzzyJAM's response below. That bond can exist over distance, yes, but the bond has to develop first. At best Robert had seen Lyanna is passing a few times, and potentially saw her for the first time at the ToHH. He didn't have opportunity to know her, so even if what he felt could be described as love, it was not love for Lyanna, but his idea of Lyanna

It's possible to build a bond of love and then be separated.  I don't think anyone would deny that.  But the point is, no bond of love was ever created.  It's not that Robert met her, fell in love, and then they were kept apart.  They were never together at any point.  He didn't know her at all.

It's entirely possible to love someone you don't see often if you've already built a bond.  However, I don't think it's possible to have any real love for someone you know nothing about.  

[Beautiful Balon]

As real as Rhaegar's love for Lyanna, which I would say not at all. I would assume that both were using Lyanna to fill a whole in themselves. Cersie remarked that Robert had always wanted to be loved, probably because he saw both his parents die when he was fourteen so I'm assuming Robert was just projecting parent issues onto Lyanna. 

 

As for Rhaegar, he was an a very moody dude who was never happy and was obsessed with prophesy. Add in the fact that he was in an arranged marriage and his propensity for making drastic decisions due to prophesy "It seems that i must become a warrior" and it becomes hard for me to view what Rhaegar did as an act of love. It seems morel likely that it was a way to deal with his sadness, an escape from a marriage that was fond but not loving or another one of his drastic decisions influenced by prophecy. Probably a combination of the the three.

 

 

[John Doe]

Well, what's so different between young and old Robert in order for us to tend to believe that he will be an alternative Robert at some point?

Multiple quotes throughout the books, for example by Eddard and Noye.

[purple-eyes]

Robert's love does seem quite shallow. (if it is love)

Before Lyanna's death, he did not impress me as a man in love at all. 

For example, he was not even there with Lyanna for the final tourney. 

We heard him several times in the HH tourney but he was only fighting and drinking, there was zero interaction with Lyanna, just as if they do not know each other. Even Howland Reed did not mention him staying or talking with Lyanna. We did not hear he wore her favor during fighting either. 

If you meet your fiancee whom you also love more than anything else in the world (you do not have much chance to see her frequently), should not you be with her as much as you can? at least for the final competition?

I always feel some undying love in Lyanna is at least partly made as a public relationship thing of robert.

just like Daemon Blackfyre. He needs to romanticize it for support to hide the fact that he is a father of 10 children and Daenerys is also a mother of multiple children and loyal wife. 

He needed to paint himself as a man who rescued his true love by raising a heroic war for her.  

It is not so good for his rule to be called usurper and whore-monger. 

 

[Stuart Littlefinger]

What I find strange is that in spite of apparently being madly in love with Lyanna, Robert never as far as we know screw anybody that resembles her. Now I know he whispered Lyanna's name on his wedding night with Cersei yet strangely enough most of the mistresses or whores he's impregnated had blonde hair or something close to it (like Barra's mother). Even Jorah had a fetish for prostitutes that resembled Dany as a proxy for fucking Dany. Yet Robert didn't seem to ever try to recreate what could have been with Lyanna by fucking girls that specifically looked like her, even though after fifteen years he still seemed pretty sour about not ending up with her.

Personally I think all those women having blonde was just written for convenience by GRRM to help along the whole Cersei's children being bastards thing

[Stuart Littlefinger]

What I find strange is that in spite of apparently being madly in love with Lyanna, Robert never as far as we know screw anybody that resembles her. Now I know he whispered Lyanna's name on his wedding night with Cersei yet strangely enough most of the mistresses or whores he's impregnated had blonde hair or something close to it (like Barra's mother). Even Jorah had a fetish for prostitutes that resembled Dany as a proxy for fucking Dany. Yet Robert didn't seem to ever try to recreate what could have been with Lyanna by fucking girls that specifically looked like her, even though after fifteen years he still seemed pretty sour about not ending up with her.

Personally I think all those women having blonde hair was just written for convenience by GRRM to help along the whole Cersei's children being bastards thing

[John Doe]

Robert's love does seem quite shallow. (if it is love)

Before Lyanna's death, he did not impress me as a man in love at all. 

For example, he was not even there with Lyanna for the final tourney. 

We heard him several times in the HH tourney but he was only fighting and drinking, there was zero interaction with Lyanna, just as if they do not know each other. Even Howland Reed did not mention him staying or talking with Lyanna. We did not hear he wore her favor during fighting either. 

If you meet your fiancee whom you also love more than anything else in the world (you do not have much chance to see her frequently), should not you be with her as much as you can? at least for the final competition?

I always feel some undying love in Lyanna is at least partly made as a public relationship thing of robert.

just like Daemon Blackfyre. He needs to romanticize it for support to hide the fact that he is a father of 10 children and Daenerys is also a mother of multiple children and loyal wife. 

He needed to paint himself as a man who rescued his true love by raising a heroic war for her.  

It is not so good for his rule to be called usurper and whore-monger. 

 

Maybe we heard of no interaction because it goes without saying, and Ned doesn't seem to think it was a pr gag, nor does Robert seem like he would keep such a facade even between just them in the crypts.

[purple-eyes]

Personally I think all those women having blonde hair was just written for convenience by GRRM to help along the whole Cersei's children being bastards thing

I agree. 

 

[Joan Jett]

Westeros doesn't have the benefit of things like Skype, text messaging etc. By which people can stay in touch. And the way Robert thinks of Lyanna, it's apparent he didn't actually know what she was like, but rather had his own ideas of what she was like. 

I agree w/ this 

[TRLR]

It's real...at least in Robert's mind it is.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

It's possible to build a bond of love and then be separated.  I don't think anyone would deny that.  But the point is, no bond of love was ever created.  It's not that Robert met her, fell in love, and then they were kept apart.  They were never together at any point.  He didn't know her at all.

It's entirely possible to love someone you don't see often if you've already built a bond.  However, I don't think it's possible to have any real love for someone you know nothing about.  

See FuzzyJAM's response below. That bond can exist over distance, yes, but the bond has to develop first. At best Robert had seen Lyanna is passing a few times, and potentially saw her for the first time at the ToHH. He didn't have opportunity to know her, so even if what he felt could be described as love, it was not love for Lyanna, but his idea of Lyanna

What I am trying to say is that how someone can love someone else is not like a diagnostic test with sertain criterias. Love works her way in different people with different ways. The fact that some people needs to know someone esle in order to love them doesn't mean that people cannot love someone without knowing him.