The reason for Rhaegar Training...

[Tradecraft]

Yes, there's outside influence. 

A lot of respect for lml. 

I'm interested mostly in plot. 

And the way I'm getting the plot is by using the text to analyze itself. 

Comparing characters to each other. Based on imagery and commonalities. 

[astarkchoice]

26 minutes ago, Tradecraft said:

He declined to call Rhaegar a peerless warrior. 

 

I interpreted this differently. It isn't about being a better fighter or jouster. 

It's about his knighthood. His honor. 

He seems to regret doing something dishonorable (which I believe is him losing to Rhaegar on purpose). 

This would rhyme with Lora's Tyrell who cheats at the Hands Tournament. Lora's wears Sapphires mirroring Rhaegar's Rubies. 

 

 

I thought more its barristan starting to side with the idea that you gotta play to win, honour means nothing without results.

Rhaeghar can be called peerless and skilled etc but he still lost so its doesnt mean anything what people called him is what barristan means

As for the other part i thought it was just simple regret at losing , if hed just been a bit sharper hed have won and the war might not have occured. Etc

[Alester Florent]

9 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

As for the other part i thought it was just simple regret at losing , if hed just been a bit sharper hed have won and the war might not have occured. Etc

That's what I got from it, yeah.

I can't imagine Barristan taking a dive, even for his prince. It's possible that he handicapped himself to some extent by deliberately "playing it safe" but mostly I think it's just regret at losing.

We know that towards the top end of jousting the margins can be very fine. It probably wouldn't have taken much for Barristan to have won instead of Rhaegar, and that his victory was plausible makes the "might-have-been" urge all the stronger. I think if he'd taken a dive he'd think about it differently and while he'd blame himself that would be more severe and explicit. As it is I think it's "I wish that had gone differently" rather than "I wish I hadn't made that decision".

[Mourning Star]

On 7/22/2023 at 10:07 PM, James Arryn said:

He had changed his mind.

It seems to me that he changed his mind about being the prince who was promised being himself after learning to use a sword.

On 7/22/2023 at 10:07 PM, James Arryn said:

This is overlooked a lot or wrongly credited to Aemon or w/e, but contrary to this belief that Rhaegar died because he thought himself destined for other things, he changed his mind about his role. Not Aemon, or he’d have said it that way…

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. We get the information through Aemon, but he is speaking about Rhaegar's beliefs.

On 7/22/2023 at 10:07 PM, James Arryn said:

by the the time of the Trident Rhaegar thought Aegon was the PTWP, not himself. And to come to that conclusion at a young age with virtually no one around to consult, operating from old scrolls with, so far as we know, exactly no one else even thinking about zombie apocalypses…that speaks of a very different kind of man than the one I think you’re suggesting. 

I'm not sure what kind of man you think I'm suggesting.

 "As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father's knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.'"

When Rhaegar was a young boy it seems like he still believed the prophesy was about him and this is why he "must be a warrior."