Did Cat treat Jon Snow like a dog - or not?

[Dr. Pepper]

Really, I'm not sure how Stannis's willingness to burn a child alive is morally equivalent to Cat's avoiding her husband's illegitimate son.

The underlying idea that "Stannis dehumanized Edric, and Cat dehumanized Jon!" is certainly interesting.

But I think we'd all agree that emotionally avoiding a person and blowing up at them once whilst unhinged by grief is not really the same as burning a person alive.

Yes, it's been acknowledged that these things are not the same and one is worse than the other. It doesn't mean that both Stannis and Cat are not experiencing a similar emotional struggle. They are both dehumanizing boys in their castles for different reasons, but they are dehumanizing them just the same.

[Lummel]

...Anyhoo, I think I've found my standard going forward – whenever I face a question I'll ask, What Would Davos Seaworth Do? WWDSD. Sounds like an acronym for a weapon of mass destruction, but it works for me...

It is a good standard. Davos would probably have sent the boy away to sea or maybe the free cities, but as we know that wasn't something that The Ned would have wanted to do.

It is a good example of the long term consequences that past actions have in the world of Westeros and how many of the tragedys we see have deep roots.

[Lyanna Stark]

I just find it baffling that someone could keep that kind of attitude up for 14 years against child who did no wrong. I also find it pretty worrying that people seem to think it's okay to excuse that kind of behaviour.

Why? Is it a moral stain to not automatically love a child, any child, regardless of how it came to end up in your home?

[Lummel]

I just find it baffling that someone could keep that kind of attitude up for 14 years against child who did no wrong. I also find it pretty worrying that people seem to think it's okay to excuse that kind of behaviour.

I don't think that Catelyn is a saint but in this case I think her coldness towards Jon is more than outweighed by the affection he gets from other people in his life. Jon is less disturbed and conflicted by his upbringing than Theon. I'm mystified as to why the Jon-Catelyn relationship is seen as so key. I don't think anybody in the book expects Catelyn to play the mother in Jon's life.

[Ran]

Catelyn wasn't dehumanizing the various servants or grooms she almost certainly never interacted with. Jon being her husband's bastard does not make him someone she needs to interact with. Someone being under her husband's roof does not make them someone she needs to personally interact with.

It's really fairly simple, I think.

[a free shadow]

But that is the fact of the situation. Jon is a bastard and he can't be lord of westeros. There isn't a nice way of expressing that. We know from Bran I AGOT that little Bran is aware of that fact and the poignancy of it.

The incident is important in establishing just how much of a defining fact his bastard status is. On the other hand we don't see Jon and Catelyn grinding their teeth and cursing each other from afar once they have seperated.

There is a way. Like Ned says "not my name, but my blood" or how people say "out of the wedlock". If you want to, you can keep the insult for a child out of it. It would be nice when talking with another child about his friend/brother. I agree that Jon should have known the fact, should have known how people outside his falimly will threat him, but to get a slap through Robb was hard to read about.

I don't understand the comment about grinding teeth.