Friendly Reminders That Robert Baratheon

Friendly reminders that Robert Baratheon

did not go to war for Lyanna Stark’s pussy. He went to war because Aerys demanded the heads of himself, Ned and Jon after killing his best friend’s father and brother unlawfully and cruelly. He was done with this mad asshole. He did nothing to start war when Lyanna was kidnapped. 

was strong, handsome and a fearsome fighter. Was just generally fucking amazing. 

made people love him instead of hate or fear him. He would make friends of his enemies instead of imprisoning them or y’know, burning them alive. This is what true rulers do. 

trusted his friends and people who worked for him. He let Ned go on ahead to take the Throne for him and he trusted Jon Arryn to be wiser than he was.

told his Maester to attend Barristan Selmy, despite the fact that Robert himself was so grievously wounded he couldn’t travel to take the Throne and Barristan had fought on the other side: the side of Rhaegar who he apparently hated ‘beyond reason’. Sounds like it, huh? 

never actually wanted power. He had no want to be the King but he was the only one who started the rebellion and the one everyone wanted to take the Crown. He hated his reign and yet, it was an amazingly peaceful time for the Realm. He just wanted the realm safe from the Targaryen’s tyranny. 

Hating the Throne turned him bitter, to a drunk who had no time for his wife or children, and who could be abusive towards them and servants. He wasn’t a bad guy at all, and he wasn’t some insane love-sick asshole either. 

Robert Baratheon is amazing, thank you. 

Addam & Jon Parallels: 8/?

Sentinel at the The Dragonpit/The Wall

Jon describing Alys’ mannerism on tears like Arya’s.

“My uncle declared for Stannis, in hopes it might provoke the Lannisters to take poor Harry’s head. Should my brother die, Karhold should pass to me, but my uncles want my birthright for their own. Once Cregan gets a child by me they won’t need me anymore. He’s buried two wives already.” She rubbed away a tear angrily, the way Arya might have done it. “Will you help me?”

Meanwhile, the actual Arya behaves exactly the same way:

[…]Arya lowered her face to stare sullenly at her plate. She could feel tears stinging her eyes. She rubbed them away angrily, determined not to cry.

My babies! Jon knows Arya so well!

So let me get this straight.

If I believe that a particular character should be ruler/would be a good ruler/would have been a good ruler/deserves to be ruler/will probably end up being ruler/was unfairly deprived of their rulership, be it dany, or jon, or rhaenyra or rhaegar or arya or bran or stannis the mannis (ew) or my neighbour or your mother or whomever the hell you want them to be, I am classist. And royalist. And conservative. And going against the themes of asoiaf. Because no one can fix westeros, because there are no good rulers/there can be no good rulers/rulership is inherently bad/inherently moraly wrong/ the throne is doomed to be destroyed because it is the root of all evil-

But somehow if you believe that one particular character, coincidentally your fave, will probably be a ruler (queen in the north or in any other position of FEUDAL power- ruling is not just reserved to the iron throne btw), or that she should be a ruler or that she would be a good ruler, you are somehow not classist or royalist or conservative.

Can somebody tell me why that is? What is the justification behind your speculation in the first place? Why will she/why should she be a ruler? Because she deserves it? Because she has been through so much? Because she's strong and powerful and resilient? Okay? So, the only meaningful difference between your take and my take is that I actually (naively!) have faith in the possibility that a character that has been established again and again as a progressive and radical leader could possibly contribute to a meaningful radical collective change in the world while you just consider rulership as a prize, as a reward for individual struggle? And somehow that makes me more conservative? That makes me a classist? Besties, it is literally the other way round.

I don't even hate that character. I am pretty neutral towards her, I would even say that I am sympathetic towards her. And I actually believe she will end up in a position of power (not queen in the north but a position of power nonetheless). Yes, in a position of feudal power, that's what I mean, that's the only real power any character could ever have in a book series that is set in a pseudomedieval world. But you need to be very careful before you start throwing around classism and royalism and conservatism accusations at people for actively engaging with a pseudomedieval fantasy (fantasy!!) book series whose entire foundation is the question "what is a good leader?", "what makes a good leader?", "how does someone become a good leader?", "how could this system become slightly better?", "what are the powers that stop any real progress? how can these powers be defeated?" The answers to these questions in asoiaf are not easy or automatic. But they exist. All of these questions have answers in the text. Concrete, solid answers, whether you like it or not. Believing in the truth of those answers simply means we engage with the themes of the (fictional!) story. It simply makes us fans of the text. It does not make us stupid or naive, and it definitely does not make us conservative.

There is nothing that I despise more in this fandom than the double standard of "oh you are so lame if you actually believe someone could/will be a good ruler, nobody should be king or queen, meanwhile let's talk about my fave's ruling arc" (asoiaf version), or "oh you are so lame if you actually believe a particular character should have been ruler and not the other, that makes you a classist and we're not, all sides are bad because monarchy, meanwhile let's dedicate 99,9% of our posts explaining why one side is wrong. One specific side. Entirely coincidentally, since we do not take sides" (fire and blood version).

The meaningful difference between these two fandom "factions" is that one is honest and openly engages with the themes of the story in an organic and positive and hopeful way, while the other is just this annoying group of college kids repeating the same, holier-than-thou, pseudo-intellectual takes ad infinitum to appear smarter than anyone else while carefully concealing their obvious bias.

I can’t say I’m immune to Kit’s puppy eyes but god show did my boy Jon dirty. He isn’t some brooding ultimate Good Guy perfect hero he is like teenage manager who runs starbucks like it’s the navy and is always one bad thing away from having a full on breakdown in the bathroom. but he actually is running the navy

She wondered if he would still call her “little sister.” I’m not so little anymore. He’d have to call me something else. -ASOS, Arya VIII (insp. x, x)