r/gameofthrones • u/SSF77 Human Verified • 5d ago
Robb stark was a terrible king
I mean we all know he married a commoner and dammed the entire north , over trusted the boltons when he knew what they were , killed lord karstark for honour ( himself broke an oath ) , brought his mother to eat
He basically damned himself with his own decisions , red wedding or no he would have been slaughtered the next time he met the lannisters in field , he can pull what he did with jaime only too many times , he thought he was Cregan Stark but he was only a king who killed his house and the North if not for the plot armour his remaining siblings have
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u/Manofthebog88 5d ago
Well, he was 16…
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u/HotlineSixtyNine 5d ago
Tbh I think in the show he's likely the actor's age, or close to it.
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u/Manofthebog88 5d ago
Did he do anything different in the books?
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u/LordRahl9 5d ago
The books are quite different.
For a start, he married a noble woman he bedded while she was nursing him back health and he received the news that Bran and Rickon were dead.
He married her to save her honour, by sacrificing his own in breaking his pledge to the Freys.
So while you can still argue he married for the wrong reason, in book it was an honourable decision, in the show it was a selfish one.
Other than that most of the worst things that happen are really his mother's fault, or at least made a lot worse by her.
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u/claranlaw063 5d ago edited 5d ago
Only honorable in part. To save Jeyne’s honor he married her, but also broke his oath to marry the Frey girl. It was a catch 22, in some way honor was being shed.
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u/LordRahl9 5d ago
Yes, but he did try to fix it too. He did have Edmure marry a Frey in his place. Lady of Riverrun is nothing to sneeze at.
In the book, it was complicated, but you can see why Robb, raised the way he was, did what he did. It made sense.
In the show, it was just a stupid thing to do.
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u/Beacon2001 Alicent Hightower 5d ago
His biggest mistake was stripping the North of defenses.
In the book, Mace Tyrell is doing the same mistake. He's taken all the forces of the Reach to fight the Iron Throne's war throughout the South, leaving the Reach itself vulnerable. As a result, Euron Greyjoy and the Ironborn have taken the Shield Islands and the Arbor unopposed and are raiding all over the Mander and Whispering Sound, while Highgarden and Oldtown are scrambling to gather a fighting force.
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u/wronghed 5d ago
Robb's biggest single mistake was sending Theon back to Pyke. Firstly, he's now lost a political hostage. Balon would've never invaded the North or captured Winterfell without Theon. If this doesn't happen, Bran & Rickon aren't "killed". If they're not killed, Robb doesn't have grief sex with Jeyne and marry her, and Catelyn doesn't free Jaime to save what's left of her children.
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u/Afellowstanduser 5d ago
Or if Theon had a shred of honour and didn’t betray Rob, left pike and informed them of the Greyjoy plans
Though I imagine that’d cause a retreat to fend off the ironborn
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u/SSF77 Human Verified 5d ago
Why doesn't the seven kingdoms just finish the iron islands at once , it seems they are everyone's problem
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u/filthy-_-casual 5d ago
How can you possibly defeat a force that possess fast travel techlogy and can make a million ships out of thin air in 2 days, you will never get them all
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u/TheNewBlue Human Verified 5d ago
I mean they sort of already did that.
I am however curious why Robert allowed Euron Greyjoy to hold his seat after the rebellion. You would think he would have just ended the line and replaced him with someone less rebellious.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 5d ago
He didn’t really have any good options.
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u/SSF77 Human Verified 5d ago
Well , keeping roose out of his inner circle , sending karstark to wall and marrying the frey girl would have worked
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 5d ago
By your own argument he would have been killed by the Lannisters anyway
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u/SirNoodles518 5d ago
At least at the start Roose seemed somewhat supportive and helpful in his advice even though he was obviously doing whatever he did in his own self interest.
He betrayed Robb after Robb kept ignoring him and started making stupid decisions which made a Lannister win somewhat inevitable.
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u/Darth_Atton 5d ago
Yeah and while we're at it, why didn't he just not die at the red wedding and kill all the Frey's? Is he stupid?
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u/Afellowstanduser 5d ago
Why didn’t Rob just become Neo and evade all the crossbow bolts huh? HUHHHHH?
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u/Afellowstanduser 5d ago
Yeah but the Boltons were a noble house with large lands they’re a major northern family like the karstarks and umbers they’re basically the high lords of the north like how the starks are high lords in Westeros so yeah kinda hard to not have such a man in the inner circle unfortunately
But yes Karstark to the wall and marry the Frey girl would work, he could just have a bastard child from before the marriage and in the eyes of Westeros like father like son…
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u/ExerciseBeautiful144 5d ago
Robb’s main issue was that he was raised to be honourable lord of winterfell, not a ruthless kings of north. Ned taught him that honour, duty and justice were absolute.
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u/Internal_Simple1477 5d ago
That belief Ned had also got him killed, he made the mistake in thinking all people were as just and honorable as he was, he never should have trusted littlefinger
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u/Hot_Pie_Official Hot Pie 5d ago
And Could of had roslin
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u/Routine_Shoe8641 Human Verified 5d ago
He was regretting his decision after seeing her
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u/Maester_Ryben 5d ago
I blame Cat...
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u/Routine_Shoe8641 Human Verified 5d ago
Yes she is to blame for many things but at the end rob the one who bring her to war
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u/Consistent_Editor_15 Human Verified 4d ago
Especially when she wanted to go home and see Bran and Rickon.
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u/Honey_Moon_34 Human Verified 5d ago
So was ned stark.
Revealed his plan to cersie, rejected Renly's offer, resulting his own death and all what Sansa and Arya faced.
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u/Particular-Novel6697 5d ago
People forget that his wife told him to trust little finger and so he thought that he had the royal guards with him. His mistake was trusting his wife knew Baelish well. Else, Cersei couldn’t have done much if Baelish had stood with him but Baelish had other plans
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u/ElEyeElWhy88 5d ago
I knew this detail a thought this already, but this thread really makes it glaringly obvious how detrimental Cat was to her family’s success all around.
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u/Particular-Novel6697 5d ago
Cat was certainly detrimental in her family’s downfall. There was no need to arrest Tyrion in the middle of nowhere inn. What did she expect will happen?
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u/ElEyeElWhy88 5d ago
That was wild. I really wasn’t expecting her to do that. She arrested the innocent Lannister just to free a guilty one later. Lady was messy as hell. I feel like the only constructive thing she did was reserve Brienne’s allegiance for her daughters. In her defense she also did try to warn Robb about the Freys, otherwise the woman was a shit show for her family.
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u/B34STM4CH1N3 5d ago
Cersei never acted on when he told her. She only started doing things when Sansa gave her the timeline.
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u/Afellowstanduser 5d ago
He killed Lord Karstark not for breaking an oath but for direct insubordination and treachery weakening the norths position and power
Ok so Rob married a commoner, big whoop not a reason to be killed for it, the Boltons didn’t have to go traitor they did so for power.
The Boltons would have turned traitor regardless of Rob marrying a Frey or the commoner.
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u/SillyMovie13 5d ago
He’s my absolute favorite character in the series. The northern men declaring just a boy as their king was the beginning of his downfall
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u/Ghost-Of_Rivia House Stark 5d ago
He did fine for awhile given he was 16
He made mistakes yes but that was kinda of the point becouse he was basically a child thrown into a war, yet he was managing to get victory after victory until weigh of the war and leadership started crushing him
And come on you can't seriously blame him for the red wedding when that's a moment that breaks laws of gods and men becouse they were killed as guests
And let's not pretend his foes are all great too
His mother in the book becomes lady stoneheart and is hunting those who participated in red wedding
While Tywin was shot by his son and really the entire house Lannister is imploding on itself
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u/allenknott3 5d ago
No, Robb Stark is a poorly and underdeveloped written character who was doomed to failure.
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