#I'm on my Rhaegar bullshit again but you're not helping guyss

[la-pheacienne]

I think there's a good chunk of the asoiaf readers/fandom that don't see Lyanna and Rhaegar as this tragic love story and blames Rhaegar about Elia's death and everything because of two things.

First, the sonewhat weird age difference. Lyanna dies at 16, and Rhaegar dies at 24. Meaning they must've run away around, 15 and 23.

But GRRM really isn't very good/reasonable with his female characters age.

And second, because of Rhaegar crowning Lyanna 'Queen of Love and Beauty', and the "humiliation of Elia Martell". And yeah, perhaps not Rhaegar's smoothest moment, but you know... Elia's family is planning a Targaryen Restoration. So, it's complex.

Well, at least I think those are part of the reasons.

Sorry about my English, not my 1st language.

Don't worry for the language nonnie, English isn't my first language either, so I make mistakes all the time, in french too.

So about the age difference, for one, I literally ship Daemyra 😂 While GRRM is weird with the age issue, I don't think there is anything weird in that case, sorry. We are in a faux medieval universe, Lyanna was already betrothed and of age for in universe standards and Rhaegar was still really young. I also shipped Cosette and Marius who fell in love with her when she was like 14? They didn't have sex then but my point is, who cares. In my personal life I have diametrically different standards, but that's fiction.

Rhaegar crowning Lyanna instead of his wife, apart from disrespectful to Elia, was also a naive political move, especially if we take into consideration the political context and what followed afterwards. But in Rhaegar's head, at the moment, it was a gallant gesture of reward to Lyanna for being the Knight of the Laughing Tree, while winning the Northerners favour. It absolutely didn't work, but he believed it would work, because he believed that being gallant and chivalrous was the absolute peak qualities of a Crown Prince.

Him leaving with Lyanna was ethically controversial at best. And I say controversial and not downright bad for two reasons:

1) he was in an arranged marriage, that speaks for itself

2) him running away with Lyanna and sticking to her because he loved her was still more authentic, more honorable even (yes I will go there) than staying with his wife and having mistresses all around, which was oh so common at the time (like Robert). What he chose instead was ultimately much more damaging than just keeping his position and fucking around, of course, but that's what choosing to live in an authentic and truthful way gets you. It can destroy you and those around you. That's the tragedy of it. We now know, after the facts, how catastrophic it was, but in Rhaegar's head at the moment, it was the right thing to do. The foolishness of the act itself is proof of Rhaegar's overall sense of morality and honesty, if he just wanted to fuck and have heirs and keep his position, it would have been so easy for him to do that without risking angering his father and the Northerners, possible exile and a damaged reputation. He could have had it all, quite literally. If he had chosen that, probably the war would have been avoided and everyone would be happier and there would be no ASOIAF, but Rhaegar would then be an unethical person.

I see what Rhaegar did more as an "error of judgement" (in the sense it is used for heroes of greek tragedies), than a "vice".

#rhaegar targaryen #aspa rambles #lyanna stark #anonymous #asoiaf #got #I'm on my Rhaegar bullshit again but you're not helping guyss