#the insistence that Rhaegar did nothing wrong is factually incorrect

[moonlitgleek]

@honeybubblepop reblogged your post and added:

Ok fact Rhaegar was NOT fighting for his father at all at the trident he fought Robert for the throne! Rhaegar already had plans to over throw the mad king before he ran off with Lyanna (there are so many clues in the book and tv show, but Rhaegar wanted a peaceful solution to the problem not a war) Also Rhaegar was fighting to protect his family both of them from whatever harm could have come and he failed because it was his death that brought on the sack of kings landing by house Lannister…There’s nothing that would suggest Rhaegar meant for his father to keep the throne Rhaegar himself wanted Aerys to go into retirement which was what he was trying to do at the tourney of harrenhal. He fought for his house but in the end he failed …Also pretty sure she didn’t give a fuck at the time and could distinguish between the man whose child she was having and what he stood for as a person(after all they did spend almost a year together) and his father who at the time was insane.

Regardless of what his personal opinion on the matter was, Rhaegar returning from Dorne to take up arms against the rebels is him fighting in his father’s name. You can’t say that he was not fighting for Aerys when it was Aerys who sat the throne and whom the royalists were fighting in the name of. Rhaegar did not condemn his father’s brutality or try to communicate to the rebels that he saw the murder of over half a dozen nobles as a crime that irrevocably delegitimized the king for he broke the feudal contract their society is built on. He did not move against Aerys with the understanding that his actions were a gross offense that needed to be rectified immediately. Instead he declared for his father and took the field against the rebels which amounts to a very public statement on whose side he was on and who he thought worth defending. His disapproval of Aerys’ actions was only voiced to Jaime Lannister and was immediately belied by his actions - by riding to meet the people injured by his father’s crimes on the field and treating the loss of life that decision resulted in as an acceptable price for keeping the throne. Rhaegar’s personal opinion is worthless in that context; the fact remains that in his capacity as crown prince, Rhaegar took a very clear political stance on the rebellion and followed it with the decisive action of fighting in Aerys’ name. Leading his father’s forces meant that Rhaegar was declaring his position which was that this rebellion deserved to be condemned and fought against, that the rebels were traitors to the crown and that his father’s actions were to be defended. Rhaegar actively supported Aerys on the field, sending a message to the rebels that he unequivocally supported his father’s actions, from executing nobles without a trial to the death sentence for Ned and Robert to his demand of Jon Arryn to break guest right. It’s made worse by the fact that Aerys committed murder over the course of refusing to hold Rhaegar accountable for his own violations so the image they presented to the rebels was that of the king and crown prince breaking every code of conduct and every law in the land to defend each other’s right to do whatever they wanted - a circle jerk that communicated one message: “the law does not apply to House Targaryen. We can do whatever we want to you without any recompense because you don’t have the right to object to our actions. Kick rocks.”

So Rhaegar having a personal opinion that what Aerys did was ill done? It isn’t good enough. It isn’t enough, period. His actions are what matter because they are what represent his dearly held beliefs and his priorities. And Rhaegar’s priority was the throne, even if he stepped on thousands of corpses to ensure he did not lose it. The lives that were lost was little more than collateral damage to him, a necessary evil so that he could keep his royal power. That’s selfish. That’s borderline tyrannical. That’s a man caught up in the illusions of a grand destiny that he lost sight of the people he claimed the right to rule. Saving lives shouldn’t be a worthy cause only when there are ice zombies and dragons involved, and the thousands that died because of Rhaegar’s decisions matter just as much as those currently under siege by the Others.

Another thing that was no way near enough was Rhaegar’s plans to overthrow Aerys. I’m honestly so tired of giving him credit for that since it’s his own inaction that caused everything that happened. Aerys’ sanity had been deteriorating for years, he’d had two noble houses completely eradicated just a few years earlier, he was a pyromaniac that was growing close to the Alchemist’s Guild and Rossart. Rhaegar knew all of that but he failed to take any decisive action to amend any of it. Oh he had plans - plans that he threw away for absolutely no reason when he chose to vanish with Lyanna. Rhaegar squandered his responsibility as crown prince when he watched an unfit king with glaring mental health issues be a menace and danger to the realm for years but did nothing.  He knew his father shouldn’t be on the throne, had some plans that we don’t know the extent of but that sound solid enough to be viable, but he failed to act on those plans.... until apparently half the continent was in open rebellion that happened, in no small part, due to Rhaegar’s own inaction and political ineptitude. He was only prepared to do something about it in the same scene he was gearing up to go defend his father’s right to burn people alive. He made it very clear that he was ready and willing to kill a few thousand people for the throne, including the very same people whose families his father brutalized, including the brother of the girl he left pregnant back in Dorne. And say what you will about Robert Baratheon but he’d done nothing to deserve to be killed to satisfy Aerys’ paranoia or to make way for Rhaegar’s kingship. That says a whole lot about Rhaegar and his conceptions of justice, morality and responsibility, whether personal or political. I’m sorry but I’m done giving Rhaegar credit for having plans or opinions that his actions went squarely against, especially when it was him that made the situation even worse and effectively undermined his own plans by his stunt with Lyanna.

Also Rhaegar was fighting to protect his family both of them from whatever harm could have come and he failed because it was his death that brought on the sack of kings landing by house Lannister.

There is a difference between fighting for his family and fighting for his throne. Rhaegar was the one who put his family in danger with his actions so I’m not at all convinced or moved by the argument that he was fighting to protect his family. For one, Rhaegar did not even think that his family was in danger as his words to Jaime imply. “When the battle’s done I mean to call a council”. He did not even entertain the thought of losing and what that could mean to his family. But far more importantly, it was Rhaegar himself who put his family in that awful position by his failure to move against Aerys, by his disappearance with Lyanna for months, leaving his mentally unstable father to deal with the fallout and forcing the Starks into a confrontation with Aerys which led to the rebellion, by leaving Elia and her children under his father’s thumb. The entire situation was of Rhaegar’s creation; his actions with Lyanna are what made that first domino piece fall. He vanished with Lyanna -> Brandon rode to King’s Landing -> Aerys killed Brandon, Rickard and their companions, sent the order for Robert and Ned’s head and at one point recalled Elia and the children from Dragonstone -> the rebellion happened -> Rhaegar returned to continue the conflict -> Robert was acclaimed -> Rhaegar lost and the sack happened. Take out Rhaegar’s stunt with Lyanna and his family would be sitting on Dragonstone safe and sound and the rebellion doesn’t happen. To make it worse, Rhaegar willfully left Elia and her children vulnerable to his father while he gallivanted to Dorne to impregnate a 15-year-old, he left them again as glorified hostages in the Red Keep knowing what he knew of his father’s paranoia and racism. Let’s not paint him as the sacrificing family man who had no recourse but to go to war. Rhaegar had options but he did not care to follow any of them.

Also pretty sure she didn’t give a fuck at the time and could distinguish between the man whose child she was having and what he stood for as a person(after all they did spend almost a year together) and his father who at the time was insane.

Didn’t give a fuck about who exactly. About Ned who was in the field to bring justice for their murdered family and to defend his own life since Aerys had a pesky death sentence issued for him? About Robert who she might not have liked but that does not mean she wanted him dead when he’d done nothing wrong? About all the Northmen who rose in the name of her family and to avenge her murdered father and brother? About her friend Howland Reed, or about Martyn Cassel and Old Nan’s sons who were probably a part of the Stark household? No, please, do tell me who it is that Lyanna did not give a fuck about, the same Lyanna who stood up for Howland Reed simply because he was her father’s man, the same Lyanna who loved her family, was protective of her people and sensitive to injustice. Are you trying to tell me that Lyanna just simply shrugged when she learned that Rhaegar was going to war against her own brother in the name of the guy who murdered her father and other brother?

Oh but Rhaegar disagreed with Aerys. I’m sure this would have meant the world for the families of those who died because of him. It would have meant everything to Lyanna, Benjen, Catelyn and as-of-yet unborn Robb if Ned had fallen at the Trident. It would have meant everything to Jon Arryn whose nephew was killed in King’s Landing and whose foster sons could have died and would have died in the case of Targaryen victory. Sure, Rhaegar was going to lead an army against the rebels, forcibly subjugate them, dismiss their rights and basic justice, handwave his own complicity in the whole matter while affirming that a king can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants which pushes the realm into absolute monarchy, but for some reason everyone and their cat should really appreciate that he didn’t like what Aerys had done, even when he was upholding and compounding his father’s crimes.