On Robb Stark

[alexandral]

Dear friends, I am so sorry for the second day of ranting but I feel compelled to tell you all what I think about this over-celebrated character because some discussion on over-celebrated characters arisen in yesterday’s comments.

Disclaimer: These are just my thoughts, and I do not hold the right to absolute truth and welcome discussion. To tell you the truth, this week is the week students are back to Universities, and I am having a case of a terrible cranky. Did I tell you I work in one of UK Universities (in Information services department as "systems analyst" which is another word for database programmer)? I hate the first "back to school" weeks mostly because the traffic becomes unbearable. The situation evens out a bit later on (it is known that one only attends their lectures in September and October), but late September and October is a killer traffic-wise.

So: What about Robb?

One of the most puzzling (to me) phenomena that I see on LJ is immense popularity of Robb Stark. Recently, I have made few polls in LJ ASOIAF communities and he always tends to be near the top. To me personally, this character (although quite sympathetic) never held too much value, because:

- He is not a main character
- He is not even a POV character
- There is nothing too interesting or too special about him. He is quite good at strategic thinking but in the books it is quite clear that at least half of his success was due to Catelyn uncle’s (Brynden Tully ) participation in his campaign.
- He slept with a girl when he agreed to be married to another person
- He broke the word given to a very dangerous bunch of people (which was criminally silly)
- This led to thousands of his men, his mother, and even his wolf dying a terrible death.

I have been trying to think of explanations for his popularity, but all I could gather is:

- Robb is played by a young attractive male actor. Is this a good enough reason? I will not go as far as claim any "sexism!" or "ageism!" or any other explanations, but one wonders. :D But if I have ever seen an over-celebrated character, it is Robb in my opinion.

PS: BTW, I think Robert Madden is fabu!

PS2: I think Rhaegar and other "white knights" are also over-celebrated, just not as much. For one thing, Rhaegar was the Crown Prince

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think your description of him is just the same as I understand him. I like the guy: he is a good brother (he is the one to remember poor neglected Rickon when all the rest of the family as much as forgotten the boy), he is nice to Jon and Bran and his sisters. he is a good son and good to his mother.

But he is not the main character, and never will be.

i am surprised by your comment that many book readers are big fans of his.

I mean - i did the polls in LJ community that is primary book community (as opposed to TV show community) and he is always among the top characters.

[geeklee.livejournal.com]

oops. you were already replying to me when i edited my comment. sorry :O