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

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I suspect it is the actor as well. Madden does a decent enough job, and Robb is a character it is easy to like - after all he doesn't hang out with weird red priestesses, push children out of the window or tell people to go bugger themselves with a sword.

Which is rather my problem with Robb. Not the fact that he is a decent person, but rather that I find him uninteresting when compared to other, more complex characters like Stannis or Jaime.

As someone who likes Cat I just hope that Robb's popularity won't sidetrack her from the story. Part of what I liked about that part of the narrative was how it showed war from the perspective of a woman who kept loosing her children in struggle, and so you had the glory of war and the Young Wolf on one hand, and Cat desperately trying to rescue her children on the other. I just thought it was a clever way for Martin to comment on the cost and horrors of war. If they focus too much on Robb as the hero I'm afraid they'll loose that.

Re: Rhaegar. I'm fascinated by Rhaegar as a character, but I don't really understand the need to proclaim him as "the best thing ever". Some people in the series think highly of him, to be sure, but if there is one thing ASOIAF has shown is that POV can be misleading. Before I can see how Rhaegar was so grand, I need to know what happened in regards to Lyanna. We're told that he loved her, yet we never really learn of her feelings in the matter. I rather hope it was consensual, but you never know.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is exactly MY problem with Robb: he is not that interesting!

I don't think Cat's story is in danger in teh TV show - the actress doing a great job and has many fans. Even me cranky grumpy me, if not constantly being being told by the fandom how perfect Cat is, I might have even turned into her avid fan (if left to my own devices). ** sigh ** here, I am honest. Michelle Fairley is lovely, I will not lie. She looks like my friend I had ages ago in Russia, and she had a similar character too - very feisty, without really thinking it through.

I assume Rhaegar/Lyanna was consensual , because the story doe not make sense otherwise. it is just like one of those things like I am sure Ned wasn't the father of Ashara's baby.