I don’t understand all the people with feels over Robb Stark. It doesn’t seem like he’s got a whole lot of personality and, despite winning a lot of battles, he doesn’t really do anything all that interesting. I’m not that invested in Robb. I mean, I care that Catelyn cares about him, but I don’t care about him in his own right.
Point of interest: Robb is the only Stark besides Rickon who never gets a POV chapter, and Rickon is three years old.
I’m going to assume we’re talking about book!Robb since we’re discussing POV chapters and whatnot, so that’s where I’m going to go with this discussion. If you mean show Robb, sweetheart I can’t help you, he’s all kinds of backwards I don’t even pretend to understand and we’re in the same boat lol although he’s rather pretty to look at and does this thing where he has eyesex with any person he shares a scene with so, I suppose that’s a redeeming quality? -shrug- Anyways,
~Spoiiiileeerssss!~
Reasons why I personally think Robb is fucking awesome, in order of appearance:
1) The first time we meet Robb is at a moment when he is fighting to control the childish impulse of fear and disgust at the beheading of a man by his own father’s hands. This is important for two reasons, a) because we get a glimpse at what Robb’s life is like, being the eldest son of a Lord/the expectations placed on his shoulders simply by fate of birth, b) we see how he deals with these expectations (and we see later as well), we see that he wants so much to be the son his father needs him to be, he wants so much to be good enough, to gain his father’s approval, to uphold the family name (and can we take a moment to appreciate that the family name has thousands of years of well-known tradition behind it…that’s a lot to live up to), but that at heart, he’s really just a boy who likes to have fun. Still, when he needs to, and probably more than necessary, he pushes that side of himself down to be the man he feels he has to be, even though he’s only fourteen. Obviously because he’s fourteen he struggles with this a lot, but it’s the struggling itself that makes him so compelling.
2) It’s consistently spoken of in the books how amazing Robb was as a brother. I feel like Robb tried really hard to be a good enough son because it was expected of him, because he needed the approval. But he strived hard to be a good eldest brother to five siblings (six if you count Theon, who even though he wasn’t flesh and blood was still around in a familial sense) because he wanted to be. I think he took a lot of pride and joy in teaching and playing with and protecting his siblings. We see him challenge Jon at a horse race, we read of practical jokes he played on the children that they remember fondly, we read of Robb encouraging Bran, of Sans a holding her brother up on a pedestal (I will always believe it is Robb and only Robb that Sansa drew her ideal knight fantasy around. She never knew any other boys before she left Winterfell and she believed so firmly that young men were honest and good and gentle and loving and handsome. No one can convince me that this fantasy wasn’t an assumption based on growing up around Robb. Even after that fantasy is shattered, Sansa continues to have faith that somehow Robb will come swooping in and rescue her. It really says a lot about their relationship and his influence on the lives of his brothers and sisters). Jon never stops waxing poetic about Robb (but then that’s a whole other discussion, considering how firmly I also believe Robb and Jon were more than just best friends/brothers). Anyone who’s been and eldest sibling understands the hardship of it if you actually put the effort in to be a good example and a positive force in the lives of your younger siblings while still trying to balance being a good kid for your parents. Maybe it sounds trite to the kids who weren’t eldest siblings but it’s a very difficult life. From an extremely young age you’re thrust into the role of half-parent, forever stuck in this weird place where you never get to really be carefree anymore but you never get to be fully grown up either. Often you’re the child who knows the truth when your parents are upset/scared, when things go wrong. Often you’re the one helping everyone both younger and older than you simply because there is no one else. And often no one else can possibly understand what it’s like because you’re the lone bridge between ‘kids’ and ‘parents’. Now add that to the responsibilities and future expectations of being the eldest heir of a ruling house…yeah. Suddenly he’s not so two dimensional.
3) Despite being son of the Warden of the North, despite being a Stark, despite being the heir of Winterfell…Robb is a summer child at heart. We see it in his physical features (a hint from GRRM, let’s remember the man never does anything on accident), we see it in the fact that Robb is born just as summer is starting and we see it in his behavior, his values and his focus (Robb is so obsessed with family and lineage that he names his direwolf after the banners of House Stark. I have this headcanon that no one was more stoked to get an actual direwolf than Robb was because it made him feel like more of a true Stark). It’s a strange dichotomy and I think deep down, it made Robb question if he was ever really going to be able to live up to the Stark name when the truth was, he was a Tully at heart. Insecurities always make a character more complex. And complex is super interesting, at least for me.
4) Robb is thrust into the role of Lord at just 14 years old. He was always expecting to become Lord but never, ever, ever that soon. Can you imagine the fear that must grip him when he learns that his father, his only guiding hand in teaching him lordship, is leaving and won’t be coming back for probably years? But he doesn’t break down. He doesn’t freak out. And if does, he does so in private where we never see it. The one moment of vulnerability that lets us know how unstable the pressure is making him inside is the scene where he speaks to Bran at night and begins to cry in the dark over how alone they both suddenly are. He’s still a child, but he isn’t allowed to be. He has the integrity to face his fate, but he is petrified even as he does it unflinchingly. For that, Robb deserves all the respect in the world. I really don’t think I could’ve done all that at 14.
5) Robb gets a lot of shit about how he handled things after his mother took Tyrion hostage and things started to get rough. First of all, can we appreciate that this is his worst nightmare. He’s been Lord (against his will and completely alone) for like…I dunno, probably not even 4 months and a fucking interhouse war starts. Like are you joking? I’d be such a mess. But he waits. And he calculates with his Maester. And finally when his father is put in chains, he calls his banners. Not to go to war, but to discuss what their next move should be, because Robb has the sense to understand that at 14 he has no fucking clue what to do and his barons need to come and be his council. It’s made in the show to look like he called the banners specifically to go to war, as if he’d already made that decision. However, in the books it’s very clear that the Lannisters (*cough*the Arryns*cough*) have already started the war and are trying to draw Robb out, assuming he’ll dive in and then get eaten alive. However this is not what happened at all. They made a decision as a group (after a lengthy, multi-night and feast discussion which was exquisitely kept in check by Robb himself who lets not forget is still only 14 at this point) to meet the forces attacking Riverrun with forces of their own. It was purely defensive and it was actually pretty smart, but we’ll get back to that in a moment.
6) Robb has a direwolf who he’s trained so well, it will rip off a grown man’s fingers with the whisper of a handful of words.
7) Robb almost always manages to stay so cool and calm and SASSY in almost any situation in which he knows he’s being watched by people who are evaluating him as a leader. I always loved that about him. There were a lot of situations where I was reading and going, ‘oh god, oh god this is going to end so badly’ and Robb handles business like a boss. That’s not to say he never fucks up on decision making, but the boy knows how to lead and inspire and keep confidence in a group of men, okay?
8) He listened to his men and valued their loyalty, their lives and their opinions.
9) Knowing it would lead to consequences for himself, Robb married Jeyne out of understanding that a mistake he made in grief shouldn’t have to fuck up her life and the life of any potential children that came about because of that mistake. In the show it’s made to look like Robb marries for love. HE DOES NOT. Robb marries Jeyne for family, duty and most importantly for honor. Not necessarily his honor, but Jeyne’s (and their potential child). This is mostly due to his love for Jon and his understanding of how difficult life was for Jon as a bastard child and his own guilty conscious unable to live with the idea of condemning any child of his own to a life such as that. Later he grows to honestly care for Jeyne and they obviously are attracted to each other and let’s be real, it’s fucking adorable. But Robb isn’t an idiot who marries for his dick. And Jeyne isn’t the reason the Red Wedding happens either. So can we just put those ignorant misconceptions to rest?
10) Even though this huge plan was concocted to draw Robb into battle in the field for the point of assuming he’d fail…an entirely different plan had to be enacted by the big bad war veterans fighting against Robb just to fuck him over enough so that they’d have a chance at winning. When you’re fifteen and you’re that good…nobody can tell me that’s not interesting. Especially when you’re as broken and tired and depressed inside as Robb is at that point.
Also, bonus point of interest: Robb doesn’t get a POV due to the fact that he’s a king. None of the kings get POV’s. That’s part of the point of the books. History tells us the story of kings. ASoIaF tells us the real story, the stuff happening in the background that actually led to the shaping of that history and the affects it had on the people around the kings. It has nothing to do with GRRM being too bored with Robb to write about him, lol, trust me.
I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, and I didn’t mention Cat as much as I could have (I really do love their relationship <3) but this post is long enough and I just got off of a 13 hour shift so, I’m gunna end this here. Everyone feel free to tack on other reasons for Robb love! And OP feel free to rebuttle any of this as well :)