0:02 Rob Stark is indisputably one of the
0:04 most important characters for the first
0:06 couple of books of A Song of Ice and
0:09 Fire but doesn't have any chapters from
0:12 his point of view he doesn't get a voice
0:14 let's Rectify that
0:16 hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in
0:18 deep geek on this channel we cover the
0:21 best in fantasy books and TV shows A
0:22 Song of Ice and Fire the Lord of the
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0:29 screen
0:32 Rob Stark doesn't have any chapters in A
0:33 Song of Ice and Fire from his point of
0:35 view George RR Martin has said on
0:37 several occasions that he wishes he had
0:40 included some POV chapters but instead
0:42 we see his story through others eyes
0:45 mostly Catelyn and bran but they are
0:48 hardly unbiased accounts so what did the
0:51 story look like from Rob's perspective
0:52 there are obviously spoilers here for
0:55 the books and TV show
0:57 at the start of the story Rob is just 14
1:00 years old he is the oldest son of Ned
1:02 and Catelyn Stark and brought up to
1:04 understand that he would be Lord of
1:06 Winterfell one day that is quite a
1:08 lonely upbringing knowing that no one
1:10 can truly understand what you must
1:13 become but he finds peers and friends in
1:16 Theon Greyjoy a ward of his father and
1:18 the only living son of Balon Greyjoy and
1:21 Jon Snow a bastard son of his father he
1:23 thinks so around his age but not a
1:25 threat and the three of them form a
1:28 friendship group of sorts as the story
1:30 of A Song of Ice and Fire starts Ned has
1:33 taken Rob John Theon and bran off to
1:35 witness the execution of Garrett a
1:37 deserter from the Night's Watch it's
1:39 evidently not the first time that Rob
1:41 has seen this kind of thing judging by
1:43 the way he talks to bran about it and
1:45 it's a useful heads up about how much
1:48 Ned's morality and worldview has rubbed
1:50 off on his children and particularly Rob
1:53 this will be very important later on
1:55 it's on the way back from that that Rob
1:59 discovers the direwolf pups yes Rob does
2:01 we often think about this encounter from
2:03 Bran's perspective or John's but in the
2:06 books it's very much a Rob LED thing he
2:09 finds the dead direwolf mother looks for
2:11 and discovers the antler in her throat
2:13 picks up the pups gets bran to pet one
2:15 announces that they will keep them
2:17 persuades his father by offering to
2:18 nurse them
2:21 it's a shame that we never get to see
2:22 the development of the relationship
2:25 between Rob and gray wind from his
2:27 perspective because their bond seems to
2:29 develop at least as quick if not quicker
2:32 than his siblings do
2:34 pretty soon though the main plot kicks
2:36 in and King Robert Baratheon arrives at
2:38 Winterfell with his family and retinue
2:41 Rob obviously plays the dutiful Elder
2:44 son and as an aside this may even be the
2:46 first time he ever met the man he was
2:48 presumably named after Robert Baratheon
2:51 anyway the bigger personal issue that
2:53 arises here is that Rob meets Joffrey
2:56 and they don't get on it spills over in
2:58 the practice yard where the Stark and
2:59 Lannister children are being trained
3:02 Joffrey tries to challenge Rob to a
3:04 jewel with steel but the Winterfell
3:06 Master at Arms wisely intervenes and
3:08 Joffrey takes this as an opportunity to
3:10 mock Rob
3:12 not that these tensions get to play out
3:14 any further in Winterfell Ned heads
3:16 South to become hand of the king leaving
3:18 Rob in charge of Winterfell
3:20 responsibility at a young age although
3:23 Ned ensured he had plenty of advisors there
3:24 there
3:26 Catelyn his mother maester Lewin sir
3:29 Roderick and so on although cat's input
3:31 was much diminished after cat gets
3:33 increasingly focused on bran in his coma
3:35 and then after the assassination attempt
3:38 she decides to head to King's Landing to
3:40 tell Ned what she's learned but Rob
3:43 steps up he deals wisely with Tyrion
3:44 when he passes through Winterfell
3:47 letting him carry on his way unmolested
3:49 compare this to how his mother reacts to
3:52 Tyrion not much later in the story Rob
3:53 could have pushed the whole continent
3:57 into war much earlier but decides not to
4:00 he visits distant holdfasts to show his
4:02 face and with Theon rescues bran from
4:04 the wildlings and makes the decision to
4:07 spare OSHA's life again a big decision
4:09 that will help the Starks hugely in the future
4:10 future
4:12 when the devastating message comes that
4:15 Ned has been imprisoned and called a
4:17 traitor in King's Landing Rob again
4:20 steps up calling the banners and one by
4:22 one the northern Lords and armies arrive
4:24 at Winterfell bringing new challenges
4:27 with them Mage Mormont says that he is
4:29 too young to rule ruse Bolton and Robert
4:31 Glover both want command of the army
4:34 Lord Kerwin wants Rob to marry his
4:36 daughter great John Amber challenges his
4:39 authority to his face each challenge is
4:41 dealt with efficiently and fairly by Rob
4:45 in doing so he repeatedly name checks
4:47 his father my father would never do such
4:50 and such or my father always said such
4:52 and such it's clear that Rob is taking
4:55 Ned as his role model to an extreme and
4:57 eventually the northern Lords and the
5:00 people start to respect and honor him as
5:03 they did his father when they March
5:06 South he is in Undisputed charge
5:09 which from a casual read sounds like Rob
5:11 was a bit of a natural at leadership
5:14 perhaps he was but he didn't feel it one
5:16 of the low-key saddest parts of these
5:19 chapters is how Rob would visit bran
5:21 sometimes late at night again we never
5:24 get Rob's POV just Brands and we read this
5:25 this
5:29 bran heard his brother SOB the room was
5:31 so dark he could not see the tears on
5:34 Rob's face so he reached out and found
5:38 his hand their fingers twined together
5:40 on the outside Rob was doing everything
5:43 he had to do standing strong resisting
5:45 challenges being the model of a young
5:47 Lord determined to stand up for his
5:50 family but inside he was a 15 year old
5:53 boy who had just lost his father his
5:55 mother had ridden off South months ago
5:57 his friend and supposed half-brother
6:00 John had gone to the wall both sisters
6:03 were gone it's a story of someone thrust
6:06 into responsibility too young while
6:08 still dealing with heartbreak it's
6:10 tragic and we only get to see it in
6:13 patches anyway he heads South at the
6:15 head of his army this was against
6:18 maester lewin's advice who wanted Rob to
6:20 stay in Winterfell and give command of
6:22 the army to one of the experienced Lords
6:25 but Rob insisted his father would not
6:28 have done that so he wouldn't either
6:30 at the risk of over psychoanalyzing this
6:33 Rob's insistence on doing as his father
6:35 would have done seems to be his coping
6:37 mechanism he can keep going as long as
6:39 he keeps doing what his father would
6:41 have wanted
6:43 that's Mount Kalin the Army stops to
6:46 regroup at this point cat rejoins Rob
6:48 and we see things from her perspective
6:51 she still sees Rob as her young son but
6:54 has to accept his new Authority he can
6:56 be her son in private and he does turn
6:58 to her but in public he cannot be seen
7:01 to be taking the lead from his mother
7:04 and at moat Kalin he faces a strategic
7:06 decision there are two Lannister armies
7:09 facing him in the riverlands one on each
7:11 side of the wide green Fork River should
7:13 he hold his currently very defensible
7:15 position commit all his forces to take
7:18 on one of the armies or split his forces
7:20 he decides as was his position
7:22 throughout the war to go on the
7:25 offensive the bulk of his slow-moving
7:27 infantry will keep heading down the
7:28 King's Road under Roose Bolton's control
7:31 to meet tywin's masked Force hopefully
7:33 the Lannisters will think that that is
7:36 all of the northern Army meanwhile a
7:38 smaller but more mobile force will cross
7:40 the river at the Twins and rides to the
7:42 aid of the besieged River Run trying to
7:46 catch Jaime's Army by surprise this is a
7:48 great move making Roost Bolton head of
7:50 the main Force may have had longer term
7:52 consequences but he probably was the
7:55 only northerner able to go toe-to-toe
7:57 with tywin's force and emerge with most
7:59 of his army intact and taking brynden
8:01 Tully the Blackfish with him to riverrun
8:04 was a master stroke without his
8:06 expertise and knowledge of the area the
8:07 ruse would have been rumbled much earlier
8:08 earlier
8:11 but of course in order to get over the
8:13 green Fork they would need to negotiate
8:15 with Walder Frey who owned the only
8:17 Crossing that far north Rob decides to
8:19 send his mother to negotiate on his
8:21 behalf trusting to her greater
8:23 experience and understanding of how the
8:24 phrase operated
8:27 it's hard to say whether cats could have
8:29 got a better deal she certainly thinks
8:31 she got the best deal she could and will
8:33 defray was certainly a tough negotiator
8:36 but still time was against them and what
8:39 emerged was a very high price to pay
8:42 regardless from Rob's perspective she
8:44 presents him with a take it or leave it
8:46 deal from Walder Frey the central part
8:49 of which is that he must marry a Fray
8:51 Rob will have grown up knowing that who
8:53 he marries will probably not be his
8:55 decision his parents had never met
8:57 before they were wed for example so
8:58 although this will have been an
9:00 unwelcome development it will have been
9:03 understandable to him like his father he
9:05 decides to just suck it up and hope that
9:07 the marriage turns to love in the long run
9:08 run
9:10 which leaves Rob free to head to
9:12 riverrun and try to catch Jaime by
9:15 surprise which he does the actual Battle
9:17 of the Whispering Wood is a huge
9:20 personal success for Rob he and gray
9:23 wind now huge and battle-ready charge
9:25 into their opponents the damage they do
9:28 gets recorded by bards and starts
9:30 creating a legend the young wolf he can
9:33 become his direwolf with his direwolf by
9:36 his side he is unbeatable and so on
9:38 Rob follows his victory at the Battle of
9:40 the Whispering Wood with another at the
9:42 Battle of the camp scattering the
9:44 remaining Lannister's besieging River
9:47 Run and forcing Tywin to retreat back to
9:49 harrenhal all in all a very impressive
9:51 start to the war by Rob and he sets
9:53 himself up in riverrun
9:56 it's there that the news comes that Ned
9:59 has been killed on Joffrey's orders this
10:01 obviously ends any hope that the war
10:03 might be stopped anytime soon and brings
10:05 us right back to that initial clash
10:08 between Rob and Joffrey this is now personal
10:10 personal
10:13 and this is when Rob is made King it's a
10:15 small but important point that he
10:18 doesn't seek it or seemingly want it and
10:20 we obviously never get to hear exactly
10:23 what he thinks about it but suddenly he
10:25 is not just acting Lord of Winterfell
10:28 but King in the North in his own right
10:31 and King of the Trident and he has to
10:34 act like it Rob takes a moment or
10:36 several weeks in truth to work through
10:39 what to do next to be fair to him it is
10:41 a complex situation but eventually he
10:43 decides to send out a series of
10:45 emissaries Theon will go to his dad
10:47 balong Greyjoy to try to get the iron
10:50 Islands on side Catelyn will go to
10:51 Storm's end to try to strike a deal with
10:54 Renly Baratheon and cleos Frey will go
10:56 to King's Landing to see if the
10:58 Lannisters are willing to Parlay it's
11:00 fair to say that none of these
11:02 emissaries met with any kind of success
11:04 indeed theon's arrival at Pike just
11:06 provoked an ironborn attack on the North
11:09 cat arrived just in time to see Renly
11:11 murdered by a shadow assassin and cleos
11:13 Frey was virtually laughed out of King's
11:16 Landing not much diplomatic luck for Rob
11:19 there and while the emissaries were gone
11:21 he lost a crucial part of his support
11:24 network as well so he's left with the
11:26 Strategic decision of what to do with
11:29 his forces Tywin is encamped in
11:31 harrenhal and perfectly placed to block
11:33 any attack on King's Landing from either
11:37 of Rob's forces can rob draw him out the
11:39 only way that seems possible to him is
11:41 to launch an attack on the Lannister
11:43 heartlands the Westlands might that
11:46 Force Tywin to abandon his position if
11:48 Tywin does Head West then Ruth Bolton's
11:50 forces further Up The King's Road could
11:54 move South so Rob strikes West his
11:56 direwolf gray wind finds a goat track
11:58 that can get his Force past the
12:00 formidable golden tooth and he takes out
12:02 Lannister supporter after Lannister
12:04 supporter the Battle of ox cross
12:06 destroyed a new Lannister Army being
12:09 trained just three days from lannisport
12:12 ashmark and the Crag follow and Stark
12:13 forces head out to lay waste to
12:16 Lannister Holdings but and this is in
12:17 many ways the turning point of the war
12:21 Tywin Lannister does not budge instead
12:23 focusing on securing an alliance with
12:25 the tyrells to save King's Landing from
12:28 an attack by Stannis meanwhile Rob was
12:30 wounded in the battle for the crack the
12:32 home of house westerling
12:34 there are lots of opinions here about
12:36 Rob Stark winning many battles but
12:39 losing the war and that is undeniably
12:41 true but from his perspective he was
12:43 actually making strategically sound
12:46 decisions he wasn't to know about the
12:48 shadow baby that killed Renly and freed
12:50 the tyrells to switch sides or Tyrion
12:52 making King's Landing extremely
12:54 defendable or even Theon turning on him
12:56 and attacking the north he can't really
12:59 be blamed for any of that but it
13:01 happened and he found himself alone free
13:03 from the influence of his father mother
13:06 maester Lewin or anyone in his family or
13:09 close friends and injured
13:11 and that's when Jane westerling comes
13:13 into the story on the show she was
13:15 called Talisa and came across very well
13:17 from an associate background healing
13:19 people and genuinely falling in love
13:22 with Rob but in the books she is Jane
13:24 westerling daughter of a lord captured
13:27 by Rob earlier in the war and a mother
13:29 who is probably in League with the
13:32 Lannisters there is a theory here that
13:34 Jane's mother set up all that followed
13:36 which is quite convincing on some levels
13:38 at the very least it is a complicated
13:41 situation Rob captures the Crag Jane's
13:44 home but is injured she nurses him back
13:46 to health well he learns about how one
13:48 of his best friends Theon has murdered
13:50 his two brothers bran and rickon and
13:52 Winterfell has fallen and somewhere
13:54 along the line the two of them sleep
13:57 together taking her maidenhead which was
13:59 a big thing in those days so Rob feeling
14:03 honor bound marries her on the spot
14:04 history turns on moments like this
14:07 moment and this moment is about Rob's
14:09 honor I'm sure that Rob thought about
14:12 what his father would do even then but
14:15 the phrase just thought about the broken
14:16 promise for Rob to marry one of their
14:19 own they withdrew their support
14:22 putting his strategic head back on Rob
14:24 here has no option but to abandon his
14:26 position in the west and head back to
14:28 relative safety in riverrun of course
14:31 all this happens off camera as readers
14:34 the first we hear of it is with ire at
14:36 harrenhal where the phrase are all
14:38 screaming about betrayal and Roose
14:40 Bolton rather symbolically sets out to
14:43 hunt wolves Arya hasn't got the foggiest
14:45 idea of what it all means but in
14:47 retrospect we do
14:49 the first we hear about Rob is when he
14:52 returns to riverrun a chapter we get
14:53 from catelyn's perspective in the
14:57 meantime a lot of things happen edmure
14:59 Tully Keen for some Glory defeats the
15:01 Lannisters as they try to cross the red
15:03 fork preventing them from heading west
15:05 and confronting Rob so instead the
15:08 Lannisters head Southeast getting back
15:10 just in time to save King's Landing from
15:12 stannis's Attack this was a win for
15:16 edmure but strategically inept the whole
15:18 point of Rob attacking the Westlands was
15:21 to draw the Lannisters back out west and
15:23 now edmure had prevented that
15:26 Catelyn broken by news of bran and
15:28 rickon's deaths they obviously aren't
15:30 really dead but she thinks they are
15:32 releases Jaime in an effort to get her
15:34 daughters back the northern Lords didn't
15:36 take well to this Ricard karstark in
15:39 particular he sent soldiers after Jaime
15:41 and Brienne and even executes some
15:43 Lannister prisoners in retribution Rob
15:46 has no option but to execute Ricard
15:48 carstark which makes an enemy of the car
15:50 stocks as well as the phrase
15:54 then Rob learns that ruse Bolton has
15:56 ordered the attack on duskendale his
15:57 soldiers committing what we might today
16:00 consider war crimes and told to do so in
16:03 his name the attack on duskendale is
16:05 often overlooked in studies on the war
16:06 of the five Kings but it's very
16:09 important it pushed Rob to a slightly
16:12 insular position just weeks earlier he
16:13 had been heralded as the king in the
16:16 north by everyone now all those who
16:19 heralded him seemed against him the
16:21 phrase thought him an oath breaker Roose
16:23 Bolton and the main bulk of his army had
16:25 committed an atrocity in his name the
16:28 car Starks hated him and even his own
16:29 mother had gone against him
16:32 Rob's reaction was to retreat into
16:34 himself the only people who seemed to
16:37 understand him now were his new wife and
16:39 in-laws as always though his Instinct
16:41 was to go on the attack he persuaded
16:44 edmure Tully to marry Roslyn Frey in an
16:46 effort to get the phrase back on side
16:49 it's a fair move one of walder's
16:51 daughters would still marry one of the
16:52 Lord's Paramount
16:54 little does he know that Walder Frey and
16:57 Bruce Bolton are by this time dealing
17:00 with Tywin Lannister to betray him
17:03 Rob's plan is to head back North to the
17:05 twins to marry off edmure then further
17:07 north to get rid of the ironborn who are
17:09 holding so much of his lands basically
17:12 he has accepted that his campaign in the
17:14 South has come to an end he has
17:16 overextended and needs to head back to
17:18 secure his heartlands if he succeeds
17:21 then he basically seeds the South to the
17:24 Lannisters but perhaps ensures that the
17:26 North and riverlands remain his
17:29 we all know what awaits Robert the twins
17:31 but before that he makes a decision that
17:33 will probably be very important in the
17:36 last two books he decides that he needs
17:39 to name an heir he believes that his
17:40 natural-born brothers bran and ricken
17:44 are both dead Arya is missing and Sansa
17:46 is now married into the hated Lannisters
17:50 so he almost certainly we never 100 see
17:51 this in the books but all the
17:54 indications are there that he names John
17:56 as his Heir as Lord of Winterfell and
17:58 King of the North even though John is
18:00 technically a bastard and Catelyn his
18:03 mother is against it expect this to be a
18:05 big issue in the Winds of Winter
18:08 he also sends Mage Mormont and gelbert
18:10 Glover into the neck to get Howland Reed
18:12 on side again expect this to be
18:14 important in The Winds of Winter
18:16 Rob himself leaves his new wife at
18:18 riverrun and heads North with his army
18:21 to the twins we see what happens from
18:24 catelyn's perspective edmio Tully and
18:27 Roslyn Frey are married but then we have
18:30 the Red Wedding Feast Rob and his mother
18:33 Catelyn are killed the Starks are
18:35 deposed and the boltons take over as
18:37 wardens of the North
18:40 I'm sure that the Starks will get their
18:42 revenge in the end but for Rob his time
18:45 is done gray wind is killed too and
18:47 Rob's body is paraded around with his
18:48 wolf's head
18:52 so how do we assess Rob's role in The
18:54 Song of Ice and Fire I think we should
18:56 treat him sympathetically accepting that
18:58 George RR Martin never gave us his point
19:01 of view he probably was more connected
19:02 to his direwolf than many of his
19:05 siblings he definitely tried his best to
19:06 do as his father would have done on the
19:09 world stage on his own terms he acted
19:12 With Honor yes he won many battles but
19:15 lost the war but him losing the war was
19:17 more to do with tywin's strategic
19:19 Mastery edmure's lack of understanding
19:21 and his own need to cling to his
19:23 father's honor as a coping technique for
19:25 his own loss as it was anything else
19:28 should we damn him for that personally I
19:29 think not
19:32 Rob did not want to go to war and when
19:34 he had the chance he tried to secure a
19:37 piece but pushed into a corner he always
19:40 won whatever battle was put before him
19:41 Rob Stark may not have been one of the
19:43 most obvious Heroes of The Song of Ice
19:45 and Fire perhaps because we never got to
19:47 see the world from his point of view but
19:51 ultimately he was a good man overtaken
19:54 by events bloody events I hope that
19:57 Westeros history judges him kindly
19:59 if you'd like to see more videos
20:01 unpacking the story of A Song of Ice and
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