Robb Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingofbadlifechoices) wrote2015-04-01 05:30 pm
kingofbadlifechoices) wrote2015-04-01 05:30 pm
Entry tags:
Application Ryslig
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Mari
Contact: plurk! | email: nwoppertje at gmail dot com
Other Characters: n/a
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Robb Stark
Age: late 16's
Canon: A Song of Ice and Fire
Canon Point: After his death at the Red Wedding
Character Information: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Robb_Stark
Personality:
(Since the book does not provide chapters from Robb’s point of view it is hard to determine what is exactly going on in his mind. Yet, the chapters from people close to him (his mother, father, his brothers and (former) good friend Theon) give a good idea about how he works and how he handles certain situations.)
Robb has been raised in a traditional and rather secluded home with 4 siblings and a half brother. In the beginning of the series he is portrayed as a happy but stubborn boy who is adamant about keeping his direwolf pup by promising to raise it by himself and who has a friendly rivalry with his bastard half brother Jon going on, challenging him to race him to the gate of Winterfell, for instance. It is mentioned throughout the books that both half brothers are very close to each other and hold each other in high regard. When Robb is made king he even goes as far as naming Jon his heir if his wife fails to give him a son before his death.
Because Robb is raised to be Winterfell’s heir he is very aware of traditions and etiquette. It is frequently mentioned how Robb is very able to make young girls swoon and sigh by being gallant, polite and a very good dancer. Just like his father Robb values honor above everything, very keen on preserving his father’s legacy after his death, expressing that he wishes to rule the North the way his father would. He treats his friends, his men, his guests and his hostages with respect, expecting that they would treat him in a same manner. This shines through in the matter regarding Jaime Lannister. Being one of his most important hostages he is being kept in a comfortable room inside of one of the towers of Riverrun. Yet, when Jaime breaks out and causes trouble he gets moved to a rather damp and uncomfortable cell in the dungeons.
Robb tends to cling to the lessons his father has taught him and the values he stood for (honor, preserving traditions, not being able to think outside the box), using those as guidelines when drawing conclusions and making decisions. Robb is far from stupid, and he demonstrates that with his strategies on the battlefield, but his political skills are quite horrible. Honor alone does not keep a crown on the head in Westeros. He tends to disregard the opinions and advice of others (especially those of his mother and uncle) in favor of his own ‘just’ views regarding a situation. He will make unwise political decisions in the name of remaining honorable, because he does not see the ends as justifying the means.
In this light it is interesting that Robb’s rise and fall as the King in the North shows an ironic likeness to Eddard’s rise and fall as Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon, both wearing honor as their armor. Where Eddard decided to be honorable enough to allow queen regent Cersei a peaceful return to her own castle after finding out about her incestuous relationship with her twin brother, Robb decided to put the honor of a young woman before that of his own, deeming it not right to just deflower her and leave her be. Both decisions are, indeed, very honorable but will prove to be fatal in the end.
A trait that defines Robb when interacting with others is the fact he can be two different people depending on who he is with and what the nature of a situation is. One side of him is just a boy being insecure about trivial things like growing a beard and why that beard is not growing fast enough while making jokes and ruffling the hair of one of his siblings. The other side is a teenager posing as a grown man who needs to prove everyone that he is absolutely not just sixteen years of age.
This does not mean Robb has a split personality; it mostly refers to him putting up a front so no one will focus on his age and insecurities. It also is borne from a certain urge to preserve his father’s legacy and those earlier mentioned values the man stood for. Robb starts doing this when he becomes Winterfell’s lord, after his father leaves for King’s Landing. His little brother Bran describes these occurrences as his brother switching between the voice of 'brother Robb' and the voice of 'Robb the Lord', making it known that he does not particularly like the voice of Robb the Lord. His mother witnesses this differently, seeing it as her son growing up and slowly drifting away from her, seeing him change from the boy she has raised into a young man she is not familiar with.
The Starks are a very tight-knit family. All the children come from a loving marriage and they grew up in a happy home, loved by their parents. There is absolutely no doubt that Robb loves each member of his family dearly. He sees his father as his role model, a man he wants to be and there is no doubt that the relationship between father and son is a very tight one. Tight enough to call his banners the second he hears that his father got accused with treason instead of bending the knee to the new king.
The relationship with his mother becomes a tense one. Where Catelyn tries to be strong and think of her family, Robb’s priorities change the second they declare him King in the North. He is responsible for something bigger now. It isn’t just the future of House Stark anymore, or the well-being of his sisters, or restoring his father’s name. The North has separated itself from the realm and Robb is its king, he can’t put his family before the well-being of his kingdom, of his men. The situations of Sansa and Arya in all of this is a very important example of this.
In their chapters both Sansa and Arya see their brother as an example of strength and there is no doubt that the bond between them has been strong. Sansa keeps hoping that Robb will come get her soon, Arya goes on her own way to get back to him.
Yet, the second they place a crown upon his head conflict arises. When his mother insists on trading a valuable hostage like Jaime Lannister for his sister, Robb tells her he does not want this, thinking of what his bannermen might think. Trading someone of Jaime’s stature for two mere girls is something a king cannot do. Afterwards it is Catelyn who sets Jaime free and makes him promise to get her girls back in his stead. This is an act of treason and while Catelyn’s family treats it as such, Robb’s initial response is rather tame. Of course he is angry, of course he wonders if his mother has grown mad, but in the end he admits he would’ve done the same. That he would have traded the Kingslayer for his sisters. In the show (Game of Thrones) he also promises his mother to ‘get the girls back’.
It is a prime example of how he puts his duties as a king before what he wants as a person. He never forgets his family but he cannot put the focus on them when so much is at stake. Not anymore. What has started as him avenging his father by rallying against House Lannister, has changed into a full-blown rebellion, a war. This is an inner conflict that characterizes him throughout the books and it skews family relationships greatly. But despite every harsh choice he makes, he does love them and he does worry for them. That is something that will never change. King or not.
Robb is not a very open young man and he keeps most of his feelings inside of him. As mentioned earlier he tends to put up a ‘mature’ front by acting like how he thinks a young king should act: keeping his shoulders straight, his voice stern and authoritative, and not allowing anyone to see that he’s actually just a teenager who is slowly caving under the constant pressure that comes with wearing a crown, fighting a war and leading his men. Even though this behavior isn’t doing him much good mentally (smiles less, hardening features) he refuses to change it, revealing that he can be extremely stubborn. Eventually this behavior reaches a painful point where it becomes unclear where Robb’s kingly facade ends and where the real Robb begins. Still he is capable of being moved, and there are moments where he fails to keep up appearances. A good example is when they mention to him that Winterfell has been taken over by someone he considered a very close and good friend. At that moment he is seen turning away, trying to fight back tears.
When it comes to trust, Robb only seems to confide in his mother, regularly confessing to her how much he struggles and how he knows he has made a mess of things (‘winning the battles, but somehow losing the war’). She has abused this trust by scheming behind his back, releasing their most valuable hostage Jaime Lannister and making him swear to return to King’s Landing to assure the return of her children Sansa and Arya. At first Robb seems everything but pleased at this development, but later on he confesses to his mother that he would’ve done the same.
Overall he trusts everyone in his army to stand for him and his cause. In a way it can be said that is a little naive of him, after all when his men betray him he finds himself genuinely upset and surprised (i.e. (former) good friend Theon taking Winterfell, when lord Karstark gives out orders to assassinate two Lannister squiers). It is obvious that when it comes to the people close to him it shows that he trusts them in a more open and relaxed way, regarding strangers he expects them to trust him (and he hopes that they do). To strangers he might come over as overly formal, distant and ridiculously stubborn, yet when meeting someone he can trust and forge a friendship with he’d be likely to relax a little bit.
A good canon example of how Robb reasons and behaves is when he gets faced with the assassination of two young squires from House Lannister, plotted by one of his bannermen who is an old friend of house Stark, Lord Karstark. When hearing of it he becomes absolutely livid. Referring to the rules of guest right (a very important value in the North (and in the rest of Westeros as well), where guests are entitled to their safety when staying within a man’s home) Robb declares that Karstark has violated his honor by taking the lives of two young boys he deems himself responsible for. Robb orders the hanging of the men who are responsible for the murders. When one of the men protests that he had only been watching, Robb declares that if the man likes to watch so much that he will be hanged last so he can watch his comrades die first. The way Robb approaches this matter and punishes these men make it quite obvious that he finds it in no way acceptable when people violate his honor.
Eventually Robb marries a girl called Jeyne Westerling instead of the one he is betrothed to. Jeyne is the oldest daughter of Gawen Westerling, a bannerman of house Lannister. After storming the castle of house Westerling (The Crag) Robb takes an arrow to the arm, leaving him wounded and in need of care. It is Jeyne who takes care of him and nurses him back to health. Jeyne is with him when the news reaches him that Theon Greyjoy (his best childhood friend) has killed his brothers Rickon and Brandon. This causes Robb to break down and Jeyne offers her arms for comfort. The two sleep with each other.
This results in him putting her honor before his and he chooses to marry her. This implies that he is aware of how others are affected by the (sometimes rather rash) decisions he makes. In a way the choice to marry her is a good one and a terribly stupid one at the same time. Good because Robb falls in love with her and the worries that weigh him down seem to leave him be when he is with her. Robb seems to be more like the person he used to be, the smiling, happy boy we get to know at the beginning of the books.
A negative aspect is that Jeyne and Robb come from two completely different parts of Westeros. Robb with his traditional Northern upbringing, Jeyne being more of a Southern girl. For instance, Robb’s direwolf Grey Wind scares Jeyne and he decides to put him with the dogs in the kennel. This causes the wolf to howl for nights long. Also when it comes to a heir to the North, Robb fails to get Jeyne pregnant and it gets the girl down a little. Despite the herbal teas given by her mother her belly remains flat.
But with marrying Jeyne Robb has made the mistake that will finally cost his life. He broke the marriage pact with the Freys, resulting in said house cancelling their alliance with him immediately. This puts a huge strain on everything and the goals Robb wishes to achieve as a King in the North. From a political point of view the marriage that is making him happy is a big mistake. For a boy who wants to act like a man, like a king to break a marriage pact with the allies he made...it is frowned upon.
When Robb discusses the implications of one of his actions, he has a bit of a breakdown and it becomes more than clear that he is caving underneath the pressure. He expresses that he does not understand why a man would want to be king and how he vowed to himself be a good, kind and just king but that he finds himself unable to determine what is wrong and what is right and that it confuses him greatly.
What is also an important thing to mention is that Robb tends to 'zone out' after being faced with something particularly draining or emotional. For instance, after he took Lord Karstark's head he goes back to his own chambers to sit down, saying nothing and ignoring everyone who enters. Even his wife Jeyne cannot get through to him and it leaves her worried and slightly frustrated, afraid she has done something wrong.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
- honorable
- stubborn
- just
- honest
- stressed
- responsible
- loyal
- insecure
- intelligent
- moody
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? EITHER (aka: its your party)
Opt-Outs: none
Roleplay Sample:
Test drive entry!
Name: Mari
Contact: plurk! | email: nwoppertje at gmail dot com
Other Characters: n/a
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Robb Stark
Age: late 16's
Canon: A Song of Ice and Fire
Canon Point: After his death at the Red Wedding
Character Information: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Robb_Stark
Personality:
(Since the book does not provide chapters from Robb’s point of view it is hard to determine what is exactly going on in his mind. Yet, the chapters from people close to him (his mother, father, his brothers and (former) good friend Theon) give a good idea about how he works and how he handles certain situations.)
Robb has been raised in a traditional and rather secluded home with 4 siblings and a half brother. In the beginning of the series he is portrayed as a happy but stubborn boy who is adamant about keeping his direwolf pup by promising to raise it by himself and who has a friendly rivalry with his bastard half brother Jon going on, challenging him to race him to the gate of Winterfell, for instance. It is mentioned throughout the books that both half brothers are very close to each other and hold each other in high regard. When Robb is made king he even goes as far as naming Jon his heir if his wife fails to give him a son before his death.
Because Robb is raised to be Winterfell’s heir he is very aware of traditions and etiquette. It is frequently mentioned how Robb is very able to make young girls swoon and sigh by being gallant, polite and a very good dancer. Just like his father Robb values honor above everything, very keen on preserving his father’s legacy after his death, expressing that he wishes to rule the North the way his father would. He treats his friends, his men, his guests and his hostages with respect, expecting that they would treat him in a same manner. This shines through in the matter regarding Jaime Lannister. Being one of his most important hostages he is being kept in a comfortable room inside of one of the towers of Riverrun. Yet, when Jaime breaks out and causes trouble he gets moved to a rather damp and uncomfortable cell in the dungeons.
Robb tends to cling to the lessons his father has taught him and the values he stood for (honor, preserving traditions, not being able to think outside the box), using those as guidelines when drawing conclusions and making decisions. Robb is far from stupid, and he demonstrates that with his strategies on the battlefield, but his political skills are quite horrible. Honor alone does not keep a crown on the head in Westeros. He tends to disregard the opinions and advice of others (especially those of his mother and uncle) in favor of his own ‘just’ views regarding a situation. He will make unwise political decisions in the name of remaining honorable, because he does not see the ends as justifying the means.
In this light it is interesting that Robb’s rise and fall as the King in the North shows an ironic likeness to Eddard’s rise and fall as Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon, both wearing honor as their armor. Where Eddard decided to be honorable enough to allow queen regent Cersei a peaceful return to her own castle after finding out about her incestuous relationship with her twin brother, Robb decided to put the honor of a young woman before that of his own, deeming it not right to just deflower her and leave her be. Both decisions are, indeed, very honorable but will prove to be fatal in the end.
A trait that defines Robb when interacting with others is the fact he can be two different people depending on who he is with and what the nature of a situation is. One side of him is just a boy being insecure about trivial things like growing a beard and why that beard is not growing fast enough while making jokes and ruffling the hair of one of his siblings. The other side is a teenager posing as a grown man who needs to prove everyone that he is absolutely not just sixteen years of age.
This does not mean Robb has a split personality; it mostly refers to him putting up a front so no one will focus on his age and insecurities. It also is borne from a certain urge to preserve his father’s legacy and those earlier mentioned values the man stood for. Robb starts doing this when he becomes Winterfell’s lord, after his father leaves for King’s Landing. His little brother Bran describes these occurrences as his brother switching between the voice of 'brother Robb' and the voice of 'Robb the Lord', making it known that he does not particularly like the voice of Robb the Lord. His mother witnesses this differently, seeing it as her son growing up and slowly drifting away from her, seeing him change from the boy she has raised into a young man she is not familiar with.
The Starks are a very tight-knit family. All the children come from a loving marriage and they grew up in a happy home, loved by their parents. There is absolutely no doubt that Robb loves each member of his family dearly. He sees his father as his role model, a man he wants to be and there is no doubt that the relationship between father and son is a very tight one. Tight enough to call his banners the second he hears that his father got accused with treason instead of bending the knee to the new king.
The relationship with his mother becomes a tense one. Where Catelyn tries to be strong and think of her family, Robb’s priorities change the second they declare him King in the North. He is responsible for something bigger now. It isn’t just the future of House Stark anymore, or the well-being of his sisters, or restoring his father’s name. The North has separated itself from the realm and Robb is its king, he can’t put his family before the well-being of his kingdom, of his men. The situations of Sansa and Arya in all of this is a very important example of this.
In their chapters both Sansa and Arya see their brother as an example of strength and there is no doubt that the bond between them has been strong. Sansa keeps hoping that Robb will come get her soon, Arya goes on her own way to get back to him.
Yet, the second they place a crown upon his head conflict arises. When his mother insists on trading a valuable hostage like Jaime Lannister for his sister, Robb tells her he does not want this, thinking of what his bannermen might think. Trading someone of Jaime’s stature for two mere girls is something a king cannot do. Afterwards it is Catelyn who sets Jaime free and makes him promise to get her girls back in his stead. This is an act of treason and while Catelyn’s family treats it as such, Robb’s initial response is rather tame. Of course he is angry, of course he wonders if his mother has grown mad, but in the end he admits he would’ve done the same. That he would have traded the Kingslayer for his sisters. In the show (Game of Thrones) he also promises his mother to ‘get the girls back’.
It is a prime example of how he puts his duties as a king before what he wants as a person. He never forgets his family but he cannot put the focus on them when so much is at stake. Not anymore. What has started as him avenging his father by rallying against House Lannister, has changed into a full-blown rebellion, a war. This is an inner conflict that characterizes him throughout the books and it skews family relationships greatly. But despite every harsh choice he makes, he does love them and he does worry for them. That is something that will never change. King or not.
Robb is not a very open young man and he keeps most of his feelings inside of him. As mentioned earlier he tends to put up a ‘mature’ front by acting like how he thinks a young king should act: keeping his shoulders straight, his voice stern and authoritative, and not allowing anyone to see that he’s actually just a teenager who is slowly caving under the constant pressure that comes with wearing a crown, fighting a war and leading his men. Even though this behavior isn’t doing him much good mentally (smiles less, hardening features) he refuses to change it, revealing that he can be extremely stubborn. Eventually this behavior reaches a painful point where it becomes unclear where Robb’s kingly facade ends and where the real Robb begins. Still he is capable of being moved, and there are moments where he fails to keep up appearances. A good example is when they mention to him that Winterfell has been taken over by someone he considered a very close and good friend. At that moment he is seen turning away, trying to fight back tears.
When it comes to trust, Robb only seems to confide in his mother, regularly confessing to her how much he struggles and how he knows he has made a mess of things (‘winning the battles, but somehow losing the war’). She has abused this trust by scheming behind his back, releasing their most valuable hostage Jaime Lannister and making him swear to return to King’s Landing to assure the return of her children Sansa and Arya. At first Robb seems everything but pleased at this development, but later on he confesses to his mother that he would’ve done the same.
Overall he trusts everyone in his army to stand for him and his cause. In a way it can be said that is a little naive of him, after all when his men betray him he finds himself genuinely upset and surprised (i.e. (former) good friend Theon taking Winterfell, when lord Karstark gives out orders to assassinate two Lannister squiers). It is obvious that when it comes to the people close to him it shows that he trusts them in a more open and relaxed way, regarding strangers he expects them to trust him (and he hopes that they do). To strangers he might come over as overly formal, distant and ridiculously stubborn, yet when meeting someone he can trust and forge a friendship with he’d be likely to relax a little bit.
A good canon example of how Robb reasons and behaves is when he gets faced with the assassination of two young squires from House Lannister, plotted by one of his bannermen who is an old friend of house Stark, Lord Karstark. When hearing of it he becomes absolutely livid. Referring to the rules of guest right (a very important value in the North (and in the rest of Westeros as well), where guests are entitled to their safety when staying within a man’s home) Robb declares that Karstark has violated his honor by taking the lives of two young boys he deems himself responsible for. Robb orders the hanging of the men who are responsible for the murders. When one of the men protests that he had only been watching, Robb declares that if the man likes to watch so much that he will be hanged last so he can watch his comrades die first. The way Robb approaches this matter and punishes these men make it quite obvious that he finds it in no way acceptable when people violate his honor.
Eventually Robb marries a girl called Jeyne Westerling instead of the one he is betrothed to. Jeyne is the oldest daughter of Gawen Westerling, a bannerman of house Lannister. After storming the castle of house Westerling (The Crag) Robb takes an arrow to the arm, leaving him wounded and in need of care. It is Jeyne who takes care of him and nurses him back to health. Jeyne is with him when the news reaches him that Theon Greyjoy (his best childhood friend) has killed his brothers Rickon and Brandon. This causes Robb to break down and Jeyne offers her arms for comfort. The two sleep with each other.
This results in him putting her honor before his and he chooses to marry her. This implies that he is aware of how others are affected by the (sometimes rather rash) decisions he makes. In a way the choice to marry her is a good one and a terribly stupid one at the same time. Good because Robb falls in love with her and the worries that weigh him down seem to leave him be when he is with her. Robb seems to be more like the person he used to be, the smiling, happy boy we get to know at the beginning of the books.
A negative aspect is that Jeyne and Robb come from two completely different parts of Westeros. Robb with his traditional Northern upbringing, Jeyne being more of a Southern girl. For instance, Robb’s direwolf Grey Wind scares Jeyne and he decides to put him with the dogs in the kennel. This causes the wolf to howl for nights long. Also when it comes to a heir to the North, Robb fails to get Jeyne pregnant and it gets the girl down a little. Despite the herbal teas given by her mother her belly remains flat.
But with marrying Jeyne Robb has made the mistake that will finally cost his life. He broke the marriage pact with the Freys, resulting in said house cancelling their alliance with him immediately. This puts a huge strain on everything and the goals Robb wishes to achieve as a King in the North. From a political point of view the marriage that is making him happy is a big mistake. For a boy who wants to act like a man, like a king to break a marriage pact with the allies he made...it is frowned upon.
When Robb discusses the implications of one of his actions, he has a bit of a breakdown and it becomes more than clear that he is caving underneath the pressure. He expresses that he does not understand why a man would want to be king and how he vowed to himself be a good, kind and just king but that he finds himself unable to determine what is wrong and what is right and that it confuses him greatly.
What is also an important thing to mention is that Robb tends to 'zone out' after being faced with something particularly draining or emotional. For instance, after he took Lord Karstark's head he goes back to his own chambers to sit down, saying nothing and ignoring everyone who enters. Even his wife Jeyne cannot get through to him and it leaves her worried and slightly frustrated, afraid she has done something wrong.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
- honorable
- stubborn
- just
- honest
- stressed
- responsible
- loyal
- insecure
- intelligent
- moody
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? EITHER (aka: its your party)
Opt-Outs: none
Roleplay Sample:
Test drive entry!