“If you have the stomach for it”
“Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”
— Lyanna Stark, AGOT
I know this quote is said in reference to Robert, and Lyanna’s perspective on who he is, but this quote is more significant than that. This quote and the lines preceding it give readers one of the few solid glimpses into Lyanna’s character — something that doesn’t seem to be delved into very often in the fandom.
In all five of the books currently published, we get so little insight into who Lyanna was. Everything we hear about her is told through the opinions of men in her life or people who didn’t know her. Too often, she’s essentially just mentioned in connection to how men felt about her with little on her own feelings or who she was.
Though this quote is still a memory from Ned’s perspective, this is one of the very few quotes we get in Lyanna’s own voice. And it (as well as the lines before it) says a lot about her character.
Her quote before “love is sweet” shows Lyanna giving a blunt assessment of her betrothed based on information she has gained about him.
“Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm’s End. “I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale.”
This shows that she intelligent enough to form her own conclusions based on information she has received from someone other than her brother, who is biased in his friend’s favor. Lyanna’s response to Ned’s defense of his friend and his idealized views is pretty telling as well:
Lyanna had only smiled.
That’s basically the equivalent of “LOL! You’re adorable.” Even at 14 or younger at this point, she has a more practical outlook than her older brother and has to explain human nature to him.
“Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”
This line shows not only a lack of romanticism but also the presence of a pessimistic and (probably) realistic perspective on love and human nature.This makes me wonder what in her life before this has given her this insight.
From this entire segment, we can draw the conclusion that Lyanna was intelligent and practical. She didn’t fall for the idealized and romantic notions that her brother holds.
Despite this, the quote is often used to prove that Lyanna ran away willingly because she didn’t love her betrothed, and threw all common sense out the window for the supposed love of a man who wanted to cheat on his wife and the mother of his children with her.
The truth is, this quote can more accurately be used as proof that that theory goes against what little we know of Lyanna’s character.
Would a girl who is intelligent and practical enough to know that love doesn’t make everything better really think it was a good idea to run away without letting anyone know where she went? Would that girl really think love (if she really was in love, since there is no evidence that suggests she had romantic love for anyone) was more important than all the trouble that would invariably be caused by her unexplained disappearance? Would this girl trust or hold affection for a man who publicly humiliated his wife in order to “honor” her?
Based on the quotes we have from Lyanna, the answers would be no.
She was sixteen, brown-haired and brown-eyed, slender and beautiful. The people called out her name as she passed, held up their children for her blessing, and scattered flowers under the hooves of her horse.
You need her, as she needs you.
(Source: legolasgreeenleaf)
(Source: bericdondarrion)
Strange voices called to her from days long past. “Melony,” she heard a woman cry. A man’s voice called, “Lot Seven.”
She was weeping, and her tears were flame. And still she drank it in.
(Source: evatargaryen)
“The Boltons have always been as cruel as they are cunning, but this one seems a beast in human skin.”
(Source: sansasnows)
favourite asoiaf characters; Catelyn Stark
“I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.”
