HBO series Game of Thrones left audiences underwhelmed and in some quarters fuming after serving up a sub par final season. The last run failed to live up to huge fan expectation with many lambasting the programme-makers for failing to deliver. Nevertheless, many fans still have questions about the dense saga of a song of ice and fire.
Did Robert Baratheon really love Lyanna Stark – or was is it all lie?
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Game of Thrones
As revealed in Game of Thrones season seven, Robert Baratheon (played by Mark Addy) had used the kidnapping of Lyanna Stark (Aisling Franciosi) to launch a rebellion against the Targaryens.
The season seven finale also revealed Lyanna was in a consensual and loving relationship with Rhaegar Targaryen (Wilf Scolding) with the pair secretly getting married.
Rhaegar annulled his marriage to Elia Martell, which was a strategic marriage by the Targaryens to bring Dorne into the Seven Kingodms with a union.
However, Rhaegar had fallen in love with Lyanna during a tourney and the couple had secretly run away together and secretly got married.
READ MORE: Game of Thrones: Did show really film an alternate ending?
While there is evidence he did love her, it’s not clear how true these feelings were and of indeed they were reciprocated.
Judging by her marriage to Rhaegar, Lyanna didn’t have feelings for Robert and it was simply unrequited love on his part.
Interestingly, fans of the George R.R. Martin series had similar thoughts as far back as 2012 and were questioning on the ASOIAF forum.
One user called Dragon-Wolf posted on the site at the time: “Something thats bothering me.
“Robert leads us to beleive that Lyanna was his one true love and that his marriage was doomed to fail from the beggining, we also know he called Cersei “Lyanna” on his wedding night.
“I feel that he wouldn’t have known Lyanna all that well, and Lyanna also had reservations about marrying Robert as he ‘would never stick to one bed’.
“Sixteen Bastard’s later we can be pretty sure that Lyanna had Robert summed up from early on and that he wouldn’t have stayed faithfull to any woman [sic].”
The user added: “I guess the question I am asking is did Robert really love Lyanna? or had he just become obsessed with the fact that Rhaegar stole her from him?”
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Interestingly, the user seemed to predict the big season seven twist, saying: “I think Robert had put Lyanna on an unrealistic pedestal, he admits to Ned in GOT that he cant even remember what she looked like and that he killed Rhaegar as he does again and again each night in his sleep but Rhaegar still won. (in my opinion won Lyanna’a affections).”
One user called Winter’s Knight responded: “Aw come on, he was sleeping with a tavernful of girls during the Battle of the Bells-when he believed that Lyanna had been kidnapped and was being raped. True love that ain’t.”
While a user called FuzzyJam reasoned: “No, Robert never loved her. For me, the most telling line is: ‘I swear to you, I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I’ve won it.’
“Best period of his life was when he thought his great love was getting constantly raped? Yeah, OK then.”
