Can the stans stop pretending Catelyn Stark was a super wonderful amazing mother? Cause she really wasn’t.
I’m not saying she was a bad mother. I’m just not saying she was a good mother either.
There are several issues I have with Catelyn’s parenting:
- She has blatant favourites. She outright states in one of her POV chapters that Bran is her favourite child and the way she thinks about Sansa vs the way she thinks about Arya is very telling. Her favouritism is, in my opinion, part of the reason why Arya has such bad self esteem- to the point of thinking that her family won’t rescue her- and why her relationship with Sansa was so fraught. Kids are perceptive and they pick up on parental favouritism. If you can tell your mother prefers your sister to you, that’s going to damage your self esteem and make you resent your sister.
- I do not like the way she chose to handle the war. She captured Tyrion despite knowing her husband and daughters were surrounded by Lannister men- this leads to Ned being injured by Jaime, and it’s this conflict, and the argument over Daenerys, that drives Robert into going hunting. And we all know what happens from there. Obviously there was a lot of other reasons for this, but Catelyn’s idiocy certainly didn’t help.
- The other aspect of Catelyn’s handling of the war I do not like is her decision to abandon her 8 year old and 3 year old sons. Bran is attempting to be the Lord in Winterfell, which he could really use Catelyn’s help and advice with, or even better, for her to be Lady instead. Rickon is 3 years old, a toddler still, and has no idea what is happening, he needs his mother. Robb, on the other hand, has a entire council of advisors who actually have experience fighting a war and therefore does not need Catelyn, especially considering her dumbass decision makes things much worse.
- Which handily leads me to Catelyn’s dumb decision to release Jaime. This screwed Robb over big time, went against his orders and cost him the Karstarks, leading to him losing the war. Now, again, obviously, there were a lot of other factors at play but it cannot be denied that Catelyn’s decision made things worse for Robb.
- My final point relates to Jon and Catelyn’s treatment of him. She stereotypes him based on her prejudices regarding bastards and treats him badly. Yes, treating an innocent child coldly because of something their father did and because of your own prejudices is, in fact, treating them badly. The way Catelyn treated Jon is not okay. Especially how she insisted he had to leave Winterfell when Ned left to go south. That is her kicking a 14 year old boy out of the only home he has ever known because of her own stupid prejudices which if she ever bothered to speak to him she’d know are not true. It is shitty behaviour.
I don’t think Catelyn is a bad person, or a bad mother. I just don’t think she’s the saintly amazing mother the fandom makes her out to be.
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