⚠️ Spoilers: Cregan Stark & the ending of the Dance of the Dragons ⚠️
I admit, it’s been awhile, but I really don’t understand why some of the early House of the Dragon PR re: Cregan Stark & the North is so negative, saying that “we’re going to see a different side” of House Stark and why the South came to see the North as “ruthless, bloodthirsty, and unforgiving”.
Umm… Cregan Stark actually kind of reaffirms why House Stark is totally the House Hufflepuff of Westeros…???
Cregan Stark is pretty much the badass Hufflepuff who takes no takes no s*** from anyone and shatters all the bulls*** Hufflepuff stereotypes.
Is it because this is being written by resentful Team Black fans? Or Team Green fans who (somehow) see Cregan’s decision to punish turncoat Greens and those implicated in Aegon II’s assassination as cruel and overly-punitive?
Umm… That’s kinda what Stark (+ Northern??) morality is…?!? 🤷♀️
Cregan & the North would have respected those who were “Greens, to the end” (and did, for the most part, if I remember correctly).
But - as we see with Ned Stark and Jaime & Tywin Lannister - for better or for worse, the North doesn’t forgive or respect those they see as “cowards” who fail to keep their oaths and/or who flock to the winning side. (The complexities of the Jaime & Aerys situation is a great example of the limitations or failures of this moral code)
Okay, yeah, the North took their bloody time calling the banners to war. Winter is Coming. Stark delayed marching south in order to finish preparing the North for the oncoming winter.
So… yeah… Starks continuing to prove through their actions that they’re one of the only noble houses to actually feel a responsibility for the needs & well-being of their smallfolk. (Rhaenys, honey, I’m looking at you and your “HBIC” moment 👀)
I get it. It was pretty sh*tty and inconsiderate of Viserys I to go and die, leaving Westeros in a succession crisis, right before winter started. 🙄🤣
After Aegon II is crowned, Rhaenyra is forced to choose between waiting out the winter (which no one know how long it’s going to last) or immediately challenging him when he hasn’t had the opportunity to solidify his rule. 🤷♀️ Sh*t happens and both factions ended up paying the price for leaving their people to starve while they played the Game of Thrones.
Was it convenient that the war gave the North an opportunity to reduce the number of mouths to feed? Supposedly. 🧐 Though, personally, I’m a bit skeptical of that whole concept when one actually tries to imagine the logistics of a wintertime economy in the North; with resources (including food) being allocated to marching south & a drain of able-bodied men.
Even after Rhaenyra and Jacaerys’ deaths, Cregan marches South to keep his oath to the Blacks as best he can - despite the Blacks now being unable to fulfill their side of it. 👍
He takes control of Kings Landing, makes himself Hand of the King in order to install Rhaenyra’s eldest surviving son to the throne, restores a degree of non-partisan law and order, and establishes a council of regents for said child-king. Then he promptly f**ks back off to Winterfell, new wife in tow, because he’s got better things to do than play Southern politics and intrigue. 😎
(If anything, that’s the ironic part of Cregan’s story - his final legacy is remarkably similar to Jaehaerys I/Viserys I in that he lays the early foundations for a mini-succession crisis of his own house a few decades later)
And that whole thing about killing babies/children before they can become men who can seek justice/revenge for their parents? 😬
Yeah. It’s horrible and cruel and bunch of other really negative adjectives. It’s also pragmatic and realistic in a quasi-medieval society.
That’s war. It’s not pretty or glorious or heroic. It’s ugly and traumatic and there are no winners, only survivors.
One can argue that the murder of Elia and her children is depicted as morally reprehensible - not because they were killed - but because of the excessive brutality and sadism in how they were killed. And the way their deaths were celebrated by Robert Baratheon - the way he thirsted for the death of any Targaryen as a way of enacting vengeance - rather than seeing their deaths as the necessary (but soul-destroying) price of peace.
No, Ned Stark wouldn’t have acted as Cregan Stark did during the Hour of the Wolf.
Ned Stark took Theon Greyjoy as a ward. Ned Stark insisted that Daenerys & Viserys were children on a different continent who posed no threat to Robert. Ned Stark gave Cersei the opportunity to flee with her children.
And Ned Stark was executed for “treason”.
Theon Greyjoy betrayed Robb. Instead of being grateful to be alive, Viserys & Daenerys grew up obsessed with their “stolen birthright”. Cersei used the opportunity Ned gave her to have Robert killed and Joffrey put on the throne. 🙇♀️
Ask ourselves: when is cruelty a kindness and kindness, a cruelty?
