Robert’s fixation on the idea of Rhaegar raping Lyanna has always fascinated me, because had Lyanna not run off with Rhaegar she would have been forced to marry Robert himself against her will. She and Arya are compared often, so I can’t imagine Lyanna not letting Robert know she is there against her will. I also can’t imagine Robert not ‘taking his rights’ as he does with Cersei throughout their marriage. I know it’s because of the patriarchal system they operate under, but every time it comes up I’m like dude, you would have raped her stfu. The cognitive dissonance is even worse with Ned. Much like Robb with Sansa, the Stark boys love their sisters but they don’t value them and their autonomy as we (in our modern societies) would like them too.
robert's fixation on rhaegar raping lyanna has nothing to do with lyanna and everything to do with robert. he never saw lyanna as a person, he saw her as an object that belonged to him.
the robert-lyanna-rhaegar part of the rebellion is obviously inspired by the trojan war and menelaus-helen-paris (and achilles-briseis-agamemnon). in the case of both helen and briseis, they are not seen as people but rather as property of the men that they are stolen from. I think in terms of rhaegar and lyanna, I see more similarity between lyanna and helen because the dynamic allows them some identity beyond the man in question. their agency is questioned, but in order for it to be questioned, we are forced to acknowledge that it exists. but on the other hand, with robert and lyanna, I see more similarity between lyanna and briseis because the men that they are 'stolen' from view them as nothing more than their property that they are entitled to, and their rage at this being taken is largely due to their perception of their masculinity.
