[Sybell Westerling to Jaime:]"She would not give up the little crown the rebel gave her, and when I tried to take it from her head the willful child fought me." "It was mine." Jeyne sobbed. "You had no right. Robb had it made for me. I loved him." Her mother made to slap her, but Jaime stepped between them. [...]
Jaime had to canter past the Westerlings as he rode down the column on his way back to Riverrun. Lord Gawen nodded gravely as he passed, but Lady Sybell looked through him with eyes like chips of ice. Jeyne never saw him at all. The widow rode with downcast eyes, huddled beneath a hooded cloak. Underneath its heavy folds, her clothes were finely made, but torn. She ripped them herself, as a mark of mourning, Jaime realized. That could not have pleased her mother.
[Jaime, to the Freys:]"Tell me, is Ser Raynald Westerling amongst these captives?" "The knight of seashells?" Edwyn sneered. "You'll find that one feeding the fish at the bottom of the Green Fork." "He was in the yard when our men came to put the direwolf down," said Walder Rivers. "Whalen demanded his sword and he gave it over meek enough, but when the crossbowmen began feathering the wolf he seized Whalen's axe and cut the monster loose of the net they'd thrown over him. Whalen says he took a quarrel in his shoulder and another in the gut, but still managed to reach the wallwalk and throw himself into the river." -Jaime VII, aFfC
And Robb. Robb who had been more a brother to Theon than any son born of Balon Greyjoy's loins. Murdered at the Red Wedding, butchered by the Freys. I should have been with him. Where was I? I should have died with him. -Theon I(/VII), aDwD
something just so endearing to me about the way robb finds love and friendship with the children of enemy families. their parents still consider him an enemy and work for his downfall, and it would be in their own interests not to get so emotionally involved over the guy who took their castle by force (in jeyne w. and her siblings' case) or the heir of a captor/would-be executioner (in theon's case). but it just keeps happening with robb anyway. he just replaces one enemy's offspring at his side with even more of them. sybell spicer westerling and her brother rolph were secretly still loyal to tywin, but all her kids just gladly transferred their loyalty to a new king with no apparent misgivings. well, almost all of them, we can only guess and assume in eleyna's case. (bc we don't really see her after their intro scene, jeyne's-hips-don't-lie conspiracy theorists! you will not take jeyne's best moments away from her!) robb's younger brother-in-law was so eager to squire for him he was disappointed not to join his last war march and wasn't even ready to leave robb alone with catelyn after he introduced them. jeyne refused to hide her widow's grief once robb was gone and her mother's true feelings were known to her, risking physical abuse from her mother to boldly make her true loyalty known to the lannister regime who murdered her husband and have responsibility for her future. and jeyne's other brother, raynald, he died for robb at the red wedding, no, to be precise, he died for grey wind at the red wedding. robb's direwolf may have distrusted sybell and rolph spicer, and made jeyne uneasy, pushing robb away from his lupine other half at riverrun, until only the lack of most of the westerlings got the wolf back at robb's side where he belonged on the way to the rw, but when the freys came to kill grey wind it was that westerling knight who fought to aid him. when grey wind died, possibly with robb's spirit also inside him, raynald westerling was the one there dying loyally with him.
and ofc, there's still theon too. theon, who, even after everything, after fighting against the starks at wf, so that robb spent his last months waiting to come home and kill him, after all that, he still idealizes robb as his only true brother, wishing he could have been able to die with him at the twins as raynald westerling did. (catelyn was more right than she knew when she thought jeyne's brothers were standing in for those robb had lost, theon included.) part of that is surely down to just how badly theon's conquest at wf worked out for him, earning him the enmity of all the northmen and ending in his prolonged torture by the son of robb's killer, a kingslayer who thanked theon for helping bring down the starks, all giving him cause to idealize his earlier captivity at wf (and feel guilt for his deeds there), but we know his brotherly affection for robb was not merely invented by trauma after the fact. the love was always there, even if it was hidden.
that's what made robb such a potentially good king if circumstance and youth had not been against him. his charisma was such that he not only won the undying loyalty of most of his bannermen but could also win the hearts and minds of those who should have only been enemies. sure, he couldn't change the minds of their parents, who were ultimately in charge, but that wasn't really his fault. and it doesn't nullify the love he did inspire in those children of his enemies, their love was real and it still mattered. it's true both of his sisters gained the protection of the hound, joffrey's dog, and that bran and rickon had the fierce loyalty of osha after she first met bran trying to rob him, and ofc jon snow had multiple wildling allies after he used to fight against them, but robb's the only starkling to gain the love of would-be enemies from two different enemy regions, isn't he? it's just all really indicative of robb's greatest inheritance from ned: ruling through getting to know all your people and making them care for you (with robb taking it further by extending this to hostages) as opposed to the lannister method of ruling only through fear. sansa was right that love is a surer route to people's loyalty than fear, it's just an unfortunate fact that not everyone can be won that way.
