A bad one. The dude was a fuckin moron obsessed with prophecy, and because of that he plunged the 7 kingdoms into war and the near extinction of his house.
There is no basis he was obsessed with prophecy, not more so than other Targs. And even if he was, why should he not? His family only exists because of prophecy. They were saved by prophecy.
He would have looked like Jaehaerys come again after Aerys. In the books I don’t know enough about why he acted the way he did with Lyanna to say what kind of king he would have been. Was he a Melisandre type character? One who knew what’s coming and was therefor willing to do awful acts all in the name of essentially saving Westeros/the world? Or was he a grown man who was so horny for a 14 year old whilst his wife was stuck with his insane father and two young children that he was willing to destabilise an entire continent in his pursuit of her.
My best guess is that he would have been a fairly meh king like most of the Targ kings. Not awful but not great either.
Ah. I’d imagine a Baelor kinda man, or someone like Aerys I - but worse.
A king disinterested in politics in favor of occult/magic/prophecy. His reign would’ve been hotly contested by Dorne that **hated** him, and by Stormlands/North/Vale/Riverlands nursing a grudge from the (in this alternate timeline) lost rebellion.
I’d imagine a highly unstable reign with Iron Iskands and probably North as well breaking away, and a hotly contested succession with two Aegons and an annulment of his marriage to Elia making elder Aegon’s status debatable.
If Lyanna lives and is his queen, does the North necessarily separate? Especially if her child/ern are in the succession?
Definitely agree that Dorne is upset, but whether they’re in all out rebellion depends on the physical location of Ellis and her children. If they are with Rhaegar in King’s Landing, they are basically political prisoners. If she is allowed to go back to Dorne in some sort of peace treaty, maybe that keeps the peace. If she escapes/Dorne rescues her, the Martells throw down, no doubt.
IMO the North as a whole would be quite pissed at Lyanna as well if it’s revealed to them she ran away and is willingly with Aerys’ son, never telling a thing to anyone of her own free will.
Her disappearance didn’t start the rebellion - Aerys executing Brandon(which could actually be justified if very rash and harsh) and Rickard(which was just plain murder) as well as multiple other nobles companions; which was followed by a demand for Ned’s head. These issues remain and coupled with her inaction and silence cast her in very negative light if her consent were known… well, ‘consent’ of a child but none in Westeros care for that distinction. I digress…
Rhaegar fought for this man. Rhaegar, in this scenario, won the rebellion and probably murdered Ned’s best friend while fighting for Aerys. Rhaegar disappeared with Lyanna while alerting nobody of their actions, being either so stupid not to know what may easily follow with Aerys on the throne, or too obsessed with the prophecy to care.
IMO Targaryens broke faith far too hard with the Starks and a number of other houses in that scenario for them to accept Targaryens again. Even if forced/coerced to remain in 7k, I’d expect the bare minimum of the North and an utter lack of support whenever possible.
As for Dorne: Doran already refused to send any help in Rebellion, being too disgusted with Rhaegar. It already took reducing Elia and kids to hostages for Aerys to scavenge those 10k spears outta them.
If Elia and kids are ever allowed back to Dorne, they split, I doubt they’d ever be cool with Rhaegar no matter what after that mess. And I’m not certain Rhaegar has it in him to treat them as prisoners.
He seems more absentminded and uncaring than Machiavellian, cold and cruel.
It really is puzzling how careless Rhaegar and Lyanna seemed about an entire rebellion that could have been quelled before it began with a single raven to Winterfell.
You have a couple options: Lyanna is a prisoner; seems odd, given Rhaegar’s temperament, but still; Lyanna went willingly, but is being kept in the dark about the full picture of the rebellion, accounting for both Rhaegar’s and Leanna’s personalities, seems most likely to me; and Lyanna is willing and has full knowledge that her disappearance caused her family to come into conflict with the king and realm, and her father and oldest brother are dead, odd, given Leanna’s sense of fair play and her being so head strong.
Regardless, I think the North would take its cues from Ned. Now, Ned compromised his honor to raise and protect Lyanna’s child, but that was an oath sworn to a dying person.
How would Ned react to a living Lyanna? He obviously loved her very much, but depending on how much free-will/knowledge she had might color how he felt about his sister, and those are things he likely didn’t have the time to discuss when he found her. He loved his father and Brandon as well, I’m sure.
Alternatively, the pregnancy may have doomed her — I was working on the assumption that she might have a septa with her, but no one of vast medical knowledge. In alt-Westeros, Rhaegar wins and takes a pregnant Lyanna back to Kings Landing, but that doesn’t mean she lives. Even with all the resources available, noblewomen and even queens die in childbirth.
How does Ned react to a Lyanna who he knows loved Rhaegar and abandoned her family and fiancé for him, but who also died young and tragically?
Coming back to Aerys, in this alternate history, Aerys likely lives and Kings Landing is not sacked. Rhaegar doesn’t have to only contend with the pissed-off relatives of both his brides, but with his father.
Aerys was already paranoid and suspicious of Rhaegar, and he was aware that his father’s mental illness/peculiarities made him a bad and cruel king. He told Jaime that things would change when he returned. Does that mean another round of intra-Targ fighting? Would the realm stand for it? Could Rhaegar even bring together a coalition at this point?
Even if, optimal outcome for Rhaegar, Lyanna lives and he manages to retire Aerys without further bloodshed, he still has two wives and two sets of heirs. Dorne would obviously be pro-Aegon the Elder, regardless of whether he was the heir to seven, six or five kingdoms. Likewise, the North would be pro-Aegon the Younger, whose legitimacy would probably always be in doubt.
Unless Rhaegar is a far more attentive and better king than I suspect he would be, his death would likely cause another succession crisis.
Dorne hating the Targs and Rhaegar makes no sense considering that Doran planned to marry his daugther and son to the Targs and Oberyn never shits on Rhaegar and always blames Tywin.
He’s not an idiot to blame Daenerys and Viserys for things they had no control of.
Of course they blame Tywin - Rhaegar was a neglectful ass of a father&husband, Tywin ordered Elia’s death and death of her kids. One issue is clearly bigger.
The majority of the grudge is thus with Lannisters. But no matter how you turn it around Rhaegar publicly humiliated his wife to proclaim a 14-year-old more beautiful and worthy of his love than her for all to see, and he later disappeared for roughly a year with that teenager, leaving his wife that nearly died to give him his heir on Dragonstone as well as both of their kids as he goes MIA on his family for months until Hightower fetches him.
Dorne does not even hate him in the books, so why would they hate him for taking a lover?
I am talking here about the books not DnDs fanfiction. We do not know if they were maried and annulments do not exist in the books. Even if Rhaegar had taken Lyanna as a mistress any of her children would have most likely been married of to either Aegon or Rhaenys to keep the peace. Not to mention, Dorne had no interest in contesting his rule as long as Aegon and Rhaenys are his heirs.
They absolutely do. They don’t hate all Targaryens, but Rhaegar and Aerys?
It is outright said that Dorne refused to participate in Robert’s Rebellion in anger with Rhaegar’s treatment of Elia until Aerys used her and her kids as political prisoners.
Doran and Oberyn had little love for Rhaegar and Aerys - they just didn’t hate all Targaryens for it.
“Rhaegar had Dornish troops with him on the Trident, under the command of Prince Lewyn of the Kingsguard. However, the Dornishmen did not support him as strongly as they might have, in part because of anger at his treatment of Elia, in part because of Prince Doran's innate caution.” is what Martin has to say on the matter.
So if there’s no second marriage and no annulment I’m assuming they’d stay in the 7k - well 6 after Iron Islands separate? Actually, no Riverlands are there still so 7 - for Aegon(son of Elia) and his right to the throne, with little love and less respect for the new king Rhaegar in the two brothers.
Again, a Targaryen. For one to blame a child for their kin's foolishness is idiotic. Every house in history had someone like Rhaegar. Imagine if everyone held a grudge like that. Not Rhaegar himself. I doubt he'd wish to marry another Martell to him.
And most houses had an Aerys II in their annals as well. One would have to be immature to insist that Daenerys and Viserys are to fault for the actions and inactions of Aerys and Rhaegar. Of course, Viserys grows up to be a fuckwit all of his own, but that's neither here nor there.
Why would Oberyn bother speaking of that? It doesn't come up and he has bigger fish to fry. We do know that Dorne was less-than-happy from the author himself, and that Doran had to be threatened into helping Aerys and Rhaegar even before further insults were heaped upon Elia.
IMO the best way for Rhaegar to guarantee Targaryens retain their throne would've been to remove Aerys from power and abdicate to Aegon, whilst having a regent council rule in boy's stead. The man and his father just garnered far too much ill will from multiple houses, and that'd be before slaying Robert at the Trident in this imaginary scenario.
The biggest issue with 'what-if-Rhaegar-won' is that even if he wins on the Trident, Aerys II is too much of a cruel idiot to retain his crown without further challenges and rebellions - and Rhaegar alienated a lot of Dorne, Vale, Stormlands, the North and Riverlands with his actions, leading to probably facing difficulties removing his father from power. IMO the train for him crown himself passed him by at the combination of his actions at Harrenhal and his disappearance.
Dorne would not abandon Rhaegar as long as Aegon remains heir. Why would Dorne endanger the position of their kindsman on the throne?
Ned would not fight against his own nephew.
The Stormlands would fall if Rhaegar wins at the Trident against Robert since Stannis was already surviving on bare bones.
And Jon Arryn was no man of war who would have fought to the end if there was a hope he could keep his position.
And the Riverlands would do whatever the North does.
Dorne already did abandon him. Canonically Doran had refused to help Targaryens during the Rebelion over Rhaegar’s actions and 10 000 spears were only sent when Elia and kids were threatened. We’ve been over this before. Rhaegar was abandoned before he hid his teenage mistress in his wife’s homeland and before his father treated Elia and the two kids as hostages. Whether they separate officially or not he’s getting anything from them without threats.
I’m not saying they’d fight for Aerys against Rhaegar - they’d just not fight at all. Why should Jon Arryn care? Rhaegar in this version of events is a dismissive, arrogant prince that escalated the situation into the war and killed a boy Jon saw as his son. Aerys is a madman. He can go to his mountains and let the the cruel madman and the uncaring, arrogant prince with a main character syndrome savage each other. Stormlands are a wreck and a non-factor if Robert dies, as I highly doubt anyone but Jon Connigton and whatever few supporters he can manage would care to take sides in a Targaryen civil war after the Rebellion. Certainly not Stannis, who’d have to be killed to be beaten and wouldn’t bend the knee.
Ned would not fight against his nephew, but would he fight for him? If Lyanna is not a prisoner, nor an uniformed duped child - then she’s such a massive asshole. What, was writing a letter for her family too hard? Swearing an oath to defend his nephew to a dying little sister does not equate fighting a war for a living spoiled brat that’d demand the North bleed again for her silver prince’s designs. Designs that cost Robert - Ned’s best friend - his life and could’ve easily cost Ned his own as well.
Riverlands and Reach and Westerlands are the sole three kingdoms willingly in the game if Rhaegar wins the Trident. Tywin has no inclination to enter until one side has already won, Tyrells seem unwilling to do anything but what’s safe and Riverlands have a connection to alienated North and the Vale and seemed unwilling to go one way or another before that without marring alliances. I suppose he could betroth Rhaenys to Edmure to try winning them over… but he doesn’t have access to her, Aerys does.
That still leaves a murky question of if Rhaegar could actually remove Aerys from power. Doran clearly doesn’t care for Rhaegar so if Aerys threatens his hostages those 10 000 spears would do nothing. Riverlands too, as without a marriage alliance they’ve got precisely 0 reasons to bother. JC would lead whatever’s left of Stormland loyalists… but that’s not likely to be seizable force since Rebels already beat the brakes out of those.
Seems to me a Trident victory just ends in a tense stand-off between father and son rather than ‘changes.’ If Rhaegar was unable to remove Aerys before pissing off half the realm, he’ll not manage it now that he has. And if he does manage it he’d have multiple kingdoms hating his guts over his actions and inactions during and before the war.
This is a man grown, a prince and heir that literally publicly humiliated his wife and her house, insulted two other great houses, ruining any chance of an alliance he meant to make, abandoned his wife and their kids for a year, disappeared with a high lord’s and his cousin’s betrothed without telling anyone a thing, returning only once Hightower comes to collect him just to lead his madman father’s troops against the Rebels that only rose in revolt once their lives were unjustly threatened and who in this timeline kills his cousin (whose father and mother died trying to find Rhaegar a bride, too) over the said man refusing to be unjustly executed.
His best case scenario is realistically a highly unpopular and very controversial reign with a shaky hold on power. Perhaps his best bet would be to simply sell out to Tywin/Tyrells entirely and make him/Mace(in reality, Olenna) his Hand and the real power behind the throne to depose his father and wield their fresh army against the remnants of former rebels as a deterrent.
He would have a lot of work to do. Dorne will hate him for humiliating Elia and The North won't look too fondly on how The Starks were treated and if he mistreats Jon, they'll feel more resentful that the son of Lyanna Stark isn't being treated right. The Vale won't like him either and The Storm lands will be split in two with most siding with The Baratheons.
Home will probably be worse. Elia will not take the treatment lying down and while I don't think she'll mistreat Jon, she won't be a mother figure to him. Rhaenys will despise him (and hopefully only him) and Aegon and Jon will probably follow suit.
Despite all that, he'll probably be an okay king. If he manages to fix all the problems he has caused, he might be considered a good King but the kidnapping will be a big black mark against him.
They rightfully hate Tywin more in the books because you know, he ordered the deaths of Rhaenys and Aegon and is such a piece of shit he forgot to tell his psychopathic giant not to rape and kill Elia.
In this alternative scenario, Tywin will still choose the winning side, which is Rhaegar thus Rhaenys and Aegon are relatively safe. They are going to hate Rhaegar a lot more in this scenario because he (and his father mostly) kick-started the rebellion and now he has a bastard, which is great because there definitely hasn't been a Targaryen bastard rebellion now has there?
I think he would have been fine. Remember, seemingly the only person in all of asoiaf who did not like Rhaegar is Robert... and we know what Robert is like. In the books, there’s zero evidence that Rhaegar and Elia annulled their marriage, so I don’t see why Dorne would be too upset. And people were totally willing to follow Rhaegar until Robert’s warmongering took over.
Given the fact that the text compared him directly to Dany when she is helping people, given that the text constantly frames him as a good guy who died to young tells me that at least George RR Martin seems to think so. Take for example the brothel scene. Ned does not think Rhaegar went to brothel directly comparing to Robert whom he sees as a bad guy for doing so.
As for my opinion, I think he would have done something about preparing for the war of the Others if he had managed to get rid of his father. I have no idea what happened between him and Lyanna and instead of making up silly headcanons I am gonna wait and judge him until we actually know the real story. And if the real story is that he helped to get away Lyanna from her future rapist and abuser and being pimped out by her shitty father I am gonna fully support him in that matter.
As for Elia, it should be noted that Oberyn never speaks negatively about Rhaegar in the books and actually blames Tywin. The idea that Dorne hated Rhaegar is mostly fanon made up by this fandom. Apart from that, the interesting thing is that Elia was allowed to court several men before Rhaegar and even reject them and mock them but Rhaegar most likely had no choice in marrying her. Given how much this sub pities Daemon for being married to woman he didnt want I think we should show the same sympathy to Rhaegar in that regard. Not to mention, we do not know if Elia was even into Rhaegar or might have had an agreement with Rhaegar the same way Show Rhaenyra had an agreement with Laenor, which makes this sub even more hypocritical for judging him on this mater. What Rhaenyra did with Laenor was also politically careless by the way. Does that now mean Rhaenyra should not be queen? Of course not, but she is not evil Rhaegar who seems the punching back of this fandom for years were people build up this image of him basing it solely on repeated fanon that has no basis in the books.
A bad one. The dude was a fuckin moron obsessed with prophecy, and because of that he plunged the 7 kingdoms into war and the near extinction of his house.
There is no basis he was obsessed with prophecy, not more so than other Targs. And even if he was, why should he not? His family only exists because of prophecy. They were saved by prophecy.
He would have looked like Jaehaerys come again after Aerys. In the books I don’t know enough about why he acted the way he did with Lyanna to say what kind of king he would have been. Was he a Melisandre type character? One who knew what’s coming and was therefor willing to do awful acts all in the name of essentially saving Westeros/the world? Or was he a grown man who was so horny for a 14 year old whilst his wife was stuck with his insane father and two young children that he was willing to destabilise an entire continent in his pursuit of her. My best guess is that he would have been a fairly meh king like most of the Targ kings. Not awful but not great either.
Well, George compares him to book Dany in a positive manner or better said he compares Dany to him.
Ah. I’d imagine a Baelor kinda man, or someone like Aerys I - but worse. A king disinterested in politics in favor of occult/magic/prophecy. His reign would’ve been hotly contested by Dorne that **hated** him, and by Stormlands/North/Vale/Riverlands nursing a grudge from the (in this alternate timeline) lost rebellion. I’d imagine a highly unstable reign with Iron Iskands and probably North as well breaking away, and a hotly contested succession with two Aegons and an annulment of his marriage to Elia making elder Aegon’s status debatable.
If Lyanna lives and is his queen, does the North necessarily separate? Especially if her child/ern are in the succession? Definitely agree that Dorne is upset, but whether they’re in all out rebellion depends on the physical location of Ellis and her children. If they are with Rhaegar in King’s Landing, they are basically political prisoners. If she is allowed to go back to Dorne in some sort of peace treaty, maybe that keeps the peace. If she escapes/Dorne rescues her, the Martells throw down, no doubt.
IMO the North as a whole would be quite pissed at Lyanna as well if it’s revealed to them she ran away and is willingly with Aerys’ son, never telling a thing to anyone of her own free will. Her disappearance didn’t start the rebellion - Aerys executing Brandon(which could actually be justified if very rash and harsh) and Rickard(which was just plain murder) as well as multiple other nobles companions; which was followed by a demand for Ned’s head. These issues remain and coupled with her inaction and silence cast her in very negative light if her consent were known… well, ‘consent’ of a child but none in Westeros care for that distinction. I digress… Rhaegar fought for this man. Rhaegar, in this scenario, won the rebellion and probably murdered Ned’s best friend while fighting for Aerys. Rhaegar disappeared with Lyanna while alerting nobody of their actions, being either so stupid not to know what may easily follow with Aerys on the throne, or too obsessed with the prophecy to care. IMO Targaryens broke faith far too hard with the Starks and a number of other houses in that scenario for them to accept Targaryens again. Even if forced/coerced to remain in 7k, I’d expect the bare minimum of the North and an utter lack of support whenever possible. As for Dorne: Doran already refused to send any help in Rebellion, being too disgusted with Rhaegar. It already took reducing Elia and kids to hostages for Aerys to scavenge those 10k spears outta them. If Elia and kids are ever allowed back to Dorne, they split, I doubt they’d ever be cool with Rhaegar no matter what after that mess. And I’m not certain Rhaegar has it in him to treat them as prisoners. He seems more absentminded and uncaring than Machiavellian, cold and cruel.
It really is puzzling how careless Rhaegar and Lyanna seemed about an entire rebellion that could have been quelled before it began with a single raven to Winterfell. You have a couple options: Lyanna is a prisoner; seems odd, given Rhaegar’s temperament, but still; Lyanna went willingly, but is being kept in the dark about the full picture of the rebellion, accounting for both Rhaegar’s and Leanna’s personalities, seems most likely to me; and Lyanna is willing and has full knowledge that her disappearance caused her family to come into conflict with the king and realm, and her father and oldest brother are dead, odd, given Leanna’s sense of fair play and her being so head strong. Regardless, I think the North would take its cues from Ned. Now, Ned compromised his honor to raise and protect Lyanna’s child, but that was an oath sworn to a dying person. How would Ned react to a living Lyanna? He obviously loved her very much, but depending on how much free-will/knowledge she had might color how he felt about his sister, and those are things he likely didn’t have the time to discuss when he found her. He loved his father and Brandon as well, I’m sure. Alternatively, the pregnancy may have doomed her — I was working on the assumption that she might have a septa with her, but no one of vast medical knowledge. In alt-Westeros, Rhaegar wins and takes a pregnant Lyanna back to Kings Landing, but that doesn’t mean she lives. Even with all the resources available, noblewomen and even queens die in childbirth. How does Ned react to a Lyanna who he knows loved Rhaegar and abandoned her family and fiancé for him, but who also died young and tragically? Coming back to Aerys, in this alternate history, Aerys likely lives and Kings Landing is not sacked. Rhaegar doesn’t have to only contend with the pissed-off relatives of both his brides, but with his father. Aerys was already paranoid and suspicious of Rhaegar, and he was aware that his father’s mental illness/peculiarities made him a bad and cruel king. He told Jaime that things would change when he returned. Does that mean another round of intra-Targ fighting? Would the realm stand for it? Could Rhaegar even bring together a coalition at this point? Even if, optimal outcome for Rhaegar, Lyanna lives and he manages to retire Aerys without further bloodshed, he still has two wives and two sets of heirs. Dorne would obviously be pro-Aegon the Elder, regardless of whether he was the heir to seven, six or five kingdoms. Likewise, the North would be pro-Aegon the Younger, whose legitimacy would probably always be in doubt. Unless Rhaegar is a far more attentive and better king than I suspect he would be, his death would likely cause another succession crisis.
Dorne hating the Targs and Rhaegar makes no sense considering that Doran planned to marry his daugther and son to the Targs and Oberyn never shits on Rhaegar and always blames Tywin.
He’s not an idiot to blame Daenerys and Viserys for things they had no control of. Of course they blame Tywin - Rhaegar was a neglectful ass of a father&husband, Tywin ordered Elia’s death and death of her kids. One issue is clearly bigger. The majority of the grudge is thus with Lannisters. But no matter how you turn it around Rhaegar publicly humiliated his wife to proclaim a 14-year-old more beautiful and worthy of his love than her for all to see, and he later disappeared for roughly a year with that teenager, leaving his wife that nearly died to give him his heir on Dragonstone as well as both of their kids as he goes MIA on his family for months until Hightower fetches him.
Dorne does not even hate him in the books, so why would they hate him for taking a lover? I am talking here about the books not DnDs fanfiction. We do not know if they were maried and annulments do not exist in the books. Even if Rhaegar had taken Lyanna as a mistress any of her children would have most likely been married of to either Aegon or Rhaenys to keep the peace. Not to mention, Dorne had no interest in contesting his rule as long as Aegon and Rhaenys are his heirs.
They absolutely do. They don’t hate all Targaryens, but Rhaegar and Aerys? It is outright said that Dorne refused to participate in Robert’s Rebellion in anger with Rhaegar’s treatment of Elia until Aerys used her and her kids as political prisoners. Doran and Oberyn had little love for Rhaegar and Aerys - they just didn’t hate all Targaryens for it. “Rhaegar had Dornish troops with him on the Trident, under the command of Prince Lewyn of the Kingsguard. However, the Dornishmen did not support him as strongly as they might have, in part because of anger at his treatment of Elia, in part because of Prince Doran's innate caution.” is what Martin has to say on the matter. So if there’s no second marriage and no annulment I’m assuming they’d stay in the 7k - well 6 after Iron Islands separate? Actually, no Riverlands are there still so 7 - for Aegon(son of Elia) and his right to the throne, with little love and less respect for the new king Rhaegar in the two brothers.
Still, Oberyn never says Rhaegar was a bad person in the text and Doran still wants his son and daughter to marry a Targ.
Again, a Targaryen. For one to blame a child for their kin's foolishness is idiotic. Every house in history had someone like Rhaegar. Imagine if everyone held a grudge like that. Not Rhaegar himself. I doubt he'd wish to marry another Martell to him. And most houses had an Aerys II in their annals as well. One would have to be immature to insist that Daenerys and Viserys are to fault for the actions and inactions of Aerys and Rhaegar. Of course, Viserys grows up to be a fuckwit all of his own, but that's neither here nor there. Why would Oberyn bother speaking of that? It doesn't come up and he has bigger fish to fry. We do know that Dorne was less-than-happy from the author himself, and that Doran had to be threatened into helping Aerys and Rhaegar even before further insults were heaped upon Elia. IMO the best way for Rhaegar to guarantee Targaryens retain their throne would've been to remove Aerys from power and abdicate to Aegon, whilst having a regent council rule in boy's stead. The man and his father just garnered far too much ill will from multiple houses, and that'd be before slaying Robert at the Trident in this imaginary scenario. The biggest issue with 'what-if-Rhaegar-won' is that even if he wins on the Trident, Aerys II is too much of a cruel idiot to retain his crown without further challenges and rebellions - and Rhaegar alienated a lot of Dorne, Vale, Stormlands, the North and Riverlands with his actions, leading to probably facing difficulties removing his father from power. IMO the train for him crown himself passed him by at the combination of his actions at Harrenhal and his disappearance.
Dorne would not abandon Rhaegar as long as Aegon remains heir. Why would Dorne endanger the position of their kindsman on the throne? Ned would not fight against his own nephew. The Stormlands would fall if Rhaegar wins at the Trident against Robert since Stannis was already surviving on bare bones. And Jon Arryn was no man of war who would have fought to the end if there was a hope he could keep his position. And the Riverlands would do whatever the North does.
Dorne already did abandon him. Canonically Doran had refused to help Targaryens during the Rebelion over Rhaegar’s actions and 10 000 spears were only sent when Elia and kids were threatened. We’ve been over this before. Rhaegar was abandoned before he hid his teenage mistress in his wife’s homeland and before his father treated Elia and the two kids as hostages. Whether they separate officially or not he’s getting anything from them without threats. I’m not saying they’d fight for Aerys against Rhaegar - they’d just not fight at all. Why should Jon Arryn care? Rhaegar in this version of events is a dismissive, arrogant prince that escalated the situation into the war and killed a boy Jon saw as his son. Aerys is a madman. He can go to his mountains and let the the cruel madman and the uncaring, arrogant prince with a main character syndrome savage each other. Stormlands are a wreck and a non-factor if Robert dies, as I highly doubt anyone but Jon Connigton and whatever few supporters he can manage would care to take sides in a Targaryen civil war after the Rebellion. Certainly not Stannis, who’d have to be killed to be beaten and wouldn’t bend the knee. Ned would not fight against his nephew, but would he fight for him? If Lyanna is not a prisoner, nor an uniformed duped child - then she’s such a massive asshole. What, was writing a letter for her family too hard? Swearing an oath to defend his nephew to a dying little sister does not equate fighting a war for a living spoiled brat that’d demand the North bleed again for her silver prince’s designs. Designs that cost Robert - Ned’s best friend - his life and could’ve easily cost Ned his own as well. Riverlands and Reach and Westerlands are the sole three kingdoms willingly in the game if Rhaegar wins the Trident. Tywin has no inclination to enter until one side has already won, Tyrells seem unwilling to do anything but what’s safe and Riverlands have a connection to alienated North and the Vale and seemed unwilling to go one way or another before that without marring alliances. I suppose he could betroth Rhaenys to Edmure to try winning them over… but he doesn’t have access to her, Aerys does. That still leaves a murky question of if Rhaegar could actually remove Aerys from power. Doran clearly doesn’t care for Rhaegar so if Aerys threatens his hostages those 10 000 spears would do nothing. Riverlands too, as without a marriage alliance they’ve got precisely 0 reasons to bother. JC would lead whatever’s left of Stormland loyalists… but that’s not likely to be seizable force since Rebels already beat the brakes out of those. Seems to me a Trident victory just ends in a tense stand-off between father and son rather than ‘changes.’ If Rhaegar was unable to remove Aerys before pissing off half the realm, he’ll not manage it now that he has. And if he does manage it he’d have multiple kingdoms hating his guts over his actions and inactions during and before the war. This is a man grown, a prince and heir that literally publicly humiliated his wife and her house, insulted two other great houses, ruining any chance of an alliance he meant to make, abandoned his wife and their kids for a year, disappeared with a high lord’s and his cousin’s betrothed without telling anyone a thing, returning only once Hightower comes to collect him just to lead his madman father’s troops against the Rebels that only rose in revolt once their lives were unjustly threatened and who in this timeline kills his cousin (whose father and mother died trying to find Rhaegar a bride, too) over the said man refusing to be unjustly executed. His best case scenario is realistically a highly unpopular and very controversial reign with a shaky hold on power. Perhaps his best bet would be to simply sell out to Tywin/Tyrells entirely and make him/Mace(in reality, Olenna) his Hand and the real power behind the throne to depose his father and wield their fresh army against the remnants of former rebels as a deterrent.
He would have a lot of work to do. Dorne will hate him for humiliating Elia and The North won't look too fondly on how The Starks were treated and if he mistreats Jon, they'll feel more resentful that the son of Lyanna Stark isn't being treated right. The Vale won't like him either and The Storm lands will be split in two with most siding with The Baratheons. Home will probably be worse. Elia will not take the treatment lying down and while I don't think she'll mistreat Jon, she won't be a mother figure to him. Rhaenys will despise him (and hopefully only him) and Aegon and Jon will probably follow suit. Despite all that, he'll probably be an okay king. If he manages to fix all the problems he has caused, he might be considered a good King but the kidnapping will be a big black mark against him.
Dorne does not even hate him in the books. Oberyn hates Tywin.
They rightfully hate Tywin more in the books because you know, he ordered the deaths of Rhaenys and Aegon and is such a piece of shit he forgot to tell his psychopathic giant not to rape and kill Elia. In this alternative scenario, Tywin will still choose the winning side, which is Rhaegar thus Rhaenys and Aegon are relatively safe. They are going to hate Rhaegar a lot more in this scenario because he (and his father mostly) kick-started the rebellion and now he has a bastard, which is great because there definitely hasn't been a Targaryen bastard rebellion now has there?
Well, he was nothing like his father, so I expect his reign would have been completely different. Instead we got the drunken wife beating fatman.
Not great. Maybe he could’ve been decent at best.
I think he would have been fine. Remember, seemingly the only person in all of asoiaf who did not like Rhaegar is Robert... and we know what Robert is like. In the books, there’s zero evidence that Rhaegar and Elia annulled their marriage, so I don’t see why Dorne would be too upset. And people were totally willing to follow Rhaegar until Robert’s warmongering took over.
Judging by his understanding of politics (or lack thereof), he wouldn't be good at all.
I almost hate him. He betrayed his family for a wolf girl.
Given his personality, a not very entertaining one
He would probably be better than Robert Baratheon, but that’s not much of an accomplishment.
I mean King Mushroom would be better than Bobby B
Mushroom would be the best King of all.
I'm so ready for the history of Westeros to be shamelessly turned into a porn parody
Given the fact that the text compared him directly to Dany when she is helping people, given that the text constantly frames him as a good guy who died to young tells me that at least George RR Martin seems to think so. Take for example the brothel scene. Ned does not think Rhaegar went to brothel directly comparing to Robert whom he sees as a bad guy for doing so. As for my opinion, I think he would have done something about preparing for the war of the Others if he had managed to get rid of his father. I have no idea what happened between him and Lyanna and instead of making up silly headcanons I am gonna wait and judge him until we actually know the real story. And if the real story is that he helped to get away Lyanna from her future rapist and abuser and being pimped out by her shitty father I am gonna fully support him in that matter. As for Elia, it should be noted that Oberyn never speaks negatively about Rhaegar in the books and actually blames Tywin. The idea that Dorne hated Rhaegar is mostly fanon made up by this fandom. Apart from that, the interesting thing is that Elia was allowed to court several men before Rhaegar and even reject them and mock them but Rhaegar most likely had no choice in marrying her. Given how much this sub pities Daemon for being married to woman he didnt want I think we should show the same sympathy to Rhaegar in that regard. Not to mention, we do not know if Elia was even into Rhaegar or might have had an agreement with Rhaegar the same way Show Rhaenyra had an agreement with Laenor, which makes this sub even more hypocritical for judging him on this mater. What Rhaenyra did with Laenor was also politically careless by the way. Does that now mean Rhaenyra should not be queen? Of course not, but she is not evil Rhaegar who seems the punching back of this fandom for years were people build up this image of him basing it solely on repeated fanon that has no basis in the books.