[Spoilers] Did Jon really deserve to be King in the North?

If you ask me, Jon didn't really deserve to be King in the North. If not for the knights of the Vale, who were loyal to Sansa (Sansa, not Littlefinger, as many people tend to ignore or forget), Jon and his forces would've been wiped out by Ramsay's forces. While individually he did pretty well in combat (killing like twenty good men in the skirmish and defeating the Bastard of Bolton himself), he did a piss poor job of actually leading his men. He would've been killed in the first cavalry rush by Ramsay if his didn't save him first, and that too because he broke formation out of rage at losing Rickon - which, while completely understandable, still cost him. Fighting bravely is good and all, but that in itself does not make a King.

He didn't even think of arming Wun Wun with, say, a tree or some sort of makeshift armor - either of which would've made him much more dangerous in battle and allowed him to take out a lot of soldiers with one swing. I don't even think Ghost, a direwolf who is completely capable of taking on grown and armed fighters, was involved. There was no real strategy from Jon other than the one that wouldn't have won him the war anyway, and the one he deviated from.

At least when Robb was KITN, he did a far better job. He beat the Lannisters, led by men the size of Tywin and Jaime, THREE times over. He captured the Kingslayer in one of these battles. He tricked Tywin into squandering his numerical advantage. Even the proud lord of Lannister acknowledged Robb and believed he would not fail unless they resorted to dirty tricks such as collaborating with the Boltons and Freys to murder the Starks at a wedding. The guy also put people like Greatjon Umber in their place, whereas neither Jon nor Sansa could successfully do likewise to the Northerners THEY dealt with. In fact, Jon literally just forgives the Northerners who didn't join him against Ramsay. Robb would NOT do that.

Robb actually strategized. We see him dispense justice to traitorous lords and put others in their place. We see him defeat an extremely powerful army and much more skilled generals. He not only fights but also leads. He inspired respect in the vast majority of Northerners under his cause and used his authority well. He makes sacrifices and actually feels the weight of them, the lives he sacrificed and lost. Even killing Rickard Karstark wasn't that bad considering that the guy deserved it and that Robb had to ensure the Lannisters would not kill any prisoners they had either.

Not saying Sansa deserved to be QITN either, though I do think she deserved it - but that's another story.

Submitted October 06, 2019 at 07:55PM by saminstark https://ift.tt/31T2JjE