[EVERYTHING] I've got to say it, fuck Lyanna Stark

That's because everyone thought she had been kidnapped. Probably could've been resolved if she walked out and said, oh hey we got married, I'm good.

I can only imagine that going immediately bad for Lyanna and possibly Rhaegar. There'd likely still be a war as the Martells had just been ultra insulted by the heir to the throne (half the realm was pretty dead set on removing a batshit Aerys by this point), Aerys was paranoid as hell of Rhaegar who was marrying someone else to fulfill a prophecy. Robert just lost his betrothed to Rhaegar and would unlikely accept that she was doing any of it willingly and the Starks had just lost a sister. I highly doubt Aerys would either believe that they weren't complicit in it nor would he believe that there wasn't some messed up powerplay about to emerge. Even if Lyanna had come out and said "It's fine, we're married for love and oh I'm pregnant"...There's a good chance that Brandon and Rickard would still have been burned by Aerys but for different reasons and the Starks and Baratheons would still have their just cause along with a now mad as hell Martell family.

More to the point, they were moderately young people (Rhaegar was about 24 and Lyanna about 17 or 18) who were in love. I find it really hard to believe that anybody on here didn't do stupid things when they were young and in love. Stupid things that only had benign consequences because we aren't royals and noble lords.

/r/gameofthrones Thread Parent