Board Thread:TV Show Discussion/@comment-213.205.192.117-20160629000856/@comment-18016240-20160701100447

79.116.46.44 wrote: 50.189.54.19 wrote: There are a lot of things that don't add up, the main thing being this:

- If we assume that Rhaegar really was a good person and Lyanna was in love with him then why would they willing start a war in which both of them had everything to lose? Either Lyanna's family was destroyed for rebelling against the king, or Rhaegar and the Targaryens were wiped out for stealing Lyanna. How could Lyanna sit idly by after hearing that Rhaegar's father had murdered her own father and brother? This goes against absolutely everything we know about her. The Rebellion didn't start only because of Lyanna and Rhaegar. It started because Aerys had Rickard and Brandon Stark killed and ordered Jon Arryn to bring Robert and Ned to King's Landing so he can kill them too. It was Aerys' madness that started the Rebellion. Even Rhaegar was plotting against his father to take the Throne as soon as possible so that says a lot about the Mad King.

Lyanna and Rhaegar's elopement/kidnapping was, however, the straw that broke the camel's back. Had it not happened Brandon wouldn't have gone down to antagonize Aerys which got him and Rickard killed and Aerys wouldn't have called for Robert and Ned's heads, leading to Houses Arryn, Stark, Baratheon and later Tully and Lannister to rebel. True, there's no guarantee that a civil war wouldn't have happened had the kidnapping or tryst occured, but it probably wouldn't have been quite so devastating.