#this is such a showerthought ramble but i'm thinking about him. my stupid idiot

[cheremorte]

no but rhaegar is definitely an "end justifies the means" type of person, except he did not consider half of the means when he acted. he cut corners with the assumed belief things would fall into place because they had to. for someone so melancholic, he was far too optimistic or rather — obsessed with the prophecy to consider prophecies are fickle things that might not go as he interprets them. perhaps he was used to getting his way as crown prince, however much i doubt that's 100% correct considering who his father is.

he considered elia's anger, distrust and dislike of him in the aftermath of his decision to disappear with lyanna stark. he considered that there would be backlash. these things were prices he was willing to pay, because to him, these means justified the end result: the ptwp/three-headed dragon. he did not consider his father's response to the backlash. he did not consider his father holding elia and the children captive as a means to make rhaegar cooperate, based solely on the knowledge that rhaegar would remain fond of elia and their children regardless and would want them to remain safe.

the latter part ensured aerys that rhaegar would fight on his side in the rebellion aerys caused (because let's be real, it was not quite lyanna's supposed kidnapping that started the rebellion, it was rickard and brandon's plead with the king and their subsequential wildfire death that caused the rebellion to start. while the whole situation with lyanna definitely affected the route this went down, this is no retelling of helen of troy and there likely wouldn't have been such a large-scale retalliation if aerys had not done what he did to the starks).

in my belief, rhaegar is definitely not as malicious nor as selfish as fandom like to make him seem, but he is a fool with tunnel-vision and it caused him and his family everything.