Robb now had no doubt that, if not for his two sisters who remained in King's Landing, Viserys, a king with dragons, a vast army of elite soldiers, and a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne,
might well have wiped out their northern forces, who belonged to the same rebel camp, while fighting the Westerlands at Harrenhal.
Yet their conversation about the Ironborn had also confirmed something else for Robb: Viserys Targaryen was indeed utterly different from his father, Aerys II, whose madness was infamous.
Aerys's cruelty had been chaotic and paranoid, like wildfire, while Viserys's was a cold resolve born of careful calculation. His goals were clear, his methods decisive, and he left no loose ends.
Of course, that might have made Viserys even more frightening, but in some ways, it also made him more trustworthy. At least one knew where his limits lay and how his reasoning worked.
Much like himself, Robb could not help thinking. He, too, was different from his father, Eddard Stark. Though he had always looked to his father as an example and wanted to become a man like him, he now felt himself drifting further and further from that ideal.
Robb believed his father had been a man who held fast to honor, sometimes so stubbornly that it made him seem inflexible. In the end, he had fallen to the intrigues of King's Landing. Even so, Robb remained proud of him.
For he, Robb Stark, had broken a long-standing marriage pact and antagonized House Frey not for the North's survival, but to satisfy his own desires, making decisions that dishonored House Stark.
Yet in these times, a pure devotion to virtue and honor seemed insufficient to keep a house alive. Perhaps ruthless measures and selfishness were the true means of survival now. Robb