Rhaegar: Overestimated or Underestimated? - General (ASoIaF) - A ...

The key to Rhaegar is the Azor Ahai/ Prince that was Promised prophecy. Rhaegar clearly uncovers it when reading, and believes that it refers to either him, or his children. It informs why he elopes with Lyanna; the "ice and fire" reference in the House of the Undying clearly indicates that Rhaegar, with Lyanna, is looking to fulfil that. And he may not have been wrong. There's as good a chance that AA/TPtwP is Jon Snow, his son, as that it's Dany, and even if it is Dany, he was broadly right.

Militarily, Rhaegar probably isn't a prodigy. But so what? I'm confident Tywin wasn't a great combatant personally. And for all Robert's skill with a hammer, he was a terrible king. By the Trident, Rhaegar was fighting a war that others had created and exacerbated (Connington, Mace Tyrell and Aerys, primarily).

Also, Rhaegar didn't "abandon" Elia, Aegon and Rhaenys. He left them in KL, which is a very defensible castle, and the Red Keep is even more so. Perhaps he might have sent them to Dragonstone, but he couldn't have reasonably predicted that Tywin would betray Aerys as he did. And in the event, Dragonstone fell too. Where else could he have sent them? Dorne? Possibly, but they wouldn't have been any safer there, Robert and Tywin would have chased them.

The point with Rhaegar is that he slightly but fatally misjudges the AA prophecy, and brings about the rebellion in pursuing it, but that he's more fondly remembered than Robert by essentially everybody.

Source:

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/85629-rhaegar-overestimated-or-underestimated/

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