Okay, so I've seen a lot of people compare the Red and Blue Kingdoms to the Capulets and Montagues, and I see it, but I fundamentally disagree with this comparison because of what we currently know about the conflict between the kingdoms.
So, the Red and Blue Kingdom used to be one. Specifically, they used to both be one kingdom where the Blue Kingdom is now. The Red Kingdom's construction doesn't predate the conflict. It exists because of the conflict. You can see this really well through environmental storytelling. The Red Kingdom isn't very defensible, just across the river in an open field. It's made of wood instead of stone, with entirely dirt paths. The castle itself is also MUCH smaller.
You could take from this that the Red Kingdom is the offshoot of the original kingdom that eventually became too big too not be considered an entire half. And I think this is true.
First of all, from various backstories, we know that the Blue Kingdom has lot of external connections. They can send powerful guild members after people who they see as dangerous. (Kitty + 4C backstory) They can conscript talented people from surrounding villages. (Scott backstory) They have a history; they reap the benefits of that lasting influence from the original kingdom. The Red Kingdom doesn't have that.
Second of all, there are themes of this present in the makeup of each kingdom. There are almost people in the Red Kingdom who have lived there for their entire lives. They are all travelers and outcasts and those the Blue Kingdom rejected. (Kitty, Frogue, Katie backstory for that last part)
Whereas the Blue Kingdom has no members 'rejected' by the Red Kingdom. And they have far more people who were original citizens of their kingdom. (2 vs 4+)
This, I think, mirrors what the kingdoms originally were. The Red Kingdom chose to leave the original Kingdom. We don't know the reason, but a large portion of the population felt the need to fully start over fresh and cut off ties. Anyone who has a reason to hate the original kingdom, they found their way there.
The Blue Kingdom is what was left behind, a shadow of the original kingdom's glory. They want to put things back together, to erase that failure. Things couldn't be fixed until the Red Kingdom was gone and completely under their control again. The control of the "original" kingdom.
The Red Kingdom hates the Blue Kingdom because it's what they ARE and always have been. They're reactionary, it's central to their identity. Their founding principal.
And the Blue Kingdom hates the Red Kingdom because they KNOW they're hated. It's dangerous to have a kingdom right across the river that's filled with those you deem dangerous, who hate you with a passion and ALWAYS have incentive to take from you what they themselves lack. They can only be safe when the Red Kingdom is gone.
AND YOU CAN SEE THIS IN THE CURRENT CONFLICTS! The Blue Kingdom is still flawed. It's still a rigid, exclusionary, and unchanging system. And so it still hurts people. It still rejects people and drives them away.
And where do those people go? They go to the Red Kingdom, who ALWAYS needs more people and on principal accepts anyone who hates the Blue Kingdom too.
So fundamentally, it doesn't MATTER what the original reason was. It doesn't MATTER if anyone remembers why they hate each other. Because everyone has their OWN reason. Every Red Kingdom member either has personal experience with hating the Blue Kingdom, has a history of hating them, or is an outcast who understands what it's like.
The Blue Kingdom has the power to have wiped the Red Kingdom out over and over again. But they haven't.
Because they always create it, again and again. They supply a constant feed of new people who fall right into the open arms that is the hatred of the Red Kingdom. They inadvertently create the threat they're so desperate to destroy. They made this Kingdom of outcasts and deserters who despise them.
So no, I don't think it's like the Montagues and Capulets. Because as the story goes, those were "2 houses, alike in dignity."
And the Kingdoms in Bannerfall are NOT alike. They are not equivalent, or identical. They are opposites. They are cause and effect. Their halves are not mirrored copies, but 2 distinct pieces that can only function when put together. And endless cycle of hatred.
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
stormborns
