Honor What?: How Honor Codes Are Developed in Game of Thrones

Honor What?

How Codes of Honor Are Developed in Game of Thrones

John Payne

            It is impossible to watch an episode of Game of Thrones without hearing at least one discussion about honor, especially if there is a Stark on screen. This has lead to a common belief that the Starks are the most honorable people in all of Westeros. Scratch that, the only honorable people in all of Westeros. There is some credence for this argument. Even when he is wasting away in a dungeon, Ned still talks about his and his family’s honor. However, this entire notion is founded on a fallacy. Are the Starks really the only honorable characters in Game of Thrones or are the Starks the only characters that follow a code of honor that we in twenty-first century America are ready to accept?

            Honor is an ambiguous term. This ambiguity is emphasized even more by the fact that we have to define it within the parameters of a fictional world. Despite this difficulty, several bloggers have given it a shot. One of the simplest is put forward by Ya Li. She followed a deontological model (more on that to come) and say that “what’s right is what’s honorable.” This sounds great on paper, but the problem is that we are defining one murky word with another. Varys thinks its right to go against Ned because it will prevent war. Ned thinks its right to expose Joffrey’s parentage because he is not the legitimate heir. Both have a valid argument. War is bad and illegitimate royal succession is also bad. How can we say that one is more right or more honorable than the other? Another definition, this one from Alyson Miers says honor is “honesty, or transparency, centered around a sense of fairness.” This is better. It is concrete. While we can quibble about what is fair, we cannot about what is honest. By this definition, if someone lies, they are not honorable. So, Ned lying and confessing to be a traitor to protect his family is not honorable. This still does not feel quite right to me.

            Perhaps that problem here that I cannot reconcile is not that the definitions put forward by these writers is bad. Instead, maybe the goal they have set out to accomplish is not possible. Can we really define what honor means to everyone in a given world? I think not. What an individual considers to be honorable is based on both their background and their life experiences. Therefore, this is going to be different for every single person. What we consider to be honorable will be different for every person who reads this.

            Before we turn back to Game of Thrones, lets look at this in real life terms. Imagine a man stole an item from a store. This is something that most of us would agree is not an honorable action. Now let’s say that the item he stole was a loaf of bread because he has lost his job, and this is the only thing his children will have to eat all day. Things get more muddled here. To someone who bases their code of honor around the law, this action would not be honorable. The man broke the law and there is no honor in that. However, to a person who bases their law code around caring for their family, this would likely be an honorable action. The man looked after his family and that is the most honorable action of all.

            Now back to the story.

            Let’s look first at Ned Stark. Most of the conversations about honor in the show center around Ned. He professes himself as upholding a strict code of honor and expecting others to do the same. However, is this really him really being the last defense before the chaos of the public standards crashing down or is he simply a men that is set in his ways and trying to force those around him into sharing his way of thinking. If we accept that honor is a personal set of opinions and not an agreed upon standard, them the latter must be true.

Figure 1 Varys visits Ned in the dungeon

            A major plot point that revolves around Ned’s sense of honor is his fight to oust Cercei and her children because they are not the legitimate heirs. Ned’s view is that it would not be honorable to allow Joffrey to rule, even if Ned was regent, because it would not be following the true line of succession. He also does not feel that it would be honorable to kill Cercei and her children or allow Robert to kill them like he did to Rhaegar’s. However, this places him at odds with others in the court. Not just because it challenges their power but because it goes against what their code of honor tells them is right as well. One example of this is Varys. Varys’s follows a code of honor under which the most honorable action is that which is the best for the kingdom. In this instance, Varys thinks the best thing for the kingdom is Joffrey remaining on the throne. This is not from a love for Joffrey or a love for the Lannisters but rather because he feels that war is always worse than peace, and what Ned wants to do would lead to war. Ned is also going up against Cercei’s code of honor. For her, honor revolves around her children. The most honorable action for her to take at any point is that which will protect the best interests of her children. In this case, it is helping Joffrey secure his place on the Iron Throne. Again, this places her at odds with Ned.

            Though the honor code of all these characters are based on personal values, we are not completely without means for understanding them. Ethical philosophy has various codes under which these can fit. One of these, explained by Immanuel Kant, it deontology. In its simplest terms, this philosophy states that an action is ethical because it follows the rules. This is clearly the philosophy under which Ned operates. When Ned was trying to decide how to deal with Robert’s death and the illegitimacy of his children, he ended up making the decision that followed the law of the land. While the people of the council that surrounded him tried to convince him to do what they thought would be best for the kingdom or best for him personally, he was not swayed. He stayed true to the letter of the law. In her blog post, author Ya Li offered another explanation for deontology. She said that under this philosophy people are thought of as an end unto themselves instead as merely a means to an end. This also applies to Ned. When Ned warns Cercei that he is going to tell Robert about her affair with Jamie and tells her that she should leave Westeros, it is because he is thinking of the Lannisters as actual people, not just political enemies. In this, he shows that he thinks these people he does not like are their own ends and deserve to live, even if it is in exile. This goes hand in hand with the way in which Jack Emen views the Starks as following Aristotelian virtue ethics. He says this is doing the right thing for its own sake without concern for one’s own safety. That is definitely the case with Ned’s actions throughout the show.

            Another ethical theory represented here is consequentialism. This is often simplified as the ends justify the means. Both Varys’s and Cercei’s honor codes fit into this philosophy. When he visits Ned in the dungeon, Varys is very open about the fact that he will do whatever he thinks is necessary to keep the kingdom and its citizens safe. Any end, no matter who it means killing, is justified. This is the same for Cercei. If her children are in jeopardy, there is nothing she will not do and no one she will not harm.

Figure 2 Ned before he carried out the sentence he imposed

            A common question asked when considering honor in Game of Thrones is: was Ned Stark foolish being so honorable? The easy answer is yes, honor got him killed. But, like all easy answers, this leave out much of the argument. We in the twenty-first century tend to romanticize tales of the middle ages and stories that invoke them. We think everyone with a sword should defend what we think is good and fight for what we think is right. If they do not, they must be the villain.  This is why Ned is usually considered the protagonist of the series. He fits the mold we are conditioned to like. So, I maintain that yes, Ned was foolish. Not for having honor, but for creating and adhering to a code of honor that has no place outside of fairy tales.

            Honor is subjective. Even more so in Game of Thrones. George R. R. Martin’s characters are complex individuals with complex hopes and dreams. These are what inform their code of honor. So, instead of trying to lump these characters into groups as honorable or not honorable, perhaps we would be better served to look deeply and see where we can see the inspiration for their honor codes in ourselves.