Ned Stark: The Honorable Fool, Lawful Stupid
I
am new to Game of Thrones. When I started reading the first book and saw
the opening of the show, I love, loved the first words spoken by that man, “The man who passes the
sentence should swing the sword.” So heroic! I wondered who the dude wearing
fur with the heavy beard was. I found out who he was. It was Ned Stark. Lord of
Winterfell. Warden of the North. A great Father. A loving husband. A
justifiable and honorable man. Men like him are rare. He meets all the Prince characteristics
that Disney displays in their movies. Trust me. I know. I grew up with Disney
movies. That strong opening line made me immediately think and feel, “Oh yea,
there’s a hero.” Ned Stark is a rustic, chivalrous man, a true knight in
shining armor.
In
the first episode, it is clear that he has a happy life with his family. In the
book, Game of Thrones and Philosophy, Irwin and Jacoby describe Ned’s
life in the North: “Remaining steadfast in his commitment to honor and
virtue…he spent decades in a loving home, happily raising his children,
cultivated deep and genuine relationships with those he cared most about.”[1] I was leaning towards a
fairy-tale happy ending as I read about a man who genuinely cared about his
family and did not care for the rise of stature.
However.
I
also have a cynical side.
Yes.
It’s true. I’m not ashamed to admit it either.
What
is too good to be true, is usually too good to be true. It happened so suddenly even I was
surprise.
I
asked myself multiple times throughout the chapters from Ned Stark’s point of
view. Should he be viewed as a man of honor or as a foolish man? The answer
came to me as I was driving home from campus.
I was listening to the radio and Lizzo’s song,
Truth Hurts, came on. I listened to her sing the first lyric, “Why men
great ‘till they gotta be great?” I almost slapped myself in astonishment to “whoop!”
along with her.
Almost. I couldn’t because I was driving though. That would
have been a disaster.
It
was my, “AH-HA! I knew it!!” moment.
Why?
What could change my high admiration of Ned Stark, from honorable to that of a
fool?
I’ll
tell you why.
I
grew up in a household where one’s status and their “face” was their honor. The
number of boys, and the titles or occupations that your grown children obtained,
especially those of sons, helped increased the status/face of the family. In my
Asian household, my Dad always said, “A person’s honor is their status and the
way to keep ‘face.’ Without this honor, they are nothing. They will lose their self-
worth.” The concept of “losing face” is not a physical sense but a
psychological sense in both sexes. (https://www.tripsavvy.com/saving-face-and-losing-face-1458303)
Once you lose ‘face,’ you may never be able to regain it again. Your entire
family, down to your children, and perhaps even your descendants will also carry
or be labeled by this negative stigma placed upon them. The grudge and title
will always be there. Depending on what and/or how you lost your ‘face,’ you
and your children will be known by that incident. It’s quite horrible.
I
always disliked that line because basically honor and one’s ‘face’ was
everything. I thought and still feel that it is idiotic and extremely dumb. Why
do everything for image? No one is perfect. No one. Why pretend that you live a
“perfect” life when the struggle is real? Why is it shameful to ask for help?
Why can the elders not get over the fact that people make mistakes? Or that it
is great to ask questions when one does not know the answer? That as a human
being, image is more than what you show on the outside or of what titles
one has obtained. It is learning from
mistakes and to initiate steps forward to improve oneself, to be honest, to ask
why, to question the norm, to be different, to love unconditionally, that, for
me, is the image of strength and resilience. For me, that is keeping one’s ‘face.’
I often raised these questions and got in trouble many times by the elders. They
would just answer, “BECAUSE I SAID SO. SO YOU HAVE TO DO IT! IF you are a good
girl, you do not question me, you just do as I say!!”
I
guess I am not a good girl. LOL.
In
the HBO TV series, Ned was portrayed as unable to deny King Robert’s honorable
request of being the next Hand. It was his wife, Lady Catelyn, that begged and forbid
him to accept the position and to go to King’s Landing. However, in the book, Games
of Thrones: Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire, it was Lady Catelyn that
told Ned to take the position of the Hand in fear of retribution from the King
and for honor. She says to him that the King came to Winterfell to bring “great
honors, that Ned cannot throw them back in his (King Robert) face.”[2] So in the book he went to King’s
Landing to become the next Hand to appease his wife for honor of the family. He
did exactly what his wife told him to do.
Either
way, Ned Stark’s fate was already predestined to end. He knew going into the
position, what had happened to the previous Hand of the King. He knew King’s
Landing was dangerous. He knew he was endangering the family.
In
fact, they both knew.
But
Catelyn wanted honor and Ned could not say “No” to her.
Every
threat to themselves, the family, their daughter’s lives, the fear of a civil
war, destruction of the peace in the entire 7 kingdoms were laid out in front
of Ned Stark. It was like red paint on a starch piece of white paper.
He
was the Hand for goodness’ sakes. He had the power to build the kingdom! “What
the King dreams, the Hand builds.”[3] There were numerous times
where he could have changed fate. Fate of the Kingdom, fate of his family, and
himself.
He
truly and honestly did not want the Iron Throne for himself. He refused it. To
him, gaining the Iron Throne meant to “sacrifice ones’ honor and morality.”[4]
Which
is great. He was not a power-hungry fool, but he, in his own way of thinking, was
going to do something even greater.
What
was his ambitious mission?
Ned
Stark was truly a gentleman in thinking that it would be more comforting to
have a conversation in the gardens with Cersai; thinking that as a woman she
would back down, and meekly take his suggestions, and follow through.
Stupid
move!
UGH!
Like really?!?! There is no nice word to describe what he did.
In
my head, I am imagining that I would dance around Ned Stark and repeatedly sing
Lizzo’s song, Truth Hurts. Then say, “Dude, you could not even deny your
wife when she told you to take the position of the Hand and here you are
threatening a woman.”
What
a fool.
This
led to the immediate downfall of Ned Stark. This is also what happens when men
underestimate women.
Ned
Stark failed as a politician (https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Eddard_Stark),
failed at being a protective Father, Husband, Protector of the 7 kingdoms, and
of the North.
He
did NOT know how to play the game.
It
is not a wonder why in the TV series, he is given the title of, The Honorable
Fool. In Kyle Cupps’s article, Eddard Stark’s Ethics of Honor, (https://ordinary-times.com/2011/08/02/eddard-starks-ethics-of-honor/)
he writes, “Ned Stark only relinquishes his honor when his daughters, Arya and
Sansa’s lives are at stake. He does not even consider the thousands of people
that will die because he lacks phronesis.” He could have saved so
many people. He could have prevented the entire civil war from happening.
Sure,
the Dragon Queen was on her way, with 3 Dragons. Sure, the White Walkers were
coming as well. Sure, Winter was coming.
But.
Had
Ned Stark been wiser and smarter in playing the game he would have been able to
make more honey than vinegar.
His
character is the lawful stupid.
Yes.
Lawful stupid.
Ned Starks picture should be plastered right
next to the definition of lawful stupid: “for people who call themselves lawful
neutral or Lawful good but lean toward such rigid adherence to the law that
anybody who breaks any law, anywhere for any reason, is the enemy.” (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LawfulStupid)
Ned
Stark. You are the Honorable Fool.
[1] Jacoby, Henry Owen, and William
Irwin. Game of Thrones and
Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper than Swords. Wiley, 2012.
[4] Jacoby, Henry Owen, and William
Irwin. Game of Thrones and
Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper than Swords. Wiley, 2012.
I so agree that Ned is a fool and can see how you see him as a hero so quick. But I always thought Ned was too emotional to last in Game of Thrones. So id be lying if I said I was surprised he died so fast. He was too good for the time he had ruling.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nicole! I agree. His death was coming but it was still shocking because he was just trying to do the right thing. Sadly, at that moment, honor was not working strong in King's Landing. Perhaps if the timing was right, honor would be working stronger, Ned would still be alive, and all the bad people will be punished...but then, that would become a Disney movie.
DeleteYes, I would consider Ned Stark an honorable fool. However, whats so wrong for living for the right purpose. I really liked Ned Stark because he lived and died for honor. It was obvious that kings landing was corrupt do to the incest constructed by Jamie and Cersei. Ned was smart enough to figure out that Joffery wasn't the rightful Heir. it has been a while since I've watched this series of episodes my knowledge isn't crystal clear, but Ned didn't want to take the children of Robert because he would be putting them in harms way. However, in the end all of decisions he did make led to him being beheaded.
ReplyDeleteWas Ned Stark an Honorable fool? Yes. However, We cant dislike this character, for only doing what he knew was right.
Thank you Hunter! Yes, I was perhaps a bit harsh on Ned. LOL. BUT, I will say that from reading Jason's blog, it has made me feel a bit more satisfied that Ned is not so foolish. Instead, he brought the honor code to where it did not exist and unfortunatly, majority overruled.
DeleteFound the main points of your argument aligning with my feelings about Ned Stark. The staying face comment really spoke to me and made think back to how my German grandfather and his similar beliefs about a man’s honor. I believe you hit the nail on the head about Ned’s inability to overcome his own high standards placed before him by his own sense of honor. I would even argue that his failure to adapt to his new environment would make him a bigger fool, because he followed the same rules of Winterfell while in the city of King’s Landing. However we put it our writings both paint Ned Stark as a fool and if both us were able to see him in such a light it isn’t hard to imagine others maybe felt the same way.
ReplyDeleteAwesome use of Lawful Stupid to describe Ned Stark in the title and body of your blog post. When I first so it I believed you may talk about Dungeons and Dragons, pointing out what aligning he would have in this world. Most likely he would be Lawful Good to begin with, but as soon he mixes his sense of honor into it becomes a Lawful Chaotic mixture. Which would have the under tones of honorable knight and a foolish novice, which in turn would make him as you say Lawful Stupid.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jason! I have never heard of the term, Lawful Stupid until now. When I first read the original blog where that term came from (it was some sort of TV Blog) I immediatley thought of Ned.
DeleteFirst off Lizzo hit differently doesn't she? Your father has a good point there. o If a man looses his face there's more likely of a chance that he can't or won't get the chance to gain his face back. In Neds case that was both literal and physical. now as too if he failed..... yea he did, but he also took care of his family until the unfortunate event. however, even his death helped his kids and wife see that they need to move more carefully and learn how to adapt. I mean given they had no choice but Ned didn't fail as a father in my eyes he trained his kids to protect themselves and had a bad a** wife who knew how to stand on her own two feet.
ReplyDelete