Dr. Schoppe
Game of Thrones
Blog Post
Ned
Stark: Honorable Man in a Cheat’s World.
Ned Stark has had a pretty rough go at things in A Game of Thrones up until the end of his life. Although his actions connote to the contrary, Ned Stark was an honorable man attempting to right a wrong, bring the truth to light and keep his honor intact, but he didn’t go about doing what he wanted to do correctly. Growing up in Winterfell, Ned was raised with a very different view of what was honorable and what was foolish compared to the authorities of King’s Landing. I believe that Ned’s actions were indeed justified and honorable, and he did have good intentions, but the difference of values and goals between him and the rulers of King’s Landing was what got him killed.
Ned
Stark travels to King’s Landing when Robert Baratheon, his old comrade and now
king, comes to Winterfell and requests Ned to be his right-hand man for his new
kingdom which Ned helped him win. Though Ned agrees to his king’s request, he
knows that he is not prepared for the politics of King’s Landing. This is made
apparent when he discovers a shocking truth: All three of Robert’s children
were not his own, and instead were conceived by Jaimie and Cersei Lannister.
When Ned finds this out from Littlefinger, he wants to try and get Joffrey off
the throne.
Littlefinger
came to Ned in King’s Landing and told Ned that Joffrey was not the true heir to
the throne. Instead of wanting to get the rightful heir on the throne,
Littlefinger wanted to manipulate Joffrey once he was on the throne, and he
wanted to include Ned in this scheme. Ned believed this was treason.
Littlefinger then offered to bribe the city watch for Ned, allowing Ned to
forcibly remove Joffrey off the throne without getting in trouble with the
guard.
Ned
went along with the plan to remove Joffrey from power, and when he is summoned
to the throne room by Joffrey, Ned was met by Littlefinger and Slynt, one of
the leaders of the city watch. Joffrey then instructs Ned to “bend the knee” to
his kingship. When he is asked, Ned gives Sir Barristan, a distinguished knight
of the King’s Guard, his position as lord and protector of the realm. Cersei
was enraged by this act and offers Ned an ultimatum of sorts saying that he
should bend the knee to Joffrey if he wants to ever return to Winterfell.
This
is where Ned tells the room that Joffrey has no claim to the throne because he
is not Robert’s son, and he instructs Slynt and the city watch to arrest the
Queen and her son. Instead of doing what Ned asks, the city watch kill Ned’s bodyguards,
and Littlefinger puts his knife to Ned’s throat, telling him that he warned Ned
not to trust him.
One
of the big things that led to Ned’s downfall was that he trusted the wrong
people in King’s Landing to be honorable as well, but he didn’t realize his
mistake until Joffrey summoned him to the throne room in an audience with
Littlefinger. Ned trusted that the King’s Guard and that the other men would betray
Joffrey and help him take back the throne for the rightful heir Stannis, the
brother of Robert Baratheon. 
The fact that Ned believed he could jump right out in the
throne room and trust a cheating snake like Littlefinger to back him up in the
end is ridiculous, but it’s in character of Ned. Ned was not prepared for the
politics of the King’s landing compared to that of Winterfell in the north. Littlefinger is just looking for power and
money, he pretty much works for the highest bidder with the mindset of a
mercenary of sorts.
With most of the other blogs that I have read, everyone
seems to think that Ned was a villain with no moral compass, and that he had no
business meddling around with some of the things that he did. In my mind
though, Ned was doing what he believed was right. He was not raised by the most
honest group of people, but he was trying to better the Stark name and build
his honor in both Winterfell and King’s Landing. Although he had a lot of bad
actions that in the end led to his death, he was trying to do what was right not
only in his mind but also do right by his friend and his king Robert by
removing a child who wasn’t Roberts blood from the throne, and instead have
Roberts brother Stannis on the throne. Ned knew that it was what Robert would
have wanted him to do had he known the truth about Joffrey. With everyone who
has been bashing Ned for keeping his honor intact, I think that they need to
look more into the kind of person Ned was and see that his idea was proper,
although he could have handled the situation better.
People may call Ned’s actions foolish, but at least they
could not call him a coward. He stood up for the king that hired him as his
right-hand man trying to defend the throne even after his king had passed. He
knew that Joffrey was not the son of Robert and was willing to take drastic
action to ensure that Stannis, the rightful heir, was given the Iron Throne.
Although he paid the price of death for actions that the leaders of King’s
Landing called treason, Ned knew what he was doing was right up until the very
end.
Photo References
Photo 1
Photo 2
Purple
Days (Fanfic). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PurpleDays
Photo
3
Massacre
in the Red Keep. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Massacre_in_the_Red_Keep
I agree with Bailey, and I do think that Ned Stark was honorable by trying to do right by his friend, Robert Baratheon. In Ned Stark’s mind, it would have been a great offense to let someone that was not Robert’s true heir sit on the throne. The problem was that Ned went about it the wrong way by trusting the people of King’s Landing to do the honorable thing. King’s Landing is full of people looking out for their interests and self-preservation. Ned Stark grew up in Winterfell, where the truth and what was coming ahead of everything. He was naïve to think that the people of King’s Landing would be the same as the people of Winterfell. His biggest mistake was trusting Little Finger to do what he said he was going to do. Little Finger had told Ned Stark not to trust him from the very beginning. Ned Stark’s ultimate downfall was putting his trust in the wrong people, and this leads to his death.
ReplyDeleteBailey, I agree with your argument about Ned Stark trying to do and being honorable but doing all the wrong things. You bring out some great points to support your argument such as Ned stark trusting Littlefinger even after he was told by Littlefinger not to trust him and the way you talked all the things he wanted to do for Cersei and Jaimie also stood out to me as well because it showed that Ned Stark was trying to do the right thing. I also think that comparing the different lands and the character types from those places really helped my understand and see your argument clearly and it also did a good job of supporting it. I also think that the pictures that you found helped tell the story you were trying to get across as well as show that Ned Stark really did make some bad decision while trying to be an honorable person. I also really have to agree with your final paragraph and how it wraps up your blog post.
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