Ned Stark May Be a Hero, but He Isn't a Man of Honor

Ned Stark May Be a Hero, but He Isn’t a Man of Honor

Ned Stark is depicted as a man who is a hero and a man of honor in the Game of Thrones film and books. It’s clear that George R. R. Martin and the creators of the HBO show want the audience to think he is honorable in the similar tradition of heroes because of the way he rules Winterfell. Granted Ned is in many ways a stereotypical hero, but he is not an honorable man because he makes choices in the film and book that clearly shows that he’s not as honorable as the audience initially sees him, especially when it comes to protecting his family or people of Winterfell.

From the first episode of the series, it is clear that the show creators want the audience to see Ned Stark as honorable. We see scenes that demonstrates his honor, for instance when he catches the deserter from the Night’s Watch at the beginning of the first episode. Ned beheads the young man to carry out justice for running away from the Night’s Watch. When a deserter of the Night’s Watch is caught south of the wall, the law demands that he be executed in the name of the king because he has broken his vows. Since Ned Stark is the warden of the North, he was showing his honor towards the king Robert’s rules and despite the men of the night’s watch encountering white walker, the audience knows that the deserter is telling the truth about what he saw and why he ran, and thus the audience might be tempted to judge Ned for choosing to execute him.  Since the young deserter was caught close to Winterfell Ned is responsible for enforcing the law, and it is he who judges those who violate their vows. In order to prevent the audience for judging Ned for executing the deserter, we see Ned tell Bran especially why he had to kill the man (he broke his vow) and the philosophy behind the fact that Ned himself performs the execution. Ned says, “The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” When he asks Bran this is so, his son responds, “because we keep to the old ways.” Ned values tradition with the old way, meaning he finds it significant of his bringing his male children to these executions: clearly, he is invested in ensuring that his children understand his Philosophy so that they will carry it on, too. This is something that Ned has to do without choice even if he does not relish it, and this goes to show that the creators of the film show Ned Stark as an honorable man. 

Ned seems honorable not only because of his theories of justice, but also due to his treatment of his family. He loves his family significantly and he would do anything for his kids including Jon Snow. He makes sacrifices twice in the film that we know of. Once, by admitting to treason against Joffrey, which he has been told will save himself and more importantly his daughter Sansa Stark, who is held hostage by the Lannister’s. Another point is that Ned could have refused to acknowledge Jon Snow, but instead he claims Jon as his own and brings him up in Winterfell, even though it creates problems between Ned and Catelyn. According to Richenthal, “A man without honor forces characters in the Game of Thrones to consider their actions, along with the type of person they either think they are or the type of person they want to be”, for example when taking a look at Cersei. She cares truly about her kids and her kids mean everything to her and we see scenes that she does behind the scene decisions by telling her son Joffrey what to do, such as killing Ned Stark. This quote is significantly important because Ned’s family is important to him, but he places them in danger in order to say what he thinks is right in his mind, such as prohibiting Joffrey from taking throne.

The books and show set the audience up to perceive Ned as honorable, but analyzing his actions shows that this is not the case. Ned’s insistence on revealing Joffrey as an illegitimate heir to the throne is nonsensical when one considers that Ned himself rebelled against the lawful king, Aerys, in order to place Robert Baratheon on the throne. According to Vineyard, “Aerys killed Ned Stark father Richard Stark and his older brother Brandon Stark” in which Aerys demanded the heads of both Ned and Robert despite them committing any crime. Even though Aerys was an angry king, Ned was not honorable towards this king in the matter of revenge of the deaths of his family. Ned disrupts the entire kingdom and investigates civil war because Joffrey is not Robert’s son so strong is Ned’s Belief in divine succession, but this belief is hard to reconcile when one realizes that Ned has rebelled against the rightful king just a short time ago.  

Ned’s honor is called into question not only when one considers his wishy-washy position on divine right, but also when he is compared to Varys and Jamie. In both cases, Ned thinks of himself as superior in honor to the two men, but when examined with more nuance, it seems that both Varys’s and Jaime’s actions kept people safe whereas Ned’s actions tear apart his family and the kingdom. According to Harish, “Jamie did not kill Aerys because he thought what he did to Ned’s father and brother was horrendous. He killed Areys because he ordered Jamie to kill Tywin”. This makes Ned think of Jamie as a “king-slayer”, as Jamie took the oath of a king’s guard. Ned judges Jamie, but Jamie acted to protect his family and others from Aerys, it is hard to believe that Ned wouldn’t have killed Aery’s if placed in the same position. Ned’s ideas about justice and rulership and his treatment of his family are not enough to qualify him as honorable. Ned Stark was a big fish in a small pond in Winterfell for say because as a lord of Winterfell he handled problems that most people held honor as a priority, but it is the other way around in king’s landing. The way of life is different in king’s landing than in Winterfell, and with Ned letting the girls come with him to live in king’s landing turned into a nightmare for his family. As Ned knew the danger of King’s landing, he should have listened to his wife Catelyn Stark and kept his family in Winterfell, instead of acting foolish. The idea of honor weighs heavy on Ned. According to Gallo, “he wants to do the right thing and playing the game isn’t something he enjoys if anything he is a quiet introvert which gets interpreted as honor.” However, Ned shows up to King’s Landing and expects everyone to behave as if they were in Winterfell, and he spectacularly fails to notice or adapt to his new environment and he was not as honorable as much as he or his children would like us to believe. The creators of Game of Thrones show the scene while Ned is held hostage in the dungeon and Varys turns the tables on him, pointing out that it is Ned’s loose lips who got Robert killed, and now the entire kingdom will suffer. If Ned had went with King Robert’s will and allowed King Joffrey to become king, people wouldn’t be suffering the consequences of his dishonorable decision towards the King. Ned could have possibly made it back to Winterfell with his family, if King Joffrey allowed it and maybe Sansa would be married into the Queen, as she expected to happen.

Ned is not even honorable considering his own code of ethics, which he violates a number of times. We see Ned Stark change the words on the contract that King Robert Baratheon uses when writing his will. When King Robert was on his deathbed, he tells Ned to write in his will that Ned will be the Regent until “my heir, Joffrey” comes of age. Ned did not write this down, though. Instead he wrote “the rightful heir” because he knows that he intends to reveal Joffrey as illegitimate as soon as Robert dies. So, here Ned is not being honorable to King Robert because he is acting based on what he thinks is right and what he thinks Robert would’ve done is he knew about the incest that Cersei and Jamie do to create Joffrey instead of telling the truth.

At first glance, you might think Ned was honorable because of how he treats his family and his talk about honor. But this opinion just doesn’t hold up when you examine the situation closely. I find the creators of Game of Thrones to do a great job creating an image of Ned Stark being a hero. Many people in the north loved Ned stark as their lord, as the books and episodes go on. He may be a hero, but as an audience, the creators of Game of Thrones give the audience small clues and hard evidence to show the dishonorable Ned Stark. Ned Stark didn’t realize his disruption and harm to the people until Varys told him the truth. Ned Stark ultimately decides to do what’s best for his family and that’s means sacrificing his honor completely and confessing to treason in front of the kingdom. In the episode we see King Joffrey take Ned Starks head, we see Ned confesses to his dishonor to the King for his family and himself safety. Therefore, Ned Stark is seen to be a hero to his people of Winterfell, instead of a man with honor.  

Works Cited

Gallo, Liz. (2017, September 4). “Do you think Ned Stark is an honorable person”. Quora. www.quora.com 

Harish, M V. (2017, May 11). “Why was Ned Stark so Disparaging of Jamie killing King Aerys”. Quora. www.Quora.com  

Vineyard, Jennifer. (2019, April 22). “Who is the mad king, and why did Jamie kill him”. The New York Times. www.newyorktimes.com 

Richenthal, Matt. (2014, May 14). “Game of Thrones Review: What is honor?”. TvFanatic.

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