The Dragon Has Three Heads!

Saw this and had to take a picture.

Ned was guilty in Game of Thrones

I just finished reading all the "A Song of Ice and Fire" books again.  I still don't like them and I still don't like GRRM's prose.  

This time around, a few things stuck out to me about Ned.  He is supposed to be so honorable and people confuse that with benevolent.  And yet, the first thing we see him really do in the books is chop a man's head off.  Later he withholds vital information from king Robert about Joffery.  Then, when king Robert specifically names Joffery as his heir, BY NAME, Ned writes something else down instead.  

In my book, yeah, Ned was guilty of treason.  

You might be saying, "but incest, adultery, Cersei"  I don't care.  Robert named Joffery as his heir.

"But Joffery was crazy evil."  So what?  Robert named Joffery as his heir.  

It is a bitter pill that a lot of people eventually have to swallow when they realize that objective truth and legal truth will often not match up.  This is because courts are not omniscient and even if they were, things we think are important outside of court end up not mattering to the judge.  Innocent men often have to serve jail time for crimes they did not commit because the DA wanted a conviction.  A man may serve time for rape because the DA told the victim that he was richest guy in the line up and she pointed him out.  These things happen in real life even in this modern age with DNA and camera phones.  

Courts don't like getting all the details of someone's bedroom activity.  Courts would prefer to just assume that certain things just are.  So when a married couple have a child it is assumed that the father of that child is the husband.  Yes, the courts are fully aware that for some of those children this will not be so.  The courts know that it might even be the case that as many as 30% could be secret love children since wives are known to cheat so much.  

Robert and Cersei were married. The court will assume that Joffery is Robert's son.  Only ROBERT can dispute that.  Robert never publicly said that he did not believe Joffery to be his child.  It might even have been the case that Robert knew Joffery wasn't his child but decided to make Joffery his heir anyway.  Men have been known to love their wives so much that they'll forgive her adultery and even raise some other man's offspring as their own.  In real life these things happen.  

So yes. Ned was guilty of treason.  Does that expunge Joffery's later crimes? No. Of course not.  And Ned could even have had an argument that a child can not be king or even that maybe the people should govern themselves without need of a king.  But that's not what he did.  He wanted to impose objective truth onto legal truth and anyone who has ever gone into court thinking they can do that will certainly leave the court with that extremely bitter taste in their mouth.  The courts don't care about objective truth.  The courts only care about resolving disputes.  The easiest way to resolve the dispute of who is the rightful heir to king Robert is to assume that Joffery is his child.  Does that let Cersei get away with adultery? Yes. Does that let Cersei get away with incest? Yes.  Does that put a cruel and batshit crazy person on the throne? Yes.  But that is what the courts would do every time.

If we remember back to Ned cutting off the head of the deserter, we remember that the deserter was telling the truth.  The deserted had very good reasons for wanting to get the word out about the wights.  Ned didn't care. Ned didn't see that as legitimate excuse to go outside of expected behavior.  So Ned cut his head off.  Then, when it was Ned's turn to be tried, Ned was telling the truth.  The courts didn't care.  His new information wasn't legitimate enough excuse to go outside of expected behavior and he lost his head. 

So we go back to this idea that Ned was honorable.  What does that mean?  It certainly doesn't mean he never did ill because we see in the story that he does.  Ned's honor might be best thought of as taking responsibility for his actions.  Ned may never knowingly do wrong but once he discovers that he had done wrong, regardless of justifications, he will take responsibility for those actions.  Ned did commit treason so when he confessed he was telling the truth.  

Let's think about another lie that Ned supposedly told.  By now everyone is familiar with R + L = J.  Ned is not Jon's father but instead his uncle.  Ned is careful with his words.  He tells Jon and everyone else that Jon is Ned's blood.  That's true.  But it is possible to tell the truth and sill lie.  This can be done by allowing others to make assumptions about what you mean.  However, Ned would have had to use the word bastard as some point in time.  It wouldn't be enough of an explanation for him to say "Jon Snow (bastard name) is my blood."  That could mean anything.  That could mean that Jon was Brandon's bastard, or Rickard's bastard.  Plus, Ned good on the guild of being an adulterer which he was not.  For me, that's too much to just let people assume.  

So we go back to Ashara Dayne.  She's the girl that that met Ned at the Harrenhal tourney.  We don't have a lot of details but the gist is that Ned was too shy to talk to her so his older brother got them together and then Ned and Ashara danced.  It was also said that Ashara danced with several other people. 

It should be pointed out here that dance is a popular slang for having sex.  Not to say that's what GRRM was going for but I'll just put that out there.  

Anyway, after the war it is discovered that Ashara had a stillborn child.  Well, someone fathered that child.  After Ned returns Author Dayne's sword to Star Fall, Ashara throws herself out a window and dies.  So I'm guessing the meeting didn't go so well for some reason.  

Yes, Ned returning the sword also meant that Ned was informing her that he'd killed her brother.  And, unless Ned has some daycare voodoo we haven't read about, he had to have brought young Jon Snow with him to that meeting.  And Yes, Ned also had to tell her that he was married to Cat by then. Ned wasn't supposed to marry Cat. She was supposed to marry Brandon and Ned only took on that responsibility after his brother died.  

So, a possible series of events could look like this.  Ned was in love with Ashara.  Ned got Ashara pregnant at Harrenhal.  Ned, like Robb after him, had every intention of marrying the girl he'd been with.  However, right after Harrenhal, shit hit the fan.  Ned's sister is kidnapped.  Then Ned's father and older brother are both killed.  Ned is now head of household and he joins his friend Robert in going to war.  

Ned is now no longer free to do as he likes.  He has to do his duty as head of house Stark.  He takes on the responsibilities left o him and he marries Cat like his brother was meant to.  He sees that as the more honorable thing to do than marry the woman he loves.  It also helps with the war since he gives him Tully soldiers to help win battles.  

Fight, fight, fight.  Robert and Ned win and then Robert and Ned have a falling out over infanticide.  Ned is of the opinion that it was wrong.  Robert is now king but instead of going off to go get the woman he started this war over, he just chills in Kingslanding for a while so Ned has to go do that by himself.  

At the Tower of Joy, Ned meets Author Dayne and kills him. Ned then discovers his dying sister.  Ned takes Author Dayne's sword and Jon Snow to Star Fall. He meets with Ashara one last time.  He returns the legendary sword and perhaps he even wants to give her Jon to raise as a replacement for the child she lost.  

Ashara isn't hearing any of it.  She sees Ned as a betrayer.  He gave her a stillborn child.  Then, instead of marrying her (like maybe Ned said he would) he married some Tully woman.  Then Ned kills her brother. Then Ned asks her to take in some other woman's child.  

Ashara kills herself and Ned is felt thinking "that did not go how I hoped it would".  

So Ned, again, takes responsibility.  We aren't told what happened to the sword. Maybe Ned left it with another family member or maybe he took it and it's hidden in Winterfell somewhere.  Whatever happened, Ned took Jon back north.  

So conversations might have gone something like this.

Ned: Cat, I'm sorry. I fathered a bastard by another woman.

Cat: What? With who?  When?  

Ned: Please don't ask me those questions.  Anyway, Jon Snow (bastard name) is going to live here with us. He's my blood.  

Cat: (assuming that Jon is Ned's bastard) Who's his mother?

Ned: Never ask me about his mother.  

We even get a glimpse of something like this when Cat ask Ned specifically about Ashara Dayne and Ned gets really pissed off to the point where Cat is actually scared of him.  

So good old honorable Ned allowed people to think that Jon was his bastard even if he might have never actually said it. He allowed people to think he cheated on Cat when really he was with Ashara outside of his wedding vows. (still wrong but more understandable).  Ned was willing to take on that guilt because he wasn't completely guiltless. If Ned was completely innocent and he took on that guilt, it would be a lie.  Taking on that guilt when he was in fact guilty would appease his honor. Letting people think Jon was his bastard knowing that he did in fact have a bastard, though stillborn, would appease his honor.  Ned was a soldier. No soldier wins every battle.  Every soldier will lose at least once and then they have to soldier on.  Ned did not have the life he thought he'd have. He didn't have his wedding to Ashara, and his children with her.  He didn't remain the second son. Instead, he was given responsibility of house Stark and he soldiered on.  Sure, what people thought about him wasn't 100% the truth but it was close enough for Ned. 

His honor didn't prevent him from making mistakes, but it did require he own up to them.