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Originally Posted by Aegon the Unworthy  I dont know which point you are arguing.....that the character of Eddard is unbelievable and the writing of his character too formulaic or that he made his share of mistakes. Honestly I could accept the latter, just not the former. |
The latter. I'm still not completely convinced that the writing was perfectly in line with what a real Eddard would do rather than perfectly convenient for starting a war but it's just not worth arguing. I'd rather focus on what actually happened, not whine about wishing Martin had written it in a way that made me happy.
To me, the "right thing" would have been to do his best to prevent war from happening at all. He didn't have to go around killing kids to do it. He could have taken Cersei and her children hostage, demanded a confession,
and then put Stannis on the throne. I'm not saying it would be that simple or that other lords wouldn't rise against Stannis anyway (we know he's not well-loved) but there were indeed other options that didn't involve killing every kid in sight.
Compassion doesn't excuse anything. It's not always right. His compassion here helped start a war in which far more than three kids died. Eddard is not the model of all that is good and right in the world. He had several fatal flaws that lead to his demise. An inability to see past what was immediately the right thing to do for his precious honor is one of those flaws.
I don't think there's a single perfect character in the series. Of course, that's one of the attractions since that's what real life is like.