A Game of Thrones, Chapter 58, Eddard
Summary
Ned is starved in the dungeon. Feverish from his wound he is delirious. He’s visited by Varys in disguise. The eunuch tells him that on the next day queen is going to visit him and give him a chance to save the life of Sansa by confessing his crimes. Ned would be sent to the Wall to take the black.
Quotes
Cersei Lannister’s face seemed to float before him in the darkness. Her hair was full of sunlight, but there was mockery in her smile. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die,” she whispered. Ned had played and lost, and his men had paid the price of his folly with their life’s blood.
I failed you, Robert, Ned thought. He could not say the words. I lied to you, hid the truth. I let them kill you.
The king heard him. “You stiff-necked fool,” he muttered, “too proud to listen. Can you eat pride, Stark? Will honor shield your children?”
“If there was one soul in King’s Landing who was truly desperate to keep Robert Baratheon alive, it was me.” He sighed. “For fifteen years I protected him from his enemies, but I could not protect him from his friends. What strange fit of madness led you to tell the queen that you had learned the truth of Joffrey’s birth?”
“The madness of mercy,” Ned admitted.
“You are an honest and honorable man, Lord Eddard. Ofttimes I forget that. I have met so few of them in my life.” He glanced around the cell. “When I see what honesty and honor have won you, I understand why.”
Commentary
Ned is hurt, feverish, locked in the dungeon, yet he’s not contemplating his own fate. He’s despairing over the fact that he has failed people he loved. His honor has led him into a trap and his family and men will suffer the consequences. Ned is changing, he begins to understand that honor is not everything, that there are bigger things than one’s honor.
I can’t stop to wonder who Varys really serves. He admits that he’s misled Ned, that he let him believe that he was “his”. He claims that he serves the realm and the realm needs peace. Either he’s lying again or he truly was unable to stop this war. Could be that the master of whispers’ plans were thwarted by the young king with his own idea of “justice”?
Interesting point was broung to my attention by one of my friends, who’s following the story with me. Does it make sense that Cersei would be willing to let Ned live, to let him free, go back to the North, even if only to take the Black? Ned was the biggest threat Cersei and her spawns had in the Seven Kingdoms, maybe except Stannis. After reading this chapter again I think it is possible. If Ned decided to take the Black he would have to confess his cirmes, he would have already given up on his honor. Also, I’m sure Cersei would have kept Sansa with her, as hostage. Ned would not be a big threat, sending him to the wall could have prevented Robb marching against Lannisters.
Tags: Eddard
