When it comes to most TV shows, good will always win out. There will be struggle and there is often sacrifice, but honor ultimately wins. That was something Game of Thrones twisted on its head.
Cersei Lannister remains to have one of the best lines in the whole of the series. "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” It’s a quote that resonated then, and it should have resonated all the way to the end.
Cersei was a woman willing to play the game to the end, and she was always one step ahead of it. Ned thought doing the right thing would allow him to survive, but in the end, it cost him his life.
Ned Stark learned a harsh lesson in Game of Thrones
Throughout the first season, Ned wanted to make the truth known. He had worked out that Joffrey Baratheon wasn’t a Baratheon at all. None of Cersei’s children were Robert Baratheron’s heirs, and it meant that they weren’t the rightful heirs to the Iron Throne.
He wasn’t the first person to learn this, though. His predecessor, Jon Arryn, also learned the truth, and he tried to reveal it, only to end up dead. Ned should have learned the lesson there, but, instead, he decided to find a way to expose the truth, and he trusted the wrong people in doing it.
By the time he learned his lesson, it was too late. He was imprisoned, facing certain death. The people didn’t care about the truth by that point. They believed he was a traitor, and that was that. They wanted him dead, and Joffrey agreed.
Honor and justice don’t always win
TV, movies, books, all versions of fiction have offered a romanticized view of the world. They tell us that good will always prevail, and it was normal to go into Game of Thrones with this view in mind.
Ned Stark’s death changed everything. He was this major series regular—the leading man, if you will—and here we were at the start of season 2 without him. There was no coming back from his execution, and we all learned the lesson that honor and justice don’t always win.
It was a lesson that the show tried to stick with, as well. During the second and third seasons, the lesson that good doesn’t always win continued to resonate. It accumulated with the Red Wedding, bringing what seemed to be the end of the Stark line. At that point, we weren’t sure what had happened to Bran and Rickon (or whether they would survive) and Jon Snow was still a member of the Night’s Watch trying to deal with the Wildlings and make people believe the White Walkers existed.
The Red Wedding was the true turning point, but this really was just a continuation of Ned Stark’s death. After this, the series completely forgot the lesson that it was trying to teach us.
Honor started to win with Jon Snow in Game of Thrones
Of course, eventually, the series had to give us everything that we crave from fiction. We eventually had to see that justice and honor would prevail, and it all started with Jon Snow. After his death and resurrection at The Wall, he was able to walk away from the Night’s Watch without being viewed as a traitor. He’d already die, and his oath died with him at the end of season 5.
From there, he could fight against the Boltons and he could become King of the North. His honor continued to shine through, making it clear that good would always win out. It took away some of the tension and fear that had all started with Ned Stark’s death.
In a way, honor should never have won out. As Cersei said, “There is no middle ground” in the game of thrones, but Jon managed to somewhat find that. He reluctantly played the game, and he survived—in his own brooding way.
The only one to really keep the lesson going was Sansa Stark, who had gained some inspiration from the way of Cersei Lannister. You don’t have to like someone to agree that their tactics work in a time of war. Cersei had managed to manipulate her way to the top, and Sansa saw how it was done. She stepped away from her father’s view of honor, and instead, gained the support of the people of The North and broke free from King’s Landing’s reign. This could have done with having more time to show it, but at least the lessons from Ned Stark were somewhat there.
As for the rest of them, honor won. Westeros went from a monarchy to a sort of democracy, Jon Snow was allowed to live in exile, and those on the side of good were given powers that they could have only ever dreamed of. There was no manipulation to work their way up, making it look like, after all of that, honor and justice could win. Game of Thrones forgot the warning Ned Stark’s death delivered.
Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO Max.