Whom would you most like to smack for sheer stupidity

[The Arthur Smith]

Dany because of her naivety and idealism and especially her lust with Daario that effects her ruling in aDwD. Robb for his sheer stupidity. Renly and Stannis for their stubbornness to compromise one another. Jon because he knows nothing. Balon is the dumbest Ironborn for his cowardice and hypocrisies... Pretty much most of the kings and queens on my list i want to facepalm. I wouldn't include Joffrey because he's pretty pathetic to hate.
 

[Lord of Brewtown]

For me, #1 is Stannis.  He knew, or should have known that Robb was looking for allies after the Parlay with Cat and Renly.  Why not send envoys?  Furthermore, why not reach out to the Arryns or the Martells, who seemingly hadn't chosen sides at that point?  Especially stupid not to reach out to Robb after his defeat on the Blackwater.  

 

#2 is still Ned for my.  I think the critical and worst decision was not taking Renly up on his offer; but, then deciding to stay in King's Landing.  If he was going to stay, and effectively go to war with the Lannisters or remove Cersei and Joffrey from power, it made no sense to refuse Renly's offer.  Even if the City guard had been on his side, he would have been forcibly removing Joffrey from power, so I don't understand his concern with Renly's plan.  

[Schwarze Sonne]

To me, many characters in the books made stupid mistakes that I wish I could smack their head multiple times. Probably everyone in the books. Characters who were dead long before the start of the series aren't counted.

 

Stupid yet acting smug: #1 Cersei Lannister, #2 Catelyn Tully, #3 Daenerys Targaryen, #4 Tyrion Lannister, #5 Renly Baratheon

Honestly stupid: #1 Eddard Stark, #2 Jon Snow (he's quite smug though), #3 Stannis Baratheon

Just naive and stupid: #1 Penny (well, she's undisputed, unless all that were acting), #2 Quentyn Martell, #3 Jaime Lannister (naive himself yet accused others of being so), #4 Sansa Stark

Stupid like they aren't right in the head: #1 Victarion Greyjoy, #2 Balon Greyjoy, #3 Aeron Greyjoy, #4 Theon Greyjoy, #5 Lysa Tully

One stupid mistake got him killed: #1 Oberyn Martell, #2 Tywin Lannister (actually quite many), #3 Robb Stark (actually more than marrying Jeyne)

Stupidity applied to the entire population: #1 The slavers in Astapor, #2 the Ironborns in general, #3 the Kinglanders

 

Unfairly accused of being stupid: #1 Edmure Tully (Look at how Cat, Robb and Jaime looked down on him when they were even stupider!)

Dubious honor: #1 Asha Greyjoy (The smug hypocrite who was all about the Old Ways with Balon when Theon offered the cooperation with the North and even humiliated Theon in the worst possible way despite Theon being her younger brother, only to later saying how stupid the Old Ways is and trying to promote the New Ways (which btw is Quellon and the Hoare's invention, not hers) when Balon died just to save her own position, why didn't she try to convince Balon about this before I had no idea. Most people ignore this fact, but I'll never ignore this shit.)

#2 LF - Aspired to be the king of ash, acting like he's so smart, I'll wait to see how he'll fail.

 

To be honest, most eldest sisters (luckily, they aren't many) in this series have a tendency to look down on their younger male siblings (Cersei, Cat, Asha and Arianne) while they themselves aren't that smart. Well, all their male siblings were in the list of being stupid though.

[BalerionTheCat]

Jon for taking vows he had no need to.

Cat for kidnapping Tyrion and not listening to him.

Robb for forsaking his promise to the Freys.

More than anyone: Ned for not telling the truth to Robert when he was dying....

[OldGimletEye]

Dany for begging Drogo to invade Westeros for her, not realizing what that would mean. And then being shocked by Drogo's actions at that Lhazareen village.

[Not a kneeler]

Funny, just last night I was reading GoT and thought to myself, "Boy! I sure would want to slap Ned Stark silly. Assuming R+L=J is true, Ned had one brilliant idea in his whole life, wonderfully planned out and brilliantly executed. Then what do we get.

He doesn't tell Jon and lets him go to the Wall.

He lets Cat talk him into becoming Hand against his better instincts.

On the way to King's landing he gets a clear picture of the nest of vipers he has fallen into and still doesn't pack up his family, their wolves, and turn for home.

The rest of the posters have done a great job of the foolishness he committed in KL.

What an idiot! Smack! Smack!

 

 

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Cat for emotionally abusing a child because of what Ned had done or had not done. She had a reason to be mad but she should had took id down to Ned not to Jon and Dany because of her storyline after leaving Pentos.

[Ruhail]

2 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

Dany for begging Drogo to invade Westeros for her, not realizing what that would mean. And then being shocked by Drogo's actions at that Lhazareen village.

And she will still probably be shocked when people loathe her for bringing the iron born ashore

[purple-eyes]

I have no idea why robb decided it good idea to bed and marry jeyne. 

I thought we were told that wherever there is war and army, there are camp followers. 

 

[Jon's Queen Consort]

5 minutes ago, purple-eyes said:

I have no idea why robb decided it good idea to bed and marry jeyne. 

I thought we were told that wherever there is war and army, there are camp followers. 

Ι believe that Sybell used a poison to make him to have sex with Jeyne and it wasn't just him. However I do agree that his decision was stupid. Surely he could find one of his followers who would like to marry her.

[WSmith84]

2 hours ago, purple-eyes said:

I have no idea why robb decided it good idea to bed and marry jeyne. 

I thought we were told that wherever there is war and army, there are camp followers. 

I don't think even Robb thought that it was a good idea. He did it knowing it was a bad idea.

[The Broke Howard Hughes]

Theon. I know people blame Robb for even sending Theon to Pike but he was offering Balon everything he's wanted, blood free. He was offering Balon Theon, his crown, looting and pillaging with strong backing from the North AND the Riverlands, and freedom to raid one of the richest kingdoms in Westeros. Balon refusing the offer is insane. Robb had every reason to send Theon, he was under the impression Theon was likely on his way home anyway. Blaming Robb is to me ridiculous.  Theon on the other hand knew refusing the offer was foolish yet went along with his dad anyway, wanted to tell Robb what was going on and didn't, then made things even worse by doing the absolute stupidest thing imaginable. Something so stupid even his dad was like, wait, he did WHAT? To know you're doing something wrong and to still do it, to me deserves a good strangle.

[Tijgy]

21 minutes ago, The Broke Howard Hughes said:

Theon. I know people blame Robb for even sending Theon to Pike but he was offering Balon everything he's wanted, blood free. He was offering Balon Theon, his crown, looting and pillaging with strong backing from the North AND the Riverlands, and freedom to raid one of the richest kingdoms in Westeros. Balon refusing the offer is insane. Robb had every reason to send Theon, he was under the impression Theon was likely on his way home anyway. Blaming Robb is to me ridiculous.  Theon on the other hand knew refusing the offer was foolish yet went along with his dad anyway, wanted to tell Robb what was going on and didn't, then made things even worse by doing the absolute stupidest thing imaginable. Something so stupid even his dad was like, wait, he did WHAT? To know you're doing something wrong and to still do it, to me deserves a good strangle.

I do not want smack Robb for this because he did it because he cared for Theon, believed Theon would not betray him (and had some reasons to believe Theon was loyal) and he felt sorry for Theon because he was a hostage and thought Theon did not deserve it anymore. (And actually Balon was actually already getting his ships ready to invade the North. So the release of Theon was not important in that aspect.)

And I want to smack Theon for sheer stupidity for his decision to stay in WF when Asha came (Asha probably also wanted to smack him) and for his "I am Prince of Winterfell"-routine. Theon, sigh. 

(And totally do not want to smack Ned - I do think however he is in serious need of a therapist.)

[The Broke Howard Hughes]

26 minutes ago, Tijgy said:

I do not want smack Robb for this because he did it because he cared for Theon, believed Theon would not betray him (and had some reasons to believe Theon was loyal) and he felt sorry for Theon because he was a hostage and thought Theon did not deserve it anymore. (And actually Balon was actually already getting his ships ready to invade the North. So the release of Theon was not important in that aspect.)

And I want to smack Theon for sheer stupidity for his decision to stay in WF when Asha came (Asha probably also wanted to smack him) and for his "I am Prince of Winterfell"-routine. Theon, sigh. 

(And totally do not want to smack Ned - I do think however he is in serious need of a therapist.)

Robb made mistakes but Theon wasn't one of them.

Ned made decisions he could live with. It's easy to say he should have blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day he has to live with himself. The forums like to pretend leaving three kids to die is just some thing you do once and forget about. Morality doesn't work that way, doing bad things or deliberately letting bad things happen actually makes you a bad person. We all like to think we're different, or special, but we aren't. Killing comes with guilt unless you're a psychopath. Jaime is a huge personal justifier but even he has guilt dreams. Tyrion drinks himself silly after killing Tywin, even though the guy deserved it. You'd be no different. Ned did what he had to do to sleep at night. Given a crystal ball, the only thing he'd do differently is likely make sure his daughters are safe before he makes a move. Would he die to make sure the deaths of children weren't on his head? In my opinion absolutely.

[Tijgy]

1 minute ago, The Broke Howard Hughes said:

Robb made mistakes but Theon wasn't one of them.

Ned made decisions he could live with. It's easy to say he should have blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day he has to live with himself. The forums like to pretend leaving three kids to die is just some thing you do once and forget about. Morality doesn't work that way, doing bad things or deliberately letting bad things happen actually makes you a bad person. We all like to think we're different, or special, but we aren't. Killing comes with guilt unless you're a psychopath. Jaime is a huge personal justifier but even he has guilt dreams. Tyrion drinks himself silly after killing Tywin, even though the guy deserved it. You'd be no different. Ned did what he had to do to sleep at night. Given a crystal ball, the only thing he'd do differently is likely make sure his daughters are safe before he makes a move. Would he die to make sure the deaths of children weren't on his head? In my opinion absolutely.

I completely agree with you about Ned (however I think you can actually the same thing about Robb); which is why I said I didn't want to smack him. The only real mistake he made was him closing his eyes to the fact Cersei wasn't worried or running away. And that is mostly related to the fact he probably just cannot believe Cersei would risk her children just for power because he would in her place just ran away with his children. 

 

[Ruhail]

Theon would have been executed if he didnt desert because Balon was getting ready to rebel again.

[kimim]

Brienne: She's going in the wrong direction, and she's (almost) publicly asking about Sansa. It's crazy stupid.

Robb: Start listening to his mommy and take a minute to let Edmure know his plans.

Ned: Please don't warn Cersei, please don't trust LF. In fact, please please do not become Hand.

Jon: Be a politician. Communicate reasoning and plans to all the NW. Short meetings with the Bowen Marshes of the world aren't enough.

Robert: WAKE UP!!! Stop the self pity. Pay attention to what's going on in the small council.

 

 

 

[BalerionTheCat]

10 hours ago, Ruhail said:

Theon would have been executed if he didnt desert because Balon was getting ready to rebel again.

Possibly. Or downgraded to the thrall's status.

In my view, Theon thought a peaceful takeover of Winterfell would gain him the approval of his father and the Ironborns. He could then continue, according to Robb's plan. Unfortunately, everything went askew. Was Theon stupid for making such a plan? Likely. He should at least have explained to maester Luwin. But there were worse stupidities.

Previously, I forgot Sansa, for most of what she did in GoT. But particularly lying about the Trident and letting her wolf die.

[[Deleted]]

Well, Hodor, obviously!

Oh, wait, you meant...

....Er, nevermind.

[Slaver's Dread]

On Friday, February 05, 2016 at 5:26 PM, Nyrhex said:

That's a joke, right? Please tell me that's a joke.

Post taking Tyrion: 

Cat hands Tyrion over to her sister, even after her uncle warned her she is not all there. She loses a hostage in the middle of a war. Forget about warning Ned, or warning her dad and brother, forget about going right for the capital to see Robert and demand from Littlefinger that he tell the king and council that he lost the attempted murder weapon to Tyrion, she goes for a fake trial and loses when freaking Lisa was being the rational actor and actually gave the guy a fair trial without having heared the single witness that Cat knows of...

Cat suggests to Robb to hold off at Moat Cailin, considering it is a good defensive position. This is idiotic not only because Robb cannot sustain his host there, but because she is advocating giving up trying to rescue Ned, abandoning the Riverlands to the Lannister invasion (that she was the direct cause of), and started giving her 15 year old son war advices such as that he might have given the command of the army to a castellan of a garrison or to the Greyjoy hostage...

At the Twins Cat agrees to any and all demands from Frey. She brings literally nothing to the table aside from being a possible hostage if Frey was going to go over to the Lannisters. 

At Riverrun she later offers peace with the Lannisters. On top of not getting revenge, that is either leaving the Lannisters a quite front to win in the south, or making enemies of Renly for bending to the Lannisters. Not the worst offer thrown around there, but hardly the best.

In ACOK Cat offers to make a deal with Renly. She butched it, bad. Not only was she about to leave with Renly's demande for Robb to give up his crown or suffer the fate of a common rebel, she managed to pick the single worst thing to do and grab Brienne with her as she fled the scene. Instead of either trying to reason with the lords there, or to ditch Brienne and make either a deal with Stannis or with the Tyrells in Bittebridge, she makes herself and the North the clear suspects, thus greatly aiding Stannis but without getting the benefit of an alliance of even cooperation.

She then gets to Riverrun where she right off the bat again tries to meddle with the war planning. In her view Tywin getting a free pass through the Riverlands and going over to fight Robb in his own home with at least 5 times Robb's numbers is clearly the better option than to confront Tywin with only 1-2 ration and on favourable grounds. After she hears that Robb ordered him to guard his rear...

She later frees Jaime. Let's get this clear, this is after she knows that Tyrion had just sent false envoys to liberate him. She has zero reason to trust his word. She then get's pissed off at Edmure for trying to catch Jaime, after he tells her that she never had a chance in hell because even if the lying dwarf meant it, he no longer holds any power and she just gave up the only card they have... again.

Cat then confronts Robb to go back North after he had just told her that the Lannisters and the Tyrells will shortly take the field against him. She tells him to go North, where the Ironborn have the total of 2 insignificant castles (which were already being taken care of by local forces), or he is no true king... Not a word about the Wall or the Wildlings (which should have arrived well before this), not a word about what the fuck are the Riverlands going to do when Robb takes half thier forces north, not a word about winter making it impossible for him to return anytime soon (remember that Roose was not even delayed at Moat Cailin and still gets snowed in), not a word about how freaking impossible it would be to retake the Riverlands, which would be run over in the meantime... No, they must make a deal with Frey again, give him anything he wants, insist on the childish bread and salt as if it has the magical property of saving them from dumb decisions, and then she dies.

Sorry, Cat's streak of bad council and dumb decisions does not get a pass because she suddenly remembered that the Greyjoys are not to be trusted, after she gave them so much credit that Theon was a legitimate offer to lead the Northern army.

Preach. Let's not forget abandoning her children in the north to go make stupid decisions in the south.

 

Ned probably deserves a backhand for bringing some of his children south when he knew it wasn't safe for them.