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Should Ned have arrested Cersei?


khal drogon

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When he is acting for the King? Should Ned have done this? Yeah I know he was worried about the lives of Cersei's bastards. But if he allowed treasonous Cersei to escape does it also set a bad precedence? If Cersei accepted Ned's offer and ran away and Robert returned alive what would he tell Robert? Allowing someone who commited high treason to escape is also treason. Does this mean Ned would have lost his head anyway?

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Ned needed Cersei to run. It would have confirmed his story and set Robert firmly against the Lannisters.

 

Had she stayed and he revealed the truth it becomes, potentially, a lot more difficult. Robert, as a proud man, might laugh it off or even take his anger out on Ned. Being cuckolded is pretty embarrassing in today's age but the humiliation for a King would be devastating and he would need pretty solid evidence to potentially kill his own children.

 

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Yeah, he should have. He had the book, he had the bastards, he even had Cersei's confession. 

The question is if he could've gotten away with it. Who knows if Littlefinger had the goldcloaks in his pocket by then, or what he would've done. Too many moving parts to know for sure. 

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Well, since he was Hand and Robert was away, he could've arrested her and tried her that afternoon, then found her guilty and banished her and her children and had them on a ship that night...

Yeah, he should've done that.

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1 hour ago, Miss CS said:

Well, since he was Hand and Robert was away, he could've arrested her and tried her that afternoon, then found her guilty and banished her and her children and had them on a ship that night...

Yeah, he should've done that.

Well exiling the queen might have been in his theoretical rights, I dno't thing it really would have been possible to do it all wthout the kin g getting to know about it and intervening. Not to talk about the question of the hand speaking with the voice of the king by using is momentarily absense to act. 

 

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As readers with the benefit of hindsight it certainly looks as if he should have had her arrested, perhaps after he had confronted her and she had confessed to his suspicions. Neds mistake was trying to give her children a chance to live and assuming that his enemies would behave as humanely as he did. Ned really underestimated Cersei and her lust for power, Ned also did not foresee Sansa circumventing him and going to Cersei, a move which took away Neds initiative and blew up  on Sansa with tragic consequences for her and her family.

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I think that his personal conscience (the knowledge that Robert also was a dick to Cersei and the fear for Cersei's children) interfered with his sense of duty as the Hand. Would he succeed if he tried? I'm not sure, Robert was unpredictable, many of the major players were favoring the Lannisters, Tywin could have started a war had someone laid a hand on his daughter, and it's not like they had genetic tests in Westeros (making babies with a twin brother has the advantage of avoiding the risk of children looking like the third party. And the Lannister genes also seem to be somehow dominant, have we read of any Lannister descendant, sans maybe Cleos, who wasn't blond?). And Robert would either rage and kill innocent children or go in denial.

3 hours ago, Neds Secret said:

Neds mistake was trying to give her children a chance to live and assuming that his enemies would behave as humanely as he did.

Well, to be completely fair, Cersei also planned for him to live and go in exile.
 

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9 hours ago, khal drogon said:

Allowing someone who committed high treason to escape is also treason. Does this mean Ned would have lost his head anyway?

I don't think Ned would have explained everything to Robert. He could just say that he was investigating the kids parentage and once Cersei realized that he was on the right track (the bastards, the book,...), she fled. No one besides Cersei and Ned knew about that conversation at the godswood.

I'm sure Robert would have brutally killed the three kids, so I sympathize a lot wit what Eddard did.

 

 

 

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I hesitate to say he should have arrested Cersei, just because of the potential ramifications of that act. Look what happened when Tyrion was arrested and he's the demon monkey Imp that everyone hated. It would be worse if Cersei was arrested and the fighting would have been within KL and possibly within the Red Keep. However, what he actually did was so stupid and it to me it doesn't even require hindsight to know. The first time I read it, I thought to myself this is stupid. Maybe what he should have done was not say anything to Cersei, get his family together and ready to go, went out to find Robert and tell him, and then leave. I understand that Ned was trying to save the children and that's respectable, but if the choice is between your own children and someone else's you have to choose your own as harsh as that is.

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2 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

I'm sure Robert would have brutally killed the three kids, so I sympathize a lot wit what Eddard did.

Despite my dislike for Robert, I have come to the conclusion that he would have not. The point of Tywin killing the Targ babies was that he knew Robert wouldn't do such a thing, and I feel he was right about this.

Nevertheless, the kids were in risk as someone, making a narrative parallel to Tywin, could have tried to kill them to win Robert's favour.

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17 minutes ago, JCRB's Honeypot said:

Despite my dislike for Robert, I have come to the conclusion that he would have not. The point of Tywin killing the Targ babies was that he knew Robert wouldn't do such a thing, and I feel he was right about this.

Nevertheless, the kids were in risk as someone, making a narrative parallel to Tywin, could have tried to kill them to win Robert's favour.

Say something about how Ned does believe it or many stannis or etc could. 

I think robert would not punish anyone who killed them either is my thing. 

 

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2 hours ago, Maxxine said:

Maybe what he should have done was not say anything to Cersei, get his family together and ready to go, went out to find Robert and tell him, and then leave. I understand that Ned was trying to save the children and that's respectable, but if the choice is between your own children and someone else's you have to choose your own as harsh as that is.

Well, there was always the option of shutting up and going North. Ned wouldn't be Ned if he did it, but it could be the smartest move possible.

30 minutes ago, JCRB's Honeypot said:

Despite my dislike for Robert, I have come to the conclusion that he would have not. The point of Tywin killing the Targ babies was that he knew Robert wouldn't do such a thing, and I feel he was right about this.

Nevertheless, the kids were in risk as someone, making a narrative parallel to Tywin, could have tried to kill them to win Robert's favour.

That's one, but all the signs point at Robert doing this: Ned (the only person who sees any good in him) thinks he would, the Daenerys example, even Martin's comment about the Jaime-Bran incident (about how much Jaime needed to silence Bran because if Bran talked it would be a death sentence to Jaime's own children).
 

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2 minutes ago, Tianzi said:

That's one, but all the signs point at Robert doing this: Ned (the only person who sees any good in him) thinks he would, the Daenerys example, even Martin's comment about the Jaime-Bran incident (about how much Jaime needed to silence Bran because if Bran talked it would be a death sentence to Jaime's own children).
 

Yes, but Robert wasn't to personally kill Dany.

I think Ned knew Robert would order to kill them, while I guess he (as many) also feared he would do so personally out of spite and rage. Both scenarios are possible, imo, but the first one is more likely, and Ned could have always tried to put them in safe place before an executioner gets them.

 

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Just now, JCRB's Honeypot said:

Yes, but Robert wasn't to personally kill Dany.

I think Ned knew Robert would order to kill them, while I guess he (as many) also feared he would do so personally out of spite and rage. Both scenarios are possible, imo, but the first one is more likely, and Ned could have always tried to put them in safe place before an executioner gets them.

Why, yeah, I meant Robert 'killing them' as in 'ordering their deaths', not the king himself chasing them around the castle with butcher's knife :)
 

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