Top 5 blunders in the Series

[somethingorother]

He was not outraged but happy upon seeing the dead kids.

Barristan should have killed him there and there, just like his POV mentions

Barristan wasn't there, he was being tended to by Robert's orders. If I recall correctly, Robert couldn't bear to look upon the wreckage that were the children. Same as everybody else. What happened was Robert's inaction. Ned pleaded for Robert to punish the Lannisters for murder. Robert said they were dragonspawn and part of war. Tywin said Robert was relieved that the kids were killed because he couldn't be a hero and kill kids.

I'm just saying that Robert could still say what is done is done but offer some token punishment instead of sitting on his hands.

[Red Typer of Dorne]

1. Sansa telling the queen of Neds plans.

2. Stripping Ser Barristen of the white cloak

3. Anyone who ever pissed off the Hound, ever.

4. Mixing wine with boar hunting.

5. Allowing Tyrion to demand trial by combat

[hodorisfaclessman]

1) Cat going on almost her own to warn ned or not going on one fast boat but hiring a larger cargo one to trail a few days behind filled with extra troops

2) Ned relying entirely on LF for all his coup with his depleted guard force.

3) Robb choosing cold cunning (roose) over loyalty (greatjon) to lead his ground forces, while roose seemed more level headed the greatjon would have obeyed orders and prob can command forces pretty competently

4)Robb not explaining his orders to edmure more clearly

5)Theon not taking the stark kids back to the ironislands

[Baelor Blacktyde]

I know that in the book some POVs state that rearming the Faith is a big mistake on Cersei's part, but so far we haven't seen why it's a mistake. It might turn out to be a good move - if/when Stannis comes along with his R'hllor banners, the Faith will be fighting against him.

[A Wolf Among Sheep]

^We're talking about blunders that have negative consequences for the people who make them. It was a mistake on Cercei's part because the Faith became too powerful for her to control, leading to her arrest.

[FC_Lymond]

Leaving WF undefended should be # 1

Stannis giving the finger to both Rob and Renly

Robert's Rebellion

3 KG fighting to death at TOJ

fAegon Blackfyre plan everyone is convinced of around here

[fellow reader]

5. Ned warning Cersei- Not a blunder at all! Perhaps it is the most common misconception about poor Eddard. He was very much _aware_ of the dangerous situation, and he knew the risks. He was a man for whom nothing was more important than to defend innocent children. His whole hatred against the Lannisters is caused by the murder of Rhaegar's children. He sacrificed the happiness of his marriage (and a part of his honour!) to save the life of Jon Snow. He left Handship and was ready to risk his friendship with the king to save Daenerys and her child. In the end, he sacrificed his honour to save his daughters. Off course he was ready to risk his own life to save the life of Cersei's children. He was not a buffoon: he was a great man.

It was a blunder, a big one. Yes, he wanted to protect the lives of Cerseis children, but that is not what I want to criticize. It is the fact that Ned needlessly neglected the safety of his own daughters in favour of acting honorably and sparing Roberts feelings. He decided to send Sansa and Arya away after his dispute with Robert and made the arrangement with the ship. Then Littlefinger brought him back on track to discover the incest and the confrontation with Jaime occurred. Ned got his job as Hand back and Robert went hunting. Then Ned informed Cersei that he knew and was going to tell Robert. He decided to tell a woman who has power and whom he had assessed as cruel that he will reveal the secret she supposedly killed his predecessor for, but did not bother to send his daughters away to safety first although he had been warned that Cersei has likely more supportes at court and in the city than him and Robert. Was it so impossible for him to offer a lot of money to a captain so that he discarded his original destination and brought his daughters and some guards north shortly before he confronted Cersei? As Robert died, he wanted to spare Roberts feelings and did not reveal the incest, he acted as if everything was like they all believed, despite the fact that then it really looked dubious and shady to just come into the throne room the next day and claim that Joffrey is suddenly not Roberts son without presenting any evidence. Ned threw away his last opportunity to expose Cersei and to get support from those who are not Cerseis henchmen or okay with the incest in order to let Robert die in peace. That way, Neds action in the throne room seemed to be an attempt to usurp the power as soon as the king had died for everyone who was not involved in Neds investigation(only shady LF) or had already known the truth(as far as Ned knew only dead Jon Arryn and Jaime and Cersei, perhaps Stannis(Ned suspected it, but was not sure)) and Ned died as a traitor before a cheering crowd.

Remember that Arya had her last lesson with Syrio before the planned journey home as Cerseis men slaughtered Neds household. So Sansa and Arya were to leave Kings Landing after the confrontation with Cersei, when the immediate danger would be over.

As Ned was in the black cells, it was Varys who reminded him that his daughters were in danger, Ned did not think about what had happened to them before. Not that Ned did not care about Sansa and Arya, but between his loyalty and his friendship to Robert and his wish to protect innocent children from the wrath of said friend, he seemed to neglect the safety of his own daughters. Wrong priorities Ned! If you do not care about your own life, then you are brave, but do not take your daughters with you if you plan to inquire into a murder case against the queen and the most powerful family in the realm and then after you have found out that the capital is a place infested with untrustworthy people and outright enemies, you should get them out of there before you make anyone aware that you know the secret they have already killed for(Ned thought Cersei was responsible for Jon Arryns death and together with Jaime for Brans fall and the assassination attempt).

The priorities should have been: send your daughters to safety>try to save Cerseis children, maybe only them and not Cersei, openly announce that Cerseis children are bastards and present your evidence to the public in order to prove that you tell the truth and Cersei is the traitor

Sansa telling Cersei of Ned's plans to send her and Arya home. Ned was already doomed at that point, after telling her that he knew the truth about her children. But without Sansa's mistake, she and Arya might have escaped.

Like I already said above, Neds plan was to send them home after his confrontation in the throne room. Arya should leave after her last lesson with Syrio. At that time, Ned was arleady captured and the slaughter of the Stark household started. If Sansa had not gone to Cersei, she would have been in the Tower of the Hand like Jeyne Poole and she would have witnessed the massacre like her. The only difference would be that Sansa would have known about that before seeing the heads(she did not really know who died, at first, she believed that someone had stormed the Red Keep, she just heard fighting and screams and nobody told her anything except that her father was part of a plan to usurp the throne) and she would not have been such a naive participant as they used her to write the letters to her family asking for their fealty.

Perhaps the fact that Cersei knew where Arya was even made her escape possible. If Arya had finished her lesson and then came back right into the attack on Tower of the Hand without Syrio, would she have been able to escape?

5. Tywin starting a war against everyone in Westeros on his own.

That would have been a big blunder if Robert had still lived. In fact, it would have made Tywin a traitor because his troops not only broke the kings peace, but also attacked men riding under the kings banner(Berics men). Yes, Robert did not care about ruling or about justice, but if we have learned one thing about Robert, then that he would have loved to swing his hammer.

I think that Roberts death and the attack on the Riverlands were planned, the timing was not only very convenient, but essential, because that way, the Lannisters could paint the Starks and Tullys as traitors against the crown and themselves as loyal subjects defending the king. That would have been impossible if Robert were still alive.

Another interesting detail to support my thought are the Brave Companions/Bloody Mummers. Tywin sent someone to hire them in Essos, but how did they manage to be with Tywins troops in the Westerlands in time for the march into the Riverlands if Tywin only planned to react to Tyrions arrest? If the guy who hired them started at Casterly Rock, he had to travel from the west coast to the east coast of Westeros, across the Narrow Sea and then to whatever place in gigantic Essos the Brave Companions were at that moment, then he had to negotiate with them and then they have to get to the coast and find enough ships to bring them to Westeros and then they have to get from the east coast to the west coast or sail around the southern land mass to arrive unnoticed. All that would take a lot of time.

now my list of top blunders(in no specific order)

-Ned informing Cersei without ensuring the safety of his daughters first and his stupid plan after Roberts death; he put all his trust in a guy he did not really regard as trustworthy and the way he acted in the throne room made it easy to paint him as a traitor(look at what I wrote above as answer to Biter the Gallant)

-Theons attempt to hold Winterfell with his small group of Ironborn and trusting "Reek"(Ramsay) to take the valuables and get help. What were you thinking here Theon? Why would this stranger not just disappear with all the valuables and laugh about you? And where did you think would the promised help come from in the middle of the hostile North?

-Daenerys trusting Hizdahr. This guy told her he could achieve that the Sons of the Harpy stop killing her subjects but she did not ask herself how he could possibly manage that if there is not some connection to them? Why would they give a damn about what he has to say and not just ignore him?

-Cerseis brilliant idea of ruling by alienating all her supporters and making allies into enemies(->she not only commits one blunder after the other, no, her whole idea about leadership and ruling is destined to end as a failure)

-Tyrion not getting rid of Littlefinger after finding out about the dagger lie that nearly got him killed and was one of the events that led to the war, and then trusting him again to negotiate an alliance with the Tyrells

-Robbs strange understanding of honor:

-He refused to declare for Renly because he was the younger brother, but then he also rejected Stannis and accepted the title of the King in the North which left him without any big allies. Was his initial plan not to free his father and his sisters and not becoming a king?

-He decided to break the marriage pact with the Freys because he felt he needed to protect Jeyne Westerlings honor. He did not want to leave a "dishonored" girl behind, how honorable. But then why did he have sex with her? Yes, the poor young king grieved for his brothers, but why did he have to have sex with a girl in the castle he just conquered from her family and "dishonor" her in the eyes of the Westerosi society? This is not exactly an honorable way to grieve. People manage to grieve without being consoled with sex.

-Catelyns ill-conceived plan to exchange Jaime for her daughters(I have writen about that before, so I insert it here):

Catelyn had the desperate hope to get her daughters back, but the chance for that was practically non-existent. There was no official agreement to a hostage exchange, Catelyns only guaranty was an oath of the person who is famous for being an oathbreaker, sworn at swordpoint and thereby officially worthless, and the fact that his brother had included a hostage exchange in a former negotiation attempt which had been refused. The Lannisters could simply say since it was no official hostage exchange, it was more like an escape and there is no obligation to fulfill their part. Or do you think if Tywin said no, Jaime would have managed to send the girls back if they had been there? Catelyn herself suspected that Arya was likely dead and she was convinced that they would not let Sansa go after the marriage to Tyrion. And she only sent another freed prisoner and one guard with him through a war zone. So Catelyn basically hoped for a miracle against all odds.

-Ser Rodrik left Winterfell nearly unprotected as he decided to fight the Ironborn under Dagmer and so Theon could conquer the mighty castle Winterfell with just a few men

-Robb neglecting to make sure that his plan to lure Tywin into a trap would work by not informing Edmure, a guy he does not distrust and who is in command of the troops who could perhaps slow or block Tywins way to the Westerlands and ended up doing exactly that; Did he expect that Edmure could read his thoughts and know his plan?

and let us not forget these idiotic actions, someone called these guys too dumb to live:

-Janos Slynt repeatedly refusing to obey his orders; he even got a leading position, but no, he was too proud to obey and so stupid that he did not realize he would face death penalty until it was way too late; his friends in Kings Landing could not help him at the Wall and against the Nights Watch led by someone who was not a Lannister lackey and with Stannis and his troops present and not Tywins

-Viserys threatening Kahl Drogos baby in front of him and a big horde of Dothraki with a sword at a place where it is forbidden to draw it

-before the start of the books: Prince Aerion drinking wildfire in order to become a dragon

-Brandon Stark(Neds brother) riding to the Red Keep and demanding that Rhaegar should come out and die

[Miss Carnahan]

1. Robb marrying Jeyne

2. Queenmaker plot

3. Ned warning Cersei

4. basically anything Balon does

5. Cersei's AFFC arc

[Nymeria_Stark]

Gotta say I agree with everyone on Ned's blunder. I do think he can apply to all 5... in no particular order. Here goes...

1. Not telling Robert, his best friend

2. Confronting Cersei, the enemy, with everything

3. Not writing to the other Lords to gain support against the Lannisters

4. Not sending Sansa and Arya back to Winterfell sooner

5. In general acting on his own without confirmed support

As much as I love the Starks and admire Ned for his sense of honor, in the end the entire war boils down to his investigation and spontaneous actions while in King's Landing.

[INCBlackbird]

Theon letting his attachment get in the way and not burning winterfell to the ground and taking the starks, reeds and freys with him as hostages.

[Pod The Impaler]

1 - Balon refuses Robb's offer then invades the North.

2 - Ned tells Cersei what he knows... but nobody else. There are many ways to be merciful, but to the kids - not the mother and the real father, who clearly have no problem murdering people. (And his own kids were still in the capital.)

3 - Viserys decides to open provoke Drogo and threaten his pregnant sister to the point where she doesn't care if he dies.

4 - Oberyn getting close to the Mountain. Could have at least kept his distance to casually let Gregor writhe on the ground and slowly bleed out, as a message to Tywin.

5 - Dany in pretty quick succession gets rid of Jorah, beds Daario, rejects Quentyn Martell & Dorne, and then marries Hizdahr Zo Loraq. Daario may be more insipid, but it's marrying Hizdahr that really represents her defeat.

BONUS: Tywin is confronted by his condemned, furious, hated-all-his-life son, who seems to have figured out Tysha was not a whore, just the only girl who ever loved him. So Tywin uses this opportunity to insult the girl's memory one last time. Well, perhaps he could see Tyrion was about to kill him in any case, and if so, I guess "wherever whores go" is more poetic an answer than "go fuck yourself".

PS: Catelyn releasing Jaime Lannister was an incredibly rash and terrible decision. However, I do not really count her as being of sound mind when she did it. She was mentally broken by grief and desperation. The others on the list all had really no excuse.

1. Rhaegar 'kidnapping' Lyanna - Rhaegar thought it was a smart idea to run away with a woman, who was the daughter of the Warden of the North, betrothed to the Lord of the Stormlands and whose brothers were a ward to the Warden of the East and betrothed to the daughter of the Lord of the Riverlands. It wasn't. Thankfully, Robert and Ned got rid of the emo and his friends though the former didn't turn out a whole lot better.

We're not really certain why Rhaegar did this. However, if we're going to spotlight a blunder, I would say that Aerys actions were stupider - that utter mockery of a trial and subsequent demands guaranteed a civil war would follow.

[somethingorother]

1. Not telling Robert, his best friend Robert was hunting at the time, and wanted Cersei to escape first because he didn't want more innocent blood on his hands. The next time he saw the king he was on death's door and couldn't hurt him.

2. Confronting Cersei, the enemy, with everything Ned wanted to save her. He pitied her and was deeply hurt when the Targaryen children were slaughtered with no consequences.

3. Not writing to the other Lords to gain support against the Lannisters He allied with Renly, wrote to Stannis to come back and tried to buy the gold cloaks. He could have done the Stannis spam, I agree.

4. Not sending Sansa and Arya back to Winterfell sooner He discovered the incest while packing them away. I agree that this was supposed to be a business trip and the Crossroad incident was excuse enough to send the girls home.

5. In general acting on his own without confirmed support Everyone is upset he worked with Littlefinger and upset he didn't work with others. Who should he have turned to? Varys is still of unknown loyalty. Pycelle would have had him killed. He came to Renly and that backfired. Stannis left and Ned wrote for him to return. If Stannis stayed, Ned would live. Stannis worked with Jon and could convince Ned of the incest during lunch.

[complexphoenix]

IMO, Robb's big mistake wasn't marrying Jeyne, it was not surrendering after the Blackwater. If he'd done that, his marriage would not have mattered. And I suspect he would have lost the Freys even without the broken marriage pact, since at that point he had no plausible path to a victory that would let him keep the Riverlands, and Walder Frey would never stick with the losing side.

Balon's big mistake wasn't attacking the North - it was crowning himself. If he'd unambiguously sided with the Lannisters he would have been in great shape.

Rhaegar's kidnapping of Lyanna was dumb, but not half as dumb as Aerys's executing Rickard and Brandon and calling for the heads of Ned and Robert. That's what REALLY started the Rebellion. If Aerys had been a little less crazy, Rhaegar's stupidity wouldn't have had anything like the consequences it did.

Ned's big mistake was, indeed, tipping his hand to Cersei. No argument there.

I'd round out the list with Theon staying in Winterfell, and Dany staying in Meereen.

But an even bigger blunder, for almost every character in the series, was not killing Littlefinger.

And the biggest blunder of all was not listening to Alliser Thorne when he came to court with tales of the walking dead.

[fellow reader]

I think I simply repeat here what I answered to someone else:

It was a blunder, a big one. Yes, he wanted to protect the lives of Cerseis children, but that is not what I want to criticize. It is the fact that Ned needlessly neglected the safety of his own daughters in favour of acting honorably and sparing Roberts feelings. He decided to send Sansa and Arya away after his dispute with Robert and made the arrangement with the ship. Then Littlefinger brought him back on track to discover the incest and the confrontation with Jaime occurred. Ned got his job as Hand back and Robert went hunting. Then Ned informed Cersei that he knew and was going to tell Robert. He decided to tell a woman who has power and whom he had assessed as cruel that he will reveal the secret she supposedly killed his predecessor for, but did not bother to send his daughters away to safety first although he had been warned that Cersei has likely more supportes at court and in the city than him and Robert. Was it so impossible for him to offer a lot of money to a captain so that he discarded his original destination and brought his daughters and some guards north shortly before he confronted Cersei? As Robert died, he wanted to spare Roberts feelings and did not reveal the incest, he acted as if everything was like they all believed, despite the fact that then it really looked dubious and shady to just come into the throne room the next day and claim that Joffrey is suddenly not Roberts son without presenting any evidence. Ned threw away his last opportunity to expose Cersei and to get support from those who are not Cerseis henchmen or okay with the incest in order to let Robert die in peace. That way, Neds action in the throne room seemed to be an attempt to usurp the power as soon as the king had died for everyone who was not involved in Neds investigation(only shady LF) or had already known the truth(as far as Ned knew only dead Jon Arryn and Jaime and Cersei, perhaps Stannis(Ned suspected it, but was not sure)) and Ned died as a traitor before a cheering crowd.

Remember that Arya had her last lesson with Syrio before the planned journey home as Cerseis men slaughtered Neds household. So Sansa and Arya were to leave Kings Landing after the confrontation with Cersei, when the immediate danger would be over.

As Ned was in the black cells, it was Varys who reminded him that his daughters were in danger, Ned did not think about what had happened to them before. Not that Ned did not care about Sansa and Arya, but between his loyalty and his friendship to Robert and his wish to protect innocent children from the wrath of said friend, he seemed to neglect the safety of his own daughters. Wrong priorities Ned! If you do not care about your own life, then you are brave, but do not take your daughters with you if you plan to inquire into a murder case against the queen and the most powerful family in the realm and then after you have found out that the capital is a place infested with untrustworthy people and outright enemies, you should get them out of there before you make anyone aware that you know the secret they have already killed for(Ned thought Cersei was responsible for Jon Arryns death and together with Jaime for Brans fall and the assassination attempt).

The priorities should have been: send your daughters to safety>try to save Cerseis children, maybe only them and not Cersei, openly announce that Cerseis children are bastards and present your evidence to the public in order to prove that you tell the truth and Cersei is the traitor

[somethingorother]

fellow reader, oh yeah. I guess that makes sense. That is a blunder.

[Blackfish Tully]

Nah, Edmure saved Robb's ass on that one, Robb was overreaching himself.

The plan was basically to draw Tywin through the moutains, circle past him, take the pass through the mountain an then bottle him in the west that way, right? IIRC.

Well that's stupid. Tywin had a lot more men then Robb and was a methodical if univentive commander. When he reached that pass, he'd have gone by the book and left enough infantry to hold it before chasing Robb, thus leaving Robb stuck in the Westerland, cut off from logistical support and chased by a larger army. It would not have ended well.

If Robb thought his opponent would be too dumb to think about securing the pass, he'd started commiting the same sin Tywin was originally guilty off and was underestimating his opponent.

That was not the plan (as far as I know the pass was never mentioned in Blackfish's plans). The plan was to draw Tywin west so he could not defend Kings landing when Stannis attacked . That part of the plan was working perfectly until Edmure stopped him at the Ford.

After drawing Tywin West the plan was to force Tywin to chase them in the West and then attack Tywin at an ambush site that the Blackfish found . Whether that part of the plan would work is debatable but the Blackfish seemed pretty confident and so far he has been pretty flawless when it came to matters of warfare. Even if they could not get Tywin into an ambush just by drawing him West and leaving Kings Landing exposed to Stannis they have won from their point of view..

[Pod The Impaler]

IMO, Robb's big mistake wasn't marrying Jeyne, it was not surrendering after the Blackwater. If he'd done that, his marriage would not have mattered. And I suspect he would have lost the Freys even without the broken marriage pact, since at that point he had no plausible path to a victory that would let him keep the Riverlands, and Walder Frey would never stick with the losing side.

Balon's big mistake wasn't attacking the North - it was crowning himself. If he'd unambiguously sided with the Lannisters he would have been in great shape.

Only if you look at it from the perspective of being okay with life as the Lannisters' bottom bitch.

Robb was not going to surrender. Period.

How could he (whether as a lord or king) throw away all notion of justice and pledge himself to serve a sadistic tyrant every bit as bad as the Mad King (who would probably murder what was left of his family anyway) ?

As for Balon, he wanted to be a king. You're right that he could have settled for being what he already was - a lord - but that he did anything at all was the product of his antipathy to being ruled at all. He could have done what the Vale and Dorne did too - nothing.

The true strategic folly here is that the Iron Islands face basically one mainland neighbour of any importance - the Lannisters. The only real choice of the Ironborn, if they are tired of pilfering the scraps from mainland Westeros' table, is to either marry into the Westerlands until they can combine their strength with it, or defeat it militarily and break its power. The time for the latter would never be better than when Robb made his offer - everyone was against the Lannisters. Whatever the ironborn gain, they can likely keep. Even if someone like Stannis would not accept Balon as king, he might not think the unity of the Westerlands under House Lannister is such a sacred thing, and allow the Greyjoys to benefit if they bend the knee. Result? The ironborn still gain something. In fact, Balon chose the worst of all options.

[Fire Eater]

1) Cersei cuckolding Robert (I won't let her take up the whole list, so I just put her biggest blunder there)

2) Ned warning Cersei

3) Viserys threatening Dany in front of Khal Drogo

4) Cat telling Brandon to spare LF in the duel, imagine all the dead that might still live, no Wo5K

5) The RW, the Freys are and will suffer huge blowback for that

For bringing up Robb marrying, jeyne, the only thing it did was give Walder Frey an excuse to switch sides. He always wants to be on the winning side.

2) I disagree that attacking the North was a blunder. It didn't cost the Iron Born much, Theon's own idiocy not withstanding. The North can't retaliate and the Iron Born didn't suffer significant loses so it's not that much of a mistake. It would have been smarter to take Robb's offer of an alliance but Balon's goal was reestablishing the Old Way and the North was the best spot to start that. Long term it's a dumb plan since the Iron Throne will never abide a Kingdom of reavers right of its coast.

It was a blunder. They lost a number of men. The North can't retaliate? Then what was it some other Ryswells and Dustins who surprised the Ironmen at the Fever and burned their ships? There was alrge enough force left in the North to take on the Ironmen. North was the best spot to start that? How would they take the North? It is the largest of the Seven Kingdoms in terms of landmass. The Ironborn would have to spread themselves thin, and overextend their supply lines with Northmen likely attacking those supply lines and practicing scorched earth tactics to leave nothing for the Ironborn to feed themselves. Also it goes in line with what Tyrion said about the mountain clans: “They’re fierce warriors, but not soldiers. In formal battle, discipline is more important than courage.” Their advantage is in ship-to-ship combat which is a free-for-all when battling on deck.They lack the discipline needed in battle on the mainland, as demonstrated at Torrhen’s Square when Rodrik’s armored charge broke their shieldwall. That is not taking into account Northern winters which would significantly inhibit the Ironmen in hostile enemy territory with the Northmen having the advantage since they are accustomed to Northern winters and are fighting on the defensive in their home territory which they know better than the Ironborn.

[DreamSongs]

1) Ned warning Cersei

2) Catelyn kidnapping Tyrion

3) Robb's marriage to Jeyne Westerling

4) Jaime pushing Bran

5) Viserys challenging Drogo.

Not in any kind of order. Ned and Robb were trying to be honorable, Jaime was protecting his sister and the children, Viserys was trying to reclaim what was his but became impatient and Cat was to emotional and blinded to even try to play.

[Brandon Umber]

1) Anyone who has ever trusted Littlefinger

2) Cersei rearming the Faith

3) Ned Stark going full on Stark on Cersei. (Note: Never go full on Stark.)

4) Robb marrying Jeyne. (See note above)

5) Jon allowing himself to be goaded by Ramsay/the Pink letter. (There seems to be a pattern here.)