re: .

quote:

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They're not stupid. They just want to make things right without playing the stupid game. They always seem to dominate in fair fights but lose to cheaters.

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so many poor decisions that can't be explained away by honor.

ned told cersei he knew about the kids while Robert was away. that's a two pronged mistake as it arms her with information from which to act accordingly and while Robert is gone, hand of the king or not, she is the most powerful person in king's landing. he also does so without an understanding of the loyalties she holds behind the scenes. at that point all he had was his guard which had mostly been murdered.

he escalated the situation with Jaime by saying cat acted on his orders which wasn't true.

the starks pretty much started the entire war. so many decisions that had they not been such imbeciles, the whole war could have been avoided. varys told ned to serve the realm and I agree with varys that ned's honor is self gratification and vanity. he's no better than the rest.