Eddard Stark, Guardian of the North and Duke of Winterfell. At the beginning of "Game of Thrones", he was accepted by everyone with his image of bravery, benevolence and justice, and countless people thought that he was a proper male number one. However, in the ninth episode of the first season, when the giant sword cold ice was ruthlessly cut down, and Ed was in a different place, countless viewers could not believe their eyes, and then began to recommend crazy to friends, this drama, anyone can die. It can be said that an Ed fell, a divine drama he stood up. But as we fold up our widely open jaws and peruse Ed's journey to King's Landing, we can't help but ask, is he really defeated by his morality?
Make you laugh, the next one is you, just you, the one with the crown
1． When he first entered King's Landing, he was in a moral dilemma
It all started with Littlefinger Petyr poisoning Ed's adoptive father, former Prime Minister Jon Erin, and marrying Queen Cersei Lannister. He then blamed Tyrion Lannister for harming Ed's second son, Bran. Ed began his prime ministerial term in King's Landing with a national vendetta against the Lannisters, with the goal of finding evidence and punishing the Lannisters. At a royal meeting, The Intelligence Director Varys informed that Daenerys, a former princess of the Dynasty who was floating overseas, was married to a foreign chief with 100,000 mercenaries and was pregnant. King Robert was furious and demanded that someone assassinate him, including bitter hatred for the former imperial family and consideration of the safety of his own rule. Ed angrily rebuked this unethical practice, but the scholar Paisil gave a utilitarian moral explanation: killing a mother and a son would have avoided the countless soldiers, civilians, and even children who might have died in war. There is nothing wrong with this. And Ed also gave his wonderful rebuttal: the threat of war in the future is only accidental, and what to do at this time is a certain evil. The details are as follows:
a． Alien cavalry feared the sea and had never been to the continent where the kingdom was located in history
b． Dani did not actually become pregnant or miscarried or gave birth to a daughter, which did not directly lead to a foreign invasion
c． The legitimacy of Robert's rule was partly built on his generosity, and mercy was not without meaning
outcome
The King's temporary failure to heed Ed's advice led to Ed's resignation losing his greatest advantage. But Ed's biggest plug-in, the King's infinite trust, played a role, and although Ed was seriously injured in the leg after being attacked, he was able to serve as prime minister and even deepened his relationship with the king.
summary
First, Ed's choice demonstrates his values of absolute moralism, a degree of opposition to or even neglect of utilitarian morality. But this does not mean that absolute morality is worthless, as exemplified by Robert Kuanren's successful ascension to the throne and his firm position; the counterexample is that Tywin Lannister was mean, almost permanently losing the possibility of sitting on the Iron Throne and establishing himself as a sworn enemy, both overt and covert. Second, Ed's use of the contingency of future wars to argue against the inevitability of evil shows to a certain extent that Ed's wisdom is not only positive. The most important thing is that this incident shows the king's deep feelings and unlimited trust in Ed, which proves that Ed is indeed a RMB player. At this time, Ed was kind and wise, holding the pendant in his hand, which could be described as a god suit. We can say, no need to stand, we can win!
2． Mercy, the loss of the greatest advantage
With Littlefinger's guidance, Ed gradually discovers the big secret behind the murder of his adoptive father Jon Eyring - the queen is incest with her brother, and the king has no heirs. At this time, Ed's political blueprint was: to inform the king of the facts, to give the queen and his brother the punishment they deserved, and the Duke of Kayam, Tywin Lannister, rebelled, and he joined hands with the king to unite with the princes to win the battle and restore order. It should be said that this is the most reasonable blueprint, but one of the points touches Ed's moral bottom line - Robert is likely to hurt the three children born of the queen's incest. Out of kindness, Ed told the queen what he knew and asked her to flee quickly with the child. The queen acknowledged the fact of incest and hurting Ed's second son, but she also laid out her political blueprint: her children succeeded to the throne, Ed had the power, and there was no war between the lions and wolves. Two conditions are included:
I. You can enjoy the offline soul-destroying experience once or several times.
II. Proverbs: Game of Thrones, if you are not king, you will die.
This blueprint Ed would not accept, but he missed two important messages:
I． There is no king in the queen's blueprint, and it is directly said that her children are still young and Ed can assist the government. Combined with the reminder from the previous intelligence director Varys, it proves that she has or is about to attack Robert.
II． The old lady will not escape, the old woman has fought with you
This prevented Ed from preventing the king's murder and delayed his time to see the situation.
a． Ed's benevolent approach made the queen realize that the decisive battle was about to begin
b． Ed loses his advantage, but holds the king's will, and the queen holds the new king in the eyes of everyone. The two sides are basically evenly matched politically.
c． Ed had fewer troops, but neither side was strong enough to sway the situation
At this point, Ed lost a move, but did not fail, and even had a slight advantage. We can say: hold on, we can win!
3． In the end, it was not up to the law, resulting in the destruction of the body
On the eve of the decisive battle, Ed received a political blueprint for the King's third brother, the Storm King Lan li. (Ed said to eat a peach no, he said not to hurry first, and then eat later) He proposed to use soldiers to hold the prince hostage to ensure that Ed's position as regent was stable, and then try to achieve results. Ed flatly rejected the Blue Rite out of absolute morality that could not hurt the child. But he realized that the regency was at stake and would require the help of a third-party military. He found little fingers with financial power and hoped that he would buy the capital guards to support him. At this point, the time has come to decide victory or defeat.
Littlefinger's Political Blueprint: Ed works with the Lannisters and Little King ascends the throne. After securing the regency throne, he controlled the government and extinguished the inevitable small-scale wars from the king's second brother, King Longshi, and then tried to put the third brother storm king on the throne.
Ed's political blueprint: control the situation, and the Dragonstone King ascends to the throne.
One would make the kingdom bleed less, but would require Ed to compromise, in line with utilitarian morality; the other would be consistent with absolute justice, but would be extremely risky of large-scale war. At this time, Ed insisted on his absolute morality and resolutely chose option two. But the key problem is that the balance of victory and defeat lies in Littlefinger, and he does not really care about the moral value of these two solutions, although he proposes plan one, he wants his own interests. Ed's problem is precisely that Scheme Two doesn't have the slightest interest in Littlefinger and may even kick him out. If Ed makes a supplementary explanation to Plan Two at this time: Dragonstone King is not impartial, then he will confiscate all your illegal gains and fine you for the crime of operating entertainment venues illegally. Well.. How much to fine. But you also have merit, what you want, I will fight for you, the big deal my duke will not do it, to you, for the sake of justice, you let the army support me. Unfortunately, if there is no if, the little finger at this time should also be sad, brother, it is not easy for me to take back the heart socket with people, why don't you consider me. Aren't you asking me to buy people, and this is not an honor, haven't you also begun to compromise, why can't you go any further? If you compromise a little more, I'll go with you, and if you think about me a little more, I'll let you hold hands. Littlefinger looked at the past affectionately, and what he saw was Ed's face that had always been deeply in love with the Dragonstone King. Hey, two people, not equal to us. At this point, we can say, don't stand up, we can't win.
4. The sound of heartache
Heartache speechless
Privately, even if the moral value of advocating behavior comes from the moral concept of absolute will out of responsibility and self-discipline, it does not exclude the correction of behavior out of consideration of bad results. In short, morality comes more from the heart, and behavior is not inconclusive. And Game of Thrones has its own rules, and its rules and morality are not completely mutually exclusive. In the end, Ed failed to succeed and died in disgrace, becoming a lingering pain in the hearts of readers and viewers. Are there players in the book or in the play who are familiar with the rules of the game and have inner morals? Yes, he is Tyrion Lannister, so see the next part, James Lannister: Not Whitewashing, But a Great Moral Realization. (Too heavy, just kidding)
Privately, Martin doesn't sing the praises of any individual in the book, but his failure to write about Eddard Stark in the game of thrones is by no means what makes us think that morality is useless and that mercy must die. On the contrary, it is to let us see the faint light of Ed's kindness still flickering in the thick black environment, and part of our reading is always to let such people illuminate our ordinary, mediocre and even humble lives, so that our hearts also echo a faint light. Kindness, perhaps fragile, rare or even stupid, must be complemented by wisdom and strength, but it is also the most beautiful flower that blossoms in human soil.
A family is to be neat and tidy
Finally, let's quote the tear-jerking moments of Ed as a father and brother in A Song of Ice and Fire:
Ed got down on one knee and took her (Arya) into his arms, "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I know," he said, "are you injured?" (From arya after annoying the queen)
"Don't do this, don't leave me, the country needs you!" (from before Robert's death)
May every girl in the world have a father like Ed and every boy have a brother like Ed. May Cersei and Littlefinger die in the book not as easily as in the play, I yawn!