Martin’s writing revolved around how power without honor was flawed and eventually doomed. The stupid show runners missed that.
wrote about “the love of virtue” but also “the love of honor“, per Montesquieu and also George RR Martin they are not always the same thing and sometimes when you pursue either you are damned, there is no preordained best option you should always follow like this is a game of calculation.
Ned pursued honor and literally a million people died in the War of the Five Kings. Will speaking the magic word “the word of honor” awaken the Angel of History and revived the Dead?
The answer is no, but that is also a fictional world, we are dealing with the real world and real stakes. Is Stanislav Petrov a traitor, or is he our world’s Jamie Lannister? Traitor and all that are words, they are all made up. Life’s feel like a more important thing to me in this impermanent firmament.
Everything is doomed in the end.