I came across this on the Mary Sue this morning, and I decided to share it with everyone.
Basically it takes the qualities or story of one character and tries to make them look daft over it. There's obvious spoilers, and some have strong language, so I'll say it's a little NSFW.
There's also a themed one, "Stupid Ned" which might get a few giggles. I'll tentatively mark it as NSFW too, plus it has spoilers.
I have to admit, some of those are pretty damn funny.
YOU TELL 'IM, DUMBLEDORE.
I had a few people telling me, after watching the series, how stupid they felt Ned was. Sure, you can be honorable, but if he was of a high enough caliber to be a Lord and hold Winterfel, and know to teach his children about death and duty, he shouldn't have made the mistakes he did during the time period of A Game of Thrones. But then, reading the book, I never did notice it quite as much.
Ned's honour was so stereotyped by the end---It musta' been for the sake of plot because, hell, none of his other characters work like that. Arya's lovely, brave, determined, but still a complete whining, bratty, unmerciful little-- uh. When one trait of a character overtakes their persona so badly they make stupid choices in the hope of portraying that trait, shits gone wrong. It's a bit like that King in the Night Angel Trilogy who fell to the floor weeping and curling up in front of his court, yet no one seemed to think 'Right, we need to ditch this guy.'
OTT character traits... I hate.
I believe you can write a book with such intiricit political mystery, that sometimes you just forget. It says a lot that not many people noticed, or not many people minded. Good writing owns all things!
My favourite was 'Go Hunting. Ruin everything for everyone.' and Viserys', of course. 8D GOD, THAT GUY WAS THICKER THAN A TIN OF SPAM.
Leave Lord Eddard alone! Some of those (alright, MOST of those) Stupid Ned memes are funny, but when did honour begin to equate with stupidity? More and more I see ASoIaF as a parable for our times - the venal and corrupt prosper, the decent are outmanoeuvred, and the lumpen mass follows any moving object. Surely Ned should be admired, not mocked? I mean, that 8th Stupid Ned pic - what the Hell would any man do, in that situation? If you don't do what he did you have no right to claim to even be a man.
I think the joke is that Ned - perhaps more so in the show than the books, I don't know - tended to think of honour as one thing and one thing alone, and that his blindness and obsession are what killed him. He viewed the rules as being one way, but in truth the rules were that there's no such thing as honour. If you try to live your life that way, you'll either get nowhere or it will get you killed.Originally Posted by kged
Honour doesn't equate to stupidity. Just like Vanity doesn't equate to stupidty, nor does being rash. These are all character traits. Someone can be rash, which leads to doing stupid things, but not being an all out idiot unless they are actually meant to be.
Ned did not even make BACK UP PLANS, even for the sake of protecting his daughters. His character trait of HONOUR was used to pull along the plot in my opinion.
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