What the hell are you talking about? People make retarded decisions because GRRM writes moronic characters. Ned literally tells Cesei his entire plans like a complete dolt to let her get the advantage. This is after she and her family are accused of trying to murder Bran through an assassin, after Joffrey nearly killing Arya in swordplay, killing Sansa's wolf and the butcher's son, Tyrion being taken captive by Cat, and after Jaimie and the Lannister guards nearly kill Ned by stabbing him through his leg. All Ned had to do was seize Cersei's children with his own household guard and then tell Robert and the rest of Westeros why he did it. That would have been the end.
If ned did that, then Robert would have butchered the royal children in a rage. Ned already hates that was done to the Targ children during the war, and likely didn't want the same thing to happen to them. Ned thought that the watch was working for him because of Petyr, he thought that his household guards were good enough when supporting the watch, and thought Robert would back him when he got back from his trip. Ned didn't realise Petyr was fucking with him, didn't see Cersei as an actual threat, and he got killed because of it. Ned miscalculating during a sitution he doesn't have full knowledge of doesn't make him an idiot.
From his perspective, the struggle was over. The only person who was a threat was a woman, with no family nearby to speak of, no army, no combat prowess, and who would - presumably - try and save her children. By all reasonable accounts, Neds move was a good one.
Ned is an idiot. Robb is also an idiot as well. And not honorable. Ned is also a liar who keeps Jon, the real heir to the throne, in secret of his entire lineage and true self. And sends the real heir to the throne....to the Wall like a punishment. Ned basically goes after Cersei for lying about the current heirs to the throne not being from Robert but being from Jaimie. Yet Ned lied to Jon about his parentage and denied him his own rights and lies to everyone else about who Jon is as well. Ned is a liar and loser with no honor.
Robb was 14 at the time, had won multiple major battles, was riding high off of potentially winning the whole war, and was thinking with his cock. He made two real mistakes. 1) Karstarks execution. 2) Ploughing Jeyne Westerling. The first cost him a good portion of his allies, and the second - plus the insults that the Riverlords gave to Walder - cost him his life and army. It doesn't make him an idiot, it makes him an impulsive child that got arrogant.
Jon also isn't the heir to the throne, even putting aside the Lyanna stark stuff. Robert won, the Targ dynasty was destroyed. What was Ned supposed to do? Back the claim of a child that no one but him and maybe three others know is maybe the heir? No one would have gone along with that, Ned would have died, and Jon would have had his head smashed against a wall at the age of three. That's even assuming Jon isn't just a bastard of Rheagars. We don't know if he married Lyanna, and they had a loving child, or if he raped her and left her at the tower of Joy.
There's a world of difference between not pushing for what is essentially a suicidal lost cause against all the people he cares about, after losing his father, brother, sister and possible lover; and being pissed off that the stability of the realm is threatened by Cersei cuckolding the king with her own brother. One of them is a reasonable action, the other is cucking the king with her own brother.
First off we do not even know if Tyrion is Tywin's son. There is ample evidence that Mad Aerys raped Joanna Lannister and Tyrion's malform shape is a result of repeated abortion attempts. And Joanna dying during childbirth is also likely a result of her trying to terminate the pregnancy. Also Tyrion dreams of dragons. And secret parentage is the biggest repeated plot point in all of Westeros. Tyrion has whiter hair than normal, freakish shape, and different color eyes. And Tywin repeatedly denies that Tyrion is his.
I'm not really sure why you brought this up? Yes, he probably is Aery's bastard by rape. That doesn't change that Tywin - as he says - cannot prove Tyrion is not him, and therefore has to act like he is his son. Tywin never denies Tyrion is his son, he simply openly states that he hates Tyrion for killing his mother when being born.
Tywin dies because of GRRM's big moment style of writing. Where Tywin has no armed guards that hear him arguing with his loosed 'son'. No armed guards that hear Shae scream. No armed guards patrolling the halls. No armed guards in a world where multiple kings and lords have been assassinated. Where are the guards exactly? I always hated Tywin getting killed because of how conveniently empty the Tower of the Hand was. The books use the 'assassination' plot device very often. It works when you have magic killers like shadow babies or faceless men.
Tywin didn't have any guards around because he was fucking a
whore. A big part of Tywins character is that for as much as he hates Tyrion, he's just like Tyrion. He whores, and he drinks, and he thinks himself smarter than everyone around him. He just doesn't show his vices openly. It's why there's a secret tunnel in his chambers leading to the brothel. Tywin thought he had won, was taking out his petty power game on something that his son loved, and it backfired and got him killed.
What exactly is unique to Martin? The Others? Ice zombies? That went nowhere in the show so who knows what the books will do. What exactly did he 'create'? When you use the word 'creative' it should mean creating something new or as original as possible. What is new in GRRM versus what is just lifted from other world and authors?
They're not ice zombies? The others re described as being almost like fairies. Your definition of 'creative' basically excludes all of human literature except the one or two genre defining works. Shakespeare? Fucking uncreative hack, he stole lifted Hamlet from the Amleth myth. Frankenstein? Did that bitch Shelly ever hear of Prometheus? Modern classic my arse! Victor Hugo just copied down the life of some random prisoner he knew from France, made a few change and boom! Fraud work passed off as literature? It's a strange standard to have. I think the only thing that passes it, would be Epic of Gilgamesh, and weirdly Dragon Riders of Pern because of all the gay teleporting BDSM dragon stuff they have in that.
Pretty much all of his magic is just taken from other stories. Modern stories with modern influences. Things like shadow puppets and shadow babies, future seeing, glamors, warging and mind control, dragons, coming back to life, flaming swords, dragonglass candles are just palantirs or crystal balls, magic horns and instruments are ancient. Most of his magic devices and spells have not even been explained nor have they even paid off in the books. How do dragon binding horns work? What are the Others? How do Faceless Men change their faces? Half of his magic devices are mystery box powers. So this whole "GRRM is super realistic" is not great praise when he never realistically explains any of his magic.
I mean, there's a few issues with this part. Primary one being I said that ASOIF is about as realistic as LOTR, in that it's
not realistic. But yes? A story written six thousand years after the advent of human civilisation, by a human, for humans, has things that are influenced by other human stories? Flaming swords are a dime a dozen throughout historical myths, from the Arthurian legends, to the the Nandaka of Indian myths. Crystal balls and devices for magically viewing the distances are in almost every myth from history. I don't feel that 'things that have also happened in other stories being present' is a knock against Martins ability to tell an interesting story.
Explaining your magic is a bad move in my opinion, because it takes all the magic out of it. It makes it mundane, like the power to reach across the kingdoms with some blood and your willpower is just another tool, like a catapult or a sword. It's a personal taste thing, but the idea of sitting down and reading the mechanics of a magic system is retarded for me. Also, we know how the faceless men change faces? Someone comes to the House of black and white, gives their life to the many faced god, the faceless men cut of their face and store it in the vault; when they need it, they drink a magic potion, slice their own face around at the edges and mold the new face onto their head, the blood binds to it and makes them have that persons face.
