[Season 1 and Season 2] Questions regarding both seasons

I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

1) Ned told Cersei, because he wanted to save her children. He was giving her the opportunity to take them and leave. He knew that Robert would have them killed if the truth came out. He probably didn't realize that Cersei would be able to outmaneuvre him as well as she did. Though, even if he did know, he probably would have done the same thing to save the children. He did what he believed was the right thing to do.

2) Ned and Robert had a very close relationship. They grew up together. The fought together. Ned knew that Robert and Cersei didn't have a very strong relationship and probably figured that the odds of Robert trusting him over Cersei were greater that the odds of the opposite. But, either way, it sorts of goes back to the first point. He did what was right, regardless.

3) The guards may know that the document was legitimate, but as you saw, what matters isn't necessarily what's right but who is has the better political position. At the moment, the guards chose to back Cersei. That's not to mention the fact that littlefinger had bought off the gold cloaks.

4) Stannis is all about justice. Davos is proof of that. In his mind, Renly was a traiter the moment he declared himself a king so Stannis would have never allied with him. Renly didn't particularly want to fight Stannis, but he was willing to if that's what it came to for him to become king.

5) Melisandre is a shadowbinder from Asshai. What exactly this means and what the exact limitations of her powers are is as of yet unclear. But the entity that she created does seem to have been the product of some sort of shadow magic. The creation of these creatures is extremely tasking and Stannis only had enough life force to create one of the creatures, so he could not have created more to kill all of the lannisters. As for why he didn't use the one he had to kill Joffrey instead of Renly - well, I supposed that could be chocked up to him wanting to get the smaller enemy out of the way first.

6) He was in love and made a dumb choice. It wasn't a smart decision. It wasn't written to be. That's why he got punished for it.

7) The Starks view Stannis pretty much the same way that everybody else does - he's cold and grim and bitter. Stannis views the Starks the same way he views Renly - they're traitors.

/r/gameofthrones Thread