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Chapter 48: Jon
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Ned tells Sansa and Arya to prepare to leave. Sansa doesn’t understand why she can’t say goodbye to Joffrey and argues with Ned. Arya wants to know if there’s time for one last lesson with Syrio before they leave, and Ned says there is. Grand Maester Pycelle comes to find Ned and tells him that King Robert has died. Ned says they have to convene the small council immediately. At the council, Ned shows everyone the message Robert dictated to him the night before. Upon inspection, Maester Pycelle states that King Robert’s seal remains intact and has not been tampered with. They open the message, which says that Ned will be the protector of the realm until King Robert’s heir comes of age. Ned thinks that Robert’s rightful heir is not Joffrey but Stannis, who is already of age, but Ned doesn’t say that.
Robert’s death puts both Ned and Cersei’s plans to secure power in motion at the same time. Ned believes he has an advantage over Cersei because he has access to the small council, which will ostensibly be influential in determining who will inherit the throne. Maester Pycelle says that the seal has not been tampered with, but Ned’s thoughts about Stannis and Joffrey recall how Ned tampered with Robert’s wording when he wrote down the message Robert dictated, showing again how the “game of thrones” has led Ned, who is otherwise an exemplar of upstanding moral character, to compromise his honor and integrity.
Themes
Soon after, Joffrey, who believes himself to be king, summons the small council to see him. In the hall, there is the Kingsguard, who will side with Joffrey, and the City Watch, who Ned believes Littlefinger has paid to support Ned. The City Watch outnumber Joffrey’s men five to one. Ned asks that Joffrey and Cersei recognize him as the protector of the realm until Joffrey comes of age and shows Cersei Robert’s message. Cersei tears up the message into shreds and asks if Ned thought a piece of paper would protect him. She says that Joffrey is the king now.
Cersei tears up the note Ned wrote based on Robert’s dictation, metaphorically tearing up the rules of the “game of thrones” that Ned has been playing by. Ned has been playing by self-imposed rules of honor and integrity, and Cersei effectively says that those rules mean nothing and she has no intention of following them. With that in mind, following those rules might put Ned at a strategic disadvantage.
Themes
Ned didn’t want it to come to this, but he says that Joffrey is not King Robert’s true heir. Joffrey asks Cersei what Ned is talking about. Cersei commands the Kingsguard to take Ned into custody. Ned’s men rise to defend him, and Cersei says that his verbal treason is now an act of physical treason. Ned commands the City Watch to take Cersei and Joffrey into custody. The men of the City Watch lower their spears. But they attack Ned’s men instead of the Lannisters. Littlefinger reaches down from behind Ned. He takes the dagger from Ned’s waist and holds it to Ned’s throat. Littlefinger says, almost apologetically, that he told Ned not to trust him.
The novel depicts the “game of thrones” as similar to a game of chess. Ned thought he had gained a strategic advantage by arranging to have Littlefinger pay off the City Watch, but Littlefinger betrays Ned. Arguably, Ned’s commitment to honor and integrity includes a willingness to trust people. Littlefinger’s betrayal makes it clear that the trust Ned placed in him was naïve, signaling that Ned needed to combine cunning and strategic thinking to anticipate the possible moves of others instead of relying solely on honor and integrity to try and achieve his aims.
Themes
