A Game of Thrones Chapter 16: Eddard Summary & Analysis

After four days of searching, they find Arya, who has been hiding in the woods since the fight with Joffrey. Arya is taken before King Robert to explain her side of the story. Joffrey has said that Arya and Mycah attacked him, and Cersei is intent on making Arya face consequences. Arya explains what happened. Ned asks Sansa to corroborate Arya’s story, but Sansa says she doesn’t remember what happened. Arya screams out that Sansa is a liar. Robert says he doesn’t want to get involved. As far as he’s concerned, the kids had a fight. He'll discipline Joffrey, and Ned can discipline Arya. Ned is grateful that that’s all the fight amounts to.

This passage again shows the tension between love and duty, which is a recurring theme in the book. In this case, Sansa feels a burgeoning love toward Joffrey but has a moral duty to tell the truth. Sansa lies and says she doesn’t remember what happened, showing that she chooses Joffrey and love over morality and duty. Sansa’s choice reinforces the novel’s suggestion that love can become an impediment to morality.

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As Ned turns to leave with Arya, Cersei says that the direwolf that attacked Joffrey will have to be punished. Nymeria (Arya’s direwolf) ran away after the fight and hasn’t been found. Cersei responds that there’s still a wolf in the camp. Sansa realizes that Cersei means her direwolf, Lady, and screams in protest. Trying to appease Cersei, Robert says that Lady should be killed. Ned pleads with Robert not to do it and then says that if it’s going to happen, Robert should do it himself. Robert declines, and Ned says that he’ll do it instead. After he kills Lady, other people who were searching for Arya return. Ned sees them and thinks they have Nymeria’s body with them, but it turns out to be Mycah’s body.

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Robert’s refusal to execute Lady himself puts him in stark contrast with Ned and the lesson Ned tried to teach Bran when he (Ned) executed Gared. Ned told Bran that as a leader, one cannot command those one leads to do something one wouldn’t do oneself. In this case, Robert won’t even execute a dog, suggesting that he is a far cry from the ideals of honor and integrity that are central to Ned as a person and Ned’s view of what makes a good leader.

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A Game of Thrones: Chapter 16: Eddard Summary & Analysis