[i]A brother, with his men, swords in hand and searching for his sibling. He finds the man who knows the answer, along with a companion. The brother and his men, square off against the two men. Combat ensues. The brother kills the companion.
And then a one-on-one fight takes place between the brother and the man who knows where his sibling is. As the fight goes on, one of the brother's men attacks the man from behind. [/i]
This has happened twice in Game of Thrones. This can be the description of Jamie fighting Ned in Season 1 Episode 5, or Ned fighting Ser Arthur Dayne in Season 6 Episode 3.
However, when Jaime and Ned fight, and one of Jaime's men attacks Ned from behind mid combat, Jaime stops fighing Ned, and instead knocks out his own guy for that dishonorable act.When Ned and Arthur Dayne fight, Ned takes advantage of his friend attacking Dayne from behind, and kills Dayne.
In most of the story, Ned is considered one of the most honorable men, and Jaime is considered a man without honor.
What is interesting to me is though, despite how parallel these situations are, how differently people I've seen, feel about these fights when watching them on the show. Ned is never condemned for his move, and is quickly forgiven... while Jaime is not awarded points for his move either. At best, people say about Jaime after the fight, "I appreciate that, but still, screw that guy."
[b]Here's a parallels between the fight pic, I made, with matching shots.[/b] :)
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I think Jamie gets the hate because he pushed Bran off the tower in the first place. So when he corners Ned no one is sympathetic with his motives. Also Jamie wasn't really trying to kill Ned, he was just trying to get him to make his wife give Tyrion back. He seemed to be fighting Ned for sport, and the henchman who injured Ned was interfering with his sport.
As for Ned's case its just purely sad for both parties. I don't think anyone would want to kill Arthur Dayne, someone as skilled and noble as he. But both Ned and Arthur have their loyalties and honor. A confrontation was inevitable and someone had to die.
Anyhow GOT is so full of moral conundrums it's what makes the show so good! <3
@Lucy01 I am not sure if Jaime was NOT trying to kill Ned though. It was partly for him to beat Ned for sport, yes, but there are other aspects of it which make me question if that was his only major motive.
In the seventh episode, when Tywin is introduced with that epic stag skinning scene, he asks Jaime why Ned Stark was still alive. Jaime says he's alive because one of his men injured him, and so it would not have been 'clean'. Tywin then mocks that sentiment. That makes it seem like Jaime would have killed Ned, had no one interfered and had he got the upper hand. He did seem to point out that Ned was no longer the Hand, just before the fight too.
I think Jaime went there looking for Tyrion's whereabouts, but was prepared to kill Ned if it came to it. I think this, because at that point in the story, Jaime was a much more headstrong and reckless character... and to him, the consequences of killing Ned would not have been a big factor enough to not do it.
Tywin points that out too. That it was stupid to attack Ned, but since Jaime did make that choice, he should have finished the job, so to speak.
In any case, I just like the similarities, between those two fights, and how the story forces us to see them both in different lights, and often ignore a lot of the similarities, because of our feelings for the characters, at each point in the story. :)
