[That makes his steps slow again, but this time, it’s contemplative. It takes a moment for Jon to answer.]
— No. Yes. It’s hard to say.
If most of the lords are good and wise, and the king is good and wise, it might be the best way to rule. But what are the chances of that? And then, what is the king’s son like? One can only go so far to make up for the other. There’s much a king can do against a rebel lord, and much lords can do against cruel kings, but the smallfolk suffer.
After my brother was killed, our lands were in the hands of men who had betrayed him, given to them as payment for the betrayal. Cruel men — they made the North bleed. And I had spent my time in the Night’s Watch — soldiers, most of them not highborn, who choose their lord commander, no man’s vote worth more than another’s.
But the king must have authority. Someone must be in command. [He thinks of the Free Folk: they all fight with great spirit and bravery, but small discipline, and over and over, it has cost their lives.] If my people had their way, if I did just as my lords wanted, they would be dead by spring. Pleasing my lords can’t be my only thought. And that isn’t why they made me their king.
cw: game of thrones (potential for graphic everything)
— No. Yes. It’s hard to say.
If most of the lords are good and wise, and the king is good and wise, it might be the best way to rule. But what are the chances of that? And then, what is the king’s son like? One can only go so far to make up for the other. There’s much a king can do against a rebel lord, and much lords can do against cruel kings, but the smallfolk suffer.
After my brother was killed, our lands were in the hands of men who had betrayed him, given to them as payment for the betrayal. Cruel men — they made the North bleed. And I had spent my time in the Night’s Watch — soldiers, most of them not highborn, who choose their lord commander, no man’s vote worth more than another’s.
But the king must have authority. Someone must be in command. [He thinks of the Free Folk: they all fight with great spirit and bravery, but small discipline, and over and over, it has cost their lives.] If my people had their way, if I did just as my lords wanted, they would be dead by spring. Pleasing my lords can’t be my only thought. And that isn’t why they made me their king.