2. Ned Becoming Hand Of The King
Eddard Stark had things good in the North. Besides being Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, he had a devoted wife, a loving family, and a people that both respected and loved him. So what would possess Ned to accept Robert's request to serve as his new Hand of the King after the death of Jon Arryn? Well, as I've already noted numerous times in this article, Ned is honorable. Oh boy, is he honorable. So in spite of the fact that his old buddy Robert is a drunken sleaze who has no business being king (or perhaps because of it), Ned accepts the position, uproots his daughters, splits up his family, and sets into a motion a series of events that would leave Westeros in chaos for years to come. Granted Jon Arryn had already deduced that Robert's heirs were the children of incest between Cersei and Jaime. But who's to say someone else wouldn't have picked up the trail Arryn left and also been able to deduce the truth? Or not. Either way, Ned would have saved his family and the realm a whole lot of grief if he'd listened to his wife and stayed in Winterfell. Then again, you try to say no to Robert Baratheon and see how that turns out.