Game Of Thrones: 10 Stupidly Easy Decisions That Would've Solved Everything

8. Robert Listens To Ned

In many ways - perhaps most ways - Ned Stark was an awful candidate for Hand of the King. Simply too honorable and straightforward to survive in a capital as seedy and underhanded as King's Landing, Ned's days were numbered from the moment that he accepted the job. Still, there was one area in which Ned's instincts were right on point: Daenerys Targaryen. Upon receiving word of Dany's pregnancy, King Robert orders her death. Ned vehemently opposes such an extreme course of action, arguing that the murder of a pregnant young mother on the off-chance that her child will one day pose a threat to Robert's crown is both morally reprehensible and strategically unnecessary. Even if Dany were to give birth to a litter of potential claimants, said Ned, Khal Drogo would never abandon his domain over the grassy Dothraki sea to travel with his horde of horsemen across salt water without an extremely compelling reason. As it turns out, the attempted murder of his wife and unborn son is plenty compelling for good old Khal Drogo. In fact, he is so outraged that he vows to rape, murder, and enslave his way through the Seven Kingdoms on his wife's behalf. The plan for a Dothraki invasion of Westeros does fall through with Drogo's death, but the early stages introduced Dany to the sorceress Mirri Maz Duur and the magic to wake the dragons from their eggs.