No, Ned is a B+ fighter with an A+ heart.

Most people call Ned a fool for dying because of Honor, but Ned lived his life the way he chose: Honor > Death. "You think my life is some precious thing to me? I grew up with soldiers. I learned how to die years ago." -Lord Eddard Stark

In the show version of Ned, I think Jaime's reaction to Ned being stabbed in the leg can be taken 2 ways-either he was upset that Ned was dishonored OR he was insulted that the guard thought he needed the help. It's the second I find interesting, because it tells us one thing for CERTAIN-the guard thought he needed the help, no matter if he did or did not. That makes it interesting, because someone who was watching first hand and knew how his lord fought was nervous enough about the outcome to make the outcome certain...

Ned may have lost in the training yard, but he always won on the battlefield. His mental acuity and wisdom elevate his warrior status beyond what it would be in a training yard or a fighting pit.

I didn't interpret his "Now it ends" as "I'm definitely gonna kill you" but more like "either you or us are going to die today".

His sword Ice alone indicates who and what Ned is pretty easily as well: It is too big for combat but only used for judgement and symbolic purposes. That exactly shows that Ned is a lord first and a fighter second.

Jaime was referring to Gregor and Sandor Clegane and Barristan Selmy when he said there were only 3 fighters ALIVE in the 7 kingdoms that would stand a chance against him. That's the part that a lot of people misunderstood about that part, Jaime said there were only 3 people in the kingdoms that were alive. So it's easy to figure out who he's talking about, the Clegane brothers and Selmy.

This is very simple: Ned is a beast in a chaotic war, where tactics regarding you surroundings is important. However, in a man VS man sword fight he is not an elite, even if he is pretty far above the avarage soldier.

Sad but true. Doesn't spoil the character one bit. Ned Stark still died protecting the greatest secret to westeros.

Considering he actually survived for that long against ser Arthur dayne I'd say he was a top fighter

Ned is above average but not elite. He's more suited to large scale wars not single combat.

"Because headless Ned is dead," I laughed so hard, I woke up my girlfriend.

Lol Boromir + Ned = Nedomir

George R.R. Martin was wrong. Aragorn could stand up to and force Nazgul back. He was over 130 years old in Lord of the Rings, trained by elves and others and decades of experience in the field fighter stronger, larger and more dangerous creatures than anything Jamie ever even thought of fighting. Further, at the battle of the black gates in LotR, Aragorn walked away without a scratch. Aragorn would have wiped the walls floor and ceiling with Jamie at any time.

Ned was a commander, a tactician and a leader. That was his strength.

No way that any human character in ASOIAF can defeat Aragorn. Aragorn had spent nearly 70 years fighting by the time he meets Frodo, and he was at the prime of his strenght at that point. 70 years of fighting experience and enhanced physical abilities due to his Numenorean blood. There is no way.

Aragorn fought horde of Orcs,was more than 80 years old at the war of the ring and was considered to be on par with elven warriors, who were literally immortal, perfect beings and he himself was a Numenorean, a special breed of Humans born to be Kings, he was over 7 feet tall. Need I say more.

Spot on. He was a great battle commander like Rob, but not an elite combatant, competent but not elite. The show boosts his skill level for for the fans

I haven't read the books, but as far as I can tell on the Ned vs Jaime subject, Ned has experience and is not short on skill, but he lacks Jaime's true talent for swordplay. Ned is like the kid who practises football constantly and is good enough to stand in the company of guys like Luka Modric or Ian Wright. Jaime is the guy who has natural talent to the level of Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane or even Johan Cruyff.

The real question gimli vs Jamie

"They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me but for Howland Reed.” Father had gotten sad then, and he would say no more." -~ Bran ACOK. Ned didn't want credit for beating Arthur Dayne

He was considered very good, but Barristan, Arthur Dayne, Robert Baratheon and Jamie were all considered elite. Still, Ned is a guy you would absolutely want on your side in an actual fight. Not a duel, but a fight.

I feel like Elite does describe Ned, and i would argue that the top, say 10 fighters, in the kingdom are more then elite, they are the elite of the elite. And by that definition, Ned, is certainly Elite.

To say that Jamie can beat an 87 yr old ranger that's been killing orcs, trolls, goblins, uruks let alone them berserker uruks and has been and always been fighting longer than Jamie has lived his life is one hell of a statement. J R R Martin clearly knows nothing.

Conclusion from this video and also my general impression: Ned was significantly above average (even among nobles and others trained from yearly age), but not among the very best (in their primes), like Jamie Lannister, Barristan Selmy, Arthur Dayne, Oberyn Martell and Robert Baratheon. Possibly also Loras Tyrell, Jon Snow, Greatjon Umber and the Cleganes.

I always saw Ned as more of a brawler, a fighter as opposed to Jamie’s swordsman. Jamie would win in a straight fight but in a battle with distractions Ned might be able to take advantage/play a bit dirty to win.

You also got to mention that in each war Ned fought he was in good condition after each battle. Unlike Robert and barriston selmy he was not badly injured and let's be honest he would be a prime target for a young squire or a knight if they wanted fame. And when he spared with yohn Royce he was likely knocked down by his opponent superior strength and size lord Royce is a big as the hound. If the fight was real it likely look similar to Jon Vs the magnate of the thenns. In terms of sword skill he may be better than Royce.

"He single-handedly killed one of the greatest of the King's Guards, so we was certainly above average". Ned was elite, but Top 10 elite not Top 3 elite. (The diff between #3 and #9 is stark - LOL PUNZ)

Ned wasn't an elite fighter but he was close to elite atleast.

The show definitely made him a very skilled warrior to make the scenes better, which I fully support. His fight with Jaime is one of the best parts of season 1.

it wouldn't suit ned's character to be an elite legendary fighter anyway, think about what his purpose as a humble family man is in the series, hes not meant to be that, robert was that

I think Martin is wrong about the Jamie/Aragorn matchup. Aragorn is much older than Jamie and still in the prime of his life. He’s been trained by the Rangers, who are elites, and by the elves who live for thousands of years. Aragorn has also spent most of his long life fighting people. It would be a good fight but I give it to Aragorn 7/10

You need to do a video of the top 10 fighters in game of thrones/asoiaf

I think that George R.R.'s assessment of Boromir as comparable to Aragorn is incorrect. Aragorn was a master swordsman, possibly the greatest in Middle-earth. He had 60+ years of fighting experience, which is longer than Boromir had been alive and Aragorn's body was technically closer to its prime than Boromir. This is without even mentioning that Aragorn has some almost magical properties due to his lineage and royal blood. There is no reasonable situation in which Aragorn would not beat Boromir. That said, I think George has kind of overrated Boromir. But, even so, I think he has to a much greater extent underrated Aragorn (who would certainly demolish Jaimie lannister. Greatest evidence being that while in Game of Thrones people found it impressive that Jaimie could defeat as many as a dozen men by himself. However, Aragorn was known to fight off dozens upon dozens of trained urukhai alone. Any professional swordsman would tell you that fighting multiple opponents is almost always more impressive than fighting more skilled opponents in small numbers. Aragorn would have absolutely destroyed Jaimie. And Boromir would not necessarily have defeated Aragorn. Unlike Aragorn, Boromir mostly fought with an army, not alone as a ranger. He rarely had opportunities to fight lots of people alone. So he was a much less impressive fighter.

This reminds me of the conversations me and my friends would have about LOTR and Star Wars when we were kids...and I love it.

I love rewatching the fight between Jaime and Ned. After their first pass, Jaime smiles at Ned, which to me says that Jaime now realizes that Ned didn't have the skill to beat Arthur Dayne in fair combat.

Aragorn would beat Jaime, he has over 40 years more experience under his belt and was trained partially by Elrond who is one of the greatest worriers in Middle Earth

Since we only have a short fight scene to judge in the TV series to judge from, we have to consider what we heard told about Ned. The greatest comment on Ned's ability came from Barristan the Bold himself: when they walk out of the tent Ser Hugh of the Vale was being cared for in, Ned commented that he was glad he never met Ser Barristan on the field of battle and implied he knew he would be dead (I agree with that completely.) However, Barristan was quick to praise Eddard, saying: "You're too modest. I've seen you cut down a dozen great knights." Ser Barristan was not one to pass out false praise, nor to lie. Cutting down a dozen great knights is no small feat, and it's not something to be done by an ordinary fighter.

The thing with Ned....book or show..he was a better than average fighter. He was taught to fight by master at arm's at winterfell and the eyrie. He was a Lord yes, but started training as a child with sword, bow,etc. And was a soldier his whole life. The biggest thing about him besides any skill is that anytime he is fighting someone who is considered "elite" , he is fighting for something very important. Example: tower of joy. I think he's better for fighting when he knows what he's fighting for besides pride.

First of all, Lord Eddard was a great fighter but not an elite one. He could best any opponent beyond the greats one on one but in terms of being a general he was without equal beyond his 'two' eldest sons Robb and Jon who are both nigh undefeatable. He only defeated ser Arthur due to Lord Howland Reed's assitiance in cutting off part of said Kingsguard's sword hand. Thus, resulting in the Sword of the Morning agreeing to take the 'Black' and a new persona

How can jaime be more of a fighter than aragorn, when aragorn is a dunedain! Trained by the elves..

I think it boils down to Ned's own comments (show version), that he is not a tourney fighter. He could hold his own enough to take down the every day soldier*, and even last a while against the greats, but his strength was in leading his armies to victory on a battlefield, not 1on1 fights, and Northern armies were among the strongest. Ned was a great leader, not a great fighter. *We have to keep in mind, the ever day soldier fighting in a war, were just regular men most of the time, and if they had ever even swung a sword before, it wasn't since the last war (or previous battle of the current one). They weren't constantly training in some castle waiting to be called up to fight. For a trained lord, defeating them would be easy, even several at once.

From memory, Ned was more of a commander. In fact, I think I read somewhere the he was the one who was largely responsible for the battlefield victories in Robert's Rebellion as a commander.

To be fair, Boromir would probably beat any GoT fighter. I mean, the guy fought a platoon of uruk-hai while having three arrows in him. Hard to top that. The closest was probably Ser Barristan, but he fought some dudes with knives.

Alright I guess I'm really late to the party to comment, but I've been having a bit of a nostalgia bug for GoT and LOTR and wanted to chime in a bit for all that's worth. Just from my general impressions from the books and shows, I feel like Ned was a competent swordsman and at the very least could hold his own in a fight. It feels like the Northerners were people who rarely enjoyed lets say the finer pleasures in life and mostly focused on warfare from potential wildling and Iron Born attacks and planning to survive against the next coming winter, which may add more strength to their fighting ability and maybe more practice with swords and various weapons. Also, maybe since Ned was a younger brother, he may have been expected to be more of a fighter than a ruler so he may have an above average knowledge with using a sword. However, I never got the impression he would be able to outclass Jaime in a true uninterrupted fight. The show and books seem to indicate that Jaime has skills with a sword that is rare for many people to match. I feel for Ned to best Jaime in a duel it would occur only if Jaime somehow made a slight error that Ned would be able to take advantage of very quickly. The only evidence that I was able to find that would support Ned being on par with Jaime comes from the Game of Thrones wiki page that says this about Jaime: "He was arguably one of the greatest swordsmen who has ever lived with few (such as Ned Stark, Jon and Brienne) able to match him." I'm not overall familiar with who can add content to a wiki page and what those standards require but just from this tidbit of information, whoever wrote it at least claims that Ned and Jaime are on somewhat of an equal status in regards to swordsmanship. It was always my interpretation that I gathered from many fan videos and threads that Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, and Jaime Lannister were the standouts among swordsmen in Westeros.

Eddard still is a trained capable fighter.

i just wanna say i appreciate that you use the light blue border in your thumbnails, bc it helps me find your content faster, vs the other, imo, not as good or entertaining GoT channels. I really enjoy your stuff!! :D

what elevates his skill in my mind is that hee held his own against ser Arthur at all which for a man as legendary as him is certainly a feat. I wouldn't put him up as an insane batshit god tier fighter like ser barristan but he's definitely one of the better fighters in westeros

Nedomir Stark, Steward of the Winter city?

In the show, Ned is as good as Jaime since they both fought to a draw. And Ned fought Arthur Dayne for more than one minute and survived

I always pictured Ned as a tough, strategic, utilitarian fighter. Not the best by any means but deliberate and determined. Also, I kind of thought Ned avoided fighting in tournaments at least partially to avoid scrutiny of his fighting abilities versus his version of the events at the Tower of Joy. You could tell that Jaime was probing a bit because he didn't quite believe that Ned could have killed Arthur Dayne.

IMO, I think people are confusing "Battlefield" fighter vs "Dueling" fighter.

I think Jon Snow is a better fighter than Ned. He has beaten a Thenn warrior, a White Walker, and Quorin Halfhand (realizing there is argument that the Halfhand let him win). One similarity between the two is their bravery in the face of danger. Jon Snow faced down the Bolton army in the Battle of the Bastards with the same courage that Ned had in the fight at the Tower of Joy. That kind of courage puts them both above average, considering neither of them have been killed in battle.

Counting arthur dayne and robert in jaime's top 3 list is wrong acording to your own critera They're dead at that point in time

Ned is the Eli manning of sword fighting

Here I will show the X Factor, the fight between Jaime and Eddard *looked* balanced because the early warning of the latter to the former "you kill me, your brother (Tyrion) is a dead man" that's why Jaime did not end Ned rightly, he could but instead he preferred not to fight vigorously.

Aragorn would fuck up Jaime

Show-Ned was a television protagonist, so it's only natural the writers want him to be elevated as a greater warrior than Book-Ned is. I truly believe a one-on-one sword fight between Jaime and Ned in the books would be a mismatch. Ned is described more as a good battle commander than a warrior. Although I look forward to the book's version of events at the ToJ to actually see how Ned fared in that battle. I suspect he was saved by the numbers (and probably a back stabbing incident at the end of the fight like the show). I don't really see why Ned fans care about this aspect of him that much anyway. Let the blowhards like Jaime Lannister bum about their abilities, when in reality battles are fought with numbers, tactics and strategy - and surely Ned would beat Jaime in this sense as his son did.

Does anyone have a link to the mtv vid when George compared the characters? I can’t find a complete list of his judgements.

Ive been aware of your channel since inception, idk what took me so long to subscribe. Just saw your stannis video and was completely impressed. Been watching your vids since. Theyre inspiring me to re-read the series for a 5th or 6th time. Learn something new everytime

How about Legolas Vs all of Got characters? Lol.

I think that Ned Stark COULD have been a top fighter if he had competed in tourneys and such, he had the potential to be a top 3 fighter if not the top fighter in Westeros. He just didn't want to compete and just wanted to rule over the North.

I haven't read the books, but from the context of the show, and even the sample of the script, it would seem they implied Ned and Jaimie to be roughly equals. Also on the show Ned had Syrio train Arya and implied they were friends, so they might have trained together as fellow warriors too.

Can someone give the link of the interview that GRRM compares the characters

1 on 1 fights don't really matter anyway, unless you are an assassin like Arya or are in a spot where you need to have a trial by combat but if you were a smart lord you wouldn't get in those situations. Better question to ask is would you rather have 3 dragons or 1000 Sir Arthur Daynes? Then think about the show where how an army fights is not more important than anything else as the show doesn't follow basic battle logic, spearmen getting destroyed by cavalry, using longswords as short swords, blades easily going through plate, no helmets in battle etc.

He wasn't one of the absolute greats, nor did he ever claim to be, in fact he often spoke in reverent terms of superior swordsmen such as Arthur Dayne. But he had tremendous heart and courage, which even his enemies greatly admired.

Well considered and fair, nice work!

i found this channel and i was enjoying the videos... y would a channel name themselves bridge 4? lol so random... so i was watching this video and rolling a ciggy not really paying much attention at the end when i heard the name bridge 4 and i thought to my self "huh!!!! why is a GoT video talking about the stormlight archive???" AND THEN IT HIT ME! where u got the name from lol.

Dumb question. Why did ned went there with only seven men? I know they were his friend,but he was leading an army to end the siege of Storm's end,so he could bring with him a lot more troops.

They pretty much shattered Ned being one of the elites, when Sir Arther Dayne, damn near killed him by himself, against like 5 of his guys lol

Very good one bro, could you do one on Syrio Forell?

I liked this video not just because the content was good but also because of how much you tried to take into account everyone’s opinion

It be interesting to see Jon and​ Jaime fight now. Jaime was dismissive of Jon early on but a lot has happened since then...

Jaime says he would beat Bobby B, so he's not one of the three. The show took that from the book where Jaime says there's three fighters who were stronger than him but that hed still beat them with speed and skill

wish you could have left a link to the grr jrr video.

Your ending comment to Ned fans coming to defend their lord made me smile.

Ned could be one of the best warriors of Winterfell for sure. That’s saying something. I’d agree that he was the most underestimated

He was good, he was pretty young when they fought 3 skilled kingsguard in the tower of joy.

Can you do a video about your thoughts on Randyll Tarly? Known to be one of the best commanders but can't really put a finger on if he was a good fighter or not.

Where can i find the interwiev with martin about the characters.....anyone knows? :OO

Trying to grade Ned is tricky. He not a tourney kind of guy, but made it through 2 wars maybe he is lucky but that ran out. Q&A: Who do you think is the best fighter in either the books or show that is alive now? I say Breanne.

Ned may not be the best but he'd probably have experience fighting people better than him. I'd say he's actually probably a dirtier fighter at least than we give him credit for. Consider the fact that he trained with Robert Baratheon for near on 10 years (who was already said to be incredibly strong for his age). I'm sure he's learned some tactics for surviving a 1 on 1 with someone who outclasses him. Plus with Yohn Royce's bit, Waymar was meant to be recruited fairly recently if memory serves, so Ned probably fought Bronze Yohn at around 10 years after his last real fight (even then he was a commander not a front line soldier, if I recall). And I honestly can't take Martin's rankings seriously if he truely believes Jaime Lannister could beat Aragorn in a fight.

You know what I love most about Game of Thrones, NO SWORDFIGHTS FOR LEGENDARY FIGHTERS, and Ned was praised by Barristan Selmy, Robert Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, Jaime Lannister, and everyone in the north.

Can you also do a clip about what happened in the Kings moot with Dragon binder exactly I don't read the books and I like that explained it possible

I dunno, Aragorn has been alive for 80 or 90 years, and hes still "young" cuz of the royal blood he has. I imagine hes been training for a big part of his life with elves and other humans. And fighting the various creatures and enemies in the lotr universe. I think he can beat Jaime.

Still a great leader and man, which is more deadly. Kev gives a great commentary, as usual.

GREAT video though, Thanx again

I just realized something. If you look at 2:55, pause, and read the final paragraph on the first page it says that the knight (Ser Gerold Hightower) died among his brothers Ser Arther Dayne and Ser Oswell Whent while fighting against quote “A small force commanded by Eddard Stark of Winterfell”. So my question is was Whent actually there despite not seeing him during the fight in the show? That would explain why two of Eddard’s fighters are missing and why Whent isn’t in the scene during the actual fight.

I wanna know where Stannis ranks in the list, he's seems as being a pretty decent fighter in the show, but I'm not sure about the books other than everyone says he get shat on in the show vs the books.

Me thinks that Ned could have beaten Jaime. Ned looks like he has "farmer strength" and "dad strength". If you've shooken hands with a farmer, you what Im talking about.

Quorin was probably one of the best fighters in Westerosi history. Let us consider the following facts: - He was the best in The Watch - He got his sword hand cut off, and trained to become even better than before with his other hand. That's the stuff of legend. - He probably has more experience than anyone else in the books: He probably joined the watch at about Jon's age and was probably around 50 at the time of the books, which means he had been risking his life on a daily (or at least weekly) basis for about 35 years. - Even at his age, he was known to be incredibly quick, faster probably than Oberyn or Loras - He never fought with a shield

Jaime could also be talking about The Mountain and The Hound. Those two are very skilled fighters, and i am pretty sure that Jaime knows this.

I think aragorn would win the fight simply because he has skills as a ranger and a lifetime of experience with his slow aging. I believe jaime would have had an advantage in sword combat but aragorn would compensate with "dirty" tactics like headbutts during a clinch and using his knife, much in the same way bronn fights in the show.

I definitely think that in terms of the show, Ned is still a great fighter but he’s not quite at the level of Jaime but when he was younger he was definitely a better fighter in the years immediately after the rebellion or perhaps even the siege of pyke. Elite fighter as a youth but not top tier.

I'd love to see a video on your opinion of ser Rodriks fighting skills

Awesome vid. How would you rate Bronn in terms of skill? Also, can you do a Night's Watch vs. Kingsguard video comparing the elite fighters of both groups? That would be awesome! I'm pretty sure the Kingsguard have an edge, but I think Qorin Halfhand would have presented problems to even Arthur Dayne or Barristan Selmy.

I got the impression that Ned was a veteran, and Jaime was an arrogant pretty rich boy that was stupid enough to get himself captured in a real war. Of course for all Ned's supposed lordly rulership and diplomacy, he was clearly out of his depth as Hand in KL. Political intrigue was not something he understood at all.

I'm fairly sure George R. R. Martin said in an interview that the Show version of Ned would in fact have defeated Jamie.

these videos are awesome man.

I believe Ned given the opportunity without any interference would have surprised us against Jaime. Ned had battle experience and was methodical he was always thinking 3 moves ahead. Nobody can say with any certainty because that could of been a great scene simply to see who would've won. I would have loved to see that.