Game of Thrones 30 Day Challenge: Day 20

Day 20, a character you used to like but now hate.

It's almost unfair to discuss a character who is not only dead when the books begin, but also only seen from the perspective of others. It a series of books where almost everyone is viewed through complexity, with both good and bad in them, it's even difficult to decide you 'hate' a character. Well, okay there are characters that GRRM writes about who are easy to loathe. Walder Frey. Ramsay. Thorne. Most Greyjoys. You do, however, more or less hate them from the beginning. It's more difficult to like someone to begin with but the later realize you kind of hate them.

I realize a lot of people say they used to like Jon or Dany or Tyrion, but now hate them. I could never do that with a character who is still living. As unfair as it is to decide to hate someone who is already dead, it's almost impossible to hate people who are very clearly in the middle of their stories. We're talking about people who are failing and making mistakes in order to realize what needs to be dropped in order to shift gear and head towards the climax of this story.

Jon Arryn was Lord of the Eyrie and served as Hand of the King under King Robert Baratheon. He is dead at the beginning of the story. In fact, his death begins the series of events that lead Ned Stark and his daughters South and end up getting him killed. We hear about Jon Arryn from Ned's perspective. Ned saw him as an honorable man, almost more of a father than his own father.

When a POV character loves someone, we tend to like them as well. Ned was a decent man so we assume that he will display sound judgement in the people he likes and respects. When we first hear about Jon Arryn, he seems like a wonderful man. He went to war to protect Ned and Robert from the Mad King and risked everything for them. Great guy!

However, on further examination, one begins to see evidence that Ned was quite mistaken about Jon Arryn. The man had a lot of serious flaws, flaws that are still destroying lives at present time in the story.

• Jon Arryn was a TERRIBLE Hand of the King. Under his time in power, he indulged Robert's vices, allowing him  to get fat, become a drunk, father dozens of bastard children, and run the kingdom into debt.  Jon Arryn was probably THE only human who had any kind of influence over Robert whatsoever and he used none of this influence to keep the man in line. This wasn't just his duty as a mentor and a friend, this was his duty as the Hand of the King. He wasn't just responsible to Robert. He was responsible to the kingdom. He failed both and because of his failure, Robert was a mess and the kingdom may never financially recover.
  
• Jon Arryn was a horrible judge of character. Tywin Lannister entered the war at the last second. He waited around until he saw the logical winner and only then made any kind of move. When Robert came to power, Jon Arryn should have realized this was probably THE only time that Tywin would ever be at a disadvantage. What did he do to exploit this? He acted like Robert was at the disadvantage and talked him into marrying Cersei. Even at 16 or so, it should have been clear that Cersei would never be a compliant and tolerant queen. But this wasn't Jon Arryn's biggest blunder in the 'misjudging people' department.
  
• Jon Arryn brought Littlefinger to King's Landing.  In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar,  poor doomed Julius comments that he wants to have fat men around him because fat men are content and happy with their positions in life. Then he adds that Cassius has a lean and hungry look. Littlefinger is a perfect example of the lean and hungry ambitious untrustworthy slimeballs.  There is basically a giant neon sign over Littlefinger's head that reads "WILL BETRAY YOU!!" but for some reason, Jon Arryn ignored this and kept giving the man more and more power.
  
• Of course, the person who put Littlefinger in Jon Arryn's path was his third wife Lysa Tully.  Lysa is another reason why I hate Jon Arryn. Okay, for one thing, he was an old man when he married her and she was like 15 or so. She'd had an abortion already and it should have been clear to anyone that she was in love with someone else. It should have been equally clear that she was unstable. And yet, Arryn marries her anyway, because he needs an heir. Lysa has some miscarriages, but when she finally does have baby, Jon Arryn commits what is probably his worst crime.
  
• He fails to protect his child from Lysa. Like I said, it's abundantly clear the woman in crazy. Yet Arryn, as he does with Robert, indulges her insanity and allows her to basically destroy their child. He doesn't even try to stop her from breastfeeding, and at 8, the child is still doing this. He makes no attempt to try and prevent her from spoiling the boy, which leads to the child being almost impossible for anyone to handle. This is the man's heir! He knows he lives in a harsh world and his son will have to be strong to face it. Yet he does nothing to try and educate him. His only attempt to try and make the boy's life better is to consider fostering him  to Stannis. Really? Stannis? Stannis, who is even more socially awkward than your son? How do you think that would have helped?

See, the thing is, Jon Arryn was either deeply stupid or living a life or complete deprave difference. He either had no clue as to what he was doing or just decided "fuck it, let's see how bad this can get." Either way, his actions and more over his lack of action set up the perfect storm that is the mess everyone is suffering through now. If he would have reigned in Robert, had him marry someone trustworthy, sent his son to be fostered in a sane place, and shot Littlefinger in the skull, everyone would probably safe, happy, and calmly preparing for Winter. The man was a useless Hand, a useless Lord, a bad father, and a complete idiot. Too bad he had so much power.