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"It will be good to see the children. The youngest was still sucking at the Lannister woman's teat the last time I saw him. He must be, what, five by now?"

"Prince Tommen is seven," she told him.

Ned Stark discussing Robert coming to Winterfell with Catelyn.

Ned had last seen the king nine years before during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion, when the stag and the direwolf had joined to end the pretensions of the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands.

So how did Ned see Cersei - presumably at King's Landing - some six years ago when he hasn't seen Robert for nine years? Just a GRRM continuity error?

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7
  • Considering that Cersei and Robert loathed each other, she might have taken any opportunity to get away from King's Landing (no doubt escorted by Jaime). It's possible she crossed paths with Ned somewhere else, such as Casterly Rock or the Vale.
    – Royal Canadian Bandit
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:19
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    Nice catch! Looks like it is a continuity error, and there don't seem to be many of them in aSoIaF!
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:20
  • 7
    N+C=J. It is known.
    – Möoz
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 2:03
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    @Mooz OMG, what a disgusting thought! :-S
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 10:50
  • 1
    Don't dare to say his name three times into the mirror, @yondaime008 !
    – Trollwut
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 11:35

2 Answers 2

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According to this timeline, Prince Tommen Baratheon was born in 291. Later in year 293:

Jorah Mormont is caught selling poachers and flees from Westeros to avoid execution by Lord Eddard Stark.

As you can see in the map below, if Jorah set out from Bear Island to sail to Essos, he would have had to sail around the western shores of Westeros and past Lannisport:

Map of Westeros

Eddard sailed to Bear Island to find Jorah, as he recalled in Chapter 12 of AGOT:

Ned had made the long journey to Bear Island, only to find that when he arrived Jorah had taken ship beyond the reach of Ice and the king's justice.

It is possible that Eddard might have continued sailing - or planned a longer voyage - to see if he could still catch Jorah anyway.

Lannisport is one of the major ports of the Seven Kingdoms and is the largest settlement in the westerlands. So it is an obvious place of interest if you are on the trail of someone fleeing by ship. Coincidentally it is also where Jorah met his wife and where Cersei could have been at the time (perhaps as an opportunity to get away from Robert for awhile, as others noted).

There is no evidence for any of this, unfortunately, but we do know Eddard is man willing to take matters into his own hands - "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword."

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4
  • Well it's possible Cersei was back home at Casterly Rock but would Ned really have dropped in for a chat with Lord Tywin? He despised the Lannisters. Nice creative theory though!
    – TheMathemagician
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 21:54
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    If it meant the chance to meet (what he thinks are) his best friend's children, then he'd endure their company. Also, he's the type who'd dutifully endure a diplomatic visit out of a sense of obligation. Also explains why it's "last time I saw him" not "we". Nice save...
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 22:22
  • I like this theory, nice thinking. But I'll have to say, this is the least probable one, it seems far fetched. I mean Ned needs to extend his voyage and drop in Lannisport at the exact time Cersei was there. I don't think so.
    – yondaime008
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 23:31
  • I've got a funny feeling it's mentioned that noble ladies often go back to family homes from the capital when nursing children in infancy, so she'd have been there for a few years. I might be misremembering that though. Didn't Joanna go home from the capital for a few years when nursing J&C, leaving Tywin alone in the capital? And they even liked each other... (I do also agree that it's much more likely to be an error... but as saves go, this is a spectacular one!)
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 9:23
5

I see 3 possibilities.

  • It's a continuity error
  • Ned saw her somewhere other than King's Landing.
  • Ned saw her at King's Landing some 7 years ago but never thought to see Robert. Or Robert was too busy. (least likely scenario)
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  • 3
    I think we can exclude the third possibility. It seems highly unlikely Ned would travel all the way to King's Landing without seeing Robert, or that Robert would not make time to see his old friend Ned.
    – Royal Canadian Bandit
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:28
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    @MichaelEdenfield, wasn't the feast at the start of AGOT the first time Cersei actually went to the North? Or am I misremembering (which is very possible haha).
    – Mac Cooper
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:36
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    If there's one place other than King's Landing that both Ned and Cersei would go, I'd say it's the Vale. Ned was good friends with Jon Arryn, and Cersei is the Queen so she might go for diplomatic reasons. Maybe they met at a feast or something. It makes sense.
    – user2817803
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:41
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    @MacCooper it might be... especially if Robert hadn't gone north since the end of the war, I can't see any reason Cersei would have gone alone.
    – KutuluMike
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 20:45
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    @Omegacron - Yes but if Ned was going to go all that way to King's Landing anyway, wouldn't he just go a little further to join Robert on his hunting trip, or wait a week or so until after the hunt? I agree we can rule out the third possibility.
    – Justin Ethier
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 21:22

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