"The past is always clearer once it's behind us." Ned won't argue about adherence to honor, tradition, and custom - even if they've been plucked from Westerosi lands and brought here, wherever it might be. Ned regrets many things in his last life, having learnt the truth of what fates befell his family - and he does believe he'd have made his decisions differently, if he could have foreseen the future. And yet ..

Who is he without his honor? Who is he without his code of ethics? His morality? How could he ever truly abandon them all, even if they proved to be folly? It's a precarious path, that line of thinking, and it isn't one he wishes to travel down. Not now.

"You've every right to be, if you are. I take no offense at the sentiment." His lips purse together, the corners tugging downwards. "We do the best we can in the moment, with the information we have and are given. None of us could've known how things would change after I'd left for King's Landing."