Ned Stark, deconstructing the deconstruction

I don't like the term "Deconstruction" as it's commonly used now, but people keep using that word for whatever they think the the early seasons of Game of Thrones did well.

One of the themes of stories like Game of Thrones is questioning narratives, and I think on some level it even wants us questioning it's own narrative.  And season 2 onwards has been repeating a narrative about Ned Stark that doesn't quite match what you see when you re-watch season 1.  That his downfall was because of his "Honor", that his compulsive Honesty and Mercy got in the way of his ablity to actually think logically or strategically.

Take the scene early in season 2 when Tyrion finds Varys talking to Shay and then when Varys leaves he accused him of threatening him and says "I'm not Ned Stark, I know how this game is played".  Was there any scene in season 1 where Ned is just flat out ignorant of a veiled threat?  No ,I'd argue it's Tyrion breaking the rules of the game here by breaking it's fourth wall.  But Tyrion wasn't there, he's making assumptions based on his personal attitude towards the concept of Honor.

Was Ned being overly Honest when he said Cat arrested Tyrion on his orders even though he actually told her not do anything yet?  Was he being overly honest when he deliberately changed the intended wording of Robert's will?  Was he overly Merciful when he executed that runaway for being scared?

Ned warned Cersie that he knew about her incest and was gonna tell Robert out of a desire to allow her to save her children.  But why did he think that was necessary?  The fact is because of the arguments about Dany he'd lost faith in Robert's character, he thought Robert would kill the children he'd been raising as his own for years if he learned they weren't biologically his, and frankly I doubt that was ever even true.  And in that kind of society assuming the worst about your King isn't very Honorable.

But is the repeated claim Robert wouldn't even have been killed at that time if Ned hadn't told Cersie true?  I'm unsure only because this may be something where maybe the TV version messed up the timeline, but on the TV show they'd already left on that hunt, it's heavily implied Lancel was already supplying the poisoned Wine.

But the real question is, once Ned felt he had no choice but to resort to a Coup, what was his practical mistake there?  It was trusting Little Finger, yet involving Little Finger was explicitly pointed out as the "dishonorable" part of Ned's plan, Little Finger himself egged him on about it.