One of the things I like about GOT is that there are no good or bad characters, everyone is morally ambiguous like in real life. This isn't a cookie cutter fantasy where everyone has a happy ending, I would say its more a reality based one where bad things happen to people who make stupid decisions based on emotion instead of logic. Someone like Ned Stark may have been an extremely honorable person but that is what lead to his downfall, in the real world you have to make some questionable decisions to survive. That's why I would consider Tyrion, Jon Snow, Daenerys, Arya, etc. to be the true "heroes" of this story because they are the imperfect characters who learn to adapt.