Ned Stark

Eddard "Ned" Stark
A Song of Ice and Fire character

Sean Bean as Ned Stark
First appearance Novel:
A Game of Thrones (1996)
Television:
"Winter Is Coming" (2011)
Last appearance Novel:
A Game of Thrones (1996)
Television:
"Baelor" (2011)
Created by George R. R. Martin
Portrayed by Sean Bean
Sebastian Croft (child)
Robert Aramayo (young)
Game of Thrones
Information
Title Lord of Winterfell
Warden of the North
Hand of the King
Protector of the Realm
Regent
Family House Stark
Spouse(s) Catelyn Tully
Children Robb Stark
Sansa Stark
Arya Stark
Bran Stark
Rickon Stark
Jon Snow
Relatives Rickard Stark (father)
Lyarra Stark (mother)
Brandon Stark (brother)
Benjen Stark (brother)
Lyanna Stark (sister)
Kingdom The North

Eddard "Ned" Stark is a fictional character in the first book of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels and the first season of its television adaptation. Introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones, Ned is the honorable lord of Winterfell, an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional kingdom of Westeros. Though the character is established as a primary character in the novel, Martin's plot twist at the end involving Ned shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series.[1][2]

Ned is portrayed by Sean Bean in the first season of HBO's adaptation of the series, Game of Thrones.[3][4] Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role. He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011.

Character

Description

In A Game of Thrones (1996), Ned Stark is the virtuous and honorable patriarch of House Stark and the father of six children. The moral compass of the story, he is content to remain far from courtly intrigues[5] and is unwavering in his view of loyalty and honor.[6] His family name, Stark, serves as an indication of his resistance to moral compromise, but his boundaries are increasingly tested over the course of the novel.[6] Finding himself a key player in the escalating political intrigue of King's Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court.[5][6] As the story progresses, he begins to see the importance of moral and practical compromises to achieve a just end, and is ultimately forced to choose between the safety of his family and doing what is right.[7]

Sean Bean said of the character, "he’s a good man trying to do his best in the middle of this corruption, he’s a fish out of water, he’s used to being up north in Winterfell where people are pretty straight and pragmatic, and he comes down to a place where people are playing games and backstabbing … he’s a principled man who tries to hold things together. This is a journey that he makes where ultimately his loyalty causes his downfall."[8]

Development and overview

Publishers Weekly noted in 1996 that, despite the honest Ned Stark's intervention in court politics, "no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control."[9] From his very first introduction, Ned is portrayed as a noble hero and set up to be the heart of the story. With fifteen chapters devoted to his point of view, more than any single character in the novel, he is presented as a primary character in the series, and the main storyline of A Game of Thrones, the drama in King's Landing, is told entirely from his perspective. In the London Review of Books, John Lanchester writes that everything about Ned is designed to gain audience sympathy, from his strong sense of honor and moral compass to his compassion towards his wife and children.[10] Readers are led to believe that Ned will be the main character of the series, but ultimately he is, from a literary perspective, a classic decoy protagonist. After struggling to keep himself and the kingdom on a moral path for the entire novel, the only option that remains to save his family is to put aside his honor; he does it, but is betrayed anyway.[7][11] Calling Ned's execution "shocking", The New York Times noted in 2011 that the novel was "famous for dispatching a thoroughly admirable major character with whom readers have been identifying for most of the book."[1] In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, author George R. R. Martin commented on this misdirection:

I knew it almost from the beginning. Not the first day, but very soon. I’ve said in many interviews that I like my fiction to be unpredictable. I like there to be considerable suspense. I killed Ned in the first book and it shocked a lot of people. I killed Ned because everybody thinks he’s the hero and that, sure, he’s going to get into trouble, but then he’ll somehow get out of it.[12]

David Benioff, executive producer and writer of the HBO adaptation, told Entertainment Weekly that when he read the novel:

I was in shock. From your training in seeing so many movies and reading books, you know your hero is going to be saved … Someone has something planned, because they’re not really going to chop off his head — right up until the moment when they chopped off his head. I was shocked, and then admiring of George’s ruthlessness. It’s a tough thing to build up a character and make somebody as memorable and impressive as Ned and then get rid of him. But at the same time it leads to a story that is so much more suspenseful because you truly have no idea what is going to happen and who is going to survive.[13]

In a review of the Game of Thrones TV episode "Baelor", James Poniewozik wrote in Time that "the execution of Eddard Stark is crucial to the story and its themes and everything that follows, but it’s also a meta-message to the reader: don’t take anything for granted here."[11] James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly stated that tricking the audience into thinking Ned is the hero and then killing him makes the series' story better.[7] Writing that "the big twist here isn't that Ned Stark dies, but who the true protagonists of Game of Thrones are," Hibberd pointed out that the series' focus proves to be the "new generation" of leaders, in particular the Stark children but also Daenerys and even Tyrion.[14] He noted:

Ned Stark doesn't die in vain … It takes the Stark kids — who are all too young to face these responsibilities — and thrusts them into a struggle where they're forced to quickly grow as characters. Martin busts many cliches in his writing, but this move is traditional Heroes Journey stuff if you consider the kids to be the true protagonists of this story — only by sacrificing the fatherly mentor figure can our heroes come into their own.[14]

Storylines

A coat of arms showing a gray wolf on a white field.
Coat of arms of House Stark

Background

As established in A Game of Thrones, Eddard "Ned" Stark is the second son of Rickard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell. Years before the events of the novel, the quiet and shy young Ned is fostered in the Vale by Jon Arryn. During this time Ned becomes close friends with Robert Baratheon, heir to the Stormlands and another ward of Arryn's. Robert is eventually betrothed to Ned's sister Lyanna, but before he can marry her, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (who is already married and has two young children) absconds with Lyanna. Ned's father and older brother Brandon go to King Aerys II Targaryen and demand that Lyanna be freed; the so-called "Mad King" executes both Rickard and Brandon, convinced that the Starks seek to usurp him. Ned, Robert and Arryn then rise in revolt, securing the support of House Tully with Ned marrying Catelyn Tully. Ned leaves for war the next morning.

At the decisive Battle of the Trident, Robert manages to kill Prince Rhaegar and scatter the Targaryen army. Robert is injured in the battle, so Ned takes command and marches on the capital. In King's Landing, Ned finds that House Lannister has — through treachery — already sacked the city, and murdered Aerys and the royal family. Disgusted by the dishonorable massacre, Ned departs to lift the siege of the Baratheon stronghold Storm's End, and later attempts to rescue Lyanna but finds his sister dying; her last words are "Promise me Ned." Ned returns to Winterfell with his bastard son Jon Snow in tow; meanwhile Catelyn has delivered their son and Ned's heir, Robb, conceived on their wedding night.

Six years after the end of Robert's Rebellion, Balon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands, declares independence from the Iron Throne. Ned aids King Robert in putting down "Greyjoy's Rebellion." Balon surrenders, and his sole surviving heir, Theon, is taken back to Winterfell as Stark's ward and hostage. Ned rules the North for nine more years before the events of the novel.

A Game of Thrones

As A Game of Thrones begins, Catelyn informs Ned that his mentor Jon Arryn has died, and that King Robert intends to offer Ned Jon's old position as Hand of the King. Content to be far from court intrigue, Ned is reluctant to accept the offer until he receives a letter from Arryn's widow, who believes that her husband had been poisoned by the Lannisters. Ned subsequently agrees to the appointment to protect Robert. He then travels south to King's Landing with his daughters Sansa and Arya. Catelyn later comes to the capital in secret, under the protection of her childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to tell Ned of an assassination attempt on their young son Bran. Ned's longstanding mistrust of the Lannisters is further fueled by Littlefinger's confirmation that the dagger used by the would-be assassin once belonged to Tyrion Lannister. Increasingly disgusted by the political intrigues at court, Ned finally resigns his position when Robert insists on having Aerys' only surviving child, the young Daenerys Targaryen, assassinated in exile. Meanwhile, Catelyn has taken Tyrion hostage at the Eyrie, and in retaliation Jaime Lannister attacks and seriously injures Ned in the street before he and his daughters can depart King's Landing. Visiting a wounded Ned, Robert reappoints him as Hand.

Ned eventually concludes that all of Robert's heirs with Cersei are illegitimate, the product of her incest with her twin brother Jaime. Further, Ned suspects that Arryn had been poisoned to conceal the truth. Ned confronts Cersei with his discovery and gives her the chance to escape with her children into exile. Before Ned can tell the king, Robert is fatally wounded while hunting and names Ned Protector of the Realm, to function as regent until his "son" Joffrey comes of age. Ned alters Robert's will, replacing Joffrey's name with "my rightful heir" to make the succession ambiguous. With the palace in chaos, Ned rebuffs multiple offers to increase his own power, instead opting to crown Robert's brother, Stannis Baratheon, as king. Cersei, however, outmaneuvers Ned, and the duplicitous Littlefinger has the city watch arrest Ned instead of Cersei. With all of his entourage slaughtered, Sansa a hostage and Arya escaped but alone, Ned is charged with treason. A deal is struck in which Ned will be spared and sent into exile if he declares Joffrey the rightful king. Fearing for his daughters, Ned makes a public confession of his "treason". The sadistic Joffrey, however, has Ned executed anyway.

Later novels

Ned's arrest pits the Stark and Lannister forces against each other, and his execution causes a civil war later called the War of Five Kings. Tyrion Lannister eventually returns Ned's bones to Catelyn, but it is not confirmed whether they ever arrived at Winterfell.

Family tree of House Stark

Family tree of Rickard Stark
Rickard[lower-alpha 1]Lyarra [lower-alpha 2]
Brandon [lower-alpha 1]Catelyn
Tully [lower-alpha 3]		Eddard [lower-alpha 1]Unknown [lower-alpha 1]Lyanna [lower-alpha 1]Benjen [lower-alpha 1]
Robb [lower-alpha 3]Jeyne
Westerling [lower-alpha 4]		Sansa [lower-alpha 3]Arya [lower-alpha 3]Brandon [lower-alpha 3]Rickon [lower-alpha 3]Jon
Snow [lower-alpha 3]
Notes:
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Martin, George R. R. (1996). "Chapter 4: Eddard". A Game of Thrones. pp. 36–45. ISBN 978-0-553-89784-5.
  2. ↑ Martin, George R. R.; García Jr., Elio M.; Antonsson, Linda (2014). "Appendix: Stark Lineage". The World of Ice & Fire. ISBN 978-0-553-80544-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Martin. "Appendix: House Stark". A Game of Thrones. pp. 785–786.
  4. ↑ Martin, George R. R. (2000). "Chapter 14: Catelyn". A Storm of Swords. pp. 192–193. ISBN 978-0-553-89787-6.

TV adaptation

Sean Bean plays the role of Eddard Stark in the television series.

In January 2007 HBO secured the rights to adapt Martin's series for television.[15][16] When the pilot went into production in 2009, one of the first casting announcements was Sean Bean as the "lead" Eddard Stark.[17][18] As the show premiered in 2011, the Los Angeles Times called Bean's Ned "the strong and brooding headliner of the series."[5]

Though praising the character's demise for its role in propelling the story, James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly later noted that:

This is probably the first time a U.S. drama series has ever killed off its main character in the first season as part of its master creative plan … it's just … not done. You don't cast a star, put him on bus stops and magazine ads marketing the show, get viewers all invested in his story, and then dump him nine episodes later just because it arguably makes the story a bit more interesting.[14]

Hibberd echoed the show's producers' statement that "the move lays down a dramatic precedent for the show: Nobody is safe."[14] He called it a "risky" move that would probably lose the show viewers who had tuned in for Bean, but would hopefully attract others impressed by the boldness of it.[19] Executive producer and writer D. B. Weiss told Entertainment Weekly in 2011 that when he and Benioff pitched the series to HBO, the fact that "main character" Ned was slated to die "was a selling point for them."[13] Noting that the network has killed off characters in other successful series, he said that this sense of jeopardy "completely ups the ante for any moment when a character is in a dire situation if you know another character didn't survive a similar situation."[13] HBO programming president Sue Naegle concurred, saying that Ned's death made the show creatively more attractive, adding that "The book series was filled with unexpected twists and turns. I loved this idea we'd bring together the group of characters, then once you started to believe all the tropes of heroes, you pull the rug out from under them. It's the opposite of feeling manipulated."[2] Noting that the story and world of the series is bigger than any one character, Naegle said, "Sean brings a giant following, but Thrones is not just about the promise you're going to see one of your favorite actors week in and week out. The star is the story."[2] Bean noted that Ned's death "was as much a surprise to me as anyone" and called it "a very courageous move for a television company."[8]

The image of Bean as Ned Stark sitting in the Iron Throne is featured on the covers of the 2011 Season 1 DVD and Blu-ray Disc sets, released in March 2012.[20][21]

Storylines

Eddard "Ned" Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, becomes the Hand of the King after Lord Jon Arryn's death. He is known for his sense of honor and justice. He took part in Robert's Rebellion after his sister Lyanna was kidnapped by Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. When Ned's father and brother went south to reclaim her, the "Mad King" Aerys Targaryen burned both of them alive. Ned and Robert Baratheon led the rebellion to unseat him from the throne. As the show opens, Ned has been content to remain in the north, but after the death of Lord Jon Arryn, he is convinced that it is his duty to accept the position of Hand of the King. Ned is not interested in politics, and prefers to rule with honor and follow the law. While investigating the reason for the death of Jon Arryn, he discovers that all three of Robert's children with Queen Cersei were fathered by Cersei's twin brother Jaime. When Ned confronts Cersei about the truth, she has him imprisoned for treason after he publicly denounces Joffrey. Ned is convinced by Varys that if he goes to his death honorably, as he is prepared to do, his daughters will suffer for it. To protect them, he sacrifices his honor and publicly declares that he was plotting to steal the throne and that Joffrey is the true king. Despite Cersei's promise that Ned would be allowed to join the Night's Watch in exile, Joffrey orders Ned's execution for his own amusement and later torments Sansa by forcing her to look at her father's head. His bones are later returned to Catelyn in the Stormlands by Petyr Baelish, who laments Ned's downfall and that he was too honorable to seize power through force, rather insisting the throne pass to Lord Stannis Baratheron, Robert's younger brother. Baelish's preferred course of action, revealed only to Ned, had been to seize Cersei and her children first and rule in Joffrey's name as Regent and Lord Protector. Ned's execution, however, is not in vain, since he notifies Stannis of the truth of Joffrey's parentage, and Stannis informs all of Westeros, which sets into motion the War of Five Kings against House Lannister.

Recognition and awards

Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role.[22][23] He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011.[24]

Awards
Wins
Nominations

References

  1. 1 2 Orr, David (August 12, 2011). "Dragons Ascendant: George R. R. Martin and the Rise of Fantasy". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Hibberd, James (June 13, 2011). "HBO defends Game of Thrones shocker". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Game of Thrones: Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark". HBO. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  4. ↑ Martin, George R. R. (July 16, 2010). "Not A Blog: From HBO". GRRM.livejournal.com. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 McNamara, Mary (April 15, 2011). "Swords, sex and struggles". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "A Game of Thrones: Analysis of Eddard "Ned" Stark". SparkNotes. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Hibberd, James (June 12, 2011). "Game of Thrones recap: The Killing". Entertainment Weekly. p. 1. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  8. 1 2 Hibberd, James (June 12, 2011). "Sean Bean talks Game of Thrones Episode 9". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Fiction review: A Game of Thrones". Publishers Weekly. July 29, 1996. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  10. ↑ Lanchester, John (April 11, 2013). "When did you get hooked?". London Review of Books. pp. 20–21. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  11. 1 2 Poniewozik, James (June 13, 2011). "Game of Thrones Watch: The Unkindest Cut". Time. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  12. ↑ Hibberd, James (June 2, 2013). "Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin: Why he wrote The Red Wedding -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 Hibberd, James (June 12, 2011). "Game of Thrones shocker! Producers explain tonight's horrific twist". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Hibberd, James (June 12, 2011). "Game of Thrones recap: The Killing". Entertainment Weekly. p. 7. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ Radish, Christina (2013). "Producers David Benioff, Dan Weiss & George R.R. Martin Talk Game of Thrones Season 3 and 4, Martin’s Cameo, the End of the Series, and More". Collider.com. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  16. ↑ Fleming, Michael (January 16, 2007). "HBO turns Fire into fantasy series". Variety. Archived from the original on May 16, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  17. ↑ Kit, Borysm; Andreeva, Nellie (July 19, 2009). "Sean Bean to ascend to Thrones". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  18. ↑ Martin, George R.R. (July 19, 2009). "Not A Blog: A Casting We Will Go". GRRM.livejournal.com. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
  19. ↑ Hibberd, James (June 12, 2011). "Game of Thrones recap: The Killing". Entertainment Weekly. p. 8. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  20. ↑ Hibberd, James (November 30, 2011). "Game of Thrones scoop: DVD release date, details, photos". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  21. ↑ Whitman, Howard (March 28, 2012). "Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)". HomeTechTell. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Nominations for the 38th Annual Saturn Awards". Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. February 29, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  23. ↑ Murray, Rebecca. "2011 SCREAM Awards Nominees and Winners". About.com. IAC. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  24. ↑ "The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards". Screen Actors Guild. January 29, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
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