History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireHouseStark

* GoodPrincessEvilQueen: One of several Good Princesses to Cersei's Evil Queen. Cersei is a cruel and manipulative queen regent who is treats the naive and romantic protagonist Sansa horribly. Sansa in turn fits the role of a fairytale princess as well having the actual rank after her brother's coronation. Of course, similar to Arya who is forced to hide her identity in the Riverlands in order to evade the Lannisters, Sansa's position as a Northern princess is understandably not recognised by the Lannister regime.

* IveComeTooFar: After receiving news of Ned's arrest at King's Landing, Robb's immediate response is to rally all the Northern Houses to preemptively march for war. Both his younger brother Bran and Maester Luwin attempted to try and talk Robb down out of this action, but Robb is firm in his convictions. By the time he reunites with his mother Catelyn, Robb finally admits in private that he is indeed second guessing himself, but Catelyn tells him [[SunkCostFallacy that at this point it's far too late for Robb to back down, lest he risks losing the respect of the Northern Lords]].

* HistoryRepeats:
** Robert's Rebellion and the War Of The Five Kings both begin because of a Stark's failed rescue attempt. Many of the individual characters also end up mirroring the arcs of the previous Stark generation.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: All the Starks' greatest desires come true pretty quickly and they don't do them much good;

->"''Winter Is Coming''"

* EarnYourHappyEnding

* AffairBlameTheBastard: PlayedWith. Catelyn isn't mad that Ned has a bastard because their marriage was a last-minute wartime marriage and they only spent one night together - their wedding night - before he had to go off to war. What rankles Catelyn is that Ned gives his illegitimate son the same education, upbringing, and familial treatment as her trueborn children in defiance of Westerosi custom (which is GRRM dialing up history as bastards were not nearly so scorned in reality). In fact, when she first arrived at Winterfell with their firstborn son, Jon was already in residence. She's also conscious of the fact that Jon looks more like Ned than all of her children except for Arya. While she mostly avoids him and doesn't conceal her disdain, she doesn't actively abuse him (except for one notable exception brought on by grief and sleep deprivation).
** There are a complex of motivations lying under Catelyn's treatment of Jon. She muses that the way Eddard treats Jon is a reflection of some ongoing love and loyalty to Jon's mother - compounding this is the fact that Ned ''absolutely refuses to talk about it'', or tell her anything about Jon's background. However, Catelyn's POV reveals that Jon is more than a personal slight and she has rationale beyond emotion: bastards have, especially in recent history due to the Blackfyres, been plausible threats to the inheritance of trueborn siblings. Indeed, she was accurate to judge that Jon's close fosterage would plant the seeds of potential envy and resentment once he experiences the actual difference in social classes. To top it all off, '''Eddard can't tell Catelyn the truth of Jon's parentage''' because, if Jon is in fact the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar, then his possible claims to inheritence instantly jump from just Winterfell to ''all of Westeros''. Hemmed in on all sides by Eddard's silence (she wants to preserve this rare ''loving'' marriage), Westerosi norms (Jon can always become a threat to her children by virtue of how he was ''born''), and her own emotional sting (her family life with Eddard was otherwise just about as perfect as she could want)... it's all too human that Catelyn would choose the only "safe" target open to her contempt to vent all her frustration onto. Conspiracy and culture have, in truth, left her with no good options and ''no agency to change her options''.

* HistoryRepeats: Arya is the Stark daughter who is a GenerationXerox of their aunt Lyanna, yet ironically it's Sansa who gets hit by this. Like Lyanna, Sansa is betrothed to the Baratheon heir, only to later end up held hostage by a prince and forced to play the role of his beloved. Her father is killed for "treason" in a mockery of justice [[spoiler:and her eldest brother soon to follow]], war breaks out, and the royal family wages war against her own family fighting to save and free her; unlike Lyanna, in Sansa's case the Baratheon and the prince are one in the same whereas it was two different men for Lyanna, Sansa is thankfully unmolested (though the threat of sexual violence is very much present) while Lyanna was repeatedly raped, and Sansa escapes with her life while Lyanna died a prisoner in a GildedCage. Their personalities are also quite different as Sansa is very feminine, has no interest in "boyish" things, and is (initially) a WideEyedIdealist, while Lyanna was more like Arya. Like Sansa however, [[NotSoAboveItAll Lyanna]] is moved to tears by pretty songs.[[labelnote:Fans speculate...]]If Lyanna did choose to run off with Rhaegar, it creates more parallels. Lyanna chose to elope with her prince without apparent consideration of the political fallout and it resulted in the death of her father and Brandon, while Sansa wanted to stay in King's Landing with Joffrey and went to Cersei to tell her her father's plans which resulted in Cersei securing Sansa as her prisoner and contributed to Ned's capture and death. (And in GRRM's original outline for the series, Sansa "chose" the royal family over her own, to her later sorrow.) If Lyanna spurned Robert and chose Rhaegar because Robert would not be faithful to her and Rhaegar loved her, then like Sansa she had an idealistic streak and wanted to MarryForLove.[[/labelnote]]

* TheCasanova: He was quite the ladies' man, going far enough to deflower Lord Ryswell's daughter Barbrey, which is a definite no-no. Fans speculate that he was the father of Ashara Dayne's stillborn daughter as well.

** Robert Baratheon sees Lyanna as lovely and infallible, and is adamant that she was kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar. Ned finding her dying in a blood-splattered bed would seem to support this, and his children were taught that that's what happened.[[labelnote:Fans speculate...]]However, if Lyanna bore a secret child by Rhaegar, the blood could be from giving birth instead of rape, and she passed away from DeathByChildbirth [[TeenPregnancy at age 16]] instead of injuries from rape.[[/labelnote]]

* RebelliousPrincess: Like Arya, Lyanna was a headstrong and courageous daughter of the Lord of Winterfell, with royal blood in her veins from the Kings of Winter and Kings in the North of old, and it's said she had the wolf blood making her HotBlooded as well. She was very displeased with how restricted she was by cultural expectations for women, preferring swordplay and horseriding and showing her fighting chops by thrashing several bullying squires in a righteous rage to defend one of her father's bannermen, but not allowed by her father to carry a sword despite an aptitude for it.[[labelnote:Fans speculate...]]If she was indeed [[SamusIsAGirl the mystery knight known as the Knight of the Laughing Tree]], she rose above these constraints and managed to defeat three trained and anointed knights in the tourney at Harrenhal, despite being a teenage girl without at least a ''formal'' education at arms, to have the knights' squires publicly chastised for their cruelty.[[/labelnote]] Outside of fighting, she was also not happy to be forced into an ArrangedMarriage with Robert.[[labelnote:Fans speculate...]]Rather than begrudgingly accept the unwanted match as most other noblewomen in the series do, she might not have just stopped at "unhappy" and might have full-on rebelled before Robert's Rebellion by running off with Prince Rhaegar willingly, either to get away from the engagement or she was persuaded by Rhaegar that she was needed to fulfill TheProphecy. In any case, if she did run off with him, she didn't tell the rest of her family what she was doing before she did it, presumably because they wouldn't have approved. It didn't end well, for anyone.[[/labelnote]]

** He makes the terrible mistake of trusting Roose Bolton, whom his father has always distrusted, and of putting in important positions of leadership, allowing Roose to betray and scheme against him with Tywin Lannister. He thinks that his foster brother Theon is loyal and dependable and sends him as an envoy to Balon Greyjoy (thus losing what leverage the Starks had over the Greyjoys), not anticipating that Balon would reject his offer of an alliance against the Lannisters and strike against the North instead, or that Theon would betray him. He also greatly underestimates how petty, opportunistic and treacherous Walder Frey and most of his family are. [[spoiler:These mistakes in judgement prove to be fatal to him, leading to his death during the Red Wedding]].

** Robb sends Theon as an envoy in hopes that he will be able to recruit Balon and the Iron Fleet in his cause; promising if they do so that he will "give Balor his crown". Balor is insulted by this notion, because of the reality that anything Robb was to give him would just as easily be taken away. The fact that Robb failed to offer ''anything else'' of value in return, motivated Balon to throw his own hat into the ring and have Theon perform a coup to steal Winterfell for the Iron Islands.
** Robb enters into and later breaks a [[ArrangedMarriage marriage pact]] with House Frey. Robb tries to compensate for this by arranging for his uncle to marry a Frey woman in his stead, but Walder Frey is spiteful to this broken promise. He cares about his status and image more than anything else and this leads to him conspiring with Roose Bolton for the Red Wedding.

* NeverMyFault: Tells Arya that she and Nymeria should have been killed instead of her beloved direwolf, Lady. She missed the part where she willingly sided with Joffrey over his role in starting the fight, leading to Cersei to spitefully order Lady's execution in place of Nymeria, all the while Sansa is blaming Arya instead of backtracking the lie, even as her father is carrying out the execution. For a little bit she blames Cersei, but quickly forgave her and later all of her hatred on Arya and their father.

* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Sansa tells Arya that she and Nymeria should have died instead of Lady, after Ned's murder of Lady for the fault of Arya's wolf and being beaten up by Arya has left Sansa with even more rage and grief.

** She blames Sansa for not backing up her story about the Trident, not seeing that her own choices in part led to all that.

* RightForTheWrpngReasons: Arya initially dislikes Cersei and Joffrey... not because she knows they're evil, but because Jon (who is jealous of Joffrey) resents Joff, and Cersei because the queen *wouldn't let Arya's dangerous pet to the tea party.*

** PlayedWith in Sansa and Arya switch around with this in the first book. Sansa and most adults see Arya as the Foolish Sibling to Sansa's Responsible Sibling, as Arya is more difficult to control and Sansa fits seamlessly into the gender norms of the setting. But on the other hand, Sansa has certain moments of understandable but consequential naivete (eg. the incident at the Trident and trusting Joffrey and Cersei), while Arya could be more savvy and skeptical.

* BeastAndBeauty: A motif most prominently seen with the hideous-looking Sandor Clegane, who is as predatory as he is protective with her. Averted with Tyrion Lannister; though recognizing Tyrion's [[PetTheDog attempts at kindness]], she cannot bring herself to feel for him as she does Sandor (although it should be noted that this is ''not'' because of Tyrion's looks, but rather due to her very understandable hatred of the Lannisters.)

* HeadTurningBeauty: She starts the story as an eleven-year-old girl, but quickly starts growing up; everyone starts to praise her beauty and virtually every male character who can get away with it attempts to molest her (with the only exception being [[MaritalRapeLicense the who one actually has the "right" to do it]], [[spoiler:Tyrion Lannister]]). And the exception is an ''exception'' only because of scruples and not lack for interest. Meanwhile, Sansa herself is fantasizing about [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Sandor Clegane]], who she has romanticized by [[UnreliableNarrator misremembering]] their not so great interactions. Such as that time he forced her onto her bed with a blade at her throat.

* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: Joffrey is her PrinceCharming who adores her and will give her beautiful babies with golden hair. She eventually grows out of it.

* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Sansa tells Arya that she and Nymeria should have died instead of Lady. [[NeverMyFault Except Sansa herself is sort of responsible for her pet direwolf's death since she sided with Joffrey and lied over his role in nearly gutting Arya while her direwolf, Nymeria, only stepped in her defense.]] Cersei was the one who ordered Lady be killed in Nymeria's place since Arya forced her to run away.

** Although she is loved by her father, mother and brothers, she feels like this about her place in the Stark family and among the ladies at Winterfell due to her rebellious nature and desire to pursue unladylike pursuits. Her other siblings are comfortable in their roles or find an outlet for their skills, while Arya struggles with ladylike skills (embroidery, music, managing her appearance) and her genuine talents are overlooked or inappropriate for her position and gender (riding, sword fighting, math, and befriending the smallfolk). On top of that, she's subject to bullying by Sansa and Jeyne. Of all her siblings, she is closest with her brother Jon, who she identifies closely with--partly because they are both the only Stark children in the current generation to inherit the Stark look and partly because, though they are both loved by their family, they do not feel like they fully fit in.

* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Arya and Sansa have a strained relationship due to their vastly different personalities and the way adults pit them against each other. This leads to Sansa bullying Arya with her friends and Arya spurning Sansa's company in favor of others.
* GoodWithNumbers: Arya is noted to be better at math than her older sister.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Miraculously averted despite it being her family's FatalFlaw early on and all her older family members--sans Jon--falling prey to it. While Ned, Catelyn, Robb, and Sansa put faith in the wrong people, leading to catastrophic consequences for them[[note]]Ned and Catelyn trust Littlefinger and Sansa idolizes Cersei and Joffrey, causing Ned's death and Sansa's imprisonment, and Robb believes the Freys and Boltons are genuine allies, leading to the Red Wedding[[/note]], Arya has survived on her instincts alone for most of the series. She dislikes the Lannisters from the get-go and is very savvy while on the run in a brutally war-torn Westeros. The few people she does choose to trust, such as [[HeroicBastard Gendry]], usually turn out to be [[TrueCompanions good calls]].

* IMissMom: Said directly and indirectly, it's clear that despite the constant criticism from her mother about her looks and feeling a bit like the family's BlackSheep, Arya deeply misses Catelyn. When Arya and the Brotherhood without Banners arrive at Acorn Hall, she doesn't mind being treated like a child by Lady Smallwood and is unusually polite towards her, not shunning the ladylike clothes she is given and genuinely feeling sorry after tearing the dress. Arya later wonders if she could have stayed with Lady Smallwood [[spoiler:after going back to her mother becomes impossible]]. When Arya is asked to take a new name and wander the streets of Braavos as a merchant, she wishes to name herself "Cat", her mother's nickname.
* ImNotPretty: She is surprised when people compare her to her beautiful Aunt Lyanna. Justified as she grew up being compared to her more traditionally beautiful older sister as well as consistently being referred to as "Arya Horseface" and the like. It's implied that while Sansa is the "born beautiful" type, Arya herself is more of the "[[SheIsAllGrownUp growing into her beauty]]" type.

* InSeriesNickname: Her family's household staff referred to her as Arya Underfoot. Sansa and Jeyne called her Arya Horseface. Sandor Clegane refers to her as she-wolf.

* ProperlyParanoid: Arya is the only Stark who didn't trust the Lannisters period, and bluntly tells Sansa that she's a liar for supporting Joffrey about what happened with Mycah. As Ned and Sansa find out, she accurately measured Cersei and Joffrey's character when Ned is executed and Sansa is held hostage.

* TheResenter: Downplayed; in the first book, she resents Sansa for being so effortlessly good at most of the skills required by their culture while Arya, despite all her efforts, can't catch up. Justified as Arya was bullied and called names while growing up at Winterfell, recalling that she was referred to as "Arya horseface" by her sister and her friends with Jeyne neighing at her whenever she entered the room. In addition, Arya's skills and behavior are not celebrated as Sansa's are because Sansa's skills, aspirations, and mannerisms fall within what is acceptable for feminine ladies in Westeros while Arya's do not.

* SheIsAllGrownUp: Implied, though Arya is oblivious to it (and she's still ''growing'' up). She starts the series out being called "Arya Horseface" by Sansa and Jeyne. When she's [[SheCleansUpNicely bathed and put in a dress]] at Acorn Hall, [[ShipTease Gendry]] says she looks "nice" and Lady Smallwood calls her pretty. When she walks down the streets of Braavos, she notes that men call out to her; she doesn't realize why they're doing it, but they're mostly likely cat-calling her.

* NeverMyFault:
** She goes as low as to outright tell Arya that [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead she should have been the one to have died instead of Lady.]] Except she missed the part that she witness Arya's direwolf, Nymeria, only protected her from Joffrey's wrath but Sansa chose to side with Joffrey over her and lied over his role in starting the fight. Cersei was not pleased that Nymeria was not found and demanded Lady be killed in her place. For a little bit Sansa hated Cersei for ordering Lady's death but quickly forgave her and blamed the whole thing solely on Arya and her father since he preferred to be the one to do it than let Cersei keep Lady's skin as a trophy. At one point she even told Arya it should have been Nymeria that died instead of Lady. It isn't until Joffrey finally shows [[TheCaligula his true colors]] does Sansa finally acknowledge him as the monster he is. She eventually admits to Margarey and Olenna over Joffrey's fault in starting the fight.
** In her first chapter, she comes off as resentful that Arya would prefer to keep the company of commoners, particularly Mycah, than spent time with her. Throughout the first book, Sansa bullies Arya by calling her names, insults her appearance, sides with Joffrey when he tries to kill Arya, proclaims Mycah deserved to die for "attacking" Joffrey, and as we mentioned, tells Arya that she and Nymeria should have died instead of Lady. Yeah, it's pretty obvious to see ''why'' Arya wouldn't like to spent time with a BigSisterBully like Sansa. After they're separated, they do begin to miss each other greatly, especially since their family is dying one by one.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played with. Sansa explicitly wants [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan someone noble and chivalrous]], but few of the men she likes are as nice or cool as she thinks they are. She is first mentioned having a crush on [[SmugSnake Ser Waymar Royce]]. She absolutely adores [[TheCaligula Joffrey]] in the beginning and makes excuses for everything he does before he orders her father's death, after which she comes to hate him. She later develops a more genuine and personal attraction toward Joffrey's mercurial bodyguard, [[ALighterShadeOfBlack The Hound]], the complete opposite of her dream man. Even [[AgentPeacock Loras Tyrell]], the one man she likes who most resembles her KnightInShiningArmor fantasy, is an ArrogantKungFuGuy [[IncompatibleOrientation who's clearly not into her.]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite Sansa seeing Arya as the AnnoyingYoungerSibling for most of ''A Game of Thrones'' and continuing to think poorly of her in later books, even when she thinks Arya is dead, she imagines having a daughter who looks like her, along with sons who resemble her brothers. When she learns that Jon [[spoiler:has been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]], she thinks about how wonderful it would be to see him again.

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: She has to abandon most of the stuff about living honestly and honorably taught to her as a Stark, if she is to survive.

* BigSisterBully: Initially to Arya, calling her "Horseface", and frequently bickering with her. It's played realistically, with Sansa's frustration with her sister being based on her not behaving as a noblewoman should. She grows out of this pretty quickly when everything goes to hell, and her opinion on Arya has softened a bit after believing her to be dead. Sansa even reminisces a few times on happier memories with her siblings, indicating that she and Arya weren't ''always'' at each others' throats.

* BreakTheHaughty: She starts out thinking [[BeautyEqualsGoodness handsome guys are always the best]], but after the Starks fall out of grace, the only people who defend her from Joffrey are the horribly scarred Sandor Clegane (who admittedly is still a bastard in the non-literal sense) the kind but [[TheGrotesque deformed]] Tyrion Lannister, and the fat, disgraced hedge knight-turned-jester Dontos.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: Implied, though Arya is oblivious to it. She starts the series out being called "Arya Horseface" by Sansa and Jeyne. When she's [[SheCleansUpNicely bathed and put in a dress]] at Acorn Hall, [[ShipTease Gendry]] says she looks "nice" and Lady Smallwood calls her pretty. When she walks down the streets of Braavos, she notes that men call out to her; she doesn't realize why they're doing it, but they're mostly likely cat-calling her.

* ImNotPretty: She is surprised when people compare her to her beautiful Aunt Lyanna. Justified as she grew up being compared to her more traditionally beautiful older sister as well as consistently being referred to as "Arya Horseface" and the like. It's implied that while Sansa is the "born beautiful" type, Arya herself is more of the "[[ProgressivelyPrettier growing into her beauty]]" type.

* BigSisterBully: Initially to Arya, calling her "Horseface", and frequently bickering with her. It's played realistically, with Sansa's frustration with her sister being based on her not behaving as a noblewoman should. She grows out of this pretty quickly when everything goes to hell, and her opinion on Arya has softened a bit after believing her to be dead. Sansa even reminisces a few times on happier memories with her siblings, indicating that her and Arya weren't ''always'' at each others' throats.

** Robb enters into and later breaks a [[ArrangedMarriage Marriage pact]] with House Frey. Robb tries to compensate for this by arranging for his uncle to marry a Frey woman in his stead, but Walder Frey is spiteful to this broken promise. He cares about his status and image more than anything else and this leads to him conspiring with Roose Bolton for the Red Wedding.
* InnocentBlueEyes: He inherited the Tully blue eyes. His innocence is ess pronounced than Sansa and Bran because he's older, but he's still quite naïve to how the world works outside the battlefield.

** Comes very close when Bran and Rickon were killed by Theon, leading to her decision to free Jaime in desperation to at least save her daughters.

* FalseSoulmate: It's indicated she was this to Robert Baratheon, who is in denial. While he undoubtedly loved her a great deal, his view of her and their relationship is very rose-tinted. Robert views Lyanna as the only woman he ever truly wanted and is convinced they would've been happy together, often unfavorably comparing her to his [[UnwantedSpouse hated wife]] Cersei. However, Ned notes that Robert [[LovingAShadow didn't know Lyanna as well as he thought he did]]. Lyanna also [[AllLoveIsUnrequited wasn't nearly as keen]] on their betrothal as Robert was and was doubtful Robert would stop his [[TheAlcoholic drinking]] and [[ReallyGetsAround womanizing]] after they married.

* {{Hypocrite}}: If she willingly left with Rhaegar, she crosses into this for willingly running away with a married man despite complaining to Ned about Robert sleeping around.

** Robert Baratheon sees Lyanna as lovely and infallible, and is certain she was kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar.

** According to Barristan Selmy, Rhaegar genuinely loved Lyanna, making no mention of Lyanna's feelings, though he notes that the prince's love sent thousands to their death since Rhaegar basically failed to do his duty by his wife Elia.

* RebelliousPrincess: Like Arya, Lyanna was headstrong and courageous, preferring swordplay and horseriding.

* CultOfPersonality: Within the North, House Stark is more than just a feudal overlord, they are seen as almost quasi-religious figures (as evidenced by phrases "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell") and many associate House Stark with prosperity, stability, justice and the good life, which is understandable given that the North has ''always'' been ruled by House Stark, the Boltons are objectively terrible, and that during Winter, House Stark opens and hosts Winterton, a small town outside the Castle with rations and supplies to protect people during the long winter, which further enshrined in the minds of the people, the importance of House Stark to the North. Likewise, a nickname for the North as a whole is "wolves" even if it is only House Stark that has that on its heraldry.

** Though the readers know her as TheDeterminator in her own way, most of the characters see Catelyn as little more than a representative of both her Houses and an intermediary for her son. Her enemies will be suitably freaked out when they find out [[spoiler:that she's been brought BackFromTheDead, has become the insane leader of a group of self-righteous outlaws, and is hell-bent on killing everyone who had anything to do with her and her family's pain.]]

* JacobAndEsau: An unbalanced example, where Robb, Sansa, Bran, and Rickon resemble their mother Catelyn, while Arya (and Jon, who doesn't share their mother) takes after Ned. [[SiblingYinYang Arya and Sansa]] fit this trope the most, as Arya is closest to her father and has the stereotypical "Northern" look, while Sansa is the apple of her mother's eye. However, in terms of personality, they actually resemble the opposite parent: Sansa and Ned are both deeply idealistic, often at their own expense, while Catelyn has a fierce and emotional streak much like Arya, as well as a strong sense of justice.

** Robb Stark and Jon Snow. While both fully commit to lives of hard duty, are moral, and share honourable traits, Robb is under a great deal more pressure and more tightly bound to his status as a king than Jon as a man of the Night's Watch, who goes against tradition and oaths for the sake of doing what's right. At the same time, both brothers break their vows [[spoiler:(a vow of marriage for Robb and a vow of celibacy for Jon) by sleeping with women who are on the opposite side of the wars they're fighting. However, Jon breaks his vow partially out of necessity and though he has fallen in love with Ygritte, ultimately refuses to forsake his loyalty to the Night's Watch. Robb marries Jeyne Westerling, the girl he had sex with, to protect her honour. This costs him his needed allies, who proceed to quite literally stab him in the back. Jon and Robb are equally foolish in their final moments, however, as both of them make big plans to take out the bad guys while inadvertently offending the hell out of some dangerous people who are supposedly on their side.]]
** PlayedWith in Sansa and Arya switch around with this in the first book. Sansa and most adults see Arya as the Foolish Sibling to Sansa's Responsible Sibling, as Arya is more difficult to control and Sansa fits seamlessly into the gender norms of the setting. However, readers see it the other way as Sansa has her moments of extreme naivete (eg. the incident at the Trident and trusting Joffrey and Cersei), while Arya is more savvy and insightful.

%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
%%-->'''Eddard:''' The winters are hard, but the Starks will endure. We always have.

* FatalFlaw: HonorBeforeReason is the main weakness for the Starks. They put themselves at risk for the sake of others, and really never catch on that few in Westeros hold the same lofty moral standards that they do, which eventually gets most of them betrayed and massacred.

* CultOfPersonality: Within the North, House Stark is more than just a feudal overlord, they are seen as almost quasi-religious figures (as evidenced by phrases "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell") and many associate House Stark with prosperity, stability, justice and the good life, which is understandable given that the North has ''always'' been ruled by House Stark, the Boltons are even worse and that during Winter, House Stark opens and hosts Winterton, a small town outside the Castle with rations and supplies to protect people during the long winter, which further enshrined in the minds of the people, the importance of House Stark to the North. Likewise, a nickname for the North as a whole is "wolves" even if it is only House Stark that has that on its heraldry.

* DisinheritedChild: A rare sibling-on-sibling example. Once Robb learns of Sansa's marriage to Tyrion Lannister, he disinherits her as his heir in an effort to prevent Winterfell from falling into Lannister hands. Robb names Jon Snow as heir instead, witnessed by several of his lords. While nobody outside his host appears to know about Robb's will, some of witnesses are still alive and the will itself is a ChekhovsGun.

** She sees herself as this when she [[spoiler:vehemently opposes Robb legitimizing Jon and naming him his heir.]] She's clearly driven by her sincere fear that Jon or his descendants might threaten Robb. Unfortunately, she has no way of knowing that [[spoiler:Robb will soon be killed without fathering any children, so the point is moot.]]

* WickedStepmother: Subverted. She's emotionally cold and distant towards her husband's bastard son Jon, but [[JustifiedTrope for good reason]]. Ned had offended her as his wife by not only hiding who his mother was, but also giving him a good life and raising him alongside his legitimate kids rather than having him fostered at a vassal house in defiance of how Westerosi noblemen usually treat their bastards (to wit, Cersei thinks Catelyn was weak for not ''murdering Jon in his crib''). Catelyn interprets Ned's treatment of Jon as him still carrying a torch for Jon's mother. To her credit, she never physically abused Jon or had him beaten, denied him food, or treated him like a servant. Arguably most importantly, she never interfered with Jon's good relationships with his half-siblings, and Jon otherwise had a warm and happy childhood with his family. Even Sansa, the child most like Catelyn and the most emotionally distant from Jon as well as the one who most consistently thinks of him as her "bastard brother" or "half-brother" in her POV chapters, has fond memories of him.

** During ''A Storm of Swords'', the Tyrells try to marry her to Willas, Mace Tyrell's son and heir to Highgarden, for her claim to Winterfell once all of her trueborn brothers are out of the way. Sansa feels relieved by this (despite the fact that Willas is a cripple), since it will allow her to get away from the Lannisters' grasp, but...

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite Sansa seeing Arya as the AnnoyingYoungerSibling for most of ''A Game of Thrones'' and continuing to think poorly of her in later books, even when she thinks Arya is dead, she imagines having a daughter who looks like her, along with sons who resemble her brothers.

** When Tyrion recognizes her at the Inn at the Crossroads while she's traveling incognito back to Winterfell from King's Landing, she can either let him go on his way to King's Landing where he will most likely tell his family - or at least Jaime - that she isn't in Winterfell as expected, but rather on the move. She knows that the highly intelligent Tyrion will be able to deduce what she's been up to - i.e. conspiring with her husband, the Hand of the King, in King's Landing - due to the fact that she's in disguise and in an Inn right on the kingsroad. If she apprehends him, there's a greater than zero chance Tywin Lannister will retaliate by committing war crimes in the Riverlands. She tries to TakeAThirdOption by apprehending him and bringing him to the Vale, where her sister is serving as regent for her nephew, the young Lord of the Eyrie, and has the formidable military strength at her disposal. Unfortunately, she soon finds out that Lysa's psychological and emotional state has deteriorated and has no intention of coming to her aid. Even worse, her husband has just resigned as Hand of the King and therefore she has no leverage in the capitol.

** To Cersei Lannister. They're both extremely determined women who [[MamaBear would do anything to protect their children]], but at first, Catelyn is presented much more sympathetically as a [[TeamMom wise, protective maternal figure]] as opposed to a [[EvilMatriarch scheming bitch who will attempt to destroy anyone she even perceives as a threat to her offspring]]. However, they later become increasingly similar as the results of their respective actions on behalf of their children play out, particularly after [[spoiler:Catelyn comes back from the dead and goes on a killing spree directed at anyone who ever wronged her family while she was alive or their associates.]]

** Essentially forced into her arms due to FailureIsTheOnlyOption. On her way back from King's Landing, she encounters Tyrion at the Inn at the Crossroads in the Riverlands while traveling incognito and without an escort. Her attempt at going unrecognized fails when one of her dinner companions gets Tyrion's attention and he recognizes her, leaving her with no good options. She arrests him and brings him to the Eyrie, where her sister reigns as the widowed Lady Arryn, in order to prevent him from informing his family that the Starks are conspiring with one another and on the move. Unfortunately, she has no way of knowing that she doesn't have the leverage she thinks she does; Ned has resigned as Hand and is now stuck in King's Landing with their daughters at the mercy of an unreliable king and a Lannister queen. Not to mention the Crown's biggest creditor is a Lannister not known for mercy. In the short term she outplays Tyrion by taking him to the Vale where he is isolated. Unfortunately, her expectation that he would receive a fair trial at the Eyrie or safe trasport to either the North or to King's Landing was subverted by the fact that Lady Lysa Arryn, rather than the strategic player she seemed to be in her letter to Cat, is an unstable and paranoid woman estranged from her family of origin. Instead of treating Tyrion with the honour renowned of the Starks generally and Catelyn personally, Lysa's degeneration and misrule enables his escape. Furthermore, Cersei and Jaime are usurpers and Stannis was aware that they had created a succession crisis, so he was always going to war against the Lannisters; then there are the separate civil war conspiracies of Petyr and Varys; and the usurpers Renly (who declares just because Stannis does) and Balon. In truth, Catelyn's arrest of Tyrion was the accidental spark of an inevitable war, and she had the misfortune of providing the pretext while also lacking the assets to prevent it which she had every reason to believe she had.