History Characters / GameOfThronesHouseStark

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: A Lord Paramount who evenly matches the much younger Jaime Lannister (in his youth, Ned defeated Gerold Hightower who was Jaime's superior as a warrior), a renowned master swordsman. Ser Barristan calls Lord Stark a fearsome fighter. Ned being the awesome guy he is, chooses to be modest about it.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Benjen had to earn the position of First Ranger at the Night's Watch.

** Even though she doesn't fully trust Walder Frey, she has absolute faith that Walder Frey would never let any harm come to her. As stated above, however, breaking SacredHospitality is practically unheard of in Westeros, unlike her book counterpart who is fully aware of his sneakiness.

* AnimalMotifs: The sigil of House Stark is the direwolf, [[CanisMajor a wolf the size of a small horse]].

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Delivers one to Roose Bolton when she realizes that he has betrayed Robb seconds before the Red Wedding.

** After seeing what happened to the [[KillEmAll Targaryen]] [[DeadGuyOnDisplay children]] during Robert's Rebellion, Ned does not want to see [[HistoryRepeats history repeat itself]]. While warning Cersei to take the children and run might have been the noble thing to do, it wasn't the ''smartest'' thing to do. Ironically, this action alone did not result in his death. Cersei never intended to kill him, merely sent to the Night's Watch. He was finally killed on the whim of a boy-king, the very person he had intended to spare.

'''Dan:''' Eh. After everything her family has been through, [[KillEmAll 'kill them all']] kind of IS the voice of reason.

* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: She reveals that when she was twelve, she saw her little brother was drowning and pulled him out of the water herself, then began shaking him and screaming his name in a desperate attempt to revive him.

* GoodParents: If there's ''anyone'' who can illustrate this trope, it's Ned. In fact, he's probably the only father in this setting along with Davos Seaworth (and maybe Mace Tyrell who is more BumblingDad than anything), who is ''not'' either aloof or a complete asshole.

!!!'''Played By:''' Joseph Mawle

!!!'''Played By:''' Aisling Franciosi (Young Adult), Cordelia Hill (Child)

For the ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' era Starks, see [[Characters/HouseOfTheDragon here]].

* CompositeCharacter: With Coldhands, as the former Night's Watch member who was turned into a wight, and comes to Bran's rescue in the north.[[labelnote:From the books...]]Many fans have speculated Coldhands to be Benjen, but WordOfGod is that they're different characters.[[/labelnote]]

!!The Prior Generation of House Stark

* AdaptationalBadass: To an extent. In the books, he is a great general and capable warrior, but his skill with a sword is never mentioned as being exceptional. In the series, Barristan notes his fearsome reputation as a fighter. When Ned engages MemeticBadass Jaime Lannister, he proves his equal in skill until a Lannister guard puts a spear through Ned's leg from behind. [[labelnote:From the books...]]Ned barely puts up a fight when he's outnumbered by Jaime and the Lannister men. He also recollects a fight against far superior fighters during the rebellion and admits that he survived only by luck and the intervention of a friend.[[/labelnote]]

* {{Foil}}: Like Stannis, Ned chose family over fealty to his king. Stannis followed his brother Robert into rebellion while Ned lied to his future King Robert as a last request from his sister Lyanna.

* DarkHorseVictory: [[spoiler:In the series finale, they end up winning the titular Game of Thrones on every level: they get an independent North with a Stark Queen (Sansa), and a Stark King (Bran) now rules the remaining kingdoms. With the heavy implication that Jon has joined the Free Folk, potentially succeeding Mance Rayder as the new King-Beyond-the-Wall, the Starks effectively rule all of Westeros. They did it not by dishing out the most hurt, but by enduring it all and being the last great house left standing]].

* DarkHorseVictory: [[spoiler:In the series finale, they end up winning the titular Game of Thrones on every level: they get an independent North with a Stark Queen (Sansa), and a Stark King (Bran) now rules the remaining kingdoms. With the heavy implication that Jon has joined the Free Folk, potentially succeeding Mance Rayder as the new King-Beyond-the-Wall, the Starks effectively rule all of Westeros]].

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Dies after Robb (''and'' her [[UpToEleven unborn grandchild]]) and she also believes Bran and Rickon are dead.

* PapaWolf: Pun aside, he sacrifices himself to protect Jon from a horde of wights.

* {{Jerkass}}: Of the selfish, short sighted variety, along with Rhaegar. She undoubtedly knew Rhaegar was a married man to Elia Martell with children and didn't seem to care in the slightest, still going along with wedding him in secret in Dorne, Elia's own homeland, after having their marriage annulled. To say nothing of not thinking any of it through, putting her entire family at risk and losing her father and elder brother in the process, helping spark a bloody civil war thousands died in for her own selfish desires and not even bothering to tell anyone what she was doing and why.

* {{Jerkass}}: Of the selfish, short sighted variety, along with Rhaegar. She undoubtedly knew Rhaegar was a married man to Elia Martell with children and didn't seem to care in the slightest, going along with wedding him in secret in Dorne, Elia's own homeland, after having their marriage annulled. To say nothing of not thinking any of it through, putting her entire family at risk and losing most of them in the process, helping spark a bloody civil war for her own selfish desires and not even bothering to tell anyone what she was doing and why.

* TheLoad: A fatal liability for the family -- she was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, a close friend of the Starks, but she went off-script in the worst way possible by eloping with Rhaegar Targaryen and giving the impression that she was kidnapped, leading to the death of her father and older brother when they went to King's Landing to demand satisfaction. On top of that, her son with Rhaegar was born into fatal danger from her former betrothed who now hated Targaryens and is King of the Seven Kingdoms. In the wake of Lyanna's death, Ned must protect [[LostOrphanedRoyalty his sister’s infant son or else his sister's son will be slaughtered]], so Ned passes his nephew off as his own illegitimate son, concealing Jon's parentage to save Jon’s life, sacrificing his honor, straining his marriage, and keeping this secret to protect Jon and now the rest of his family, since he has risked treason by lying to and betraying his best friend King Robert Baratheon.

* TheLoad: A fatal liability for the family -- she was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, a close friend of the Starks, but she went off-script in the worst way possible by eloping with Rhaegar Targaryen and giving the impression that she was kidnapped, leading to the death of her father and older brother when they went to King's Landing to demand satisfaction. On top of that, her son with Rhaegar was born into fatal danger from her former betrothed who now hated Targaryens and is King of the Seven Kingdoms. In the wake of Lyanna's death, Ned must protect [[LostOrphanedRoyalty his sister’s infant son or else his sister's son will be slaughtered]], so Ned passes his nephew off as his own illegitimate son, concealing Jon's parentage to save Jon’s life, sacrificing his honor, straining his marriage, and keeping this secret to protect Jon and now the rest of his family, since he has risked treason by lying to King Robert Baratheon.

* HowlOfSorrow: After Robb dies in front of her.

* AdultFear: This is essentially House Adult Fear as the entire story is what happens to the Stark Family after the parents are separated from them, first by circumstances and then by death.

* AdultFear: On her deathbed, she fears her infant son (Jon) will be killed by Robert Baratheon if Robert ever discovers he is her child with Rhaegar Targaryen. She passes her son into her brother's protection, who raises his sister's child as his own and claims he is his illegitimate child to save him from Robert, as Robert wanted to kill anyone -- child or adult -- with Targaryen blood.

* WickedStepmother: While not abusive, she makes pretty clear to Jon Snow that she doesn't want him around. Catelyn dislikes Jon because Jon is Ned's [[HeroicBastard son]] by another woman. While she and Ned were married, Ned ''claims'' to have conceived a son with this mysterious woman while at war and brings the baby boy home to Winterfell to raise himself, prompting Catelyn's resentment of the situation and her dislike of the kid.[[labelnote:From the books...]]Catelyn's dislike is also due to her worry that if Jon has children, they might eventually contest her own grandchildren for the right to Winterfell, and thus strongly supports Jon's desire to join the Night's Watch, which would prevent this from happening. She fears Ned might have loved Jon's mother more than her -- remembering how Ned was adamant that he raise Jon at Winterfell himself alongside the children she had with him -- and this might be part of the reason why Ned loves Jon so. When she tries to ask about Jon's mother, Ned's reaction actually frightened her so much that she decided to drop the subject and wouldn't take her unhappiness about it out on him. In the third book, when she reflects on how fiercely protective Ned was of Jon, she again wonders about Jon's mother, wondering if Jon's mother prays for him just as she prays for Robb but resigns herself to never knowing who Jon's mother was.[[/labelnote]] She comes to regret her dislike of Jon, an innocent child, after all the tragedy that befalls her and believes it was karmic retribution for [[BargainWithHeaven betraying the promise]] she made to love him.