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7[-This is a listing of members of House Stark in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.-]
8!!!For the main character index, see [-[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFire HERE]]-]
9!!!For the main Northern entry, see [-[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireNorthernHouses HERE]]-]
10
11!House Stark of Winterfell
12[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c1fa8c9a307c030644913efba9f0803e.PNG]]
13
14->"''Winter Is Coming''"
15-->-- '''Stark House Words'''
16
17The Great House ruling the North, the largest but most sparsely populated territory of the Seven Kingdoms, and the lands most vulnerable to Westeros's long winters, which last for years at a time. They are a grim house of iron will, holding to the old laws and customs of the First Men, being the only Great House that does so. They trace their ancestry from a legendary fellow named Bran the Builder, who helped raise the Wall as well as Winterfell itself, and almost every generation of Starks has had a "Brandon" amongst their ranks. The Starks ruled as the Kings of Winter until Aegon's Conquest, when Torrhen Stark saw wisdom (or perhaps the hopelessness of resistance) and bent the knee. For this he became known as "The King Who Knelt," but the North was one of the only kingdoms not to be ravaged by the war. Their sigil is a gray direwolf, ([[CanisMajor a large species of wolf]] that is no longer seen south of the Wall) on a white/silver field.
18
19Due to their prominence in the story, accounting to six [[PointOfView POV characters]] and 162 chapters of 348 total in the series (up to ''A Dance With Dragons''), House Stark are the most prominently featured noble house in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
20
21!!!See here for the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseStarkAncestors House Stark Ancestors]]
22!!!See here for the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseStarkHousehold House Stark Household]]
23
24----
25
26[[foldercontrol]]
27
28[[folder:Tropes related to House Stark]]
29* AncestralWeapon: ''Ice'', a five-foot-long greatsword made of Valyrian steel. It's one of the last houses to have one. [[spoiler:It was melted down and turned into smaller swords after Eddard's death. Brienne's Oathkeeper is one of them.]] The current greatsword is a relatively young weapon (~400 years old), though the Starks of Winterfell always have had a legendary tradition of a sword by the name of ''Ice'' since the Age of Heroes, from which the current weapon was named.
30* AncientTomb: The Crypt of Winterfell are catacombs under the castle in which the kings and lords of Stark are entombed and their likenesses set in stone. Traditionally it's just for the lords and kings, but Ned Stark took to entombing his brother and sister as well. The deepest depths of the crypts have not been detailed as of yet, and are the stuff of some legend (including the rumor that a Targaryen dragon once found its way down there and left a nest of eggs).
31* AnimalMotifs: Direwolves.
32* ArcWords:
33** "Winter is coming" is a reminder that despite all the terrible things happening in Westeros, the worst is yet to come. It can also, under the right circumstances, serve as a BadassBoast in its own right; the Starks were once known as the Kings of Winter and are very dangerous if pissed off, as many throughout history have learned to their cost.
34** "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell" asserts that they are the only true rulers of The North and implies that Westeros itself is doomed without the Starks.
35* BadassFamily: The current generation of Starks is descended from an extremely long line of hale and hardy Northern rulers, many of whom were not exactly shy about shedding blood to either become rulers or maintain it. (For more information on some of them, see the "Historical Starks" section below.) Not that we ever see them kicking ass ''together'', but as individuals, they're all pretty badass and determined in their own ways. That's right, even the proper ladies Catelyn and Sansa.
36* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: All the Starks' greatest desires come true pretty quickly and they don't do them much good;
37** Bran gets to leave home and go on an adventure [[spoiler:because Winterfell is sacked and he and Rickon are presumed dead]].
38** Jon gets to join the Night's Watch. Which is unglamorous, hard, and challenging.
39** Sansa gets to live at court and be betrothed to a prince. [[spoiler:Living as a hostage, betrothed to a cruel boy she comes to despise]].
40** Arya gets to run away from all her noble privilege. [[spoiler:Fleeing for her life and WalkingTheEarth in the midst of a civil war, and subject to a world of danger, such as forced servitude]].
41** Robb gets to be treated like a "man grown" [[spoiler:when his father dies and he must take up his lordly duties]].
42** Catelyn is a master of these. See her section below.
43--->'''Catelyn:''' I have said it, gods forgive me. I have said it and made it true.
44* BeingGoodSucks: In Westeros, the decent way rarely is the efficient or happy way. Doing the right thing has its tolls.
45* BigFancyCastle: Winterfell is the seat of their power in the North and plays the big part straight, covering several acres, but largely subverts the fancy in that everything about it, whilst well-made, is practical and utilitarian. Winterfell is one of the oldest castles in the realm, having been built around the same time as the Wall around 8,000 years ago, and is certainly built to last, having been sacked twice before in its history and rebuilt each time. A feature unique to Winterfell is that it has central heating; scalding water from hot springs beneath the castle is pumped through the walls to heat it, a valuable feature when winter comes. Winterfell's main defence lies in a dual curtain wall design, the outer wall eighty feet tall and the inner one a hundred feet with a deep moat between them, making any attackers in for one hard fight if they want to take it.
46* BigGood:
47** Despite all the trouble they get into for their principles, the Starks are still well-loved and respected in the North.
48** Eddard's son, Robb, becomes this after he dies and Robb is proclaimed the King in the North.
49* BewareTheNiceOnes: Members of house Stark are mostly nice people with a genuine care for their people and sense of honor to varying degrees, but it would be a great mistake to view them as soft or weak, and they can become ruthless and terrifying when pushed too far.
50* BigScrewedUpFamily: The current House Stark is a notable aversion, as is one of the few great houses whose members unquestioningly love each other unconditionally (with the sole exception of Catelyn's resentment of Jon, which is to be expected given Westerosi views toward illegitimate children). But their ancestors may have played it straight at times. For example: The upcoming short story of Dunk and Egg "The She-wolves of Winterfell" will probably play it straight since it allegedly deals with a SuccessionCrisis between several members of House Stark, enabled by their women.
51* BorrowedCatchphrase: Quite a few other characters have mentioned that "winter is coming", because unlike the typical BadassBoast, the Stark words are equally applicable to every House and every ''person'' in Westeros.
52* BreakTheCutie: Basically their storyline, and a big part of the drama of the series. The Starks begin as a good, honorable, innocent and loving family before we find out how rare those are in this world (even among the nobility), and the first three books are all about their downfall. [[spoiler:The family is scattered, their home is destroyed and eventually taken over by the people who betrayed them, the members who haven't been horrifically killed have been traumatized beyond belief and they are turning darker with every page. The fact that the only Starks that remain are children makes this all so much worse.]]
53* ColorCodedCharacters: Subverted. The "Stark look" is typically gray eyes, dark hair, and a longer face. This look has been present for so long that all of Ned's generation had it but with Catelyn's additions to the gene pool, most of the current generation of Starks take on Tully features (auburn hair and blue eyes), except for Jon and Arya.
54* ColorMotif: Their sigil's colors are white and gray, representing their clear morality but grim disposition.
55* ConflictKiller: The Lannisters were able to keep their animosities with each other in check thanks to their war with the Starks. The Lannister's issues with one another resurfaced [[spoiler:and now their patriarch Tywin Lannister is dead, his son Tyrion Lannister—who killed Tywin—fled east and the remaining siblings' relations have soured]], all because they have no common enemy to fight.
56* CoolCrown: The crown of the Kings of Winter, a simple runed circlet of bronze with nine iron spikes shaped like longswords hammered into it. The original crown was yielded by King Torrhen to Aegon the Conqueror and is now missing, so a new one had to be made for Robb.
57* CosmicPlaything: Fate has not been kind to House Stark in the last four decades or so. Sticky fates were visited upon Rickard Stark, his children, and his grandchildren.
58* 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 and the Boltons are objectively terrible. During Winter, House Stark opens and hosts Winter town, 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.
59* DemotedToDragon: Ruled formerly as Kings In The North.
60* DividedWeFall: Seems to be headed this way.
61** [[spoiler:Roose Bolton solidifies his rule over the North by having his son Ramsay marry an imposter posing as Arya.]]
62** [[spoiler:Petyr Baelish plans to unite the Vale, the North and Riverlands by having Sansa marry Harry Hardyng, the second in line to the Arryn seat after the sickly Lord Robert Arryn.]]
63** [[spoiler:Davos Seaworth is on a rescue mission to save Rickon and rally the Northern lords under Stannis Baratheon.]]
64* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Robb and Sansa are presently the only Stark children to not explicitly have this ability.
65* DisinheritedChild: A rare sibling-on-sibling example. Once Robb learns of Sansa's marriage to Tyrion Lannister, in an effort to prevent Winterfell from falling into Lannister hands, he legitimizes Jon Snow as his next successive 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.
66* EarnYourHappyEnding
67-->'''Eddard:''' The winters are hard, but the Starks will endure. We always have.
68* ElementalMotifs: The Starks are heavily associated with ice. They rule the icy northernmost part of Westeros, they were historically known as the Kings of Winter, their seat is Winterfell, their house words are "Winter is Coming", and part of their look is IcyGrayEyes.
69* TheExile: It's a little hard to stay home when it's been burned by an opposing army.
70* FamilyThemeNaming:
71** There have been numerous members named Brandon Stark throughout the family's history and a bastard named Brandon Snow.
72** Rickon, Benjen and Rickard are also common names for Stark men.
73* FatalFlaw: HonorBeforeReason is the main liability for the Starks. They put themselves at risk for the sake of others, while few in Westeros hold the same lofty moral standards that they do.
74* FeudingFamilies: Historically with House Bolton, with the two families having fought over control of the North for a very long time, with the rivalry between the two houses been said to date as far as the Long Night. While things seemed to have cooled off after the Boltons finally submitted to House Stark, they have rebelled at least twice befofe bending the knee again. [[spoiler:This enmity was reignited recently with Roose Bolton and Ramsay Snow/Bolton's betrayal of the Starks during the War of the Five Kings and usurping the Starks as rulers of Winterfell following the Red Wedding, where Roose personally murdered his king Robb Stark.]]
75* FeminineMotherTomboyishDaughter: Catelyn is a tried and true ProperLady, while her middle child and second daughter Arya is a wild and rambunctious tomboy. Although Catelyn's husband Ned indulged Arya's hobbies like sword fighting and horseback riding (in part because of her resemblance to his famously tomboyish deceased sister Lyanna), Catelyn expresses concern about Arya's future, was critical over her lack of feminine skills, and takes pride in the fact that Arya's feminine older sister Sansa was "a lady at three".
76* FighterMageThief: Bran, Arya and Jon develop into this. Bran, with his skin-changing power, visions, and magical training is the Mage; Arya, with her observational skills, quickness with a rapier, and ability to change faces is the Thief; and Jon with his swordsmanship, survival skills, and leadership in battle is the Fighter.
77* FlowerMotifs: The blue rose of Winterfell represents the Starks, with Lyanna having a particular connection to it.
78* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling:
79** Brandon and Lyanna's wolf-blooded wildness may put them in the foolish sibling category, while honorable Eddard fills the role of the responsible sibling. Benjen is somewhere in the middle.
80** A pretty straight example with Bran and Rickon, since Bran is a relatively enlightened seven-year-old thrust into a position of great responsibility, while Rickon is three-years-old and has a huge temper.
81** 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.]]
82** 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 is a model student and a well-behaved child. 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.
83* FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow: Starks often make promises and oaths, which they always fully intend to fulfill when making them, but almost never manage to do on account of [[CrapsackWorld life]] or [[HonorBeforeReason other obligations]] standing in their way. Some get more regularly and increasingly broken over time than others; some are exploded in a single incident. Jon's Night's Watch oaths and Robb's vows unravel several times throughout the series. Arya has extraordinary issues with promising to train properly and poor Sansa would just like a situation stable enough to know ''what'' vows she can try to uphold. Catelyn holds some kind of record when it comes to private promises she makes to herself. And, Ned has, with one unknown promise to his sister, frequently compromised many other vows he holds dear.
84* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: A running problem within the family. Their adherence to honor leads them to assume others will act as honorably as they do, which gets them killed more often than not.
85* GoodIsNotNice: The most beloved noble family in Westeros, but it's clear they didn't stay on top so long without some streak of ruthlessness. The Kings in the North are after all "hard men for a hard time".
86* GoodIsNotSoft: The Starks are one of the most noble and kindest families in Westeros, and they are usually genuine decent people who care for and treat with love their people. However they also take their duties and laws very seriously and won't hesitate to do unpleasant things if it's demanded of them, and will not show any superfluous mercy if you become their enemy as many have found out the hard way
87* GoodOldWays: They still keep to the traditions of the First Men: honor, bravery, belief in the old gods, and "the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword".
88* GrimUpNorth: By reputation.
89-->'''Eddard Stark:''' The North is hard and cold, and has no mercy.
90* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Ned, Robb, Jon (maybe) and Catelyn... the last one [[CameBackWrong sort]] [[DeathOfPersonality of]]]].
91* HeroesLoveDogs: The Stark children are some of the most traditionally heroic characters, and they all obtain a direwolf pup at the start of the series. They become BondCreatures with the ability to tell those who mean their masters harm.
92* HeroicLineage: The Starks supposedly descend from Bran the Builder and, according to the wildlings, Bael the Bard.
93* HistoryRepeats:
94** 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.
95** Ned Stark to Rickard Stark: [[spoiler:Unjustly executed by a mad, cruel king which triggers a country-wide civil war.]]
96** Robb Stark to Brandon Stark: [[spoiler:The eldest Stark son, heir to the North and expected to be a great leader only to be brutally murdered as a young man while trying to avenge/save their father.]]
97** Jon Snow to Ned Stark: [[spoiler:The quieter younger (or [[HeroicBastard illegitimate]]) son who grew up in the shadow of their older brother, the Stark heir. Neither expect to become Lord of Winterfell and spent their later formative years away from home (Castle Black and the Vale respectively) after their family is separated, but end up in line for the succession due to their brother's tragic death. Both risk everything to rescue a beloved little sister.]]
98** Sansa Stark to Catelyn Tully: [[spoiler:A proper lady used as a pawn in marriage alliances. Their initial betrothal fell apart due to war (Brandon's murder and Joffrey turning on the Starks) and they were quickly forced into second choice options (Ned and Tyrion/Harry Hardyng) while being subject to Littlefinger's unwelcome affections.]]
99** Arya Stark to Lyanna Stark: [[spoiler:The rebellious Stark daughter with "wolf blood" who gets separated from her family during the war and whose favourite older brother (Jon and Ned respectively) move hell and high water to save. Has links with a Baratheon (Gendry and Robert) who mourns them deeply after they're dead or presumed so.]]
100** Bran Stark to Benjen Stark: The younger son, more removed from the [[spoiler:politics and bloodshed of Westeros's fight for the throne.]] Ends up [[spoiler:going North and uncovering the deeper mysteries and powers at work in Westeros.]]
101* HonorBeforeReason: A FatalFlaw for most members of the family, they are sticklers for holding to their honor and doing the moral thing even if it would be pragmatic and sensible to do something else. This is what directly gets Robb killed. Those who don't ascribe to honor so heedlessly have a tendency to survive longer.
102* IdealHero: Several members of this House fall into this category as they believe in honor and justice, allowing those ideals to guide their behavior.
103* IJustWantToBeYou: Not the Starks themselves, but they seem to bring this out in others. Several characters are shown to have greatly desired to be a part of House Stark, only to turn extremely bitter when it never happened, namely Theon Greyjoy and Barbrey Dustin.
104* 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, and tend towards Romantic notions, while Catelyn has a fierce and emotional streak much like Arya, as well as a strong sense of justice (often veering towards vengeance).
105* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: Famously so. Stark lords believe that "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword". That's why House Stark never needs an executioner at its employ. Eddard Stark, his father Rickard and their ancestor Cregan are famous for doing so. Eddard's sons Robb and Jon follow the same footsteps.
106* KingBobTheNth: Brandon is the most common Stark name. So common (and the bloodline is so ancient) that they gave up on numbering them long ago.
107* LetsGetDangerous: Though they often fall to prey to treachery and deceit easier than most, the Starks who live to fight another day learn well from their mistakes and are determined to never repeat them. Many will come to regret viewing the Stark children as merely being pawns in their game.
108** Ned Stark was perhaps the least notable of Rickard Stark's children, dubbed the Quiet Wolf. He grew up in the shadow of his older, bolder brother Brandon who was the one with the great destiny, but after his sister disappeared and his father and brother were executed by the Mad King, Ned became a RebelLeader alongside Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn. He was instrumental in achieving victories for the rebellion as both TheStrategist and a FrontlineGeneral.
109** 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 stone-hearted 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.]]
110** Friends and foe alike doubt Robb's abilities as TheLeader of the Northern armies when he calls his banners and goes to war with the Lannisters. He quickly shows them how wrong they were when he proceeds to win battle after battle against Lannister forces in the spirit of his father, becoming known as [[LivingLegend The]] [[YoungConqueror Young]] [[RedBaron Wolf.]]
111** In the beginning, the main characters are split between either adoring Bran for being such a sweet little boy, or pitying him for losing his ability to walk and expect him to have a sad, short life as a result. Turns out, [[spoiler:[[TheBeastmaster Bran is a powerful warg]] who can control his [[BodySurf hulking manservant Hodor]], as well as his [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent large direwolf Summer.]] He's also a Greenseer, who can dream of the future and glimpse into the past through weirwood trees.]]
112** Sansa is valued primarily as a hostage, for her potential as a candidate for marital alliances (or sex for the less ambitious), or her high social standing. Otherwise, people simply see her as a naive, witless child who can be manipulated as a pawn, used and abused by others. Sansa catches on to this and uses it as a shield for the most part, all the while perfecting her PolitenessJudo and SilkHidingSteel traits; [[spoiler:under the tutelage of Littlefinger, she is set to become one of the most cunning players of the game of thrones as well as one of the most powerful women in Westeros.]]
113** In the beginning of the series, Arya is the younger Stark daughter who doesn't quite fit into societal expectations of a lady as she'd rather be an ActionGirl than a ProperLady, doesn't display her older sister's ladylike talents and grace, and prefers the company of sword masters and smallfolk, rather than ladies like her mother and sister. Then she falls off everyone's radar altogether when she escapes King's Landing and encounters all sorts of people, places, and experiences. Despite being a ten-year-old girl with a highborn castle upbringing, Arya survives life on the run in war-torn Westeros. After a while, many believe her to be dead because there's no word of her since she's seemingly disappeared into a country ravaged by war. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to them, Arya not only survives the likes of Harrenhall but fought back, actually reaches her mother and oldest brother in time to see them die, and is now hidden away across the Narrow Sea, where she is learning to become an assassin. She is becoming a truly frightening ProfessionalKiller with a huge vendetta to fulfill.]]
114** Rickon and his unruly wolf, Shaggydog, are looked at as nuisances due to their difficult and sometimes nasty temperaments. [[spoiler:Rickon is separated from his parents and most of his family at age three, loses his home when he, his brother Bran, and Winterfell are captured, and they're forced to go on the run. Then Rickon is left in the care of a wildling and now's he's hiding out on an island of cannibals]]. None of this is going to make either Rickon or Shaggydog any more well-adjusted than they are already.
115** Ned's illegitimate son, [[HeroicBastard Jon]], began the story as a WideEyedIdealist wanting to join the Night's Watch for the sake of honour and duty and to follow his dream of becoming a ranger in the Watch like his CoolUncle. As the highborn bastard son of a lord who joins the Watch, he is totally off society's radar and is regarded as an outsider even in the Watch itself due to being a castle-bred illegitimate son with a young lord's upbringing. Jon navigates the series with the morality instilled by his father and strives to do the right thing while his scope is being vastly opened up by his experiences in the series and by the variety of people and cultures he encounters. During his time in the Night's Watch, Jon goes from [[CelibateHero oath-sworn realm defender]] to risking his life in his role as [[FakeDefector spy]] for the Night's Watch and then is [[spoiler:elected [[AChildShallLeadThem Lord Commander of the entire Night's Watch at age 16]], working to save everyone from the [[GreaterScopeVillain oncoming army of the dead]] in which he becomes one of the main defenders in the war against the ZombieApocalypse. Stannis Baratheon recognizes Jon's potential political value as a son of Eddard Stark and tries to win himself a Stark ally by legitimizing Jon and giving him Winterfell, but Jon refuses Stannis's offer out of loyalty to his father's gods, for the sake of his siblings' claims on Winterfell, and duty to the Watch.]]
116* MeaningfulAppearance: Although the current Stark generations (save for Jon and Arya) has mostly taken after Catelyn Tully, the traditional Stark appearance has gray eyes. Said gray eyes reflect their coat of arms (a ''gray'' direwolf), evoke the [[GrimUpNorth cold and grim lands]] they rule, and also the sullen and stern personality is often attributed to his components.
117* MeaningfulName:
118** "Stark" is Swedish (among other languages) for "strong". In English, it also means severe (fitting with their outlook of life) and bare or barren, a fitting name for a family who rule over [[GrimUpNorth the North of Westeros]].
119** Many men of House Stark have been named Bran, the Welsh word for raven. Ravens are known as "wolf birds" due to their positive relationship with wolves, which often involves sharing meals. They have even been known to play with wolf pups.
120* ModestRoyalty: Compared with other great Houses, they are downright unglamorous (much to Sansa's chagrin... early on; she learns how dangerous pomp without principle can get): even Winterfell's glasshouses with their trademark blue winter roses are primarily utilitarian (you keep the beds to grow oodles of difficult roses in times of plenty, so you have what you need to grow plenty of food in want). The Starks tend to have an "all hands to the pump and put your backs into it" mentality with strong principles of social responsibility which most definitely ''don't'' selectively exclude themselves that other Houses (particularly Southern ones) tend to lack. If a job is unpopular, hard, uphill and/or dirty but seen as necessary for group survival, you can do far worse than throwing a knot-cutting Stark at it, but only if you leave them with room to get on with it their way.
121* MultipleChoicePast: If the story of Bael the Bard is true, House Stark has wildling blood in it and may be extinct in the male line.
122* NiceToTheWaiter: Unlike other noble Houses, they treat their subjects with compassion and respect. Ned regularly has members of his household sit with him at supper to make sure that everything is running smoothly. All the Stark children have fond memories of their servants and guards, with Bran and Arya in particular taking Ned's lessons of valuing others to heart, and forging strong relationships with the smallfolk.
123* NobleWolf: With the intelligent, strong direwolf as their House sigil, the Starks are famously honorable and noble.
124* OffWithHisHead: The standard Stark method of execution. While brutal, it showcases their honorable nature in that (if done properly) it's about [[FairForItsDay as quick and clean a death as you can hope for in a place like Westeros]], preferable to hanging, burning, flaying, et cetera. [[invoked]]
125* OneSteveLimit: House Stark frequently reuses names like most feudal dynasties. Brandon is the runaway winner with at least fifteen throughout history, Benjen clinches second with five, and there are a multitude of names based around "Edd" (Eddard, Edwyle, Edwyn, Edrick, Edderion etc.). Names based on "Rick" (Rickard and Rickon) are also popular.
126* OppositesAttract: Invoked by the obvious "ice and fire" theme. House Stark shares a connection with House Targaryen that remains unfulfilled. The Starks are the ice to the Targaryen fire, and there is an implied power to be had from this union in the same degree that there's a connection between the First Men and the Valyrians. The most significant connection between the latter two races of men comes with the birth of Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, a tremendously powerful and influential individual that came from the union of House Targaryen (Vayrians) and House Blackwood (First Men). The first time the Targaryen/Stark connection came close to fruition was through the "Pact of Ice and Fire", a deal to marry a Targaryen princess with a Stark boy, which fell through due to the high casualties of the Targaryen Royal Family during the Dance of the Dragons. The other time has been the rather infamous liaison between Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, whatever the nature of their relationship was ([[AbductionIsLove kidnapping]] or [[{{Elopement}} elopement]]) and as well the result of it[[spoiler:, which has been [[EpilepticTrees speculated for years]] to be nothing less than Jon Snow.]]
127* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The youngest generation of Starks are all wargs, capable of sharing a body with their direwolves, though only Arya, Bran, and Jon have displayed this ability on page. Sansa had the potential to skinchange with Lady, but never got the chance as she lost Lady early in the narrative.
128* PartyScattering: Foreshadowed when Rickon complains that he doesn't want anyone to leave Winterfell because he fears they'll never come back. The Starks are first split into Ned/Sansa/Arya at King's Landing, Jon/Benjen at Castle Black, and Catelyn/Robb/Bran/Rickon at Winterfell. Catelyn leaves after the murder attempt against Bran. [[spoiler:After Ned's death, it becomes Sansa in King's Landing, Arya a fugitive in the eastern Riverlands, Robb/Catelyn at war in the western Riverlands, Benjen missing and presumed dead, while Bran/Rickon are at Winterfell and Jon is beyond the Wall. After the sacking of Winterfell, Bran goes beyond the Wall ''just'' as Jon is coming back to the Wall while Rickon is ''somewhere'' [[note]] rumored to be Skagos [[/note]] with Osha. Finally, after the Red Wedding during which Robb and Catelyn are murdered, Catelyn returns as an undead zombie terrorizing the Riverlands, Sansa escapes to the Vale, Arya is in ''Braavos,'' Jon has returned to Castle Black, Bran is still beyond the Wall while Rickon is still... somewhere. It's gotten to the point where none of the family members even know if any of the others are still alive]].
129* ThePowerOfFamily: The main strength and motivation of the Starks is their unconditionnal love and devotion for each other, with the desire to protect, avenge or retrieve family members being the driving factor behind many of their actions and participation in a war. This is also what prevents [[spoiler:Arya and Sansa]] from truly losing their identities, and the one last shred of humanity still present in [[spoiler:Lady Stoneheart]].
130* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: Robb and Jon are eleven years older than their youngest sibling, Rickon. Robb is actually given a PromotionToParent for Rickon (and Bran) in the first book after Ned and Catelyn both leave Winterfell. That said, Catelyn's pregnancies were evenly spaced out, so all the kids have at least some siblings near their age.
131* TheProtagonist: Of all the houses in ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', the Starks are the primary focus of the series besides the Lannisters and the Targaryens. The execution of Ned at King's Landing, in particular, is the inciting incident that causes the War of the Five Kings, not to mention that the Stark children have a significant amount of screen time as much as Tywin and Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.
132* RedOniBlueOni: They're the blue to the Targaryen's red, since they perfectly fit the "ice and fire" leitmotif of the saga and also because the Targaryens are generally HotBlooded while the Starks have a reputation for being reserved, having icy tempers, and are, well, [[{{Pun}} stark]].
133* TheRemnant: They become this early in the series when their most prominent members are either dead or missing, their army is scattered, their household is ruined and the family itself gets exiled by the crown, they are believed to be extinct in the male line. It is heavily implied, however, that they are on their way to some sort of comeback.
134* RightfulKingReturns: The smallfolk and nobility of the North wonder if a Stark will return to Winterfell. [[spoiler:Wyman Manderly reveals that many of their bannerman are attempting to [[InvokedTrope invoke this]] and avenge "The Red Wedding" in the process.]]
135* RoyaltySuperpower: Although they're not in the same league as House Targaryen, the Starks have what Ned refers to as "the wolf blood" coming from their First Men heritage as Kings of the North. Those with it tend to feyness, action, doing things differently and leaving their names in song. Add the possibility of having produced more Wargs (and/or other assorted skinchangers), Greenseers and Greendreamers in the family's past than is probably known of or was recognized at the time, and this is a thing to keep in mind about House Stark.
136* SingleLineOfDescent: The current generation of Starks are rather short on cousins for such an old and important House.
137** The Karstarks are said to be a distant branch of their family tree, but closer than that, Eddard seems to have had no uncles or great uncles whose descendants Winterfell might pass to should his own family be wiped out. Their habit of sending younger brothers to the Wall may well have contributed to this over many years. The family tree in "The World of Ice and Fire" shows that many Stark relatives had a habit of dying without issue, even daughters.
138** If Eddard's elder brother had not died tragically, Ned could possibly have been married off to a House without male heirs, alleviating the lack of extended family. However, even with the death of the Stark firstborn, Ned seemed to have been going some way to remedy this with three legitimate sons and two daughters and may have gone on to have more, but this was cut short by... well, ''everything''.
139** Catelyn mentions that Ned's grandfather's sister married a man of House Royce, leading to several distant cousins in the Vale. The same grandfather also had two cousins, Brandon and Benjen, who both had issue. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse We're not told what happened to them.]]
140* AStormIsComing: Unlike other houses, their words are not a boast or declaration, but a warning. It doubles as a BadassBoast in conjunction with their old title of Kings of Winter, implying the Starks are either grade-A asskickers that fall on their enemies like winter, or that when winter comes you'd better fall behind the Starks if you want to survive it.
141* StrongFamilyResemblance: The traditional Stark look has brown hair and gray eyes, like it was in Ned Stark's generation. However, Ned's kids have mostly taken after his wife Catelyn with their red hair and blue eyes. Jon and Arya retain the traditional appearance, but they are in minority.
142* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Subjugated the other royal families to gain absolute mastery of the North.
143* UndyingLoyalty: Inspires this in ''most'' of their bannermen.
144* UniversallyBelovedLeader: The Starks, [[BigGood Ned and Robb in particular]], have this type of reputation in the North. Even most of the Riverlands make the decision to secede from the Iron Throne along with the North, with Robb leading them.
145* WinterRoyalLady: A rare male version of the trope, the Starks of old took the style of King in the North and King of Winter.
146* WrongGenreSavvy: House Stark is basically a family of traditional fantasy heroes dropped into a Medieval CrapsackWorld. They're known for their integrity, honor, and sense of duty. They hold themselves to a relatively high moral standard and refuse to compromise their virtues or play politics. And they genuinely love each other rather than see family members as pawns or bargaining chips. In any other fantasy setting, these would be good qualities to have. Here, they're the very things that get many of them killed. Notably, this only kicks in when they venture out of the north, on their homeground, these principles have held them in good stead for a thousand years.
147* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After Winterfell is burned to the ground. [[spoiler:Even when it is rebuilt (to an extent), by the treacherous Boltons who burned it down in the first place, it's still very dangerous for a Stark to be near Winterfell.]]
148[[/folder]]
149
150
151[[folder:Lord Eddard Stark*]]
152-->See the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireNedStark Ned Stark]] page.
153[[/folder]]
154
155[[folder:Lady Catelyn Stark*]]
156!!Lady Catelyn Stark (nee Tully)
157!!!Cat, Lady Stoneheart, The Silent Sister, Mother Merciless, The Hangwoman
158[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catelyn_stark_ffg_5760.png]]
159[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see Lady Stoneheart]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/794px_zippo514_ladystoneheart.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
160->''"How can I do my duty when I do not know where it lies?"''
161
162Wife of Eddard Stark, originally from the House Tully and above all devoted to her father, brother, husband and children. After Jon Arryn dies, she receives a letter from her sister Lysa, Jon Arryn's widow, who blames the Lannisters for Arryn's death. While her husband joins the royal court, she stays in Winterfell in order to protect her children, but is later forced to travel south to investigate the attempt on Bran's life and advise Robb in the War of the Five Kings.\
163\
164For the House Tully character page, [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseTully see here]].\
165\
166For the Brotherhood Without Banners character page, [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireBrotherhoodWithoutBanners see here]].
167----
168* ActionSurvivor: When an assassin tries to kill Bran, she stops the man by ''grabbing the blade of his knife and holding onto it'', then proceeds to bite his thumb nearly off. When her group is ambushed by mountain clansmen on the way to the Vale and Tyrion distracts one of their attackers, Catelyn steps up from behind the attacker and slits his throat.
169* 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).
170** 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''.
171* AffectionateNickname: As a child, her father Hoster called her "Cat" or "little Cat."
172* ArrangedMarriage: Originally to Eddard's older brother Brandon. By custom and necessity[[note]]as the North-Riverlands alliance had to be cemented due to the impending war[[/note]], Eddard replaced him as Catelyn's betrothed when he died.
173* BabyFactory: In one of her earliest chapters, Catelyn is hoping to get pregnant again and she's already given Ned ''five'' children, including three healthy sons at that point. This is rather notable given her heritage; all other descendants of House Whent (her mother's house) have terrible fertility problems (usually multiple miscarriages), to the point that her children and Robert Arryn are the only known descendants in their generation.
174* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:She was murdered by the Freys near the end of the third book, but Beric Dondarrion revived her after the Brotherhood Without Banners found her corpse by the riverside.]]
175* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Downplayed. Catelyn has always been very good-looking and is mentioned to be very [[BuxomBeautyStandard shapely]] and having long beautiful red hair her husband Ned loves. When she gets in the thick of danger, she fights off Bran's knife-wielding would-be murderer with her bare hands, literally. Only her hands are damaged in the fight, leaving her beauty all but unmarred, but they are ''so'' badly hurt that she doubts they will fully heal and believes she may not ever regain full use of them. [[spoiler:Averted in brutal and spectacular fashion in ''A Storm of Swords'' on: she [[FacialHorror destroys her own face]] by ripping at it with her fingernails until she's [[DeathByDisfigurement killed]] with her throat slit wide open, then gets dumped in a river to decay in the water for several days. Her body is '''''not''''' in pretty condition when it's found, and it's in this condition she's brought back from the dead, which surely did her already broken state of mind no favors. As Lady Stoneheart, she has turned BeautyToBeast with her face mutilated, her throat a red wound, her body a rotted and waterlogged corpse, and her red hair turned white and mostly fallen out.]]
176* BerserkButton: Bastard-born children tick her off, because they remind her of her husband's illegitimate son (Jon Snow) with another woman, which reminds her Ned was unfaithful and of her fears that Ned may have loved Jon's [[MissingMom mother]] more than her. When she meets Mya Stone, she acknowledges that she has nothing against Mya personally, but still is put out of sorts by meeting her as she is also an illegitimate child.
177* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: [[spoiler:After being resurrected as Lady Stoneheart, loving and devoted Catelyn becomes a cold, hateful, vicious woman. For most of the series, she only wanted to live in peace with her family; with no one left to protect, she sets out to destroy everyone she feels is responsible for her pain.]]
178* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
179** She wanted Bran not to leave for the capitol. He is crippled and temporarily comatose.
180** Catelyn gets to see Robb marry a girl he loves. It leads to the Red Wedding.
181** She wanted to be unburdened of her matronly responsibilities. [[spoiler:She becomes Lady Stoneheart and now gets to wreak havoc on those who killed her family with impunity, not knowing some still live.]]
182* BuxomBeautyStandard: While at a wedding reception as the bedding gets underway, Catelyn Stark remembers from her own bedding that Lord Willam Dustin, upon seeing her bare breasts, joked to Eddard that they were enough to make him wish he'd never been weaned.
183* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:To a point. While she's ten times as vicious and vindictive as she was in life, when she is compared to other resurrected characters, the changes she has undergone probably exacerbated latent tendencies which were always inside her somewhere. Add a truly ''traumatizing'' death beyond hellish even for this series, being murdered while having a grief-induced break from reality, plus a delayed resurrection after her nearly-decapitated corpse has been left rotting in a river for days... and we get Lady Stoneheart.]]
184* CassandraTruth:
185** After Bran falls, she begs Ned to ignore her previous advice and not go to King's Landing, fearing that doing so will bring disaster. He insists she was right the first time, and leaves. Disaster ensues for House Stark.
186** She tells Robb that sending Theon as an envoy to the Iron Islands is a bad idea. Robb does not listen, with disastrous results.
187** Subverted when Cat tells Robb not to trust Rolph Spicer because Robb's direwolf doesn't. Robb doesn't believe her but to make his mother happy, he sends Rolph away to make a prisoner exchange with the Lannisters. [[spoiler:This puts Rolph in an excellent position to arrange Robb's betrayal.]]
188** She tries to pull Robb and the Northern Lords away from an all-out, vengeful war against the Crown by trying to advise alternative means of restitution, to no avail.
189* TheConsigliere: To Robb.
190* CoolBigSis: She was, to Edmure and Lysa.
191* CrusadingWidow: It begins with Ned's death and it only goes downhill from there. [[spoiler:Thinking all her children but Sansa have died, she has made it her purpose to destroy everything associated with the Freys and Lannisters.]]
192-->'''Catelyn Stark:''' ''Ned always said that the man who passes the sentence should swing the blade, though he never took any joy in the duty. But I would, oh, yes.''
193* DeathGlare: Gives one to Merrett Frey [[spoiler:as Lady Stoneheart, before having him hanged]] that terrified him more than anything else.
194-->''But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated.''
195* DeliberateValuesDissonance: With her treatment of her husband's illegitimate child, Jon Snow, she skirts the line of a WickedStepmother in the eyes of many modern readers, and she doesn't understand why Ned treats Jon as well as his trueborn children. In Westerosi society, Ned openly raising his illegitimate child (Jon) at home alongside the lawful children and closely with the oldest son is uncommon and may be seen by some as rubbing it in the wife's face (while Robb is unquestionably Ned's heir, Robb and Jon are raised and mentored in leadership together by Ned as his sons, growing up close as brothers).
196* DespairEventHorizon:
197** Comes very close when Bran and Rickon were killed by Theon(at least, that's what she thinks), leading to her decision to free Jaime in desperation to at least save her daughters.
198** The Red Wedding breaks Catelyn. [[spoiler:After her firstborn dies and she's revived, she goes over the edge.]]
199--->''It hurts so much, she thought. Our children, Ned, all our sweet babes. Rickon, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robb… Robb… please, Ned, please, make it stop, make it stop hurting…''
200* {{Determinator}}: She is still looking for her children [[spoiler:even after dying and being resurrected. When she finds out Arya is alive, she interrogates any Freys about the Hound traveling with a child]].
201* DidntThinkThisThrough: She secretly frees Jaime in exchange for making him promise that when he gets back to King's Landing, he will return Sansa and Arya safely to Winterfell. Ignoring the dozen ways he and Brienne could have been waylaid trying to cross a war zone and how Jaime's release would affect Robb's position, the basis for the trade was Tyrion promising to release her daughters in exchange for Jaime. This promise was made at the same time as he sent men under a truce banner to murder some Riverrun guardsmen and free Jaime by force. This means Catelyn makes a very drastic decision, resulting in a significant action, based on the word of someone who had already showed he was willing to violate promises.
202** Catelyn is generally recognised for her intellect and competence by her peers, and when her judgement is not clouded such as by grief she is one of the sharpest thinkers in Robb's camp. What was the news Catelyn received just before meeting with Jaime? ''Her two youngest sons were murdered.'' Jamie had also just disclosed to her some of the deepest, darkest secrets about Robert's Rebellion, so she probably thought she had reason to believe he'd operate in good faith.
203* TheDreaded: [[spoiler:As Lady Stoneheart. Merrett Frey when he's captured tries to argue that he didn't do anything but get drunk at the wedding. Then he sees a resurrected Catelyn and goes OhCrap as she reveals that he was involved in the Red Wedding and orders his execution]].
204* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: She could have either stayed silent about her husband raising his illegitimate son Jon in Winterfell, something she resented, or she could have blighted her marriage by incurring Ned's distrust and ire by pushing the issue. She shut up and let it be for 14 years until Maester Luwin tells a dispirited Ned of Jon's wish to join the Night's Watch and is able to convince him to allow it.
205** 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 Vale's 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.
206* FacialHorror: [[spoiler:She tore the skin of her own face to shreds with her fingernails after seeing Robb die.]]
207* FailureIsTheOnlyOption comes into play when she apprehends Tyrion. Initially she tries to go unrecognized, but he ultimately clocks her, leaving her with no good options. In order to prevent him from informing on her to his siblings in the capitol, and thinking she has powerful allies in the form of the Hand of the King and the Lady of the Vale, she apprehends him and sets off a chain of events catalyzing The War of the Five Kings. This war was inevitable. Stannis was aware that Cersei and Jaime, who have usurped the throne, created a succession crisis through their incest so he was going to war against the Lannisters one way or another. Meanwhile Renly, the youngest Baratheon brother, also makes a claim for the throne while Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands, decides to carve out a kingdom of his own. All the while, Petyr Baelish and Varys are involved in conspiracies to orchestrate multiple Civil Wars behind the scenes. Catelyn's arrest of Tyrion, the least bad option at the time, was the 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.
208* FishOutOfWater: A Southerner living up North. She is still baffled by many of their customs. Rather fitting, considering that her house's sigil is a fish.
209* {{Foil}}:
210** 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]]. Catelyn even has moments of empathy for Cersei as a mother. 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.]]
211** To her sister, Lysa. They both live by the Tully words (Family, Duty, Honor) in their own ways. Catelyn does in a more overt, obvious way: protecting Ned and their children, doing what is expected of her to the best of her ability ([[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight until it crosses a line,]] that is), and shows respect and esteem to those who deserve it. Lysa is higly protective of her son, and no one else; she is a highly devoted mother, to put it lightly, and when talking of betrothing Sansa to her son Robert, coldly tells her she had better be an obedient, dutiful wife; Lysa honors people who serve her, but alas, they are usually just suck-ups vying for the role as her husband to be Lord of the Vale.
212* HangingJudge: [[spoiler:Lady Stoneheart is rather fond of the noose and decorates several trees in the Riverlands with hanging corpses]]
213* HappilyMarried: As noted above, what began as an ArrangedMarriage to the younger brother of her murdered fiancé ended up with her and Ned truly falling in love with each other. The one blemish on this is her suspicion that Ned still carries a torch for Jon's mother, since he raises Jon alongside his legitimate children, which is highly unusual.
214* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:By the time she's resurrected as Lady Stoneheart, she's just as bad as Cersei in how she executes adult and children Freys alike. When the Brotherhood encounters Brienne and Pod, Lady Stoneheart refuses to consider that Jaime may have had a change of heart and orders their execution unless Brienne betrays Jaime to her. Brienne may have been forced to do so to save Pod if not herself]].
215* HeyYou: It's indicated that the one time she called Jon by name was to tell him that [[YouShouldHaveDiedInstead she wishes he'd fallen from the tower instead of Bran]].
216* IdiotBall:
217** 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 in King's Landing that the Starks are 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 and isolates Tyrion. 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 who supposedly wrote the warning 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 misrule enables his escape.
218** She releases Jaime Lannister (whom she personally regards as highly dishonourable) with a Frey-Lannister guard and Brienne of Tarth (not considered the most respected of armed escorts in Westeros by way of being female and being accused of Renly Baratheon's murder) to travel across leagues of hostile territory on the basis of a flimsy promise to free her daughters (who she has not even confirmed are still alive) by a man she arrested previously with little evidence (and who was found legally innocent only through trial by combat) and may (and does) have a grudge to bear. All while a psychotic teenager, accepted (if not accused) by her (the North's) side as illegitimate and one who murdered her husband for the same reason, sits the throne ostensibly wielding royal power (and who is betrothed to one of said daughters). Desperation is an understatement. Delusional with grief ''might ''be too far.
219** Averted at the last second with the Red Wedding. After advising Robb trust the gradually traitorous Roose Bolton and rejoin the embittered Walder Frey to his cause, and after freeing Jaime Lannister such that his father is free to plot such a scheme, the hell unleashed at the Twins appears to be the culmination of all the dominoes at once. Stark is extinguished, Catelyn has failed to protect her children, and finally her mind shatters before her throat is slit... '''but''', Catelyn requested salt and bread beforehand. By invoking the most sacred of laws, all the vicious revelry becomes what amounts to a blasphemy on all their names: Bolton, Frey, and Tywin Lannister above all. Now the repercussions are starting to manifest, with rebellions set to erupt in the Riverlands and North with one and all holding the Red Wedding and its actors in ''total disgust and contempt''. While the Red Wedding may have advanced the short term causes of Lannister-Frey-Bolton, Catelyn's invocation of guest right has put a black mark on them, costing allies and fueling enemies in the long term.
220* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler:Lady Stoneheart, The Silent Sister, Mother Merciless, The Hangwoman.]]
221* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: The reason Catelyn does not push the subject of Ned's illegitimate son Jon at Winterfell is because she does not want Ned to be angry with her and is aware of Ned's love for Jon. As such, she avoids bringing up this topic with Ned after Ned tells her never to ask about Jon's [[MissingMom mother]] again, he wants to keep Jon at Winterfell, and she does not prevent Jon's close relationships with the rest of the family. However, she keeps contact with Jon to a bare minimum and allows Jon to be aware of her disdain for him.
222* InSeriesNickname: "Cat", used by her relatives, Ned, and Littlefinger.
223* IronicEcho: Invoked. When she returns as [[spoiler:Lady Stoneheart]], she takes great delight in playing "The Rains of Castamere" each and every time she executes one of the people who wronged her and her family. Doubly so when it's a Frey, as she relishes seeing the horror on their face when they hear the music under which they once reveled with wild abandon but now it's being used to herald their own deaths. She'd laugh if she could.
224* IronLady:
225** Catelyn is proud, strong, honorable and upright. She holds duty over desire as a governing principle of behavior, has a strong grasp of politics and possesses considerable insight into what makes Westeros run. Even Renly Baratheon acknowledges her when they meet:
226--->'''Renly:''' Go softly, [[FrontlineGeneral Lord Randyll]], I fear you’re overmatched.
227** She frees Jaime Lannister in order to barter for the lives of Sansa and Arya without consulting what it could mean in terms of negotiation and a firm ground. She falls from grace in Robb's eyes for doing this, effectively making them weaker by leaving them without a proper exchange coin by losing their Lannister hostage. [[spoiler:This is in great part one of the reasons Robb loses the war, as Tywin Lannister wouldn't have risked the Red Wedding while Jaime remained captive to the Starks.]]
228** After her death, Jaime himself still acts struck by Catelyn's integrity and principles, bitterly lamenting to his father about verbatim highborn ladies kicking pails of shit at him. He even seems moved to mock Brienne for her utter esteem of Lady Tully-Stark, mockingly calling her "your ''precious dead'' Lady Catelyn". And yet, after Jaime is disowned by Tywin, he decides to rise to the vow that Catelyn made him swear on his honour (and at swordpoint). Between his strong and lasting reaction to her judgement, and here being first time he acts in the good of people other than his family (giving away his father's long desired, stolen ''Valyrian steel sword'' no less)... even the arrogant Jaime Lannister seems to see her as this, ''and ''respects her for it.
229* {{Irony}}:
230** Freeing Jaime Lannister was one of the biggest mistakes she made, trusting Brienne to escort him towards a hostage exchange. [[spoiler:As Lady Stoneheart, she believes that Jaime broke his word and Brienne betrayed her to serve the Lannisters. Brienne can't exactly convince her because the shiny new sword is clearly decked out in Lannister colors and sigils, and she's carrying a decree that says she is serving the (Lannister) king's will as she searches for an escaped Sansa. Despite how bad this looks and the understandable chip on her shoulder she now has about ''betrayals'', little does Catelyn know Jaime actually turned over a new leaf and DOES intend to uphold his promise to have Sansa brought to safety, he gave Brienne the sword and decree only to aid her in protecting Sansa, and Brienne remains loyal to Catelyn and the vow she made to save Sansa.]]
231** A woman who has kept faith with the new gods despite the North being the only place where the old gods are still worshipped more than the new, Catelyn's beliefs in the Seven get a good amount of attention drawn to them in text as she struggles with what is happening to her family and tries to find solace through prayer. [[spoiler:After a serious TraumaCongaLine, she ends up revived as a vengeful, undead wraith by a red priest, in theory at R'hllor's will, despite not being a follower of R'hllor herself. To drive home how wrong it is for the old Catelyn, the red god is associated with fire and his red priests practice fire magic; Cat is associated with water as she was born in the riverlands as a Tully, whose House sigil is a fish, and married into House Stark, who are associated with ice.]]
232* JerkassHasAPoint:
233** While she is beyond reason, [[spoiler:she thinks Brienne betrayed her because Jaime was freed but Sansa wasn't, Brienne is wearing and wielding Lannister steel, and she called out Jaime's name in her fever dreams. Yeah, Jaime charged Brienne to find Sansa and rescue her, but where can Sansa go that is safe? Brienne noticeably realizes that the lady isn't wrong to judge her in such a fashion and tells her to kill her if she must but to spare Pod since he's innocent]].
234** She sees herself as this and may very well be when [[spoiler:she 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 seems to be moot. Then again, Bran and Rickon are still alive and up North with the latter possibly backed by the Manderleys and Peter Baelish is orchestrating a coup on Sansa's behalf in the Vale, so combined with Robb naming Jon his heir the chances of a Northern succession crisis are greater than zero.]]
235* JerkassToOne: Though she usually acts like a ProperLady, she behaves coldly to her husband's bastard son.
236* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: [[spoiler:When she becomes Lady Stoneheart, the Brotherhood starts luring, hunting and killing Freys for the mere reason of them being Freys, no matter what they did during the Red Wedding. All of them are considered guilty by default and by proxy and the only possible result is death. According to the lore, this is actually the law of the land and of the seven gods. A man who betrays sacred hospitality is ''supposed'' to have his bloodline wiped out.]]
237* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Many of Catelyn's issues with judgment calls and situational mishandling can, to a great extent, be seen as a result of this. However, she is basically a rational person, and her decisions make sense from her own POV and what little agency she sometimes has to work with.
238** She's a she: even highborn girls are rarely taught much about wider political or battlefield strategy, and Cat winds up having to advise her son on both with what she managed to pick up on the side of her main role of castle management and motherhood. That said, she is able to call upon her prior role as heir presumptive to Riverrun prior to the birth of her brother Edmure.
239** She was very likely ''purposely'' kept in the dark as to what had really happened regarding her sister's obsession with Petyr and how Lysa had treated him, let alone the whole abortion issue ''and'' how her sister's marriage with Jon Arryn was arranged as a result of it all. Worse, she couldn't know how all this bled into the backroom deals going on within the Rebellion at the time, including with her own marriage to Ned. This had very direct impacts on Cat's later decisions, character assessments and misunderstandings. For example, when she apprehends Tyrion and takes him to the Vale, she has no way of knowing that her sister has become an unstable and paranoid mess with no intention of coming to her aid.
240** Her own husband's refusal to explain anything truthfully about Jon's birth and who his mother actually was became a major factor in a number of her actions and insecurities regarding his future actions.
241** PlayedForDrama when [[spoiler:as Lady Stoneheart she finds Brienne with Tyrion's squire and a Lannister sword, made from Ned's melted blade. She doesn't believe Brienne when the latter says she's looking for Sansa to protect her, and it's hard to blame her. Why would a former bannerswoman wear the steel of the Starks's most formidable enemy]]?
242* LockedIntoStrangeness: [[spoiler:Following her resurrection, half her hair fell out and the rest has turned white and brittle]].
243* MamaBear: Very protective and nurturing of her children and loves them above all. [[spoiler:Even as Lady Stoneheart, she interrogates any Frey if they have seen the Hound traveling with a child, trying to find Arya]].
244* TheManTheyCouldntHang: [[spoiler:Beric Dondarrion kissed her back to life after she was killed by the Freys.]]
245* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: All of the nicknames she gains after [[spoiler:becoming Lady Stoneheart.]]
246* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Martin himself has said that, when writing about Catelyn, he wanted to tell the story of King Arthur's mother. Moreover, Catelyn has many similarities to Cecily Neville, mother of King Edward IV, and Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Both of these women were politically savvy mothers to kings.
247* NotSoAboveItAll:
248** Though she is nervous about Ned's appointment as Hand of the King in ''A Game of Thrones'', part of the reason she wants him to go is because of the [[SocialClimber rise in social status this entails]], However this is normal behaviour among Westerosi nobles, and makes much sense when one must consider the family legacy down the line. Moreover, refusing the appointment could be seen as a slap in the face to the king.
249** While Catelyn is mostly very composed, she isn't immune from making rash decisions on sentiment and impulses, particularly when grief-stricken. However, this is a trait shared by almost all characters.
250* ObliviousToLove: Cat thought that she and Littlefinger were LikeBrotherAndSister, and while not completely oblivious to Petyr's childhood crush on her, she understandably had no idea how creepily ''obsessed'' he was to her.
251* TheOneThatGotAway: Littlefinger loved her greatly when they were young, going so far as to challenge her betrothed Brandon even though he had no chance. He lost, but he claims Cat is still the only woman he has ever loved. [[spoiler:He felt so scorned and was left so angry that in reaction he rose in social status until he bankrupted the kingdom, plunging it into civil war resulting in the destruction of Houses Stark, Arryn and Tully.]]
252* OnlySaneWoman: Played with. Catelyn is one of Robb's most level-headed advisers. However, the extent to which she is able to wield influence is limited, because much of her good advice is often dismissed because she is a woman.
253* OutlivingOnesOffspring: By the time of the Red Wedding, [[spoiler:she believes Arya, Bran, and Rickon are all dead (even if [[SubvertedTrope none of them actually are]]), and this belief factors into her SanitySlippage. She finally loses it when she sees Robb killed. What softens the blow a little is that as Lady Stoneheart she finds out Arya is alive and asks the Brotherhood Without Banners to look for her]].
254* ParentalFavoritism: She loves all of her children deeply and is certainly one of the more caring parents among Westerosi nobles, but she admits Bran is her favorite child, and when it comes to her daughters, she much prefers the ladylike Sansa over the rebellious Arya. But once she loses both her daughters in the war, she’ll stop at nothing to have them both back. She’s especially heartbroken and in denial for a long time that Arya is most likely dead. [[spoiler: Once she comes back as Lady Stoneheart, she interrogates any Frey at her mercy if they have met the Hound traveling with a child while ordering the Brotherhood to find Arya.]]
255* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Originally married Ned out of obligation, but they grew to love each other.
256* PetTheDog: One that also doubles as ThrowTheDogABone. [[spoiler:As Lady Stoneheart, she asks any Freys unlucky enough to be captured if they saw the Hound traveling with a child. Since she is working with the Brotherhood, who saw Arya alive with Clegane, she now knows Arya is alive and wants to save her daughter. Not only does it prove once again Catelyn does love Arya, unladylike or no, now it also confirm at least some of Catelyn's humanity remains in the vicious undead killer. And on Cat's end, after losing most of her family, friends, and allies, she now knows at least Arya is alive somewhere and not a captive of the Lannisters, and may be able to see her again]].
257* ProperLady: Catelyn follows the conventions of her culture on what makes a proper lady.
258* PromotionToParent: Her mother died giving birth to her youngest child (who also died), which prompted her to act like a mother to Edmure and Lysa and the ''de facto'' lady of Riverrun growing up. Other characters note that this had come very naturally to her, but her general fatigue at always having to be nurturing and supportive suggests it's never been as easy for her as she could make it look.
259* RedheadsAreRavishing: Described as [[BuxomBeautyStandard beautiful by many]] Catelyn thinks to herself how much Ned loved her long red hair [[spoiler: right before she died. Brienne cannot help but notice the BeautyInversion that took place when Catelyn CameBackWrong]].
260* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:Subverted. You would expect that Lady Stoneheart deciding to hunt down the Freys and exterminate them would be a bad idea as opposed to focusing on the Lannisters or helping the Baratheons. That's not how it works; it turns out that she's depleting the Freys of valuable men who would serve as heirs or soldiers and forcing them to divide their surviving family members to deal with the Tullys, a vengeful North, ''and'' the Brotherhood. Quite unwittingly, Catelyn is more dangerous undead than she was alive and she has enough wits to ask if any of the Freys she captured saw the Hound or Arya]].
261* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After [[spoiler:her resurrection, she decides to hunt down all Freys and Lannisters.]] If you wanted to know where Arya got it from, it was from Catelyn.
262* SanitySlippage: Shows signs of this as early as the first book, when she giggles out of relief when the Catspaw assassin set fire to the library tower instead of the one she's in, greatly disturbing Robb (although this could just as easily be the stress getting to her). But after [[spoiler:witnessing Robb's death, dying insane with grief, and coming back from the dead as a disfigured and rotted corpse driven to avenge her family by murdering all involved with the Red Wedding one by one]], her sanity seems questionable at best.
263* TheScourgeOfGod: [[spoiler:Lady Stoneheart is effectively a divine punishment for Walder Frey's grievous violation of [[SacredHospitality guest right]], in line with the gruesome punishment the gods are said to have visited on the infamous Rat Cook for the same sin.]]
264* SettleForSibling: Invoked. She was promised to Brandon Stark, but after the Mad King had him executed, she married his brother Eddard to unite the Stark and Tully houses.
265* ShroudedInMyth: [[spoiler:As Lady Stoneheart. One the many rumors told about her is that she's Lord Beric Dondarrion's lover.]]
266* SilkHidingSteel: The Tully motto is ''Family, Duty, Honor", and those are the words Cat lives by [[spoiler:even after becoming Lady Stoneheart.]]
267* SlashedThroat: One of the Freys slashes her throat at the Red Wedding. [[spoiler:After she's resurrected as Lady Stoneheart, Catelyn is unable to speak unless she puts her hand over her throat. Even then, her speech is hard to understand.]]
268* StrongFamilyResemblance: Out of Catelyn's five children, four have inherited her Tully auburn hair and blue eyes (Sansa and all the boys, with only Arya favoring Ned in appearance), but Sansa is noted by multiple characters to be the spitting image of her when she was younger.
269* ThisIsUnforgivable: Not so much Ned's infidelity (she grew up knowing men can be unfaithful, and understood that immediately after their wedding night her virtual stranger of a husband rode to the front lines of a continent-spanning civil war) but his decision to openly raise his illegitimate son Jon Snow alongside his trueborn children.
270* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler:Robb's crown for Lady Stoneheart]].
271* TragicVillain: After [[spoiler:she's turned into an undead killer zombie hell-bent on revenge for all the wrongdoings towards her family]].
272* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Catelyn convinces Robb, not without reason, to entrust the meticulous and tactics-minded Roose Bolton rather than his first pick of the hot-blooded Greatjon Umber, with most of his northern Army. This puts Roose in prime position to act independently, squander rival's forces and turn on Robb when the war turns sour for the Starks.
273* WantedAGenderConformingChild: Arya often noted that her mother wished she would not be so rebellious and act more like her traditionally feminine sister, Sansa. Despite her opinions, Catelyn still loves her youngest daughter and fights to have her back once they’re separated, at one point even arguing over her succession rights once Robb names Jon as his heir. [[spoiler: Not even after death stops Catelyn in her relentless pursuit.]]
274* 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 - as has happened to other bastards in the series - 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. She even taught him how to talk to girls.
275* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The poor woman's essentially lost everyone that she loves: her husband was killed by TheCaligula, [[spoiler:she believes Bran, Rickon and Arya to all be dead, the Lannisters are holding Sansa hostage and forced the girl to marry Tyrion, and her last seconds of life entail her falling into madness after watching her son, Robb, be murdered right before her eyes. Now she's been resurrected as a walking corpse that "lives" only for revenge against those who betrayed and killed her family. With that said, she finds out Arya is alive and tries to find out where the Hound traveled with her daughter]]
276* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Catelyn's meanest moment is when, after being awake for around 72 hours sitting vigil by her comatose son's bedside, she tells [[TheUnfavourite Jon]] he should have been crippled instead of Bran. Jon, also grieved over Bran, was trying to comfort her at the time.
277[[/folder]]
278
279[[folder:Benjen Stark]]
280!!Benjen Stark
281Eddard's younger brother and uncle to Robb, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon. He is First Ranger in the Night's Watch.\
282\
283See [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireTheNightsWatchRangers Night's Watch Rangers]].
284[[/folder]]
285
286!!The Stark Children
287
288[[folder:Robb Stark]]
289!!King Robb Stark, the King in the North and King of the Trident, Lord of Winterfell
290!!!The Young Wolf, The King Who Lost The North
291[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robb_stark_ffg_5849.png]]
292[[caption-width-right:300:''"I have won every battle, and yet I feel like I'm losing the war."'']]
293
294->''"Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself… swore to myself… that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies… now I can’t even tell one from the other. How did it all get so confused?"''
295
296Eddard's oldest son and heir, fourteen turning fifteen at the beginning of the series. While young, he proves to be a bold and promising ruler when his father leaves to join the King's court. He is loyal to his father's people and shares his father's commitment to honor above all. He and Rickon are the only Stark children that do not serve as POV characters. Becomes King in the North and of the Trident after his father's death and the beginning of the War of the Five Kings.\
297\
298His direwolf is Grey Wind, named for his speed and smoky gray fur.
299----
300* AnnoyingArrows: Gets wounded in his arm by an arrow while storming the Crag, which led to a minor infection which was quickly treated. [[spoiler:He was also shot by crossbow bolts as part of his RasputinianDeath; see below.]]
301* ArrangedMarriage: He agrees to marry one of Walder Frey's daughters in a political arrangement to secure their forces. [[spoiler:He later breaks this arrangement to everyone's sorrow]].
302* BadassCrew: In every battle, he is surrounded by a bodyguard made of the badass sons (and daughter, in Dacey's case) of his lord bannermen. It's also a deconstruction, in that having lords and heirs protecting such a high-value target means that there is always the possibility of political upheaval back home if one of them should die.
303* BeneathTheMask: There are several hints that despite his victories and legendary reputation (or perhaps ''because'' of them), Robb fears he's in way over his head and feels crushed by the weight of his responsibilities.
304* BigBrotherInstinct: He's very protective of his younger siblings [[spoiler:but unfortunately doesn't succeed in protecting any of them. When Bran and Rickon were believed to be dead after Theon's attack of Winterfell, Robb was utterly devastated. He really wanted to rescue Sansa and Arya from King's Landing, but several factors complicated his efforts. In the end, he predeceased all four of them]].
305* BigDamnHeroes: In the first book, his timely rescue of Riverrun saves the region from total subjugation to the Lannisters.
306* BigGood: He follows in his father's footsteps by being this, especially to the North and the Riverlands. [[spoiler:Even after his death, his legacy lives on in the Stark loyalists who are plotting to overthrow the Boltons and avenge him.]]
307* TheChainsOfCommanding: Hits him pretty hard. He goes from heroic icon to [[spoiler:utter failure to dead martyr]].
308* CharacterTics: Catelyn notes that he used to chew on his lip when he was little, like Arya does.
309* AChildShallLeadThem: He was crowned at fifteen!
310* CoolCrown: An open circlet of hammered bronze incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes wrought in the shape of longswords.
311* DeadGuyOnDisplay: [[spoiler:After his assassination, his decapitated corpse, with Grey Wind's crowned head sewn onto it as a final insult, is paraded around by a group of Frey bannermen to show that he is really dead.]]
312* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the charismatic YoungConqueror and RebelLeader out to [[YouKilledMyFather avenge his father]], [[SaveThePrincess rescue his sisters]] and liberate his country. Despite his tactical and strategic prowess, Robb makes key political errors (sending Theon Greyjoy to Pyke, marrying Jeyne Westerling) and loses control over his bannermen. He fails to avenge his father because he followed a similar [[HonorBeforeReason obstructive sense of honor]]. He doesn't save his sisters because [[spoiler:Arya is presumed dead and Sansa's forced marriage to a Lannister makes her a political liability.]]
313* DidntThinkThisThrough: He's one of the series poster boys for this trope (and there's a lot of them).
314* DoomedProtagonist: Declaring oneself King of the Trident is a de-facto declaration of war, with the Riverlands being the most disputed region in Westeros in droves. It's basically a guarantee that one would never achieve peace even in the long run; it's a fact that no ruler of the Riverlands held them for very long and it was only under the Targaryens that the region saw some amount of peace.
315* EmbarrassingNickname: "The King Who Lost the North" among Roose Bolton and Rickard Karstark.
316* TheExecutioner: Robb Stark is forced to execute Rickard Karstark after he allows some of his men to butcher innocent Lannister prisoners. Rickard Karstark, even as he curses Robb, does express some gratitude that Robb held true to those beliefs (which extend to all descendants of the First Men) and executed him with his own hand rather than someone else's.
317* FatalFlaw: The code of honor, his trust in his friend Theon Greyjoy, but mostly his youth.
318* {{Foil}}: Though they are bitter enemies, Robb Stark's arc is similar to Jaime Lannister's backstory. They are both accomplished warriors from proud and powerful families. Both found themselves in the role of a hero in a time of war, and failed to live up to the world's great expectations. Their honorable acts are overshadowed by the controversial decisions they made as young men. Both Robb and Jaime have individual monologues in which they lampshade the twisted nature of Westerosi politics and traditions, and how easy it is to lose sight of what is really right.
319* FrontlineGeneral: Like his father, he always personally leads his men into battle, or at the very least takes the more dangerous command posts. He's quite sensible about it, however, keeping a strong bodyguard of knights which saves his life when the more reckless Jaime Lannister tries to escape an ambush by [[DecapitatedArmy leading a charge directly at him]]. Tywin Lannister later uses it as an excuse for [[spoiler:the Red Wedding, arguing that Robb was too cautious and was too well-protected on the battlefield to gamble on his death in battle.]]
320* HappilyMarried: To Jeyne Westerling during the third book [[spoiler:before he's killed because of it]].
321* HeirClubForMen: After learning Bran and Rickon are dead, he becomes seriously worried about dying without heirs, as [[spoiler:Sansa is married to a ''Lannister'' (and he believes they'll kill her once they get an heir out of her, meaning she's as good as dead) and Arya is presumed dead]]. His will legitimized Jon, named him his heir despite Catelyn's objections, putting him above Sansa who was the presumed sole heir presumptive at the time, to protect the North from the Lannisters, in the event of him dying childless.
322* HeroWithBadPublicity: His detractors state he had abandoned the North just to conquer a kingdom for himself in the more pleasant Riverlands. However, they are clearly in the minority, and most people are [[spoiler:horrified by his murder]].
323* HiddenDepths: Despite his youth and lack of experience, Robb does show a firm grasp of northern politics, being able of affirming his authority on and subduing all the northern lords and ladies coming to test him and challenge his authority to the point of making the Greatjon his greatest supporter. He also makes himself no delusion on the northern culture of blood feuds, knowing fully well that Harrion Karstark will have no choice but to behis enemy for executing his father, as even if he isn't the vengeful kind his own men would turn on him if he openly forgive Robb for his father's death.
324* HistoryRepeats: Just like his uncle and father before him, Robb failed to rescue his sisters.
325* HonorableMarriageProposal: To Jeyne, preserving [[DefiledForever her honor]] after they slept together.
326* HonorBeforeReason:
327** He takes after his father in this respect. He married Jeyne Westerling to protect her honour, breaking a political arrangement that cost him a large part of his forces and ultimately gets him viciously killed.
328** Robb rejects Catelyn's initial proposal to form an alliance with Renly Baratheon on the basis of Renly trying to bypass succession rites that should rightfully be Stannis's. Robb views that if he were to side with Renly it would set a dangerous precedent such as it would give his own little brothers Bran or Rickon the ground to try and overthrow him should they want to.
329* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter:
330** 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]].
331** Robb's poor read on just how ''[[EvilIsPetty petty]]'' Balon Greyjoy and Walder Frey are is ultimately the catalyst to the failure of his rebellion against King's Landing. Robb assumes that any enmity that exists between their houses can be put aside for the greater threat that is the Lannisters.
332** 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.
333** 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.
334* InnocentBlueEyes: He inherited the Tully blue eyes. His innocence is less pronounced than Sansa and Bran because he's older, but he's still quite naïve to how the world works outside the battlefield.
335* 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]].
336* LikeFatherLikeSon: Catelyn often reflects on the various aspects in which Robb resembles his father. Robb himself looks at his father for inspiration and follows his [[HonorBeforeReason teaching]]. [[spoiler:Well, given what happened to Ned, he should have been more careful in following him...]]
337* MyBelovedSmother: Robb feels this a bit toward his mother Catelyn when she argues his attempt to disinherit her daughters. Robb grows accustomed to having his word obeyed, and does not like when his mother brings up reasonable criticisms. This leads to his decision to imprison her at Seagard.
338* NearAndDearBabyNaming: He's named after King Robert Baratheon, his father's best friend.
339* NiceGuy: Like Ned, he's mostly a well-adjusted, fair person, if a bit reserved.
340* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed:
341** To the young King Edward IV, whose marriage to Elizabeth Woodville alienated his supporter Warwick the Kingmaker to betray him. In real life, Edward IV dodged that bullet but Robb Stark pays a steep price.
342** His life as a YoungConqueror genius tactician from GrimUpNorth who [[spoiler:dies]] as the result of betrayal may also remind one of [[UsefulNotes/CarolusRex Charles XII of Sweden]].
343** He leads a rebellion against the crown, trying to secede the Northern half of the kingdom, like William Wallace (''yes'', the one from ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''). It helps that the North is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Scotland and Northern England, while the Westerlands are one to Southern England. Also, we have Tywin Lannister sharing [[NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed many traits]] with [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst King Edward Longshanks]], while Robb shares his name with the first Scottish king Robert the Bruce. Not to mention that, like Wallace, [[spoiler:Robb was betrayed by an ally and killed, letting Tywin Lannister (just like Edward Longshanks) win the war]].
344* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Is shot with a crossbow, stabbed in the heart, and decapitated, before having his direwolf's head sewn onto the corpse as a final insult. Doubles as RasputinianDeath as he gets shot by many crossbow bolts, but is still standing. It's only Roose Bolton stabbing him in the heart that finishes the job.]]
345* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Decides to marry Jeyne after sleeping with her so as not to leave her DefiledForever. Oh, Robb... that's such a sweet thought, but ''no''.
346* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His decision to break his marriage pact with the Freys for Jeyne's sake causes him to be betrayed by Walder Frey and murdered at his uncle's wedding.
347* OneThingLedToAnother: His first night with Jeyne was the result of hearing about his siblings' "deaths".
348-->'''Robb:''' She... [[SexForSolace comforted]] me, mother.
349* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: All of the Stark siblings are wargs.
350* PoorCommunicationKills: Part of his downfall is Edmure Tully fighting a tactically victorious battle against Tywin that foils Robb's strategic plan. However all Robb told Edmure was "hold Riverrun". He meant "literally only Riverrun", but never explained that to Edmure, despite there being very little downside to doing so.
351* ThePromise: "I will not lose." He keeps it in a literal sense, as he never loses a battle, but in the end it doesn't help him much.
352* PromotionToParent: For Bran and Rickon, when both Eddard and Catelyn leave Winterfell. He fails, for the most part, but does a much better job with Bran than he does with Rickon.
353* RasputinianDeath: He gets pierced by multiple arrows all over his body, viciously beaten and then finally stabbed by Roose Bolton before finally dying.
354* RedBaron: "The Young Wolf."
355* RedOniBlueOni: Their very first description serves to put Jon in [[{{Pun}} stark]] contrast with Robb, who is more fiery in both appearance and personality than [[TheStoic Jon]], though they are very close as brothers.
356* SexEqualsLove: Robb believes that it does, or at least that it should. He marries Jeyne Westerling after spending one night with her, but their relationship is described as a loving one later.
357* SexForSolace: When he storms the ancestral keep of the Westerlings, he is wounded by an arrow and soon receives news of Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths at the hands of Theon. Jeyne Westerling nursed him and ended up sleeping with him.
358* ShotgunWedding: At his insistence, since he feels a need to make an honest woman out of Jeyne now that he has himself despoiled her. This is an IdiotBall moment and ''everyone knows it'': even ''Tyrion'', who knows firsthand that LoveMakesYouStupid, thinks Robb's actions were a mistake.
359* ShroudedInMyth: He becomes an instant legend thanks to his exploits. They even start to say he has magic powers.
360* SiblingYinYang: With Jon, who is quieter and more reserved than he is. Unlike [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry their sisters]], to whom this trope also applies, Jon and Robb are extremely close. Also counts as a RedOniBlueOni dynamic.
361-->Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.
362* SlaveToPR:
363** Something of a DownplayedTrope, while Robb's Rebellion against Lannister's is motivated by the righteous fury over his father's unjust death, a good deal of it was also influenced by his war-hungry bannerman, who saw the rebellion as the perfect opportunity to return to their independence. Even as Robb develops second thoughts to the idea, Catelyn is quick to remind him that [[IveComeTooFar it's too late to give up lest he risk losing the respect of the Northern Lords]]. Despite this, Robb also makes it a point to otherwise not let the older Lords push him around or challenge his authority.
364** Despite Catelyn's urgings, he is unwilling to trade Jaime back to the Lannisters in exchange for Sansa and Arya, as his bannermen would object to exchanging such a high-profile hostage for two girls. This is DeliberateValuesDissonance.
365* StayInTheKitchen: Robb attempts to invoke this with Catelyn as he turns down her strategic advise, suggesting that she catch a ship with Theon so that she can return to Winterfell since [[StealthInsult Bran and Rickon need their mother]].
366* SuccessionCrisis: Robb is well aware that should he die before siring an heir, the Northern alliance might fall apart, especially after his siblings become unsuitable (Bran and Rickon are reported dead at Theon's hands, Sansa is married to Tyrion Lannister, and the truth of Arya's status has been a mystery since Ned was arrested, so Robb believes she is dead and if she's not then the Lannisters have her as well). His solution is to legitimize his half-brother [[HeroicBastard Jon]] as a Stark so that he can reign as King in the North if something happens to Robb. Needless to say, this is done over his mother's strident objections. He sends Galbart Glover and Maege Mormont to Greywater Watch to find Howland Reed, along with a letter naming Jon as his successor. So far, this remains a dangling plot thread.
367* SupportingLeader: Robb is the one leading the "good" Stark forces despite being the only member of his family who is not a POV character besides young Rickon. His story is mostly told in Catelyn's POV chapters.
368* SurroundedByIdiots: While Robb Stark did make genuine political mistakes (sending Theon Greyjoy to Pyke, breaking his engagement to the Freys), he's also let down by impulsive, short-sighted and plainly irrational choices by the people around him. There's Catelyn Tully releasing Jaime Lannister out of captivity under grief over Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths, there's Rickard Karstark's impulsive attack on the young Lannister nephews which doesn't help anyone in any fashion except make the situation worse. Likewise, Edmure Tully taking his order to "Hold Riverrun and guard my rear" as license to wage an unnecessary battle on Tywin Lannister as he's ''leaving the Riverlands'', ruining Robb's careful strategy that would have lured Tywin to certain defeat.
369* TeenGenius: A military genius who was made King in the North at 14.
370* TragicHero: Like his father, Robb's initial success at rallying the forces of the North is cut short after he makes a number of mistakes largely because of his code of honour, and of other circumstances beyond his control such as Balon Greyjoy having a grudge against his family he didn't know about or [[spoiler:Renly Baratheon's assassination by a shadow baby made by Melisandre.]]
371* TooDumbToLive: Fails to see the full extent of the impending backlash of his marriage to Jeyne. His attempts to mollify the Freys don't cut it.
372* TurnOutLikeHisFather: An unusual heroic example. Ned was a fundamentally good man whose adherence to duty and honour made him a prime target for those lacking such scruples. Catelyn sees the same noble qualities in Robb and is rightly worried that they'll cost him, too, when he slights a key marriage alliance to satisfy his own personal duty to a girl he deflowered in a moment of sorrow and weakness. [[spoiler:[[KilledOffForReal They do]], and Robb joins his father in death.]]
373* WarriorPrince: Robb spends most of his reign as king fighting a rebellion against the Iron Throne.
374* WellDoneSonGuy: Subverted. Though his father loves him and is very proud of him, it has led to Robb feeling like any failure on his part would make him unworthy of said love.
375* WolfpackBoss: He's this to Jaime Lannister at Whispering Wood. Individually, he and each of his cadre of highborn bodyguards are no match for the Kingslayer (indeed, he ends up killing several) but together, Robb and his group repel his attempt to go StraightForTheCommander and capture Jaime.
376* YoungAndInCharge: He is fourteen when the series begins, which causes some of his bannermen to question his position as their [[AChildShallLeadThem leader]]. Despite how potent Robb is in the field of battle, he is also prone to the mistakes a young boy would make in his personal affairs.
377[[/folder]]
378
379[[folder:Sansa Stark*]]
380!! Princess Sansa Stark
381!!!Little bird, Jonquil, Winterfell's daughter, little she-wolf, Alayne Stone
382[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sansa_7.jpg]]
383->''"My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel."''
384
385Eddard's oldest daughter. She is an optimistic and innocent eleven-year-old girl during the beginning of the series, originally set to become the next queen. Her main flaw is that she is ''very'' naïve, often thinking that the harsh world around her works like it does in romantic fairytales. ''Ouch.'' Needless to say, certain events change that. She seems to be becoming more savvy, cynical and manipulative, with the help of [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBaelish Littlefinger]].\
386\
387Her direwolf is Lady, the smallest and sweetest of the litter.
388----
389* AlliterativeName: '''S'''ansa '''S'''tark.
390* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Averted. Sansa only falls for Joffrey when he hides his true nature and shows her a kind, chivalrous face. She is deeply disturbed to see his vicious nature when he picks a fight with Arya and lashes out at Sansa, to the point that later she trembles in his presence at the feast, but as her father has kept her engagement to him, there's nothing she can do but try to forgive him and see his good side.
391* AllLoveIsUnrequited: One of the aspects that brings her the most pain after she's sent crashing down from her idealist views is that she came to realize that no one has shown her even the slightest bit of romantic love. All affection and interest shown towards her has had an ulterior motive completely linked to her being a [[ThePawn political pawn]].
392-->'''Sansa's thoughts:''' No one will ever marry me for love.
393* AlmostKiss: Played with. Sansa remembers The Hound having kissed her before he left King's Landing. No such thing actually happened—Sandor event later confirms to Arya.
394* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: Done by proxy. Sansa is forced to marry into House Lannister after Tywin and Cersei arrange for her to marry Tyrion—without telling Sansa until the morning of the wedding. She attempts to run, but is quickly caught and brought to the altar against her wishes.
395* AnimalMotifs: Besides the standard direwolf imagery, Sansa herself is often compared to a bird.
396** Sandor calls her "little bird" and demands a song from her. Initially, he calls her like that because she is taught to repeat her handlers' words, like a bird from the Summer Islands; mockingly, that would be a parrot. Later, the meaning changes to something less mocking.
397** She's also in the company of Littlefinger, whose personal sigil is a mockingbird.
398** By the end of ''A Feast for Crows'', she resides in [[spoiler:the Vale of Arryn. The sigil of House Arryn is a falcon.]]
399* AnimalThemeNaming: [[spoiler:With Robert Arryn and Harry in the Vale plotline. House Arryn's sigil is a proud falcon, and cousins Robert and Harry, the two prospective heirs, are different types of birds: Robert is nicknamed Sweetrobin, referencing the small harmless robin in nature to reinforce that sickly SpoiledBrat Robert would be an InadequateInheritor to [[NobleBirdOfPrey House Arryn]] as-is. [[AlliterativeName Harry Hardyng]]'s name is close to ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_(bird) harrier]]'', a type of hawk; not quite a ''falcon'' but better than a robin, showing that, for [[JerkJock all his flaws]] and failure to be truly honorable and chivalrous (fathering bastards, being rude to Alayne, neither of which a true knight should be), he is at least [[ClosestThingWeGot closer to a proper Arryn heir]] as a handsome and skilled knight. ''The Winds of Winter'' also sets up both cousins being attracted to Alayne, who was nicknamed "little bird" by Sandor Clegane as Sansa Stark long before she came to the Vale as Alayne Stone. More worryingly, Littlefinger's manipulations and grooming Sansa to become a darker character have her positioned to become a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite brood parasite]], a type of parasitism most famous with birds. Sansa was brought to the Eyrie under a false identity to be sheltered and protected, and Littlefinger is working to kill the rightful heir and manipulate the new one into marrying Sansa so that she will benefit at the expense of her 'host family'.]]
400* ArrangedMarriage: Her high social standing leads to a number of offers, none of which end up very well.
401** Robert proposes a marriage between her and his eldest son Joffrey, thinking there could be nothing better than joining his best friend's family with his own. It doesn't happen.
402** 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 Willas is reputed to be a kindhearted and intelligent man and marrying him means that one day she'll be Lady of one of the most beautiful and prosperous regions of Westeros, with the added benefit of allowing her to get away from the Lannisters' grasp, but...
403** [[spoiler:Tywin Lannister catches wind of the Tyrell's plan and marries Sansa to his dwarf son Tyrion, who ends up treating her better than the rest of the family.]]
404** In ''A Feast for Crows'', [[spoiler:Petyr]] tells Sansa that [[spoiler:as soon as Cersei finds and kills Tyrion, thus freeing her from her marriage to him]], she shall be wed to the heir to the Vale. Once this happens, he plans to have Sansa [[spoiler:shed her Alayne Stone disguise and reclaim Winterfell in the Stark name, thus becoming the Lady of both the North and the East.]]
405* AttemptedRape: Four times. This poor girl just can't seem to catch a break. On the bright side, she's still 0/4 in it ever going beyond ''attempted'' rape, which is pretty good for a beautiful girl in ''this'' setting.
406** An angry mob at King's Landing attacks Joffrey and nearly drags Sansa from her horse. Sandor cuts them down and rescues her. Another noblewoman was gang-raped during this riot, so this could have been Sansa's fate had she not been rescued.
407** She fears the Hound might try to force a kiss on her when he appears in her room the night of the siege and forces her onto her bed with a knife to her throat. The reader finds out later that he was close to raping her, but her song changed his heart.
408** Joffrey threatens to do this to her during her [[spoiler:wedding to Tyrion]]. Tyrion stops this by threatening to cut off Joffrey's cock.
409** The drunk singer Marillion proposes to sleep with her when he sees her for the first time. She spurns him, but that doesn't quite stop him. When Lothor Brune shakes Marillion off her, she thinks he was Sandor for a moment.
410* AwfulWeddedLife: She doesn't enjoy being married to Tyrion one bit because their marriage was done against her will and is clearly an attempt by the Lannisters to [[PuppetKing control Winterfell through her]]. She also lives in constant fear of him using his MaritalRapeLicense. He doesn't treat her badly by the standards of the time, but he's still a Lannister and the bad blood between their Houses isn't something that's easily set aside.
411* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite Arya being the AnnoyingYoungerSibling for most of ''A Game of Thrones'' to Sansa, 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.
412* BastardUnderstudy: After the abuse at the hands of the Lannisters, Littlefinger is educating her in the game of thrones and the lies therein.
413* BeastAndBeauty: A motif most played with the hideous-looking Sandor Clegane, who is at times protective and at times terrifying and cruel. 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.)
414* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: She has to abandon most of the stuff about living honestly and honorably taught to her as a Tully-Stark, if she is to survive.
415* BewareTheQuietOnes: When Joffrey shows her the heads of her father and household on spikes, Sansa actually moves to push him off the bridge they're on. She's stopped by Sandor Clegane.
416* BigBrotherWorship:
417** To Robb, somewhat. She doesn't precisely play the trope straight, but she does have shades of it internally (as she has to publicly declare him a traitor in order to keep her head.) Justified as Robb's forces are her best hope of getting out of King's Landing.
418--->''Robb will kill them all'', she thought, exulting.
419* BondCreatures: She and Lady never really did get a chance to explore their warging nature that much, but judging by how distraught she was upon her direwolf's death, it was still very much a part of their combined makeup. Whether she can still explore possible skinchanging herself is unknown at this point. It's not like she's had much chance to be around wolves, dogs, or even other creatures since. She does meet an old blind dog in ''A Storm of Swords'' though and quickly befriends him.
420* BookSmart: She's better at reading and writing than her siblings and is skilled in the arts, though she's not good at [[EveryoneHatesMathematics math]]. She has also memorized many sigils and information about important people, as she can identify Barristan Selmy and Renly Baratheon just by looking at them for the first time.
421* BreakTheCutie: Sansa has the wrong idea about the world she lives in. Cersei Lannister and her deranged son make sure to teach her that the world is a cruel place by subjecting her to constant abuse and imprisonment.
422-->'''Sansa's thoughts:''' There are no heroes... In life, the monsters win.
423* BrokenBird: Her BreakTheCutie process had left her a much more jaded girl than she was before. Fittingly, she is even called "Little Bird" by Sandor.
424* BrokenPedestal:
425** Her image of living in a medieval fantasy world crumbles when she meets people who seem to exemplify different stereotypes of that world. Her PrinceCharming Joffrey is a sadist, DrunkWithPower. TheHighQueen Cersei is manipulative and cruel. Said queen forcing her pet direwolf to be killed while her prince stood by and smiled is certainly a red flag over their true nature, but what ultimately forces her to see them as the monsters they truly are is their role in her father’s execution. The knights who she thought are champions of justice and protectors of the weak turn out to be, at worst, AxeCrazy thugs, or at best, [[PunchClockVillain morally detached men]] who [[JustFollowingOrders use duty as an excuse]] from taking actual responsibility for the bad things they were ordered to do.
426** Her view of the Tyrells, the family she thought might save her from the Lannisters. She realizes that Loras' chivalry is all for show and that she doesn't mean anything to him. After Sansa is married off to Tyrion, and thus no longer a useful pawn, Margaery dumps her without a backward glance. [[spoiler:Littlefinger reveals that Olenna set her up to take the blame for Joffrey's murder.]]
427** Sansa even becomes disillusioned with her family as The Hound tells her the atrocities being done to them was probably done by them to others so the Starks can remain supreme.
428* CagedBirdMetaphor: She is frequently compared to a bird during her captivity in King's Landing.
429-->''The Hound is right ... I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me.''
430* CharacterDevelopment: From her initial appearance, she changes the most of anyone in the series with the exception of Jaime Lannister. She goes from a totally naive and out-of-her-element child to a manipulative liar-in-training. The first sign that she is changing is when she admits that Joffrey is a monster.
431* ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory: [[spoiler:Her cover story as Alayne Stone, Littlefinger's bastard daughter, is that her mother was a Braavosi noblewoman who died giving birth to her, and that she was raised by septas.]]
432* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of TheIngenue: Not only does she subvert the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism Disneyfied]] expectations of her character, but she doesn't die off like most characters like her do in [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Worlds]]. Instead, Sansa survives through her emotional strength, and gradually learns how to manipulate and scheme to her own ends.
433* DamselInDistress: Being constantly among enemies while she's a non-combatant, Sansa requires rescuing more than once.
434* DomesticAbuse: Poor girl is on the receiving end of this from Joffrey and his knights as petty revenge for Robb's victories. Part of her TraumaCongaLine.
435* DyeOrDie: After becoming the prime suspect in [[spoiler:Joffrey's murder]], Sansa must dye her distinctive auburn locks to a generic brown to mask her identity.
436* EverybodyHatesMathematics: While Sansa does well in all her other lessons, she's terrible at math. Arya comments that if she marries Joffrey, he better have a good steward.
437* FallenPrincess: She begins the series having everything a person in Westeros could ask for, but it all begins crumbling beneath her when the game of thrones begins.
438* FallGuy: [[spoiler:She is framed as a willing conspirator in the death of King Joffrey; turns out she was turned into a {{scapegoat}} by Olenna Tyrell.]]
439* FirstPeriodPanic: Justified. Sansa is afraid of getting her period because it would mean she could be married off to Joffrey. When she eventually wakes up with bloody sheets, she has a meltdown and tries in vain to hide the evidence.
440* {{Foil}}:
441** Sansa is a foil to her sister Arya. She's a deconstruction of the PrincessClassic and Arya is a deconstruction of the TomboyPrincess, but their trials have many similarities. Each have their idealist worldviews shattered, cope with various forms of abuse, are forced to flee and change their identities, and have to rely on individuals who are... less than trustworthy.
442** Lysa Tully. Both Lysa and Sansa fell in love with the wrong kind of man except Lysa never learns and becomes Littlefinger's willing pawn [[spoiler:going so far as killing her husband Jon Arryn for his sake]].
443** Cersei Lannister. She and Sansa both dreamed of becoming queen, but quickly became disenchanted with the social expectations that came with this.
444** Littlefinger. Both he and Sansa were {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}s as children and had sweet, gentle natures before going through a horrendous BreakTheCutie and TraumaCongaLine process, resulting in both becoming cynical and emotionally guarded.
445** The Hound. When he was younger, he had an idealistic and naive outlook, wanting to be a great knight like Sansa wanted to be a Lady, but was quickly robbed of it by his brother. He sees these same qualities in Sansa and attempts to both enlighten and protect her, ironically functioning as the KnightInShiningArmor (albeit an offbeat one) that he claims doesn't exist.
446** Curiously, to Tyrion. Though they are on opposite physionomic spectra when it comes to beauty, gender and size, they are intertwined in their stories. They come to the bitter realization that no one will ever marry them for love. They are both rather intelligent, if naive and they have to contend against the same people in King's Landing. They end up married to each other against their will and they are currently [[spoiler:on flight, as they are both accused of conspiring to kill Joffrey.]]
447* ForcedToWatch: She's made to watch at [[spoiler:her father's execution after being told that he would be shown mercy. Later Joffrey takes her out of her rooms and makes her stare at her father's head as it rots on a spike.]]
448* FreudianSlip: In ''A Feast for Crows'', Myranda Royce mentions that at the Wall, [[spoiler:Eddard Stark's bastard son has been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]]. Sansa blurts out [[spoiler:"Jon Snow?". As Littlefinger's daughter, she shouldn't even know who he is.]]
449* GildedCage: Her position as Joffrey's future queen. She's in a beautiful castle surrounded by servants, material comforts, and guards...as a glorified hostage, betrothed to a sadistic monster who killed her father while her family is being destroyed. Oh, and the noble guards dressed in gleaming white there to protect the whole family (which technically includes her) beat her on her royal fiance's orders. Even when Margaery ends up engaged to Joffrey, Sansa finds out that the king can still rape her, only their children will be illegitimate.
450* 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.
451* HasAType: She wants herself a PrincelyYoungMan very, ''very'' badly. The candidates turn out to be {{Jerk Jock}}-ish at best (with Loras' IncompatibleOrientation to boot) and ''[[TheCaligula Joffrey]]'' at worst. Including the wannabe-rapist Marillion, ''any'' hot guy that has a business with her will be a certified JerkAss.
452* TheHeart: She's not usually able to be in this position, but during the Blackwater when Cersei abandons the women and children stuck in the castle, Sansa calms them down and makes the whole room less afraid.
453* 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.
454* HeroicBSOD:
455** [[spoiler:Her father's death]] brings about one. She spends days locked in her chamber, not eating, only sleeping and crying. At one point she even contemplates jumping out the window to her death, but doesn't have the nerve to go through with it.
456** After Joffrey orders her beaten and stripped, Tyrion rescues her and orders the castle doctor to tend to her injuries. Sansa spends the whole time silent and shaking as the maids clean her up and try to comfort her, and she takes the wine that the doctor offers her. She only recovers the next day when Tyrion apologizes for the traumatic experience.
457** She freaks out when she starts menstruating, to the point where she tries to burn her mattress to hide it. What she's really afraid of is that Joffrey will try raping her as soon as he finds out.
458** The poor girl spends her time after hearing about [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]] in a catatonic state.
459* 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]]
460
461* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter:
462** She begins as one, thinking everyone who is highborn and pretty to be good. She's even determined to see Joffrey as PrinceCharming and Cersei as TheHighQueen, even after she orders Lady’s execution. As soon as she sees their true colors, her worldview changes and she stops being this, being able to judge people somewhat more accurately. Still, since she feels she can't pick up on who her allies are, she just starts to seclude herself from the world whenever feasible, assuming everyone wants to hurt her.
463** Her chapters in the books generally show her as a very perceptive and meticulous young lady, though she is still a diamond in raw and she often questions her judgement. For example, she is one among a handful of characters to realize that there's something rather... [[{{Yandere}} off about Littlefinger]], only to dismiss it after a moment.
464* HyperAwareness: As indicated by her narration, she is incredibly observant and prone to picking up the smallest details, but just doesn't know how to use this correctly until Littlefinger begins teaching her. She is also one of few characters able to provide an intimate glimpse into [[HiddenAgendaVillain Littlefinger's]] psyche; indeed, one of the very first things she notices about him upon being introduced to him is how his eyes doesn't smile when his mouth does.
465* InAnotherMansShoes: [[spoiler:After assuming the identity of Alayne Stone, Littlefinger's bastard daughter. Although she ''is'' still quite privileged by bastard standards as she is allowed to order servants about, she is still saddened by not being able to wear the clothes and jewels she wishes to since that would threaten her cover. Of course, it's a much better life than [[GildedCage where she was in Kings Landing]] and she realizes that.]]
466* IHaveYourWife: Used as leverage against Ned in an effort to get him to submit to the Lannisters' bidding. Later, she is used as a hostage in King's Landing to try and make the North bend the knee. It doesn't work until Catelyn gives them the opening for the Red Wedding.
467* IJustWantToBeLoved: One of her main gripes with her being cast down from her WideEyedIdealist situation is that no one has made the slightest effort to approach her with romantic intentions. In ''A Feast For Crows'', she is already resigned to the belief that no one will marry her out of love.
468* TheIngenue: Deconstructed. Her naivety and innocence only serve to make her life hell, and derail her father's plans to protect their family.
469* InnocenceLost: Goes from sweet PrincessClassic to BrokenBird over a couple of years. The constant abuse, lies and rape attempts she had to endure don't leave much room for her initial innocent personality. The last bit of innocence crumbles away when [[spoiler:her own aunt tries to kill her in a crazy fit because she thinks Sansa is attempting to seduce Petyr]].
470* InnocentBlueEyes: She inherited her mother's blue eyes, and naively believes the world works like a fairy tale. The trope is lampshaded by Littlefinger, who calls her eyes honest and innocent. Needless to say, she subverts this trope by also being an example of InnocenceLost.
471-->'''Littlefinger:''' You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes.
472* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Lothor Brune, who once saves her from a wannabe-rapist. Later he is quick to call a nobleman who's insulted her 'the Arse', and she hugs him.
473* JadeColoredGlasses: As the series advances, Sansa comes to view the world in a cynical light, leading her to trust almost no one.
474* LikeADuckTakesToWater: After everything goes to hell in the first book, Sansa is kept hostage in [[DecadentCourt King's Landing]] and other noble courts. Growing up, she'd excelled in traditionally ladylike things like people skills and needlework, which she learns to utilize while trying to keep her head.
475-->Joffrey frowned. Sansa felt that she ought to say something. What was it that Septa Mordane used to tell her? A lady's armor is courtesy, that was it. She donned her armor and said, "I'm sorry my lady mother took you captive, my lord."
476* LikeFatherLikeSon: She may look like her mother, but like Ned, Sansa is extremely idealistic and trusting, especially when it comes to authority figures. Her and her father's tendency to get swayed by their trust in the idealistic way they believe the world works bites them in the ass in ''A Game of Thrones'' and led to their imprisonment.
477* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: She tends to fall for the exactly wrong types of men, who cannot or won't reciprocate her feelings:
478** Waymar Royce, who is on the road to become a CelibateHero by joining the Night's Watch and a {{Jerkass}} to boot;
479** Joffrey Baratheon, TheCaligula;
480** Loras Tyrell, who is in a TransparentCloset;
481** Renly Baratheon, who is [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday keeping the pretense]];
482* LooseLips:
483** Babbled to Cersei about Ned's plan to remove his family from the capital, leading to her becoming a hostage and Arya becoming a fugitive.
484** Prevented the Tyrells' plan to whisk her away to Highgarden by confiding in Ser Dontos, who was really a FalseFriend employed by Littlefinger.
485* LossOfIdentity:
486** Sansa is implied to be losing her sense of identity. In ''A Feast for Crows'', [[spoiler:after assuming the identity of Alayne Stone, her chapters are titled "Alayne", she's called that by the narrative, and she thinks of Littlefinger as "her father"]].
487--->'''George R. R. Martin:''' Sansa may be dead as well. [[spoiler:There's only Alayne Stone.]]
488** Subverted in the excerpt from ''Winds Of Winter'', however, which [[spoiler:suggests that she considers Sansa and Alayne two different people and sometimes habitually thinks as Sansa]].
489* LovableAlphaBitch: Her initial characterization has shades of this. Haughty and patronizing, she bullies her little sister, Arya, by calling her names, telling her she should have died, and belittling her appearance. But despite this, she does genuinely love her friends from Winterfell and family. From her perspective, her treatment of Arya is something she has a right to do, particularly since their primary instructor, Septa Mordane, encourages and compliments Sansa's skills while discouraging Arya's behavior. And on top of that, she is overwhelmingly naive and can be sweet.
490* MachiavelliWasWrong: When Cersei tells her that the best way to ensure loyalty is through fear, Sansa silently disagrees because she had always been taught that love was the surest way to gain loyalty:
491-->If I am ever queen, I will make [the smallfolk] love me.
492* MaidenNameDebate: Following her marriage, she should be called "Sansa ''Lannister''" but never actually is. No doubt, because many people are planning to either use the non-consumation to secure an annulment or waiting for Tyrion to die and leave her free for another marriage.
493* MakeAWish: Back in ''A Game of Thrones'', Sansa wishes that some hero would throw Janos Slynt down and cut off his ugly head. [[spoiler:Guess what her brother Jon, now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, does in ''A Dance with Dragons'' when Slynt disobeys Jon's orders.]]
494* ManipulativeBitch: She is trying to learn how to play the game via lies and manipulation through Littlefinger's very weird tutelage.
495* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:If you [[{{Portmanteau}} combine the names for ''Alayne'' and ''Stone'']] you get the word ''alone''. [[BilingualBonus Probably a coincidence]], but with a different pronunciation, ''Alayne'' sounds a lot like ''allein(e)'', the German word for "alone".]]
496* MiseryBuildsCharacter: It's only after her father dies and Joffrey orders his men to beat her up on a regular basis that she becomes a kinder person and realizes she's going to marry a monster.
497* MisplacedRetribution: Sansa suffers for this repeatedly. In ''A Clash of Kings'', Joffrey has her beaten for Robb's successes in the war. Later in ''A Storm of Swords'', when Littlefinger forces a kiss on Sansa, Lysa blames her for pursuing him and attempts to murder her.
498* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Played with. According to most of the Lannisters and the court, this was the reason Sansa [[spoiler:conspired to kill Joffrey]]. As it turns out, [[spoiler:they're wrong, as Sansa had nothing to do with it and was framed by the Tyrells to take the fall.]]
499* MoralityPet: Sansa is one of the few people Sandor Clegane seems to show a softer side to. Though he scares her, he also acts protective towards her and even regrets letting Joffrey rough her up for his twisted amusement.
500* NaiveNewcomer: King's Landing court is not the illustrious castle with knights in shining armor she thought it would be.
501* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: She shares her name after an ancestor.
502* NearRapeExperience: During the Battle of the Blackwater, a very drunk Sandor Clegane comes into her room, forces her onto her bed, and holds a knife to her throat. He later admits he would have raped her, but he left after demanding a song from her. Ends with them both in tears. She is later almost raped by a bard in her aunt's employ.
503* 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 placed all of her hatred on Arya and their father.
504* NotSoAboveItAll:
505** While Cersei chastises her for "being perfect", Sansa is very much hurt by the mistreatment she is subjected to. In fact, Cersei's annoyance stems from the fact that Sansa is seemingly taking everything so gracefully and she lowers her guard with the girl. According to Cersei and the Lannisters, [[spoiler:this is what led Sansa to "kill Joffrey"]].
506** As noted in BewareTheQuietOnes, she almost pushed Joffrey from a height but was stopped by Sandor Clegane.
507* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: All the Stark children are wargs, though we haven't seen anything from Sansa yet, possibly because her direwolf, Lady, is one of the series' first casualties, and because she has little to no contact with animals after this.
508* ParentalSubstitute: Her cousin Robert (Sweetrobin) Arryn sees her as a mother figure, with Sansa being the only one besides his mother to whom he responds positively.
509* PassiveAggressiveKombat: The moves she does make on her own usually fall into this category in a subtle form of the trope. She isn't in a position to actively fight against her enemies and abusers, so she is forced to use what seemingly benign weapons she does have (politeness, courtesy, and manners) to protect herself from abuse. She starts sharpening these skills on Joffrey out of necessity, and continues to improve.
510* ThePawn: She has been used to advance the plots of all of the people she has met by virtue of who she is and the social position she has, garnering no benefit for herself whatsoever. In King's Landing, she is even slowly losing social standing until she is cast aside as a harmless [[YesMan yes-girl]]. She does start to realize this, but she also laments the fact that no one has shown her sincere romantic affection in any way and no one has made the most minimal effort to make her happy, so she resorts to [[spoiler:start imagining that The Hound kissed her.]]
511* PinballProtagonist: Sansa spends a lot of time early on being pushed around by other characters, and she stands out as being reactive and passive while the other [=POV=]s are more proactive. Justified, though, in that she's a very sheltered preteen noble girl (so this trope is expected of her) unable to escape King's Landing like Arya. It doesn't help that most of her time in the capital is spent being physically and emotionally abused by her future in-laws.
512* PluckyGirl: She's growing into this, though not before becoming [[BreakTheCutie broken]] first.
513* PolitenessJudo: One of her early lessons that come in handy even when held captive and surrounded by enemies is "courtesy is a lady's armor." She uses politeness and courteous phrases to protect herself from others.
514* PromotionToParent: She takes care of her cousin Sweetrobin after [[spoiler:Littlefinger sends Lysa flying through the Moon Door]].
515* ProperLady: Just like her mother, she is a great example of feminine grace and has impeccable social skills.
516* PuppetKing: What the Lannisters and Tyrells mean for Sansa should they get their hands on Winterfell through her. [[spoiler:Littlefinger now seems to be planning to make her a puppet queen, as he plans to use Sansa to unite the North, Vale, and Trident and possibly use their combined might to defeat the rest of Westeros.]]
517* PutOnABus: She does not appear in the fifth book, but will return in the sixth.
518* TheResenter: Downplayed; in the first book her dialogue implies she's resentful of how indulged and adored Arya is, getting away with breaking their parents' rules, despite being horrible at traditionally ladylike things she is. In comparison, Sansa is much more celebrated in her docility, while Arya's hot-headedness is merely tolerated.
519* ReplacementGoldfish:
520** Littlefinger seems to have transferred his unrequited affections from Catelyn to Sansa, who strongly resembles her mother.
521** She herself is replaced by Margaery Tyrell as betrothed to Joffrey, as she loses political value for the Lannisters once the Starks are out of the way.
522* ResentfulOutnumberedSibling: She has a younger sister and four brothers, but feels very left out gender roles-wise because said sister is extremely tomboyish. She says she always wanted to have a sister like the classically feminine Margaery.
523* RightHandedMirror: A trait that reinforces just how her sister Arya is her polar opposite.
524* SarcasmBlind: She actually isn't, but often has to outwardly pretend she is. Or, at the very least, be very convincingly unbothered. It drove both Cersei and Joffrey up the wall whenever it successfully [[SarcasmFailure blocked their snark]] in public.
525* ShamefulStrip: Joffrey orders her to be stripped and beaten as petty revenge for Robb's victories. Tyrion intervenes before it gets too far, and calls out Joffrey for beating up a little girl.
526* ShelteredAristocrat: She was very sheltered growing up, and it shows. Like her sister and four brothers, Sansa has very little experience with the world outside of Winterfell until she leaves her home. What she has learned of the world, she has learned from songs, so naturally she's very naive. She is genuinely compassionate and gentle, her upbringing and immaturity at the start of the series can lead to her acting somewhat bratty and arrogant in the first book, especially towards Arya. She's also not very interested in commoners, when ideally, any young noble woman who aspires to be the queen should care about them to fulfill her ''noblesse oblige''.
527* ShroudedInMyth: [[spoiler:After Joffrey is poisoned at his own wedding, Sansa mysteriously vanishes (spirited away by Dontos and Littlefinger) is believed to be responsible. Fanciful rumors start flying around as to what happened and how she did it.]]
528-->'''Polliver''': [[spoiler:The northern girl. Winterfell’s daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. But she left the dwarf behind and Cersei means to have his head.]]\
529'''One of Lord Rowan's archers''': [[spoiler:The dwarf's wife did the murder with him. Afterward, she vanished from the hall in a puff of brimstone, and a ghostly direwolf was seen prowling the Red Keep, blood dripping from his jaws.]]
530* SiblingYinYang:
531** Arya's polar opposite in terms of [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl looks and personality]].
532** With her half-brother Jon, regarding looks and status. Though they have some things in common as noted above, Jon is the among the most "northern-cultured" of the Stark children alongside Bran and he also has the Stark look alongside Arya. Meanwhile, Sansa is the most "southern-cultured" Stark child who resembles Catelyn the most. [[spoiler:Later, [[HourglassPlot they switch roles later on with Sansa assuming the identity of a bastard child and Jon being forced to become a Lord and take leadership]]]].
533* SilkHidingSteel: Grows into this, learning to utilize her courtly skills and ProperLady manners to protect herself. "Courtesy is a lady's armor" indeed.
534* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Poor Sansa's looks tend to get her the wrong kind of attention from men, which in turn may also result in murderous rage from jealous women. Interestingly, it's averted in her relationship with Cersei, who seems to appreciate Sansa's beauty and never goes paranoid over the possibility of Sansa being "the younger, more beautiful queen" who would threaten her.
535* TheSocialExpert: Sansa has nearly perfect manners, makes everyone feel at ease around her, and prides herself on always knowing what to say. Even Tyrion notes how well she does with people; this is one of the main reasons she is able to survive her ordeal with the Lannisters:
536--> ''She is good at this'', he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. [...] Without his father beside him holding him up, [Lancel] would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed.
537* StepfordSmiler: To survive in Kings Landing after her father beheading, Sansa must smile politely and repeatedly assure everyone how much she loves Joffrey.
538* StrongFamilyResemblance: She's supposedly the spitting image of her mother at the same age. Naturally, she resembles her aunt Lysa as well, [[spoiler:which may be one of the reasons why Robert Arryn also views her as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]] and has a PrecociousCrush on her.]]
539* TantrumThrowing: She throws a tantrum when Ned informs her that he is sending her back to Winterfell and will end her betrothal without explaining why.
540* TeamMom:
541** After Cersei leaves the ballroom during the Battle of Blackwater, Sansa takes it upon herself to take care of the women and children left behind. She keeps them calm, leads them in song and prayer, and helps a wounded Lancel Lannister to a maester.
542** In ''A Feast for Crows'', [[spoiler:as she becomes the ''de facto'' Lady of the Eyrie after Lysa Arryn's death]]. She manages the household while Littlefinger is away and serves as Sweetrobin's primary caregiver. Subverted though, because this doesn't stop her from thinking about giving him a slap or two for getting on her nerves [[spoiler:or unknowingly poisoning him with sweetsleep.]]
543* When we first meet her, she is leading conversation with the other little girls and shows a tender, motherly side to 6-year-old Beth.
544* TheTease: Shows some shades of this in her ''The Winds of Winter'' preview chapter, [[spoiler:employing her charms on Harrold Hardyng. Played with, in that she's being forced to do this by Littlefinger.]]
545* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Is much better at embroidery than her tomboy sister Arya.
546* ThickerThanWater: Played with. Tyrion points out to Joffrey that Sansa's father might have been a traitor, but she still deserves to be mourning just like he should be mourning King Robert's death. Sansa halfway rebukes him by repeating that Ned was a traitor just as a mechanism for her own survival.
547* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: Justified, as her parents set a high example of romance and let her learn all the songs of love and chivalry, to her detriment.
548* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She plays the beautiful, princessy girly-girl part to Arya's tomboy.
549* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sansa loves lemon cakes. She even uses lemon perfume once when given the option.
550* TragicKeepsake: In ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' she still keeps the blood-splattered white Kingsguard cloak, which Sandor Clegane left to her before leaving King's Landing.
551* TraumaCongaLine: King's Landing was not kind to her.
552* UnreliableNarrator: She repeatedly remembers situations differently than they played out. When Joffrey abused the butcher's boy, the reader first gets the story accurately from her perspective, but later in the novel, Sansa has changed that event from Joffrey attacking Mycah to Mycah attacking Joffrey. In one of her POV chapters in ''A Storm of Swords'', Sansa remembers Sandor kissing her the night of the siege in King's Landing, though that never happened. [[MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast She actually sang a song for him.]]
553* UnresolvedSexualTension: She and Sandor have a strange connection which has yet to be resolved.
554* UnwantedSpouse: Sooner than later, Joffrey becomes her unwanted ''fiance'', even though she has to keep up the pretense of loving him in order to keep her head. Later, she and Tyrion become this to each other.
555* UnwittingPawn: When Ned Stark is captured as a traitor, Sansa has to resort to the only authority figures she has available, meaning the Royal Court and the Queen, unbeknownst that poised her father as a traitor.
556* UpperClassTwit: Her standard of "how good of a person someone is" is directly tied up in "how handsome/beautiful said person is" because of how she sees life like the songs and fairy tales. This begins to lessen during the course of the novels.
557* VirginTension: Much is made of the fact that Sansa's maidenhead is still intact—though it's less to do with her well-being and more with her value as a political pawn.
558* WideEyedIdealist: Due to her parents' overly sheltering her, she is too trusting at the beginning, believing Cersei wants what's best for her. Her CharacterDevelopment has her grow out of this.
559* WrongGenreSavvy: Had Sansa realized sooner that world wasn't like a fairytale, she would've gone through a bit less hardship. Then again, had she gone through less hardship, she wouldn't have realized that the world wasn't like a fairytale...
560* YankTheDogsChain: By book three, she's suffered through a TraumaCongaLine, but early in the book, Margaery and Olenna offer to marry her to Tyrell heir Willas—meaning she'd be able to get away from King's Landing and become Lady of Highgarden (one of the nicest places in Westeros), even if it is for her claim to Winterfell. [[spoiler:It doesn't happen because when Tywin finds out, he forcibly marries her to his son Tyrion instead.]]
561* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Robb believes that once the Lannisters get an heir to Winterfell out of her, they'll kill her.
562* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: Sansa tells Arya that she and Nymeria should have died instead of Lady, after Ned executes Lady for the fault of Arya's wolf coming to her defense against Joffrey’s bloodlust.
563[[/folder]]
564
565[[folder:Arya Stark*]]
566!!Princess Arya Stark
567!!!Arya Horseface, Arya Underfoot, Arry, Lumpyface, Lumpyhead, Weasel, Nymeria, Nan, Squab, Salty, Cat of the Canals, Beth the Blind Girl, The ugly little girl, Mercedene, Mercy, the Night Wolf, Valiant Ned's precious little girl
568
569[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arya.jpg]]
570->''"Fear cuts deeper than swords."''
571
572Eddard's free-spirited, nine-year-old tomboy daughter who doesn't fit the expectations of a highborn girl at all. She identifies with her brother Jon, a fellow outsider, with who she is very close, and enjoys the company of those from lower classes, such as servants and their children. When the war breaks out, Arya plunges into the wide world as she is forced to go on the run and becomes embroiled in a surprising number of violent adventures despite her tender age.\
573\
574Her direwolf is Nymeria.
575----
576* AccidentalHero: [[spoiler:In ''The Winds of Winter,'' she kills Raff the Sweetling, inadvertently saving the life of Bobono the dwarf, whom Raff himself was planning to kill, thinking he was Tyrion and hoping to bring his head back to King's Landing for a lordship.]]
577* ActionSurvivor: Arya survives many dangerous and violent situation throughout her story despite not being physically strong or trained in arms. From the fourth book onward, she is progressing toward being an assassin.
578* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Arya was envious of Sansa's beauty and talents, which would get Sansa far in Westeros's patriarchal society. Although Arya has her own talents (such as math, knowledge of the outdoors, fighting, and horseback riding) that help her survive disguised as a commoner, they aren't skills that are valued or acknowledged in a highborn girl.
579* AnimalEyeSpy: During ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' Arya begins to warg into her lost direwolf, Nymeria, while she is asleep. [[spoiler:When she is briefly blinded in Braavos she realizes she can see through the eyes of a cat.]]
580* AnimalMotif:
581** The first book has her chasing cats. In Braavos, she takes up the name of Cat of the Canals because there are many cats in Braavos and an additional one wouldn't make a difference. [[spoiler:She ends up skinchanging into one while being temporarily blind.]]
582** She's also described as a "she-wolf" due to her aggressive nature and the sigil of her house. She repeatedly refers to herself as a wolf in addition to warging into Nymeria.
583** While she's taken prisoner and sent to Harrenhal, she compares herself to a sheep (because of her enforced passiveness in the face of the torture, rape and murder she witnesses) and a mouse (because she's too small and unimportant to notice in the vast castle). When she decides to escape she goes back to using wolf imagery to encourage herself.
584* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Her older brothers adore her, but Sansa, with whom she shares TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry, certainly sees her this way in the first book since Arya frequently gets away with not behaving like a noblewoman and can be a {{Jerkass}} when she's not pleased with Sansa.
585* AntiHero: She appears to be slowly getting darker as she [[TookALevelInBadass takes levels in badass]]: she's a PragmaticHero in ''Literature/AClashOfKings'' and ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'', who is continually forced into situations where she must kill in order to stay alive or to escape bad situations. In ''A Dance With Dragons'', [[spoiler:Arya is given her first job as an assassin]].
586* ArrangedMarriage: Is obliged to wed Elmar Frey, due to Robb's negotiations with the Late Lord Walder. Due to her own circumstances, she never actually finds out about this. The result is a humorous scene late in ''Literature/AClashOfKings'' where she runs into her own former fiancé, ''while'' he is moping over the rift between Starks and Freys and the loss of his "princess."
587-->'''Arya:''' My brothers might be dead.\
588'''Elmar:''' No one cares about a serving girl's brothers.\
589'''Arya:''' I hope your princess dies!
590* AttemptedRape: Multiple characters along Arya's journey threaten her with rape, including a woman.
591* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther:
592** With Sansa. Arya admits to herself at one point in the story that she wouldn't mind playing the "princess" and dressing to fit the part if it meant that she would be with Sansa again.
593** Also with her mother, Catelyn. While Arya is on the run, she sees a positive mother figure in Lady Smallwood during ''A Storm of Swords'' and more than anything, longs to get back to her mother. When she witnesses [[spoiler:the Red Wedding, she is devastated by the thought that her mother died and goes through [[FiveStagesOfGrief several stages of grief]], finally coming to accept that her mother is gone when Nymeria finds and pulls Catelyn's naked corpse out of the river. Nymeria, who is a part of Arya, also is fiercely protective of Catelyn's corpse and only runs away when humans arrive.]] Arya also names herself after her mother when she arrives in Braavos and roams the streets as a fish merchant. Ironically, Arya fears (rightfully in Robb's case), that her mother wouldn't ransom her back, when Catelyn actually tries everything, even freeing Jaime, to get her beloved daughters back, and supports Arya being one of Robb's potential successors- despite her having been missing for months and Robb giving her up for dead.
594* AxCrazy: After the [[DespairEventHorizon Red Wedding]], she certainly qualifies with how utterly unhinged and bloodthirsty she becomes on her journey with Sandor, although ironically the [[TrainingFromHell strict training regime]] and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality moral code]] at the House of Black and White seems to be healing much of her psyche and taking her out of this trope.
595* BecomingTheMask: During Arya's journey she takes on different names and roles in order to survive. While she never loses who she is, Arya sometimes gets so deep into her new roles that she refers to them as different and independent entities. [[spoiler:The Faceless Men try to bring this about deliberately as part of their training, in which their assassins think of themselves as "no one" and take on the personality (and face) of the person they're impersonating. Sure enough Arya starts to think of herself as Cat of the Canals, a StreetUrchin in Braavos, but her 'wolf-dreams' (see BondCreatures), her refusal to give up Needle, her usage of names that have a connection to her past[[note]]"Cat" was her mother's nickname, "Beth" was the name of Ser Rodrik Cassel's daughter, and "Mercy" is a connection to Sandor Clegane and the "gift of mercy"[[/note]] and her execution of a Night's Watch deserter show that her original identity is still resisting.]]
596* BigBrotherWorship: ''Adores'' her older half-brother Jon, whom she bonds with over being outsiders. To a lesser extent, Robb.
597* BlackSheep:
598** Played with; while Arya seems to view herself as this, it's not totally true; she is loved by all the servants and fits in with her family very well, but she does chafe at the way Ned won't let her take up hobbies and education reserved for her brothers.
599--->Her father had hunted boar in the wolfswood with Robb and Jon. Once he even took Bran, but never Arya, even though she was older. Septa Mordane said boar hunting was not for ladies, and Mother only promised that when she was older she might have her own hawk. She was older now, but if she had a hawk she’d ''eat'' it.
600** Interestingly ZigZagged in that while Arya ''feels'' like the BlackSheep of her true-born siblings, she is the only true-born Stark of her generation to inherit the Stark look and countenance. While her trueborn siblings embody the accepted characteristics and roles expected of them in Westeros society, spanning across all history and generations they are the true {{black sheep}} of the Stark line since they inherited the Tully looks and dispositions. The irony isn't lost on Arya that a TomboyPrincess like her and HeroicBastard like Jon are the most "Stark-like" of their siblings, yet that doesn't make them feel any less like outcasts because they're different from the ''current'' generation of House Stark.
601* BondCreatures: Like all the Starks, she has a potential to be a warg. It's theorized that the reason she's not doing well with her [[spoiler:Faceless Man training]] is because part of her is still running around Westeros, in the form of Nymeria. In the fifth book, while blind, she begins to skinchange into cats during her dreams and twice while she is awake. In short, she's heading towards being a full-blown [[TheBeastmaster twoskin skinchanger]] with a bit more practice to learn control and the opportunity to settle on a specific feline to work with. Of her siblings, only Bran shows this flexibility in skill, and although he trumps her in ''how'' flexible he is, he has had training while Arya hasn't.
602* BrattyHalfPint: Arya is a petite child with only a little training in combat, so she is easily physically outmatched by those around her. Being highborn, she is outspoken and thus has to force herself to stay quiet and calm during dangerous moments.
603* BreakTheCutie: Arya's PluckyGirl nature tends to obscure the fact that she's living with a ''massive'' amount of trauma, grief and anger (enough to frighten an old wood-witch she encounters in ''A Storm of Swords'') that's only shown through her desire to murder the people who have gotten away with various crimes.
604* BrokenBird: Poor Arya's gone from spirited tomboy to a damaged child who has learned to kill as a means of survival and has only been able to find a safe place to live among assassins.
605* CassandraTruth: Happens twice in ''A Clash of Kings.''
606** When traveling northward with Yoren and the Night's Watch recruits, Arya alone doesn't want to spend the night in an abandoned village because she rightly guesses that the villagers fled for a reason. Everyone dismisses her as craven, then Lannister knights come to raid the village and attack and kill most of their party, including Yoren.
607** While recouping with other surviving recruits, Arya insists on scoping out a village alone because she's quieter than the others and less likely to get caught if there are more [[RapePillageAndBurn brutal knights there]]. Gendry "[[MeaningfulName the Bull]]" insists on following her, and sure enough, he gets caught. Hot Pie then insists on accompanying Arya to rescue Gendry, and then ''he's'' promptly caught and gives Arya's position away, leaving them all at the mercy of Gregor's [[SociopathicSoldier men]].
608* CharacterCatchphrase: Bordering on a VerbalTic, she frequently calls things and people "stupid" or "you stupid".
609* CharacterTics: Chewing on her lip (like Cat and Robb when were younger). [[spoiler:The Faceless Men train her out of it since it's an idiosyncrasy of Arya Stark.]]
610* ChekhovsClassroom: She constantly refers back to Syrio's lessons throughout her ordeals, though they only sometimes help her.
611* ChekhovsGun: The iron coin which Jaqen H'ghar gives her, which isn't just a keepsake. It secures her passage to Braavos.
612* ChekhovsSkill: The first thing Jon teaches her about sword fighting is, ''"Stick them with the pointy end."'' When it finally comes down to defending her life, Arya panics so much that that's the only thing she manages to remember, but it works.
613* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Her impulsive nature and fierce sense of justice means she's quick to defend the more vulnerable and champion the smallfolk. Given this is [[CrapsackWorld Westeros]], her efforts don't always turn out well (such as when she attacks Joffrey to protect her friend Mycah) but there are occasions when they pay off, in particular when she gets Jaqen's help for saving his life.
614* ChildrenForcedToKill: Getting away from King's Landing leaves her stranded in a war-torn land where people look to take advantage of her or kill her. After she gets captured by Gregor Clegane's men she begins developing a nonchalant attitude toward killing. [[spoiler:She later enters the assassin's guild known as the "Faceless Men".]]
615* ColorMotif: [[AntiHero Gray]]. Gray is the color of her eyes, gray is the city she found some peace in, gray is what she describes herself. Gray is also of House Stark's main colors.
616* ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory: While working in the House of Black and White, she takes on the identity of an orphan girl named Cat of the Canals. Her cover story is that her father was oarmaster on a galley and took her to sea when her mother died, then he died too and the ship's captain abandoned her in Braavos, having no more use for her.
617* CreepyChild: Starts veering toward this when she begins training to be a Faceless Man, as she becomes increasingly cavalier about killing and death. Plus there's the fact that she is rapidly closing in on a double-digit kill count and isn't even a teenager yet.
618* DaddysGirl: She had a very close bond with Ned. Possibly due to her StrongFamilyResemblance and general shared traits with his late sister.
619* DanceBattler: Arya's water dancing (a style of swordfighting), which was in the rhythmic, dance-like Braavosi style.
620* DeadGuyJunior: She is named after her father's grandmother Arya Flint.
621* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
622** ActionGirl: She received a few months of water dancer training with the former First Sword of Braavos and uses those skills throughout her journey. However, she can only reliably beat other children with it and has to rely on manipulation and subtlety when facing adults.
623** KidHero: Arya is a more subtle deconstruction of the kid hero, as she is one of the child protagonists of the series, has a high sense of justice, she takes on opponents larger and more skilled than herself, and has been able to repeatedly outsmart adults. However, the villains she wants to kill believe she is dead and are unaware of her true identity.
624* DeliberatelyCuteChild: Has more than one kill under her belt using this approach.
625* DontCallMeSir:
626** Despite being the daughter of a high lord, she dislikes being called "milady" or "my lady."
627** Due to her garb and unkempt appearance, she is initially confused with a boy and has to point out that she isn't; later, she has to get used to it by force.
628* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: The kindly man refers to her "sad gray eyes that have seen so much".
629* EveryoneHasStandards: She’s enraged at Sansa for lying on Joffrey’s behalf instead of telling the truth and taking her side, but even she was pissed at Cersei demanding Sansa’s pet direwolf, Lady, be the one killed in place of her direwolf, Nymeria. She even yells out that Lady is completely innocent and to leave her alone. Arya may have attacked her sister over her lies yet she still loved the direwolves and refused to forgive Cersei and Joffrey over this.
630* EvilMentor: You know your life's in the gutter when your only two mentors of recent memory are [[BloodKnight Sandor Clegane]] and a [[HitmanWithAHeart face-shifting assassin.]]
631* FilleFatale: In [[spoiler:''The Winds of Winter'', Arya seduces [[SoftspokenSadist Raff The Sweetling]], gets him in her room and [[{{Revenge}} then kills him the same way he killed Lommy]]]].
632* FlowerMotifs: Arya is fond of flowers; she collects them for her father and later counts them on their way to King's Landing.
633* {{Foil}}: Her sister Sansa was created as her foil. Despite being as different as night and day, their quests become increasingly parallel as {{fallen princess}}es who shed their initial idealism and sense of identity in order to survive.
634* ForgottenFallenFriend: Arya goes out of her way to defy this trope. Whether they were highborn or low, no matter how much or how little time they spent together, she will never forget the memory of anyone she considers a friend. And if they die, she ''will'' avenge their death, no matter how long it takes her. [[spoiler:She refuses Sandor the gift of Mercy for killing Mycah the butcher's boy, and kills Raff the Sweetling in the exact same way he killed Lommy Greenhands.]]
635* FreeRangeChildren: Deconstructed. Arya's chapters are full of graphic depictions of the hardships of being homeless in an epic fantasy world.
636* GenerationXerox: Her similarity to her aunt Lyanna in both appearance and temperament is frequently noted. A scene Bran witnesses from the past even shows Lyanna calling Benjen "stupid" when they were children, which Arya frequently calls people, and he initially mistakes Lyanna for Arya.
637* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Arya and Sansa have a strained relationship due to their vastly different personalities and the way adults pit them against each other. We're introduced to both girls at a sewing circle with Princess Myrcella, where Sansa is minding her own business chatting with the girls and Arya rather sullenly thinks of all the ways Sansa is supposedly better than her, except for sums.
638* GoodWithNumbers: Arya claims to be better at math than her older sister.
639* GuileHero: Arya relies on her intelligence and cunning to survive after being forced into hiding among the common folk. It especially becomes handy after [[spoiler:she joins up with the Faceless Men]].
640* HatesBaths: While staying at a noblewoman's castle Arya is forced to bathe and [[SheCleansUpNicely wear a dress]]. Gendry sees her and bursts out laughing, so Arya picks a fight with him to get back to her usual messy self.
641* HeroicBSOD: After [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]], she goes into a catatonic state, even passing up the chance to murder Sandor in his sleep, which she had been trying to do repeatedly beforehand.
642* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Arya trusts knights initially and assumes that Robb's men are as good and noble as he is. She is horribly wrong. Zigzagged in that she also hates Cersei when she meets her, but for a silly reasons (Cersei forbids the girls bringing their direwolves to tea). She trusts the Kindly Man later on, who is outwardly genial to her but is running an assassin's guild and not about hitting her.
643* HotBlooded: Her father says she has "the wolf blood", like her aunt Lyanna. Or [[LikeFatherLikeSon like Catelyn]].
644* HowDareYouDieOnMe: She is both sad and angry at Yoren for dying because he had promised to take her home to Winterfell. She has a similar reaction in ''A Game of Thrones'' during the purge of the Stark household when she finds the dead body of the household guard Desmond, who promised her that every Northman was worth ten Southron swords, yet he and several others died while only taking one Lannister guard down with them.
645* HyperAwareness: She is very observant at the start of the series, but her training focuses on heightening that ability.
646** Much earlier in ''A Game of Thrones'', she managed to not fall for a Lannister trap, when a ship supposedly to take her home was surrounded by Lannister men in Stark clothes. She just changed her way noticing this.
647** She is the only character to figure out there was something off [[spoiler:about Roose Bolton, a mistake that cost her mother, and her brother their lives.]]
648** She is able to see there are good among bad too, such as she understood Shitmouth was not a cruel man, albeit him being part of the Mountain's Men, a gang known for raping, pillaging, burning.
649** In Harrenhal she was able to pick up what everyone was doing, at what place, and at what time.
650* HypocriticalHumor: When the kindly man tells her she's too proud for [[spoiler:the LossOfIdentity required by a Faceless Man]], Arya says she can be more humble than anyone.
651* ICallItVera: Her sword Needle. It was Jon's gift to her.
652* IcyGrayEyes: Along with Jon, she is the only one of Ned's children to inherit his gray eyes, which is fitting since she grows much colder and more anti-heroic than the rest of her siblings.
653* IHaveManyNames: She takes on a number of identities to survive: Arry, an orphan boy; Weasel, servant at Harrenhal; Nymeria/Nan, cupbearer to Roose Bolton; Salty, when aboard the ''Titan's Daughter'' on her way to Braavos; Cat of the Canals, an orphan from King's Landing whose father was killed by a bravo; Beth, a blind beggar girl.
654* ILetGwenStacyDie: Mycah's death is only the first of many deaths Arya would blame on herself.
655* IMissMom: Said directly and indirectly, it's clear that despite the strained relationship with Cat 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.
656* 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 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.
657* InnocenceLost: Arya went from spirited tomboy princess to disillusioned killer in the course of only a couple of years.
658* InSeriesNickname: Her family's household staff referred to her as Arya Underfoot. Jeyne called her Arya Horseface. Sandor Clegane refers to her as she-wolf.
659* ItGetsEasier: The first time she is forced to kill somebody, she's genuinely horrified. After her experience with battle, her time in Harrenhall, and the work of Jaqen H'Ghar, killing comes naturally to her.
660* ItsAllMyFault: Believes Sansa and Jeyne's accusations that Mycah and Lady's deaths were all her fault after the Trident incident, despite being the only person in the whole mess to try and save Mycah and going to the effort to defend Lady, even after Sansa refused to corroborate her story about what happened. A major factor in her guilt is because she asked Mycah to practice sword fighting with her, ultimately leading to Joffrey’s attack and his and Lady’s deaths. But her father reassures her the blame lies solely on Sandor and Joffrey, making her ask Ned why he’s okay with Sansa marrying someone as cruel as Joffrey.
661* ItsPersonal: Like her mother, Arya plays this trope so straight that it's her main obstacle as a novice of [[spoiler:the Faceless Men]]. She takes justice ''very personally,'' but they aren't judges; they're tools who aren't allowed to take contracts on people they know and don't care whether the victims are good or evil.
662* ItWasAGift: When the Faceless Men tell Arya she must [[LossOfIdentity give up all her possessions]], Needle is the one gift she is unable to throw away, so she hides it instead.
663* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: When Arya, Cat of the Canals, encounters a deserter from the Night's Watch, she leads him into a dark alley and cuts his throat, following the traditions of her culture's executions of deserters. Her trainer in [[spoiler:the Guild of the Faceless Men]] is trying to break her out of this habit, telling her that their order is made up solely of executioners, and their god is judge and jury.
664* JuniorCounterpart: To her late aunt Lyanna; Ned notes they share everything from appearance to personality and interests.
665* LadyLooksLikeADude: She was often mistaken for being a boy. She uses this to her advantage after the second book when she travels among the commoners.
666* LeftHandedMirror: The trait emphasizes how different she is from her sister.
667* LikeADuckTakesToWater: After everything goes to hell in the first book, Arya ends up roaming through the countrysides. Her rebellious instincts and rudimentary combat training end up keeping her alive.
668* LikeFatherLikeSon: In sharp contrast to Sansa, who looks like her mother but shares more traits with her father, Arya looks like a Stark, and while the hot-bloodedness could stem from the Stark's "wolf blood" like with her Uncle Brandon and her Aunt Lyanna, it could come from Catelyn as well. Neither of them truly accept Westerosi gender expectations of their social statuses to be passive ladies and both are passionate and devoted to their loved ones. [[spoiler:Both Arya and Catelyn are also hell-bent on revenge and kill everyone that wronged them.]]
669* LittleMissBadass: Deconstructed. Though a child, Arya has been able to survive in horrific conditions and even defend herself against enemies on occasion.
670* LonelyTogether: In the Riverlands, she considers proposing Gendry to become a family together; it never becomes more than a thought.
671* LossOfIdentity: [[spoiler:This is part of what she needs to accomplish to become a Faceless Man assassin. Though she continues to insist that she is no one, her refusal to give up Needle, a symbol of her connection with her family and home, and her ever-growing ability to warg, prove that her identity is still intact.]]
672* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Arya has gradually become more misanthropic with the course of the story, as she has found that every person that she seems to place her trust into meets either a tragic fate or finds his/herself led astray, making these people unable to keep their promises with Arya. Slowly, Arya is shown to be eroding from all her preconceived notions about the people she meets and the value of their lives.
673* MadnessMantra:
674** Her mantra doesn't necessarily show insanity, but her constant repetition in her head of people she wants dead is rather unnerving for a girl who hasn't hit puberty yet.
675** Her repeating the Tickler's interrogation questions while [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge stabbing him over and over again]].
676--->'''Arya:''' Is there gold hidden in the village? Is there silver, gems? Is there food? Where is Lord Beric? Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights, how many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many? IS THERE GOLD IN THE VILLAGE?
677* MagneticHero: Despite being the outcast among the few young girls in Winterfell for not fitting in, Arya is depicted as a popular character who develops friendships easily and with a variety of different sorts of people regardless of social status. This continues even as she [[spoiler:takes on other identities with the Faceless Men]].
678-->'''Sansa's narration:''' Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody.
679* MessyHair: Her hair is described as always looking like "as though a bird had been nesting in it."
680* MiddleChildSyndrome: Between older siblings Robb and Sansa, who easily fit into the gender norms of future Lord of Winterfell and highborn lady respectively, and youngest children Bran and Rickon, who are young enough that her mother dotes on them, tomboyish Arya always felt out of place. This is only helped by the fact that she's the only one with the classic Stark look, which is part of why she is closest to fellow misfit Jon Snow. It's suggested that this trope is the reason she acts out sometimes, especially in the first book.
681* MoralityPet: Sandor Clegane shows a softer side with her as well as with her sister Sansa. Though he's not very nice to Arya (who also hates him), he keeps her from harm and even teaches her "the gift of mercy".
682* {{Motifs}}:
683** The water motif is the most prominent element in her chapters: She loves water, fights as a 'water dancer,' "calm as still water" is a frequent refrain of hers, she repeatedly gives water to those in need, and spends most of the series either in the ''River''lands or Braavos, the city of canals. Water also represents change and adaptation, which Arya does a lot and the motif mirrors her father's "Ice" motif—but while Ned couldn't adapt in the South, Arya's flexibility allows her to survive.
684** Bastards are a common theme running through her journey. Her favorite person is her illegitimate half-brother Jon, both she and Sansa thought she was a bastard when they were younger, her closest friend while travelling is Robert's HeroicBastard son Gendry, she later goes to Braavos known as the "bastard daughter" of Valyria and at the same time the girl everyone believes is Arya has been married off to BastardBastard Ramsay.
685** Soil and trees. She's guided by the old gods in the Godswood, stays with the Brotherhood in the forest, refers to herself as looking like an oak tree to Gendry and the song 'the maiden of the tree' is sung in reference to her and spends much of the series surviving living in rough in the woods.
686* NaiveNewcomer: While she was never ''as'' naive or overly-trusting as Sansa, Arya was completely unaware of how cruel and cold the world could really be. She didn't understand the consequences of striking a prince (even in defense of an innocent person) or acting out in public. There are hints that she believed some of the things in songs as well (again, though not to the same extent as Sansa); for example, she initially believed in the KnightInShiningArmor ideal too and thought if she could reveal herself to Lady Whent, Lady Whent would take care of her (as opposed to assuming she was just a lying commoner).
687* NamedWeapons: When Jon has a sword made for her, she names it Needle, in reference to its small, slender size and her own hatred of actual needlework.
688* NeverMyFault: She resents Sansa for being so good at skills highborn women (typically, in the South) are supposed to be good at while she never puts much effort into her lessons.
689** She blames Sansa for not backing up her story about the Trident, not seeing that her own choices in part led to all that. She does acknowledge her fault in indirectly causing Mycah and Lady’s deaths, but her father reassures her the real blame is entirely on Sandor, Cersei, and Joffrey.
690* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Joffrey was already an AxCrazy Bastard, but after his confrontation with Arya ended with Nymeria mauling him, he made it a point to take out all of his indignation from the ordeal onto Sansa.
691* NiceToTheWaiter: Something her father taught her, which makes the deaths of their servants and guards hard on her. Arya forms close bonds with the smallfolk and is stated to make friends from all types of backgrounds, which is noteworthy to point out in such a classist feudalist society as Westeros is.
692* {{Omniglot}}: In Braavos, she starts learning many different languages under the tutelage of the Faceless Men, including Braavosi, Pentoshi, Lysene, High Valyrian, and the trade talk of sailors. Currently, her Braavosi is at a passable level, though she could still use some practice.
693* OneOfTheBoys: She engaged in horseback riding and swordplay with her brothers, and was closest to Jon, much to her septa's dismay.
694* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Arya can warg into her direwolf, Nymeria, taking over her body and joining her thoughts.
695* PassionateSportsGirl: She practices swordplay and is excellent at horseback riding.
696* PastLifeMemories: When she dons the face of an ugly little girl in the House of Black and White, she gets a brief flashback of being beaten by the girl's abusive father, and is warned that she may have bad dreams for a time.
697* PayEvilUntoEvil: Like her father, Jon and (strangely enough) her mother, Arya has a ''very'' strong sense of right and wrong which she takes ''very'' personally. But, that doesn't mean she won't do wrong to pay wrong: [[KarmicDeath oh, she will]]. If she can get away with it. [[spoiler:The Faceless Men are trying to get her to shake this habit. With less-than-fantastic success.]] This is one Northern tradition she upholds to the hilt.
698* PluckyGirl: She is brave and persistent in achieving her goals which include becoming water dancer, reuniting with Jon, and killing those who have harmed her family and friends.
699* PrefersGoingBarefoot: She spends a lot of her time barefoot, one of her two childhood nicknames was even 'Arya Underfoot' to signify how she is always barefoot. The books say "she liked to feel the earth underfoot when she walked." [[spoiler:Given she can warg into other animals and her wild nature]], she is an EarthyBarefootCharacter.
700* PrincessInRags: She was raised as a daughter of the realm's most powerful lords, but after she leaves the Red Keep, she's a ragged child whose most valuable possession is Needle and is forced to steal to survive.
701* ProfessionalKiller: [[spoiler:In training to become a member of the assassins' guild known as the Faceless Men, and first assassinates someone at the end of the fifth book.]]
702* RebelliousSpirit: She has no patience for sewing and would much rather be swordfighting, riding horses or shooting arrows. Her mother Catelyn comments that she's "always been harder to tame".
703* ReplacementGoldfish: It's implied that the reason Ned indulged in her {{Tomboy}}ish traits (see the appointment of a private fencing tutor), is because he wants to see his little sister Lyanna again through Arya, without [[ShellShockedVeteran reliving the memories from Robert's Rebellion]]. But, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance as described above]], Ned expects her to grow out of this rebellious phase, so it's a bit {{downplayed|Trope}}.
704* TheResenter: Played with; Arya hates that she can't do the things a highborn lady is supposed to do, but simultaneously, she's very good at many things Northern women specifically have skill with or value (fighting, horseback riding) that simply aren't done in the South.
705* RightForTheWrongReasons: 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.*
706* SanitySlippage: She starts off as a rambunctious, but naive and sensible tomboy. The more and more horrible things that happen to her, the more she loses both her moral compass and her grip on reality, to the point that in the third book, even ''[[TheDreaded Sandor Clegane]]'' seems to be unnerved by how unhinged Arya has become.
707* SheFu: Eddard sees her {{Tomboy}}ish ways and decides she should be trained in the more "elegant" Braavosi fencing style.
708* SheIsAllGrownUp: Implied, though Arya is oblivious to it (and she's still ''growing'' up). She starts the series out being called "Arya Horseface" 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.
709* ShipperOnDeck: For her parents. To the point that she outright rejects Edric Dayne's suggestion that Ned fell in love with Ashara Dayne at Harrenhal and then tries to run away from the Brotherhood because of it.
710* ShipTease: Of the PuppyLove variety with Gendry. They grow very close while traveling together and there are hints of more romantic feelings as time goes on, particularly during their stay at Acorn Hall.
711* SilkHidingSteel: While taking on other roles, Arya learns to utilize this trope, pretending to be meek and weaponizing her femininity to gain the advantage with her enemies. [[spoiler:For instance, in ''The Winds of Winter'', she takes on the role of TheIngenue with Raff The Sweetling, pretending she has been offered by her employer for his sexual use and then pulls a ChastityDagger from her sleeve to turn him into a colander when alone in a room with him. With no witnesses. [[AssholeVictim What a pity]].]] Even while disguised as a ragged child, she knew to keep quiet and obey orders in Harrenhal to avoid being maimed or worse.
712* SiblingYinYang: Sansa is a feminine, lady-like, proper and beautiful, while Arya is a disheveled tomboy who doesn't have the looks and she thinks ladies have a boring life.
713* SnoopingLittleKid: Arya overhears some important conversations through her travels (though she often fails to understand their significance), and starts snooping in earnest [[spoiler:as part of her training with the Faceless Men.]]
714* SouthpawAdvantage: When Arya's dominant hand is revealed to her fencing master, he reacts favorably because fighting left-handed will reverse her stance and movements, which will help confuse her opponents.
715* SpannerInTheWorks: Her running away from the Red Keep when her father is arrested ends up disturbing the plans that both the North and the Lannisters have for the war. Cersei and the others have to lie that Arya is being held hostage along with Sansa, so that the North doesn't completely obliterate the capital; later they have to fake a marriage with one of Sansa's friends to give the Boltons control of the north, forcing Jeyne Pool to impersonate Arya on the threat of death. If she ever made it to Robb or Jon alive, they would know she's no longer a hostage and that the Boltons have no hold over the kingdom. Meanwhile, the war would have gone ''very'' differently if Catelyn hadn't freed Jaime for a hostage exchange to get her girls back. The irony is that the Hound was going to deliver Arya to Catelyn in exchange for money.
716* StepfordSmiler: In ''The Winds of Winter,'' she takes on the identity of "Mercy", a cheerful, hard-working mummer girl. Of course it's just an act, and underneath her, Arya's lust for revenge is as strong as ever. [[spoiler:As Raff the Sweetling finds out the hard way. Hello, HoneyTrap.]]
717* StreetSmart: Arya's resourcefulness and quick thinking enable her to survive alone in the slums of King's Landing for a time, and she later hones that ability even more during her training in Braavos.
718* StreetUrchin: Again, during her time in King's Landing, she sleeps in the streets and survives by catching pigeons.
719* StrongFamilyResemblance: To her aunt Lyanna, inheriting her UnkemptBeauty looks, HotBlooded temperament, love of horses, and skill with swords.
720* SurvivalMantra: ''Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords.''
721* SweetPollyOliver: She disguised herself as a boy more than once to keep her true identity hidden. Even after giving up the disguise, she is still often ''mistaken'' for a boy because of her short hair, male clothing, and un-girlish bearing.
722* SwitchedAtBirth: At one point Sansa began to speculate Arya really was a [[TheFairFolk snark or grumkin]] child who had swapped with the real daughter.
723* TantrumThrowing: Plenty of this due to her HotBlooded nature, but it takes on a disturbing edge after all the atrocities she witnesses. After [[spoiler:the Red Wedding]] when a child her age shows Arya her soldier doll, she responds by ripping its stuffing out and throwing it in the river so it will ''really'' look like a soldier.
724* TemporaryBlindness: Part of her TrainingFromHell with [[spoiler:the Faceless Men]] is this; she's blinded for a while so her other skills can strengthen without the aid of sight. Afterwards, it's temporary deafness, and so on.
725* TheyJustDontGetIt: While perhaps a consequence of her youth and her stubborn nature, Arya just never ''really'' fully understands exactly what she's getting into by joining the [[spoiler:Faceless Men]], despite the Kindly Man's best efforts to make it clear to her. For all the [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior scary and scarring things she's done and survived]], she's still simply too childish to fully grasp that she's [[spoiler:swearing herself for life to a deeply-religious order of death-worshipping cultist-assassins who sacrifice everything that they have and everything that they are to serve a higher purpose]], instead just treating it as an opportunity for her to learn kick-ass skills she can use to help her take her revenge and refusing to accept that [[spoiler:to be a part of the order she'd need to completely foreswear her revenge along with every other aspect of her original identity]].
726* {{Tomboy}}: Arya isn't one for needlework or pretty dresses, instead preferring swordplay and horseback riding.
727* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: While Sansa prefers to think of the world as a song where she is the beautiful princess destined to marry the king, Arya is a quick-thinking tomboy that would rather be learning swordplay and riding horses.
728* TomboyAngst: Arya feels rather insecure about the fact that she isn't good at traditionally feminine activities, like sewing or playing music. It doesn't help that she gets [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter overshadowed]] by Sansa, who fits the typical princess role perfectly. She was bullied a lot in her home for not fitting well in the traditional lady role, so that probably led to a lot of insecurities about her self-worth and beauty. TruthInTelevision.
729* TomboyPrincess: Her lack of skill in and aversion toward anything ladylike give Septa Mordane and her sister endless pain, but her father doesn't seem to mind his daughter's tomboy-ish attitude, likely because it reminds him of his sister.
730* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Arya loves flowers, wears her heart on her sleeve for much of the series, [[NotSoAboveItAll and resents that Sansa gets to sit with the "tall, handsome" prince while Arya gets stuck sitting with his chubby little brother]], and is developing SilkHidingSteel skills.
731* TragicKeepsake: Far from home, Needle is the only thing left to remind her of her family. Even when she has to give up everything else to become a Faceless Man, it is the one thing she cannot bear to part with.
732-->''"It's just a stupid sword," she said, aloud this time...but it wasn't. Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile.''
733* TrainingFromHell: Her instructors at the House of Black and White are benevolent enough, but the training itself is extreme. It involves being temporarily blinded to learn to manage and fight without seeing. Next in line is being made deaf, and then being crippled.
734* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: ''And how!'' She's learned to manipulate, con, and kill, and has now joined a guild of assassins, all before reaching puberty. [[JustifiedTrope Justified,]] since she otherwise would most definitely have been killed by now.
735* TrueCompanions: Despite their class difference, she becomes this with Gendry and Hot Pie, taking them into her "pack" and admits they're the only friends she has, even considering offering to be their family.
736* TheUnfavourite: Perceives herself to be this for Catelyn, to the point of thinking her mother wouldn't want her back and wouldn’t hesitate to leave her as a child refugee in war-torn Westeros—because she isn't ladylike or pretty like Sansa. From Catelyn's end, while her perspective makes it clear she does love Arya a lot, it's also obvious Arya's belief that her mother prefers Sansa is justified.
737-->''And her lady mother, what would she say? Would she still want her back, after all the things she'd done?'' Arya chewed her lip and wondered. "Well, my hair's messy and my nails are dirty and my feet are all hard." Robb wouldn't care about that, probably, but her mother would. Lady Catelyn always wanted her to be like Sansa, to sing and dance and sew and mind her courtesies.\
738[''Catelyn's narration''] “Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. Men would say she had my look, but she will grow into a woman far more beautiful than I ever was […] And Arya, well, Ned’s visitors would often mistake her for a stableboy if they rode into the yard unannounced. Arya was a trial, it must be said. Half a boy and half a wolf pup […] I despaired of ever making a lady of her. She collected scabs as other girls collected dolls, and would say anything that came into her head. I think she must be dead too.” When she said that, it felt as though a giant hand were squeezing her chest.
739* UnusualEuphemism: "Dancing" and "needlework" for her less-than-ladylike sword training.
740* WaifFu: Deconstructed. Her father arranges for Arya to be trained in the water-dancing style well suited to her small frame and slim blade, but she still lacks the size and strength to take on adult male soldiers. Her most effective kills involve using cunning and deception to take her target unawares.
741* WeakButSkilled: Arya is a small girl who probably won't have the strength of a fully trained male knight even when she's grown, but her sword training is serving her well. And keeping her alive, most importantly.
742* WildCard: As of the second book onward, particularly after Yoren is killed, and with him dies her plan to reach Winterfell.
743* WiseBeyondTheirYears: An increasingly dark example, given the hell she witnesses but she demonstrates this as early as the first book. After the Trident incident when Cersei and Joffrey have Lady and Mycah killed, Arya—all of nine years old—is the only one present who realizes how ObviouslyEvil the pair are and is wary of them (the fact she cares about the smallfolk and takes the death of a mere butcher's boy so seriously, while other nobles dismiss it, helps).
744* YouRemindMeOfX: Several characters note the resemblance between her and Lyanna, specifically her skill in horse-riding, her interest in swordplay, her fiery temper and her increasing beauty.
745[[/folder]]
746
747[[folder:Bran Stark*]]
748!!Prince Brandon Stark, the Prince of Winterfell
749!!!Bran, Bran the Broken, The Winged Wolf
750[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ffg_bran.jpg]]
751->''"A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. A greenseer."''
752
753Eddard Stark's kind and gentle eight-year-old son who dreams of being a knight and loves to climb and explore, until Jaime Lannister pushes him out a window and he becomes crippled from the fall. While in a coma, he has a dream of a three-eyed crow that gives him prophetic visions as well as magical abilities to take control of his pet wolf, Summer.
754----
755* ActionSurvivor: Bran survives several violent and dangerous situations throughout his journey.
756* AddictiveMagic: He spends more and more time warging into Summer and Hodor because he enjoys being able to move around freely through them. Jojen is very concerned about him doing this too much and warns that it is dangerous, but Bran does not care much since he loves how it feels to walk again.
757* AmnesiaDanger: If Bran remembered why and who pushed him out the window and into a coma, he could have easily revealed the secret Ned tries to uncover for most of the first book.
758* AnimalEyeSpy: His main ability allows him to see through Summer's eyes, but it also includes humans, though so far he has only used one. [[spoiler:Although, he picks up ravens and trees.]]
759* AnimalMotifs: In addition to the Stark wolf imagery he's closely associated with ravens and crows. Both birds often appear around him, he dreams of the three-eyed crow, and he learns to skinchange into ravens. Adding to the effect, "fly" is an [[ArcWords Arc Word]] in his storyline and Jojen describes him as a winged wolf.
760* TheBeastmaster: As of ''A Dance with Dragons'', he directly controls one direwolf, and through his direwolf indirectly controls a pack consisting of three other wolves. [[spoiler:He can skinchange into and control ravens.]] And, he can control Hodor—who is not a "beast" in the typical sense. [[spoiler:He can also do weirwood trees... which is stretching the concept considerably further.]]
761* BodySnatcher: He takes over Hodor's body at times when they're in danger, since Bran is crippled and Hodor's limited mental capacity prevents him from being as effective as he could.
762* BondCreatures: Bran and Summer are one of the most closely bonded direwolf-child pair, along with Jon and Ghost... and the closer Rickon-and-Shaggydog. After a while, Bran even prefers spending time in Summer's body, since the wolf is strong and free to explore unlike Bran.
763* CheerfulChild: Before being crippled, he was sweet, happy, energetic little boy who loved exploring Winterfell.
764* ChildMage: As of ''A Dance With Dragons'' he's no older than nine, but he is an extremely powerful skinchanger and is learning to be a greenseer. Deconstructed because he lacks the maturity to understand the significance of his powers. [[spoiler:Nor does he understand that [[GrandTheftMe taking over Hodor's body]] is traumatizing to him, and thinks it's just harmless fun]].
765* ConvenientComa: Bran finds out about Jaime and Cersei's adultery, and promptly (with a little help from Jaime) goes into a prolonged coma, waking with LaserGuidedAmnesia about the whole thing. All this prevents him from telling Ned, who spends the rest of the book trying to dig up the very same secret.
766* TheCutie: Catelyn considers him her "special child" and thinks he is the sweetest one of his siblings. His behavior backs this up, as he lacks even the spoiled side some others display.
767* DeadGuyJunior: Named after his late uncle.
768* DeathFakedForYou: In ''A Clash of Kings'', unable to find the genuine article when Bran and Rickon seemingly vanish from captivity under Theon's nose, "Reek" (Ramsay) covers up the Stark princes' disappearance for Theon, by killing two boys of a similar age, skinning them so Winterfell's lifelong servants can't recognize the lie, and mounts their heads on spikes. This has huge ramifications, as apart from all the grief it obviously causes their mother and siblings, it directly leads to [[BigBrotherInstinct Robb]] [[SexForSolace breaking his marriage pact]] and in turn the Red Wedding. After the fall of Winterfell, Bran lets the rest of the world go on thinking Theon killed him, as he's far safer traveling as a dead boy rather than a living Stark.
769* DestinationDefenestration: In the beginning of ''A Game of Thrones'', he was thrown out of a tower by Jaime Lannister, whom he saw having sex with his sister. Bran went into a coma and woke up crippled for life.
770* DisabilitySuperpower: After his fall, Bran is visited by the three-eyed crow during his coma. This propels the magical side of his story. He quickly learns to use his warg abilities after losing the use of his legs.
771* DreamCrushingHandicap: His dream of becoming a knight is cut short because of his crippled legs.
772* DreamsOfFlying: He often has these dreams, most notably during his coma following the fall that made him paraplegic.
773* TheHeart: Of the Starks. While there are tensions within the family (notably between Arya/Sansa and issues around Jon's bastardy), he has a close and positive relationship with everyone, Catelyn calls him the sweetest of her children, and Ned believes his kind nature can help build relationships with the royal family.
774-->'''Ned:''' Bran can bridge that distance. He is a sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love.
775* HandicappedBadass: Though he has lost the use of his legs, Bran is an extremely powerful warg.
776* HeKnowsTooMuch: The reason he's been crippled is because he accidentally stumbled upon the queen's adultery with her own brother, who saw fit to push Bran out the window to shut his mouth.
777* HistoryRepeats: He is the Stark at Winterfell while his elder brother Robb warred in the South during the War of the Five Kings; his uncle Benjen was the Stark at Winterfell while his older brother Eddard warred in the South during Robert's Rebellion.
778* HowDoIShotWeb: He slowly learns to handle his skinchanging ability (taking over his wolf's mind) after he is crippled.
779* ImAHumanitarian: Played with. He doesn't knowingly eat people with his own mouth, but hunts them down through his wolf (well, their undead corpses anyway) and devours them. He doesn't mind the taste. [[spoiler:The steaks Coldhands brings him are almost certainty taken from the Night Watch deserters, meaning he's eaten them.]]
780* InnocentBlueEyes: Similar to Sansa, Bran inherited the Tully blue eyes. He starts out one of the most innocent and idealistic characters; his BreakTheCutie is just a lot less drawn-out.
781* {{Irony}}: Bran wanted to be a knight, which would require him to convert to the Faith of the Seven. [[spoiler:He instead becomes a conduit for the power of the Old Gods.]]
782* KidHero: Wanted to be a knight before he was crippled. Now he has greenseer and skinchanging powers, which may not be so harmless.
783* LesserStar: He's clearly being set up for something big, but in the first two books, his POV chapters primarily show what happens at Winterfell after Ned, Sansa, Arya, Jon, Robb and Catelyn leave.
784* MeaningfulName: ''Brân'' is Welsh for "[[AnimalMotifs raven]]".
785* MrExposition: He is the reader's main source for the history of the North due to Maester Luwin's teachings.
786* NamedAfterTheInjury: Bran Stark starts calling himself Bran the Broken after a fall from the tower renders him unable to walk.
787* NiceGuy: Setting aside [[ObliviouslyEvil ethical issues with his powers that he's not old enough to fully understand]], Bran is consistently one of the most compassionate and good-hearted characters in the setting, as well as being one of the only members of a Great House in the series to show absolutely no signs of elitism, treating the servants of the household exactly the same as he would the highborn.
788* NiceToTheWaiter: He has IntergenerationalFriendship[=s=] with many members of the Stark household. During the feast at Winterfell, he sends a dish of lobster to Joseth the master of horse, and sweets to Hodor and Old Nan, even though a lord is traditionally only supposed to do that for other nobles.
789* NobodyPoops: For a series that usually has no hesitation about detailing the less dignified aspects of life, the sanitary problems Bran's paralysis would cause have never been openly discussed.
790* ObliviouslyEvil:
791** As a rather young skinchanger from a culture which generally brands the skill as a myth, Bran does things with it that he considers harmless thanks both to ignorance and youthfulness. Fully-trained and socially integrated skinchangers from beyond-the-Wall with an unbroken ethical code steeped in tradition would, however, call a few of his self-taught tricks "abominable", if not downright Evil. [[spoiler:Bran has broken two of the three major Taboos, eating human flesh and skin changing into a person.]]
792** According to Melisandre's visions, Bran is the Other's champion just as Stannis is R'hllor's. Of course, the Lord of Light isn't a bucket of roses himself, and Melisandre has admitted she is prone to mistakes in interpreting visions.
793** As of ''A Dance With Dragons'', it's still not clear what the three-eyed crow wants him for. [[spoiler:Since he's being connected to the Weirwood Net, he can see through the past, and can speak through them, the possibilities and ramifications of his actions, being righteous or wrongful, are endless, to say the least.]]
794* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Almost always goes by Bran rather than Brandon.
795* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Bran often wargs into his direwolf, Summer. But, he's a more generalised skinchanger on top, so... not ''just'' a "werewolf". There's Hodor [[spoiler:and the ravens and crows]] to consider.
796* PrecociousCrush: On Meera, who is in her teens, as revealed in ''A Dance With Dragons''.
797* PuppyLove: The aforementioned crush on Meera.
798* PutOnABus: Along with his companions Jojen, Meera, and Hodor, he doesn't appear in ''A Feast for Crows''. Martin said in the afterword to ''Feast'' he wrote so much that he decided to split what would have been one book into two books: ''A Feast for Crows'' and ''A Dance with Dragons''. ''Feast'' deals mostly with King's Landing and ''A Dance with Dragons'' focuses more on the events at Castle Black, the Wall, and the other countries. [[TheBusCameBack He does return, showing what they have been up to beyond the Wall.]]
799* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: As the Stark most consciously connected to his direwolf and the supernatural in general, Bran's dreams are bound to be glimpses of things to come, though he does not always understand their meaning.
800* TheQuest: He and his band run to the Wall, while Bran learns to master his powers along the way.
801* RecurringDreams: In the first two books, he always dreams of a three-eyed crow pecking him between his eyes, telling him to fly.
802* {{Seers}}: He hasn't shown the ability to see the future and it is not known if he can, but he is able see the past and present through the eyes of all the weirwoods—events that can go back for the thousands of years the weirwoods have stood.
803* ShipperOnDeck: For Rodrik Cassel and Donella Hornwood in ''A Clash of Kings''.
804* SnoopingLittleKid: His habit of climbing the walls has him stumble upon a scene he shouldn't have seen. The results are traumatic.
805* TrappedInTheHost: After discovering his warging abilities he is at risk of this. Since he's a kid who naturally wants to stay in a body that isn't paralyzed, he often risks staying too long in the mind of his wolf, which would leave his mind trapped there and stuck as Summer's mind takes over.
806* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Falling from one of the highest towers of the castle leaves him with no solid memory of what led to the fall. Though he does have a recurring image of a golden man and he gets anxious at the mention of Jaime.
807* UpgradeArtifact: While staying with [[spoiler:Bloodraven and the Children of the Forest]], he is given a bowl of weirwood paste to eat in order to awaken his abilities as a greenseer and go into the past.
808* WaifProphet: Though one of the youngest children, he possesses knowledge of wargs, skinchangers, prophetic dreams, and later the children of the forest.
809* WildChild: Before Jaime paralyzed him, Bran was known for running about and climbing around Winterfell.
810* YoungAndInCharge: He's left in charge of Winterfell after the North rebels and Catelyn and Robb go south.
811[[/folder]]
812
813[[folder:Rickon Stark]]
814!!Prince Rickon Stark
815[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rickon.jpg]]
816->''"I want Mother, and I want Father, and I want Shaggy!"''
817
818The youngest Stark, a spirited and energetic four-year-old boy. Over the course of the story, he grows scared and violent when his world disintegrates around him. His pet wolf, Shaggydog, is unique among the direwolves for being completely black and unusually savage.
819----
820* BadassAndChildDuo: The four-year-old Child to Osha's competent wildling Badass. He may also be one to Shaggydog, who is rapidly leaving puppyhood.
821* TheBerserker: He's on his way. Heck, he's not even five years old at the time, but proves himself a right nightmare handful for a group of adults to subdue... and this without having Shaggydog as external backup, either. With Shaggydog tag-teaming physically, we're talking outright fatalities—in the very definite plural.
822* BondCreatures: Shaggydog and he share a ''worryingly'' strong bond. To the point you have to start wondering where the boy stops and the wolf starts. He's probably the closest to a traditional werewolf as the Stark wargs get. Adding to this is a hint that he can also Greendream to some extent, and well...Jon, Robb, Arya and Bran are not the only ones packing more than one set of eyes. Although, like Jon and Robb, he's probably restricted to just his direwolf when it comes to actual skinchanging—hence, "warging".
823* ChildMage: There ''really'' should be a rule about not letting kids under twelve practice skinchanging or warging unsupervised. It ain't healthy.
824** There's an argument to be had about which the strongest of the Stark mages actually is: Bran and Arya are up there, but Rickon started warging a lot younger ''and'' he didn't need to be fully or partially crippled to get his mojo into any gear, either. Seems that the younger you are when you start playing with the dangerous forces that can easily destroy you...
825* DeathFakedForYou: Bran and Rickon manage to escape and hide after Theon takes Winterfell, but to save face, two other boys' bodies were presented as the Stark brothers, mutilated so they couldn't be identified. The news spreads and ''devastates'' the remaining Stark family members and their supporters. [[spoiler:However, Stark loyalists Robett Glover and Lord Wyman Manderly learn the truth from Theon's squire, who reveals to them that Rickon is in Skagos. They dispatch Davos to bring him home.]]
826* DefeatMeansFriendship: Becomes more friendly towards the Walders after Shaggydog attacks Little Walder.
827* DreamingOfThingsToCome: He doesn't express it very well, but it's clear he had a dream about Ned's death and internment. And, the way he blew up at the thought of the family splitting up, it's not hard to work out he likely had some warning about that, too. Bran may be the more varied dreamer and seer, but Rickon isn't to be dismissed, either. Particularly when it's about family. If only he had had the language tools to explain ''why'' he was upset...
828* FlatCharacter: As Rickon is three years old at the beginning of the series, he doesn't receive much characterization other than a "little boy who wants his parents back and has grown somewhat wild with his direwolf".
829* FieryRedhead: He is the most expressive of the Stark children, boasting a rather fiery temperament along with his Tully looks.
830* HotBlooded: Rickon is quite temperamental and under a lot of stress—and, that's putting it mildly.
831* TheLoad: Not his fault; he just has the bad timing to turn four years old during a blood-drenched civil war that his family is heavily involved in.
832* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: There are many Rickon Starks who came before him. Granted, it's not quite in the "Brandon Stark" league of handing crowd insecurity out to kids, but is still not great.
833* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: A warg, like all his siblings. The most like a werewolf, in fact: it's strongly suggested that he and Shaggy are never entirely out of each other's skulls.
834* OutOfFocus: Gets the least focus of all the Stark children.
835* PutOnABus: He disappears from the story when Meera, Jojen and Hodor head north with Bran. [[spoiler:Davos Seaworth is being sent to find that bus, though. A brief wolf dream of his half-brother Jon Snow warging Ghost shows Shaggydog attacking a unicorn, hinting that they are on Skagos.]]
836* TagalongKid: To Bran's group, before he and Osha split from them.
837* WildChild: Rickon grows wild [[ParentalNeglect without parental guidance]] after the family is separated by the events in the first book when Rickon is three years old. Furthermore, Winterfell is later taken, forcing Rickon and Bran to go on the run. Shaggydog's fear and rage is a reflection on aspects of Rickon's developing personality. Considering where Rickon has been since he was PutOnABus (see above), we can only expect this trope to develop further for him.
838* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Rickon is effectively MIA after the sack of Winterfell. [[spoiler:According to Wex Pyke (Theon's mute squire), Rickon and Osha might have headed to Skagos.]]
839[[/folder]]
840
841[[folder:Jon Snow*]]
842!!Jon Snow
843Lord Eddard's fourteen-year-old [[HeroicBastard illegitimate]] son. Like his uncle Benjen Stark and many Starks before him, Jon joins the Night's Watch and is eventually elected Lord Commander. His direwolf is Ghost, white and silent.\
844\
845See [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireJonSnow the Jon Snow page]].
846[[/folder]]
847
848!!Eddard and Benjen's family
849
850[[folder:Lord Rickard Stark]]
851!!Lord Rickard Stark
852[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rickard_9692.jpg]]
853->''Lord Rickard Stark, Ned's father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat there with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him.''
854
855The previous Lord of Winterfell and father of Eddard, Brandon, Benjen and Lyanna. He was the son of Edwyle Stark, himself son of Willam Stark and Melantha Blackwood, and Marna Locke. Killed at the order of the Mad King.
856----
857* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He is noted for having had "southron ambitions", (unusual for the Starks, who rarely got involved with the South) which is reflected in his marriage choices for his children (marrying Lyanna off to the Stormlands and tying Brandon to the Riverlands), his choice of fostering Ned to the Vale and also visiting King Aerys in King's Landing. He eventually ended up ''too'' involved with the South as his daughter gets [[AbductionIsLove kidnapped by]] (or [[TheRashomon runs off with]]) the Crown Prince, and his son [[TooDumbToLive demands justice from that batshit insane king]] and is imprisoned as a result. [[DownerEnding Then he got imprisoned too and executed along with his son]].
858* CrypticBackgroundReference: It's not clear what his ''"southron ambitions"'' were. However, they involved Brandon's betrothal to Catelyn Tully and Ned's fostering at the Eyrie; for that matter, Robert Baratheon was fostered at the Eyrie to strengthen ties between the Vale and the Stormlands as well. According to Lady Dustin, he was coerced by his maester to proceed with those engagements, as it was rather unusual for a Northerner to marry outside the region.
859* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Tried to rescue his children through CombatByChampion. The Mad King's chose fire as his "champion" and roasted him alive. This was so cruel that Ned softened the story by saying he was only beheaded.
860* DidntThinkThisThrough: Accepting the betrothal between Lyanna and Robert Baratheon. Between Lyanna’s willful personality and Robert’s philandering behavior both before and during his betrothal to Lyanna and his subsequent marriage to Cersei, the marriage would have likely gone very poorly.
861* FromBadToWorse: Oh, poor man. His daughter suddenly disappears, allegedly kidnapped by the Crown Prince. His eldest son and heir storms to the capitol [[TooDumbToLive demanding the Prince's head and his sister back]] to the [[TheCaligula Mad King]]: he's unsurprisingly held prisoner and his companions executed. He tries to save him but gets executed in the king's [[KillItWithFire favorite style of execution]], and probably knowing that his son will [[CruelAndUnusualDeath kill himself by trying to save him]].
862* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler:Rickard was executed by TheCaligula, with his eldest son dying horribly trying to avenge him, with his {{Tomboy}} daughter going missing. The same thing happens to his son Ned 15 years later. The next time however, the Starks lost the war.]]
863* KissingCousins: He married Lyarra Stark, his first cousin once-removed, daughter of Rodrik Stark and Arya Flint.
864* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: After his ancestor The Laughing Wolf.
865* PapaWolf: Seemed to be very protective of his children based on what little characterization we have, riding immediately for King's Landing in order to free Brandon upon receiving Aerys's summons and offering to fight on his son's behalf in a TrialByCombat.
866* PlotTriggeringDeath: His death proved the Iron Throne's justice was a mockery and convinced Lord Jon Arryn to rebel.
867* SecondHandStorytelling: Most of what little we know of him comes from Lady Dustin. Who has her biases.
868* UnwittingPawn: Lady Dustin asserts that Rickard was manipulated by his maester into betrothing his heir to Hoster Tully's daughter for some unknown reason.
869[[/folder]]
870
871[[folder:Brandon Stark]]
872!!Brandon Stark
873!!!The Wild Wolf
874->''"Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon."''
875--> -- '''Ned Stark'''
876
877Eddard Stark's older brother, Brandon was the heir to Winterfell and originally betrothed to Catelyn Tully. However, he died alongside his father at the hands of the Mad King Aerys II.
878----
879* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Very fond of honing his sword, and wanted it to be "sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt".
880* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: He was a charmer, a gifted warrior and heir to a Great House, descended from Kings in the North, while Petyr was small, clever and heir to "stones and sheep pellets," the great-grandson of a Braavosi sellsword. Oh, and there was the small matter of Brandon being betrothed to Catelyn Tully, the love of Petyr's life.
881* ArrangedMarriage: To Catelyn, in order to join the Tullys and Starks as part of Rickard Stark's "southron ambitions". He died before it could go through. According to Barbrey Dustin, Brandon never loved Catelyn, though [[UnwantedSpouse Catelyn loved him]].
882* BigBrotherInstinct: After his sister Lyanna's abduction it's perfectly understandable that he goes seeking answers from the royal court. Still, marching into King's Landing and demanding the Prince ''[[TooDumbToLive come out to die]]'' without an army behind him was not at all wise. Especially given the nature of the [[RoyallyScrewedUp King]].
883%%* BloodKnight: The "fighter of the family".
884* TheCharmer: Very likely an example. People who knew him tend to have a generally positive view of him, and he certainly appears to have had a way with the ladies. Ned and other men who knew him also have a generally positive impression of him (well, except for Littlefinger -- for obvious reasons). Even though most of them also note his flaws, he's usually forgiven for them and/or they are excused. Of course, charm does you very little when faced with acute paranoid-crazy.
885* 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.
886* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Strangled himself to death trying to reach a sword and save his father. Ned softened the story by telling Catelyn that he was beheaded.
887* CurbStompBattle: Delivers one to Petyr when the latter challenged him to a duel for Catelyn's hand and he was probably holding back.
888* DeathByIrony: Being a MasterSwordsman wasn't any use for him since his enemies used a sword to bait him to his death.
889* DidntThinkThisThrough: Let's go to [[TheCaligula the Mad King]] and demand [[BullyingADragon the head of his son]]! [[TooDumbToLive There are five of us!]] WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?
890* DisappearedDad: Possibly. According to Martin, Brandon might have fathered several bastards. If he did, those kids were left without a father or financial support when Brandon was killed, and Brandon probably never acknowledged them at all because Ned wouldn't have left Brandon's children to their own devices.
891* DueToTheDead: After Brandon's and Lyanna's deaths, Ned had statues made of them and placed in the crypt of Winterfell. That is an honor usually reserved for Stark kings and lords, showing how much he loved them both.
892* HistoryRepeats: Just like it was mentioned in Ned's entry, what happened to Brandon in King's Landing happened to Ned years after. It also started a war, [[spoiler:though the second time, the Starks lost.]]
893* HotBlooded: Ned described his temperament as such, saying his brother had the "wolf blood" like his younger sister Lyanna.
894* ICouldaBeenAContender: Ned insists Brandon would have made the better Lord than he. Of course, given Brandon's impulsive personality got him killed practicing what passes for politics/revenge, the more brooding and self-critical Ned may well not be correct on this point.
895* MirrorCharacter: He bears a lot of similarities with Robert Baratheon: the eldest son of a Lord Paramount, each a skilled warrior [[BloodKnight with a thirst for battle]] and [[TheCasanova for women]], with a close relationship with Eddard Stark. Note, Brandon almost got these two killed when they were young; they both managed it together, later... But, Robert ''could'' have attempted to do things without dragging Ned into it. Much as Brandon could have gone about getting his sister back without (eventually) dragging most of the Seven Kingdoms into it.
896* MySisterIsOffLimits: Judging by his reaction to Prince Rhaegar's attentions to his sister, he seems to have been this kind of brother. Given his sister was betrothed to Robert and Rhaegar had apparently abducted her, this was an understandable reaction.
897* TheOneThatGotAway: To Barbrey Dustin (née Ryswell). The angry, regretful manner in which she refers to him indicates that she was head-over-heels in love with Brandon. She says their love was mutual, though she's alive and he's dead, making it impossible for him to refute it if he was just playing around.
898* PresentAbsence: Despite being dead for more than a decade, he is still very much present in Ned's thoughts, nurturing his sense of inferiority since Ned feels everything he has should have belonged to Brandon, [[SettleForSibling even Catelyn]]. Catelyn even thinks that Brandon is one of the ghosts that haunts her otherwise happy marriage with Ned, the other being Jon Snow's [[MissingMom mother]].
899* ThePromise: To Catelyn.
900-->'''Brandon:''' "[[TemptingFate I shall not be long, my lady. We will be wed on my return.]]"
901* RomanticWingman: He asked Ashara Dayne to dance with Ned, who was too timid to ask her himself.
902* SiblingYinYang: Of the RedOniBlueOni variant. Brandon was pretty much a [[MasterSwordsman skilled warrior]] who [[BloodKnight loved fighting]], a [[TheCasanova skirt chaser]] and had the [[HotBlooded wolf blood]], which led him to reckless actions and ultimately signed his fall. Eddard is [[HonorBeforeReason honorable]], [[TheStoic rigid]] and [[TheWisePrince wise]], and although he never holds back when he's needed in fights, has never loved warfare as much as his brother and best friend did.
903* TallDarkAndHandsome: He's described as tall and handsome, with the dark hair and long face of the Starks. Catelyn was initially disappointed that Eddard wasn't as good looking as his brother, [[HappilyMarried but got over it]].
904* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
905** If he had not injured Petyr in their duel, Lysa would not have been able to "seduce" Petyr the second time and get pregnant, meaning Hoster Tully would not have given her the moon tea and (likely) would not have married her to Jon Arryn. Their sexual history and Lysa's unhappy marriage would lead to Lysa conspiring with Petyr to kill Jon fifteen years later and feed into the War of Five Kings.
906** If he had not ridden into King's Landing demanding the head of Prince Rhaegar, neither he nor his father would have been killed (meaning Brandon would have married Catelyn, Ned would never have become the Lord of Winterfell, and none of Ned and Catelyn's children would have been born), Elbert Arryn would have remained his uncle Jon Arryn's heir (meaning Jon wouldn't have had to marry Lysa in hopes of producing a child), and Robert's Rebellion would not have gone the same way, though it was inevitable that a civil war of some sort would break out after the crown prince abducted the daughter of a lord paramount.
907[[/folder]]
908
909[[folder:Lyanna Stark]]
910!!Lady Lyanna Stark
911!!!Lya, The She-Wolf, The Wolf Maid
912
913[[quoteright:335:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lyanna.png]]
914->''"That's my father's man you're kicking," howled the she-wolf.''
915
916Ned's younger sister, Lyanna was betrothed to Robert Baratheon before Rhaegar Targaryen abducted her, starting the Rebellion. She died from unknown causes in "a bed of blood" when Ned found her.
917----
918* AlwaysSomeoneBetter:
919** She was such a skilled rider that she was said to be "half a horse", or a "centaur", but Roose Bolton theorizes that Domeric Bolton could have out-raced her. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt, as Domeric was around two years old when Lyanna disappeared and besides being a boastful father, Roose Bolton is, well, [[ConsummateLiar Roose Bolton]].
920** As Robert Baratheon's LostLenore, Cersei Lannister was always living in her shadow. Cersei was offered by her father Tywin as a [[ReplacementGoldfish replacement wife]] for Robert after Lyanna's death in his eponymous rebellion. Cersei was already resentful of Robert killing her lifelong crush Rhaegar, but Robert [[WrongNameOutburst drunkenly calling Cersei 'Lyanna']] on their wedding night only twisted the knife further.
921* AnimalMotif: Lyanna is known as the she-wolf. She is also referred to as "half a horse" and a "centaur" because of her skill as a rider. This is yet another similarity she has with her niece Arya; at the start of ''A Game of Thrones'', one of the few things Arya is noted to be better at than Sansa is horseback riding, and like Lyanna, she gets compared to a horse... though unfortunately for the poor little girl, in her case it's getting saddled with the nickname "Arya Horseface".
922* ArrangedMarriage: To Robert Baratheon. She was unhappy with the arrangement however because she believed Robert would be unfaithful to her due to [[ReallyGetsAround his reputation]]. Ned assured her that Robert loved her and was a good man, but Lyanna was unconvinced.
923-->'''Lyanna:''' [[BrutalHonesty Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature.]]
924%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is.* BerserkButton: Don't tease her 'cause sad songs made her weep.
925* BigDamnHeroes: Saves Howland Reed from getting the ever-loving shit kicked out of him by three fourteen-year-old squires at the famous Tourney at Harrenhal. He returns the favor when he goes with her brother Ned and [[BadassCrew five other of Ned's]] [[TrueCompanions most trusted companions]] to the Tower of Joy in an effort to rescue her, [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome with the group killing the three remaining members of Aerys's Kingsguard to get to her.]] [[ShaggyDogStory Everyone save Ned and Howland is killed, and Lyanna dies anyway.]]
926* BullyHunter: At the Tourney of Harrenhal, she beat the living shit out of three squires who were bullying crannogman Howland Reed, while shouting, "That's my father's man you're kicking!"
927* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: Ned claims that Lyanna's LastRequest was to be buried in Winterfell. Note that she died in ''Dorne'', roughly 3000 miles away. Ned, however, actually brought her bones all the way to the North.
928* CrypticBackgroundReference: The exact circumstances of her death are never entirely explored in-universe. The accepted version is that she got kidnapped by Prince Rhaegar and then died, but ''how'' remains a mystery. Ned Stark's POV in ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' sees her dying in a bed of blood, and also found her greatly weakened by "fever". On the other side, Ned also let slip once that her [[HotBlooded hot-blooded nature]] led her to a premature end. This directly leads to all sorts of speculations.
929* DiedInYourArmsTonight: She died in Ned's arms shortly after he found her.
930* DamselInDistress: She was apparently abducted by the Prince and needed to be saved, though the details of her abduction are scarce. It also doesn't help that the few scraps of detail available are ambiguous at best and contradict one another. It's also a deconstruction - Lyanna was kidnapped and her would-be rescuers find her in a tower in a distant land after a war of epic scope and scale that was in part caused by her abduction, only to be confronted by three of the greatest knights in Westeros, assigned to guard her. It has all the makings of a classic feel-good adventure story... only Lyanna dies in a pool of her own blood, and nearly everyone is killed in the ensuing battle, with only her brother (Ned) and a man she once helped long ago (Howland Reed) surviving the skirmish, which in the end proved really incidental to the larger picture of what was happening to the realm at the time.
931* DueToTheDead: After Lyanna's and Brandon's deaths, Ned had statues made of them and placed in the crypt of Winterfell. That is an honor usually reserved for Stark kings and lords, showing how much he loved them both.
932* 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 his [[UnwantedSpouse hated wife]] Cersei to her. 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.
933* FlowerMotifs: She was fond of flowers, and Ned recalls she died in a room that smelled of blood and roses. She's particularly associated with blue winter roses. Roses are often associated with love but also unattainability (in the real world, blue roses don't exist in nature; in the world of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' blue roses are natural but rare), representing Lyanna's status as Robert's LostLenore. Blue roses are also linked with mystery, which is appropriate given there's a great deal of mystery surrounding Lyanna, including the precise nature of her relationships with other characters and the circumstances of her death.
934* FoodSlap: At the Tourney of Harrenhal, Lyanna wept after listening to Rhaegar Targaryen play a sad song on his harp. When her brother Benjen teased her, she dumped a cup of wine over his head.
935* GirlInTheTower: At the end of Robert's Rebellion, Eddard went to rescue her from the Tower of Joy, where she was being kept by three Kingsguard. But the sheer number of questions that surround the whole thing propels it into a less-than-classical take on the trope.
936* GirlNextDoor: Was an UnkemptBeauty and OneOfTheBoys, compared to Elia Martell, who was described as a delicate beauty who'd had several suitors, or Cersei, considered to be one of the most stunning women in the series.
937* GoOutWithASmile: She smiles before she dies after Ned vows to keep his mysterious promise to her.
938-->'''Narrator:''' Ned remembered the way she had smiled then...
939* HotBlooded: Ned seemed to think so, saying Lyanna had "the wolf blood": her first reaction when she saw Howland Reed being beaten was not to call for help but to beat his attackers, and she threw a cup of wine on Benjen because he teased her. In front of the Prince. And the court. Ned also notes that [[WildChild Arya]] bears a lot of similarities to Lyanna, including appearance.
940* {{Hypocrite}}: If she willingly left with Rhaegar, she crosses into this. Eddard's POV reveals she had previously complained to Ned about Robert sleeping around and fathering bastards, feeling he wouldn't be faithful to her... but if her affair with Rhaegar was consensual, she herself fell head over heels in love with a married man after he publicly humiliated his kind and good-hearted wife Elia in her favor, and then ran off with him for a year to ditch her betrothed and his wife and children.
941* IconicItem: The crown of blue roses that Rhaegar gave her, which she still wears almost every time a character dreams of her.
942* ILetGwenStacyDie: The Gwen Stacy to both Ned and Robert, who blame themselves for her death.
943* InSeriesNickname: Meera calls her "the She-Wolf" in her story about the Knight of the Laughing Tree, and Cersei likewise refers to her as "the wolf girl".
944* KnightInShiningArmor: Well, she charged to Howland Reed's defence and beat three squires silly because she took great offense at how they ganged up on the smaller, less conventional and arguably least of nobles present at the tourney. That follows "true knight", Dunk-and-Egg-style rules of conduct, as well as the codes involving in defending your family's bannermen against injustice.
945* LadyLooksLikeADude: At the Tourney of Harrenhal, Lyanna was described as a "wild and boyish young thing". Not surprising given her strong resemblance to Arya, who is mistaken for a boy at the start of the series.
946* LastRequest: Ned [[ThePromise promised something to her at her deathbed]]. The contents of the promise are unknown, but it still haunts Ned to this day.
947* LivingMacGuffin: Her abduction starts Robert's Rebellion.
948* TheLostLenore: Robert is still in love with her even though she's been dead for more than a decade, causing friction in his relationship with the queen. Ned still has nightmares from the time she died.
949* LoveRuinsTheRealm: Impressively counts on both sides of the pseudo-love triangle as both a personal reason to start a war and just being the spark that set off already brewing tensions. Basically, Prince Rhaegar (presumably) running away with Lyanna out of love was seen as kidnapping by her relatives who demanded her return, prompting the paranoid Mad King to torture her father and eldest brother to death. The king then used this perceived rebellion as a ''casus belli'' for rebellion by executing nobles without trial and demanding the heads of Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon as well, apparently just because they were Lyanna's brother and fiancé. Robert and others who opposed Aerys' cruelty used his murders and Lyanna's "abduction" as justification to overthrow the king. The result was a brutal civil war, the deaths of thousands, the fall of House Targaryen, and a multitude of new grudges among the remaining noble houses.
950-->'''Barristan Selmy:''' Prince Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna, and thousands died for it.
951* MyNaymeIs: Her name "Lyanna" is made up, but evokes various real feminine names like Leana and Eliana.
952* NotSoAboveItAll: Although the overall impression we have of Lyanna is of a spirited tomboy who was relatively insightful for her years, she was also brought to tears by Prince Rhaegar singing sad songs at the infamous Harrenhal tourney and enough of a romantic to run away with him a year later. She was, after all, fifteen.
953* OddFriendship: She and Howland Reed became friends at the tourney at Harrenhal.
954* TheOneThatGotAway: Robert is still in love with Lyanna (or a least an idealized version of her), to the point where he calls out her name while he has sex with the queen. Ned, however, notes that while Robert saw his sister's beauty, he never saw the iron underneath.
955* PassionateSportsGirl: According to most accounts given of her, she lived for riding horses. Ned also mentioned in the first book that she "would have carried a sword" if she could have gotten away with it, implying she had some interest in swordplay; Bran later has a green dream confirming this, where he witnesses Lyanna getting the better of Benjen at swords as children.
956* PeerlessLoveInterest: For Robert Baratheon. It's implied that his recollections of Lyanna were largely filtered through and distorted by his own mental picture of his "ideal woman."
957* PresentAbsence: Despite being dead for more than a decade, she is still very much present in Ned's thoughts and actions, along with the promise she made Ned keep.
958* ThePromise: Lyanna made Ned promise her something before she died. It haunts him constantly.
959%%* TheProphecy: Alongside many of his decisions, this is one of the possible reasons why Rhaegar stormed away with Lyanna. For example, [[spoiler:he could have meant for her to be the mother of his third child because "the dragon must have three heads" and Elia Martell was physically incapable of bearing more children.]]
960* TheRashomon: She is the subject of several versions of her life and abduction by Rhaegar:
961** 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]]
962** Cersei sees her mostly as a sniveling, uncultured intruder even years after her demise and grew to hate the idea of her, as both of the men Cersei was meant to marry favored Lyanna over herself. Robert continuously scorned Cersei in favor of his fiancée's memory and Rhaegar - whom Cersei remains infatuated with - chose Lyanna over all other women.
963** [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Daenerys]] [[BigBrotherWorship Targaryen]] views their story as romantic and Lyanna as "the woman he loved", later longing for Daario Naharis to carry her off from her wedding to Hizdahr "at swordpoint, as Rhaegar carried off his northern girl" from her betrothed (implying she believed Lyanna too went with Rhaegar willingly), and believing he took Lyanna because he was unhappy with Elia. This is presumably the story she was told by Viserys and Ser Willem Darry, but its credibility is shot considering she was also raised on pro-Aerys propaganda.
964** According to Barristan Selmy, Rhaegar "loved his Lady Lyanna", but he makes no mention of how Lyanna felt about Rhaegar and admits to Dany that he doesn't understand why Rhaegar did what he did. He does acknowledge to himself that the prince's love for Lyanna sent thousands to their death since Rhaegar basically failed to do his duty by his wife Elia.
965** Kevan Lannister muses that Lyanna was fair to look at, but doesn't consider her to have had the kind of beauty compared to other women (i.e., Cersei) to make a man like Rhaegar throw everything away for her.
966** Renly Baratheon is initially under the impression that according to descriptions given to him, Lyanna looked very much like Margaery Tyrell. Ned promptly dismisses this notion, saying that they didn't look like each other in any way whatsoever, and thinking Renly has some romantic notion of pursuing a girl who looks like Lyanna as he himself resembles Robert. Given later revelations, it turns out Renly was trying to find out how easy it'd be to get Robert in bed with a look-alike of his lost love and set Cersei aside.
967* 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]]
968* SaveThePrincess: Keeping in the spirit of deconstructing high fantasy, two attempts are made to rescue Lyanna and both end tragically. Shortly after Lyanna was "kidnapped" by Rhaegar, her brother and father went to King's Landing to demand her return... and were horrifically tortured to death. The second rescue attempt was at the end of Robert's Rebellion, with her brother, Ned, fighting and killing the Kingsguard guarding the tower in which she was held. But she dies shortly afterward anyway, Ned being powerless to save her life.
969* SecondHandStorytelling: We only learn about Lyanna through the recollections of other characters.
970* SignatureHeadgear: The infamous crown of winter roses given to her at the Tourney at Harrenhal. Multiple characters dream of her wearing it while covered in blood or crying bloody tears.
971* SilkHidingSteel: Discussed trope. Ned commenting that Robert never really knew the real Lyanna. There were accounts of her throwing wine over her brother Benjen in front of the entire court and beating up squires at tourneys, suggesting she was a lot more steel than silk. How much she even lived up to this trope versus how much Robert was blinded by infatuation seems debatable.
972-->'''Ned Stark:''' You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert. You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath.
973* SmallRoleBigImpact: She had one of the largest influences in the plot: her kidnapping led to the death of Ned's father and brother and Robert's Rebellion, her death turned Robert Baratheon into a depressed man whose disdain for ruling caused no short end to problems and casts a constant shadow in his marriage to Cersei. %%[[spoiler: And most of all, she might be mother to Jon Snow, a character whose role in the books is incredibly important.]]
974* SpiritedYoungLady: Very much so. Lyanna was fair and beautiful, if unconventionally, but she was realistic about her ArrangedMarriage to Robert, voicing her belief of his probable infidelity. Ned said also she had a bit of the [[HotBlooded wolf blood]] and was proficient in horseback riding, among other things.
975* StrongFamilyResemblance: While she, Ned, Benjen, Arya, and Jon all have the classic Stark look with dark hair and grey eyes, Arya is most often compared with her. It's not just their looks, but also their shared spirited personalities.
976* TearsOfBlood: In ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' Ned dreams of her crying tears of blood, underlying her tragic fate - she died at age sixteen on a pool of her own blood and still haunts her older brother with a [[ThePromise promise]] she made him keep.
977* TogetherInDeath: With Rhaegar. Robert bitterly later remarks:
978-->'''Robert:''' Rhaegar won, damn him. I killed him, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into his black heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it. Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have ''[[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen her]]''.
979* TomboyPrincess: Like her niece Arya, with whom she is often compared. Lyanna was reportedly a master horseback rider, just like her brother Brandon. In a vision, nephew Bran sees child-Lyanna fighting and winning against child-Benjen; he mistakes them for Arya and himself, and is confused because they never played like that.
980* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Yes, she preferred horsemanship and fighting, but Rhaegar's melancholic songs moved her to tears and Ned noted she was really fond of flowers, especially blue winter roses.
981* TheTragicRose: Lyanna is strongly associated with blue winter roses, her favorite flowers. She was infamously crowned as Queen of Love and Beauty at Harrenhal by Prince Rhaegar with a crown of blue roses, died in a room that smelled of blood and roses and in every dream she appears she still wears the crown Rhaegar gave her.
982* {{Tsundere}}: Rhaegar's harp playing moves her to tears; when her brother teases her about this, she empties a cup of wine over his head.
983* UnkemptBeauty: Her beauty is described as "wild", in contrast to the more conventionally ladylike belles of the Rebellion like Cersei, Elia, or Ashara Dayne. This is because of her spirited, tomboyish personality, as well as Stark features (eg. a long face, straight dark hair) generally not lending themselves well to "classic" beauty standards.
984* UnreliableExpositor: All we know about Lyanna is from such characters. GRRM is generally fond of this trope, but this character is solely described by unreliable exposition with the exception of her one appearance in Bran's vision of the past during ''A Dance With Dragons''.
985* TheUnreveal: While Rhaegar's feelings and motivations are subject to RashomonStyle telling, ''her'' feelings towards Rhaegar (or Robert) are never mentioned by anyone, and are yet to be discovered.
986* WhiteShirtOfDeath: In Theon's nightmare of the Winterfell crypts she wears her infamous crown of blue roses and a blood-splattered white gown.
987* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Played with: Lyanna was allegedly a lovely young woman for whom the whole realm bled, ala Helen of Troy. However, while it's generally accepted that Lyanna was really beautiful, the ones to believe her beauty extraordinary are Robert (her fiancé) and Eddard (her brother). Some characters, including Kevan and Cersei Lannister, believe that if Rhaegar had married Cersei instead of Elia Martell, he wouldn't have looked twice at Lyanna -- although they're obviously pretty biased and resentful about the whole affair (particularly Cersei). Lyanna is also described as wild and boyish in ''The World of Ice and Fire'', which itself doesn't flatter the recent generations of Starks much, having been written in-universe in part after they were branded traitors.
988[[/folder]]
989

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