Ned Stark

Lord Eddard Stark, also known as Ned Stark, is a major character in the first season of Game of Thrones. He was the head of House Stark, the Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount and Warden of the North, and later Hand of the King to King Robert I Baratheon. He was the older brother of Benjen, Lyanna and the younger brother of Brandon Stark. After Robert's Rebellion, Ned married Catelyn Tully, the daughter of Lord Hoster Tully, and became the father of Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon. After the death of his sister Lyanna, Ned would bring her infant son Jon back to Winterfell, raising him as his own bastard son, keeping his true parentage a secret. He was a dedicated husband and father, a loyal friend, and an honorable lord.

Eddard soon discovered that King Robert's children, Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen were in fact bastards born of incest between Queen Cersei and her brother Ser Jaime Lannister. However he was executed before this could be revealed, and his execution sparked the War of the Five Kings between the newly crowned Joffrey, Robb, Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, and Balon Greyjoy, being posthumously responsible for the involvement of four of the kings in this war.

Personality
Eddard Stark was a man of principle, being patient, cautious, intelligent, noble and possessing an immense sense of duty. He was remembered profusely for being extremely honorable and a firmly moral character at heart. He always reacted to situations calmly and reasonably, even if the situations endangered him or the people he loved. He was a skilled and fierce warrior but certainly preferred the diplomatic and peaceful solution to situations, even if that solution was martial law. He, himself, remarked that he didn't fear death, and recollected that he grew up with soldiers - Cersei elaborated that Eddard's older brother Brandon was born to lead, whilst he was born to follow. In his own words, Ned explained that he "learned how to die a long time ago." Ned viewed situations and individuals by the scope of their moral compass, and judged almost everything on that perspective. He also speculated the concept that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword, showing that he can be pragmatic in his sense of honor. In spite of that, he was not narrow-minded and did not appear prejudiced, arrogant or self-serving.

Ned was a very loving father to all of his children, including Jon Snow, his "bastard son", even though Catelyn was of a different opinion. He was very patient with Sansa's dreamy notions, visibly tolerating her adoration of the idea that she'd marry a handsome prince. When he tried to point out to her that Joffrey lacked bravery, strength of character, and even morality, a 13-year old Sansa was unable to see the truth at the time. He had a strong relationship with Arya, and was one of the few who could tolerate her feisty, adventurous mentality, and even encouraged it. He was, in many ways, like his son Robb, in that his sense of honor and duty ruled every aspect of his being, and he was a charismatic leader to those who served him. Ned had good relationships with both Robb and Jon Snow, the latter who Ned raised as his own alongside his lawful children. Like Robb, Jon inherited Ned’s traits of honor and duty. Ned treated Jon as his son - regardless of his legitimacy, and despite Jon being his nephew, not his son by blood. Ned was willing to sacrifice his own honor to protect Jon, and spent years letting everyone - including his whole family - believe that Jon was his bastard son to ensure Jon's protection. Ned's death provoked such a brutal reaction from all of his family because they all loved him more than words could say.

Eddard was proficient in combat, both in strategy and in a duel. He killed Ser Gerold Hightower, survived the Battle of the Trident and held his own impressively against the younger Jaime Lannister. He had earned the respect of men like Ser Arthur Dayne, the greatest warrior of his generation - indeed, Ned's sense of honor seemed to impress everyone around him, including the rigid and cold Stannis Baratheon and the cunning Varys. Aside from being selfless, dutiful and brave, he was slow to anger and thus he was one of the very, very few who could withstand the temper and misgivings of Robert Baratheon, with whom he shared a relationship that was a hair's breadth from being considered a brotherly one. Robert admitted that he lacked love for Stannis and Renly Baratheon, and had instead called Ned his brother, showing that Robert's admiration for his old comrade was tremendous. Ned's calm and reasonable mentality was respected firmly by Robert, who recognized that Ned was the only one who would dare say no to him for the right reasons. Robert obviously trusted Ned, begging him on his deathbed to help Joffrey in a way that Robert himself had failed and even naming the man as Protector of the Realm until Joffrey came of age.

However, he had the fatal weakness of being a poor politician, preferring to take the honorable route than doing what would politically benefit him - Cersei speculated that, in the game of thrones, one had to take what was in arm's reach or be damned, but Ned disagreed because the fight he fought was never to survive, but to preserve the lives of those he loved. Despite being usually straightforward, his honor could oftentimes blind him to reason, leading him to make highly impractical decisions and judgments. While intelligent, he wasn't the most imaginative person, which further exacerbated by his rigid sense of honor, made him unable to compromise or consider alternatives, usually going with the simplest and most straightforward course of action. Perhaps the best example is how he confronted Cersei about her children being fathered by Cersei's twin brother Jaime and not by Robert Baratheon. To save Cersei's children, whom he viewed as innocent and undeserving of punishment, he had proposed exile, even though it was obvious (to anyone with common sense) that Cersei would not accept Ned's offer - which meant giving up her power position and luxurious life and becoming a fugitive vagabond; instead, she took an action which Ned could easily predict, based on her former attempt to get Robert killed. Ned's intention was good, but the way he chose to act cost his best friend's life.

One of Eddard's main flaws was his blunt, tactless attitude (similarly to Stannis). He failed to understand that "you catch more flies with honey rather than with vinegar". The best example for that is the manner he expressed his opinion about the suggestion to assassinate Daenerys: by acting so bluntly and disrespectfully toward Robert, Eddard only managed to anger him and make him stick to his decision. It never occurred to Eddard that he should have taken a different approach, like the way Davos tried to dissuade his king on similar circumstances (in the novels): talk with the king in private, calmly and softly, appeal to his conscience. Eventually, Robert did regret his decision, but by then it was too late.

Eddard often evaluated matters and people by the evidence he saw with his own eyes, rarely ever looking underneath the surface or at the bigger picture. This made him a poor judge of character and he had a bad habit of trusting people, which was a mistake he disastrously made with Petyr Baelish. He also did not predict that Cersei Lannister would be unreasonable enough to turn down his offer of mercy if and when Robert found out that Joffrey, Tommen, and Myrcella weren't his children; a mistake that cost Ned not just his own life, but set off a chain of events that has also so far led to the deaths of his wife, two of his sons and many other lives. Finally, he near-automatically judged Jaime to have betrayed his king for dishonorable reasons the moment he discovered the Kingslayer sitting on the Iron Throne with the Mad King's corpse lying at his feet, without asking the knight his side of the story and despite the fact he was a rebel himself. Still, Jaime's arrogance did nothing to dispel this misconception.

Occasionally, Ned could be self-righteous in his honor, acting as an "honorable fool", as Robert called him. He was quick to judge Jaime's actions as dishonorable, despite himself publicly proclaiming to have sired a child out of wedlock with another woman, which he did in order to protect his nephew (Lyanna's son Jon Snow, birth name Aegon Targaryen) from Robert's wrath. He also accused Jaime of sticking to his Kingsguard vows when his family was being tortured and murdered by Aerys, something he did not do when meeting Barristan Selmy. He also had a tendency to choose personal honor over his duties as a leader of millions, ignoring pragmatic decisions for ones that would allow him to maintain his dignity, even at the potential danger of those he swore to protect (though he usually believed that he'd be capable of warding off the threats). This could be seen in the way he chose to deal with Cersei, and his refusal to participate in Daenerys's assassination, in spite of the immense threat her brother and the Dothraki presented to the Seven Kingdoms.

Furthermore, as he "grew up with soldiers", he tended to put a lot of faith in the mindset and capabilities of efficient warriors and commanders in many matters. Ned had told his illegitimate son (revealed to be nephew) Jon that true friendship is made on the battlefield. This sometimes caused him to ignore personality aspects that would have a negative effect in certain situations. He was unable to predict that Robert, despite having been his best friend, did not have the attributes required to make an effective king. Ned's belief in the importance of martial skill is supported when he stated to Renly that he believed Stannis's military accomplishments would help make him an efficient monarch.

Despite his principles, Eddard was not above acting selfishly, with disregard to other people's lives: when he was first told about Tyrion's kidnapping, he did absolutely nothing to defuse the situation - although he knew well that the Lannisters would never dismiss such offense, and innocent lives would be undoubtedly lost as a result. He had two more opportunities to resolve the matter peacefully (when confronting Jaime and Robert), but chose to pour oil on the flames by falsely claiming that Catelyn acted at his command. Eddard's pride cost many lives - among them Jory, Wyl, Heward, and residents of the Riverlands.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Eddard Stark is in his mid-thirties when the story begins. He has a reputation for chivalry, honor, honesty, and command, but can also sometimes be remote. He has a frosty relationship with Ser Jaime Lannister, believing that the latter should have been, at the very least, stripped of his rank in the Kingsguard for his murder of the former king. A stoic yet fair and caring man, Eddard puts a great deal of importance on his family.

King Robert traveled to Winterfell to ask Eddard to replace Jon Arryn as Hand of the King, the monarch's closest adviser. Ned wanted to decline, but went south at his wife's urging to investigate Arryn's death. He eventually discovered that Cersei and Jaime were lovers and Cersei's three children were Jaime's, not Robert's. Ned warned Cersei to flee the city, but instead she remained while Robert was mortally wounded on a boar hunt. When Ned attempted to expose the truth of Joffrey's parentage, his men were executed and he was captured due to the treachery of Littlefinger. He was executed on the order of King Joffrey.

Eddard is also an accomplished battlefield commander, leading armies in Robert's Rebellion and the Greyjoy Rebellion. However, the books make no particular mention of his skills with a sword, other than the rumor of him killing Ser Arthur Dayne in single combat. The books do mention his brother's swordsmanship skills, which were most likely condensed into Ned for the TV show.

Unlike the show, Ned's bones are sent to Riverrun as part of a plot orchestrated by Tyrion Lannister to free his brother Jaime. Afterward, Catelyn assigns a retinue of Stark men, under the command of Hallis Mollen, to deliver them to Winterfell. However, with Moat Cailin held by the ironborn, the whereabouts of the retinue and their cargo remains unknown. Lady Dustin, who resents Ned (even after his death) for not bringing her late husband's bones to be buried in his ancestral home, intends to pay Ned back by feeding his bones to her dogs.

The Faith of the Seven are outraged that Ned's execution was performed on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, believing this act of bloodshed profaned the holy grounds, and marks the beginning of a deterioration in relations between the crown and the Faith.

Daenerys, who has not been told yet the whole ugly truth about her father and the atrocities he committed during his reign (among them the execution of Rickard and Brandon Stark), loathes and resents Ned; in her eyes, the "cold-eyed Eddard Stark with his frozen heart" was one the "Usurper's dogs" alongside the Lannisters, and that he was a traitor who met a traitor’s end. Jorah Mormont assures Daenerys that Ned was not a traitor, although he rebelled against her father, and Selmy tells her that Ned objected to Robert's decision to assassinate her - but she does not change her mind about Ned.