He is happily married to Lady Catelyn Tully and is father to five trueborn children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon and a bastard son Jon Snow, as well as guardian to a ward boy Theon Greyjoy.

[6] Finding himself a key player in the escalating political intrigue of King's Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court.

"[8] Publishers Weekly noted in 1996 that, despite the honest Ned Stark's intervention in court politics, "no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control.

[7][11] Calling Ned's execution "shocking", The New York Times noted in 2011 that the novel was "famous for dispatching a thoroughly admirable major character with whom readers have been identifying for most of the book".

[13]In a review of the Game of Thrones TV episode "Baelor", James Poniewozik wrote in Time that "the execution of Eddard Stark is crucial to the story and its themes and everything that follows, but it's also a meta-message to the reader: don't take anything for granted here".

[11][14] James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly stated that tricking the audience into thinking Ned is the hero and then killing him makes the series' story better.

At the decisive Battle of the Trident, the rebels scatter the Targaryen army, with Robert killing Prince Rhaegar in single combat but being injured in the duel, so Ned takes over command and marches on the capital King's Landing.

Upon arrival, Ned finds that House Lannister — who has previously posed neutrality — has already sacked the city and murdered King Aerys and the entire Targaryen royal family.

At the beginning of A Game of Thrones, Ned's convoy encounter an orphaned litter of direwolf pups and he decides to allow his children to adopt them, although his men suspect the appearance of direwolves to be a bad omen of a long, harsh winter.

Content to be far from court intrigue, Ned is reluctant to accept the offer until he receives a letter from Arryn's widow, who believes that her husband had been poisoned by the Lannisters.

Catelyn later comes to the capital in secret, under the protection of her childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to tell Ned of an assassination attempt on their crippled young son Bran.

Increasingly disgusted by the political intrigues at court, Ned finally resigns his position when Robert insists on having Aerys' only surviving child, the young Daenerys Targaryen, assassinated in exile.

Meanwhile, Catelyn has impulsively taken Tyrion prisoner at the Eyrie, and in retaliation Jaime Lannister attacks and seriously injures Ned in the street before he and his daughters can depart King's Landing.

A secret deal is struck through the spymaster Varys that Ned will be spared and sent to the penal Night's Watch if he declares Joffrey the rightful king.

Ned is mentioned in a flashback along with his friend Robert Baratheon and also repeatedly by other characters in the subsequent novels A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons, including the surviving Stark children (who all remember him fondly), Stannis Baratheon, Jorah Mormont (who both affirm respect to his honor), House Manderly and numerous members of the Northern mountain clans (who all continue to hold great love to his name).

In A Feast for Crows, when Queen Dowager Cersei is sentenced to the walk of atonement by the Faith of the Seven, she is frequently haunted by the imaginary vision of Ned silently mocking her in the crowd.

[21] Executive producer and writer D. B. Weiss told Entertainment Weekly in 2011 that when he and Benioff pitched the series to HBO, the fact that "main character" Ned was slated to die "was a selling point for them".

[13] HBO programming president Sue Naegle concurred, saying that Ned's death made the show creatively more attractive, adding that "The book series was filled with unexpected twists and turns.

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

[22][23] The character makes a return in the sixth season, under a recurring capacity, via flashback visions of his youth and childhood seen by Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven using Greensight.

While Robert departs for a boar hunt, Ned discovers that Tywin Lannister and his forces are laying siege to the Riverlands, the homeland of his wife's house, the Tullys.

[24] In the season 6 episode "Home", Bran sees a vision of Ned (Sebastian Croft) as a child with his sister and brother, Lyanna and Benjen.

[25] In the following episode, "Oathbreaker", Bran witnesses the battle between a young Ned (Robert Aramayo) and the knight Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy.

Bran revisits this moment in the season 7 finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf", where Lyanna whispers Jon's true name to Ned - Aegon Targaryen.