Tag Archives: Jon Arryn

Character Summary – Eddard Stark

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Our final character summary is on Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell.

Eddard “Ned” Stark is head of House Stark and Lord paramount of the North. Eddard and his wife Catelyn have five children, and Eddard has one bastard son, whom he took back home with him after Robert’s rebellion. He and King Robert Baratheon started as childhood friends when they were both fostered by Lord Jon Arryn, Robert Baratheon’s Hand at the start of the series.

In the beginning of Game of Thrones, Eddard has to deal with a deserter of the Night’s Watch by executing the young man, and brings his sons Robb, Jon, and 10-year-old Bran to accompany him and learn. He executes the man himself, and in teaching Bran about being dutiful, explains that the one who orders the execution should be the one to carry it out and take responsibility for his actions. Right away you can tell this man has earned his respect honestly and honorably.

After Jon Arryn’s death, King Baratheon goes to Winterfell, along with his court, to persuade Eddard to take on the position of Hand of the King. During the time of King Baratheon’s visit, it is revealed that Jon Arryn may have been assassinated so he reluctantly accepts the position of hand so he can investigate Jon Arryn’s death. Unfortunately, that means he has to leave Winterfell and his wife behind as she stays to keep watch over the now comatose Bran Stark, after he fell from one of the abandoned towers, supposedly by accident. Before he leaves, he sends his bastard son, Jon Snow, off to be part of the Night’s Watch, and reminds Jon that he is a Stark even though the Stark name was not given to him, and he also promises to tell Jon of his mother when they meet again.

He brings with him his two daughters, Sansa and Arya, to King’s Landing to have them introduced to the court, as Sansa is betrothed to Joffrey Baratheon, the King’s son and heir to the throne. Being sympathetic to Arya’s frustrations of being forced to act as a lady, he hires a swordmaster for Arya to learn proper swordfighting techniques.

Two things that Eddard finds upon arriving at King’s Landing is that the crown is majorly in debt, mostly to Lord Tywin Lannister, and that Jon Arryn had been inquiring around the city searching and finding King Baratheon’s bastard children. He is also forced to kill Lady, Sansa’s direwolf, after Joffrey accuses Arya and her own direwolf, Nymeria, of inflicting injury on him. Because Arya ran her direwolf off, Lady is killed in Nymeria’s place.

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Later, during a council meeting, King Baratheon wants to execute and order to have Daenerys Targaryen killed when he finds out that she is pregnant. Although Eddard has no love for the Targaryen’s, being that one Targaryen in particular was responsible for the capture, imprisonment, and death of his sister, Lyanna Stark, he refuses to agree to killing Daenerys and her unborn child, and steps down as Hand. As he is about to leave for Winterfell, he is stopped by Jaime Lannister, who is angered that Catelyn Stark has taken Jaime’s brother, Tyrion, prisoner for the attempted murder of Bran Stark. Their dispute turns deadly as Jaime’s men kill all of Eddard’s men and Eddard is injured. It is during this time of recovery that King Baratheon visits him and practically forces him to retake the position of Hand of the King, which Eddard does.

As he resumes his duties as Hand, he researches and discovers, after an offhand comment by Sansa, that Robert Baratheon’s children are not really his. Robert’s supposed children are actually the result of Robert’s wife Cersei and her incestuous affair with her twin brother Jaime Lannister. This is what Lord Jon Arryn had apparently discovered that got him assassinated. When Eddard confronts Cersei about this matter, he tells her that he will inform Robert of this, but gives Cersei a chance to flee with the children before he does. Unfortunately, Cersei plots to have Robert killed before he ever finds out. Also unfortunate is that her plan works.

Robert Baratheon comes back from his hunting party, severely wounded and has Eddard write down his will and put Joffrey’s name as heir to the throne, also naming Eddard as Protector of the Realm until Joffrey is of age to take the throne. Eddard writes down “rightful heir” instead of putting Joffrey’s name on the will. He also doesn’t have to the heart to inform Robert of Cersei’s children not being his.

When Robert dies, Joffrey takes the throne with his mother as part of the counsel. Eddard tries to overtake the throne and have both Cersei and Joffrey arrested, but Cersei rips up the will in front of all who are there and Eddard finds that he is betrayed. Eddard is taken prisoner for treason, while Sansa is held captive by the Lannisters and Arya escapes into the city.

Thus starts the coming of a war as news of Eddard’s capture reaches Winterfell. Eddard at first refuses to admit to treason and does not want to swear fealty to King Joffrey, even if it means his death. However, because Sansa is still being kept by them, he realizes that may be the only way to save her. So, he reluctantly agrees, with the reassurance that his daughters will be released. This also ensures that he will not be executed, but exiled to the Wall instead, serving the Night’s Watch as punishment.

Unfortunately, as honorable and dutiful and even sympathetic as he has been to those around him, he is not treated with the same courtesies. After Eddard admits to treason and swears fealty to King Joffrey, Joffrey has him executed right then and there anyway, in public and with Sansa watching. Arya also watches from a distance, but Eddard can see that Yoren, an actual trustworthy man, will take care of Arya as he hides Arya from his beheading.

His death becomes the ultimate catalyst for the War of the Four Kings.

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Eddard is definitely one of the most honorable men in this series and the basic “good guy” as far as good guys go in Westeros. He is not without fault, though, seeming too trustworthy of people and even giving mercy to those who probably don’t deserve it. It is these faults that ultimately become part of his downfall.

Eddard Stark was played by Sean Bean. He is a well respected actor and best known in recent years as Boromir from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, a part in which is character dies most dramatically as well. The guy knows how to die honorably, I gotta say. He also played the King in the Snow White comedy movie, Mirror, Mirror, which just came out the Friday before the start of the second season of Game of Thrones on HBO. And he played the Greek God Zeus in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. No word on if he’s going to reprise his role for the upcoming Sea of Monsters, though. I love this actor and I so wish his character hadn’t died just so I can see more of him in the series, but alas, the Game of Thrones isn’t about keeping all the good characters alive. Sean Bean will be missed!

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Character Summary – Tyrion Lannister

Posted by tfgeekgirl on

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We are going to try to do double duty and send you one of two character summaries, first one up is on Tyrion Lannister, aka  The Imp.

Tyrion is the youngest child of Tywin and Joanna Lannister, and brother to twins Cersei and Jaime.

Because Tyrion is a dwarf, he has also been nicknamed the Imp or the Halfman.  However.  Because of his deformity, he is not really respected or loved by his father, or his sister.  Also, it didn’t help that his mother died giving birth to him, as they put the blame on him for her death.  However, due to their rejection of him and his size, Jaime seems much more willing to accept him and even sincerely cares for his little brother.

Jaime even arranged a “chance meeting” with an attempted rape victim, whom Tyrion fell in love with and married, only to find out by his father that she was hired by Jaime because he wanted Tyrion to be happy.  Tywin paid the prostitute a silver coin for every guard she had sex with and and made Tyrion watch.  For this reason, he vows to never marry or have a lover, and thus only beds with prostitutes.

Tyrion is perceptive, shrewd, and definitely has a soft spot for those who are mistreated, misunderstood, and outcast.  Even though his size causes problems and persecution for him at times, it is mitigated by his family-wealth, social standing, and his intellect, which he has much of.

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In the beginning of the series, we see him befriend Jon Snow, Eddard Stark’s bastard son, because he feels he has a kinship with him.  He states to Jon that “All dwarfs are bastards in their father’s eyes”.  This friendship continues as he joins the Night’s Watch recruits as they travel to The Wall, and even promises Jon that he will help Bran, who is paralyzed from the waist down, as he did Jon by helping him find his identity.  When Tyrion arrives in Winterfell, he offers Bran the blueprints for a saddle that will allow him to ride a horse.

His compassion isn’t met with caring eyes when goes on his way back to King’s Landing.  He comes across Catelyn Stark on his way to King’s Landing, and finds himself in a pickle when she accuses him of attempting to kill Bran.  When they travel to Catelyn’s sister’s land, they are assaulted, and Tyrion actually ends up saving Catelyn’s life, however, they still take him to Eyrie for trial.  Catelyn’s sister also accuses him of killing her husband, Lord Jon Arryn.  Luckily, his life is saved when someone literally fights in his place and wins.

He realizes that maybe his siblings had something to do with both Jon Arryn’s death and Bran’s fall.

When Tyrion finally reaches his father, who has invaded the Riverlands due to Tyrion’s capture.  Tywin takes this as an opportunity to claim the Iron Throne now, and has Tyrion and his troops battle against some Stark forces in the Battle of Green Fork.  They win, but that battle was actually only a diversion to another battle that was lost to them, in which Jaime Lannister is now held captive.

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Tywin retreats and has Tyrion go back to King’s Landing as Hand of the King for Joffrey Baratheon, Tyrion’s nephew, basically to prevent the boy from making things worse after Joffrey had Eddard Stark beheaded.  Interesting and entertaining little tidbit is that Tyrion may seem to be the one to have a major affect on Joffrey, since he has no fear of slapping the boy, as he did thrice when Joffrey vocally refused to his uncle that doesn’t care to pay his respects to the Stark family after Bran’s fall.

Yeah, I like this character a lot.

Tyrion is played by Peter Dinklage, one we should all admire.  He has a fine list of movie and television credits to his name, including The Station Agent, Elf, Nip/Tuck, Death at a Funeral (brilliant in both versions!), and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  He won the Satellite, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Tyrion Lannister, which was well deserved.  This guy is an amazing actor and it seems that the role of Tyrion was just meant for him to play.

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Character Summary – Robert Baratheon

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Day 11 brings us the King, Robert Baratheon.

Robert was orphaned when his parents died in a shipwreck.  He thus was raised by Lord Jon Arryn, along with Eddard Stark.  They became fast friends. He was betrothed to Lyanna Stark, Eddard’s sister.  Unfortunately, the marriage did not come about because Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna.  When they went to war against the Targaryen’s, Rhaegar was killed, however, so was Lyanna.

When Robert took the Iron Throne, he married Cersei Lannister to bring stability to the kingdom.  Robert accidentally called Cersei by Lyanna’s name, and thus began Cersei’s disgust and hatred towards Robert.

Robert wisely appointed Jon Arryn as Hand of the King.  Jon and Robert’s brother, Stannis, helped keep the Seven Kingdoms together, while Robert pretty much drank, ate, hunted, and whored during his time as King.  Because of this, he became a very overweight man.

Unfortunately, his reign suffered financially, leaving the crown in debt of millions.  He also had many bastard children due to his frequent whoring.

When Jon Arryn died, Robert requested Eddard to take over as Hand of the King, which Eddard accepted hesitantly.

When Robert found out that Daenerys Targaryen was pregnant, his grudge against the Targaryens had not been sated in the least, and he demanded that Eddard agree with him to have Daenerys killed.  When Eddard refused and resigned his post as Hand, it was only when Eddard was injured that Robert went back to him and made him take his post again, threatening to appoint Jaime Lannister the position if Eddard did not take it back.

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During one of Robert’s hunts, he had been given a very strong wine by his squire, something that was planned by Cersei.  He had gotten so inebriated from the wine, that he missed his mark on a boar, and the boar charged him, gravely injuring him.

The party brought Robert back, still alive, but just only long enough for him to have Eddard Stark write up a will putting “Joffrey” on the throne. However, Eddard put “trueborn heir” instead.

Robert died soon after and Joffrey was put on the throne, with the will, torn up by Cersei Lannister.

Robert Baratheon, although a good friend of Eddard, was a pig.  The fact that he was king only serves as a reminder that kings can be the most flawed people, despite being taken under the care of a caring foster father, Jon Arryn, and an honorable friend, Eddard Stark.  His drinking, whoring, spending and eating brought about his downfall.  Even he knew he wasn’t fit to rule, but he did.  At least he knew that his death or resignment would allow Joffrey to be king, and he didn’t want that.  Only when he was dying did he feel he had no choice.

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Mark Addy played the role of Robert Baratheon.  What’s interesting is that when I saw the King for the first time, I thought I recognized who it was, but it wasn’t until I looked him up did I remember him from another, not-quite-dark-somewhat-musical movie called A Knight’s Tale.  I was surprised, but in a good way.  He’s been in some other semi-memorable movies:  The Full Monty, The Time Machine, and Robin Hood to name some recognizable ones.  He seems to usually play the kind-hearted big guy, so it was really cool to see him play such a louse in this series.

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