Lord Eddard Stark, as the most featured character in the first book, and by that I mean he has

the most chapters, many people saw him as the main character.

Well, that notion seems long gone now, given how there is no main character at all in

the Song of Ice and Fire, not a singular one anyway, and of course because, well, Ned's

dead.

How readers tend to see Ned now is as a father figure, in some ways fulfilling the tropes

and roles more common and storytelling for that type of character, while doing what George

does so well, breaking a lot of those tropes and going against the grain in some ways,

but not all.

It's a huge part of how the story begins, Ned gives Bran more than one teachable moment

during that execution scene in his first chapter and the things that happen just after

he gets a discussion about fear and the responsibilities to come with caring for a dangerous

pet.

But today we're not here to talk about how Ned educated his children.

We're here to look back and talk about how he was in turn educated by his parents and

siblings and those around him.

It takes a village to raise a child, they say, but in this case it's a castle, several

surrounding villages or towns like the Winter Town.

As we all know or should know, how a parent treats their own children as deeply rooted

in how they were treated by their own parents in turn and, of course, their parents before

them.

And other factors, of course, but primarily parents.

...