89 replies to this topic

[stark of winterfell]

I got this idea from another thread in another fourm but what do you think the realtionships between the stark children were?
there are some we do no like jon and robb and jon and arya but what about the other?  Do you think they all got on well, I know there were arguments between them but their the closest family that we see and I'd like to think they were all close.

[Gronzag]

Sansa was a bit distant from the others, especially Jon, and Rickon was too young to have a deeper relationship with anyone but mom and dad. The rest were fairly close

[houseHB]

I think the saying the lone-wolf dies and the pack survives refers to all the inner-family divisions that have occurred throughout the series. The Baratheons, and the Lannisters, I think the Stark family will be closer than ever after all the stuff that has happened to them. The ones that are left, Jon, Sansa, Bran, Arya and Rickon.

[ARYa_Nym]

Jon and Arya were the closest. Jon was also close to Robb.

Quote

(3) Arya was one of the first characters created. Sansa came about as a total opposite b/c too many of the Stark family members were getting along and familes aren't like that. Thus, Sansa was created; he ended by saying they have deep issues to work out.

http://www.westeros....ember_9_and_11/

I'm curious about Bran and Arya's relationship. He seemed really excited to see Arya those two times he thought that he did. It was cute.

Rickon may have latched on to Bran as a playmate before Bran got crippled.

[Ice Turtle]

Jon and Arya - are easily the closest
Bran and Rickon
Robb and Bran
Jon and Bran
Robb and Jon
Arya and Bran - I have a feeling that Lyanna and Benjen were much closer
Robb and Rickon
Jon and Rickon
Arya and Rickon
Sansa and Arya - yes it's a troubled relationship but  close one, they spend a lot of time together
Robb and Sansa
Robb and Arya - for some reason I never seen them as too close, Robb seems to understand Sansa more
Sansa and Bran
Sansa and Rickon
Sansa and Jon

And because I mentioned it before, the previous generation:

Lyanna and Benjen
Lyanna and Brandon
Eddrad and Benjen - they probably got much closer after their siblings' deaths
Lyanna and Eddard
Brandon and Benjen
Brandon and Eddard

[Jolene Brown]

I thought it was interesting that Rickon seemed to become best friends with the Frey kids in ACOK, and to prefer hanging out with them to hanging with Bran.

[ARYa_Nym]

I don't think Arya was very close to Robb either.

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"Arya didn't know how much Robb would pay for her, though. He was a king now, not the boy she'd left at Winterfell with snow melting in his hair. And if he knew the things she'd done..."What if my brother doesn't want to ransom me?"

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"She still had one brother left. Jon will want me, even if no one else does..."

Jolene Brown, on 30 May 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

I thought it was interesting that Rickon seemed to become best friends with the Frey kids in ACOK, and to prefer hanging out with them to hanging with Bran.

I think it's because Bran could no longer play with him properly because of his legs.

[Sapphire]

Others have already mentioned the obvious ones. I thought it was interesting, in Jon's first pov, at the feast Rickon stops by his side for a bit and Jon urges him on. Later in CoK Bran says Rickon kept asking for Jon and why he wasn't at their table. So there must be a bond between Jon and Rickon.

[Howling Mad]

ARYa_Nym, on 30 May 2012 - 07:08 PM, said:

I think it's because Bran could no longer play with him properly because of his legs.

Bran was fulfilling the role of Lord of Winterfell which took up his time and required him act mature.  He didn't have the ability to just be a kid any longer.

[ARYa_Nym]

Howling4Reed, on 30 May 2012 - 10:11 PM, said:

Bran was fulfilling the role of Lord of Winterfell which took up his time and required him act mature.  He didn't have the ability to just be a kid any longer.

There's that too. I think Rickon was at the age where he wants to run around so the Frey boys were the only ones he could do that with at the time.

[Errant Bard]

Two events come to mind:

She scooped up a handful of snow and squeezed it between her fingers. Heavy and wet, the snow packed easily. Sansa began to make snowballs, shaping and smoothing them until they were round and white and perfect. She remembered a summer's snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They'd each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she'd had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she'd slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn't, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing.

and

Suddenly Arya remembered the crypts at Winterfell. They were a lot scarier than this place, she told herself. She'd been just a little girl the first time she saw them. Her brother Robb had taken them down, her and Sansa and baby Bran, who'd been no bigger than Rickon was now. They'd only had one candle between them, and Bran's eyes had gotten as big as saucers as he stared at the stone faces of the Kings of Winter, with their wolves at their feet and their iron swords across their laps.
Robb took them all the way down to the end, past Grandfather and Brandon and Lyanna, to show them their own tombs. Sansa kept looking at the stubby little candle, anxious that it might go out. Old Nan had told her there were spiders down here, and rats as big as dogs. Robb smiled when she said that. "There are worse things than spiders and rats," he whispered. "This is where the dead walk." That was when they heard the sound, low and deep and shivery. Baby Bran had clutched at Arya's hand.
When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs, and Bran wrapped himself around Robb's leg, sobbing. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. "You stupid," she told him, "you scared the baby," but Jon and Robb just laughed and laughed, and pretty soon Bran and Arya were laughing too.

Sansa notoriously taught Jon how to talk to girls. Arya forgoes her wish to see King's Landing drowned because Arya is there. Sansa thinks that if she has a baby girl she'll name her Arya.

So... pretty close, I guess, even if there is such a thing as sibling rivalry.

Edited by Errant Bard, 30 May 2012 - 11:37 PM.

[The Fallen]

I agree, they seemed very close. They all grew up together, and like all siblings they had squabbles and arguments. Rickon asked for Robb and Jon, so he obviously loved them and viewed them as protectors. Bran also misses Robb and Jon. Of course, we know that Jon and Arya were very close, as were Jon and Robb. I think the only Stark kid who viewed Jon as less than a brother was Sansa. She always referred to him as her half-brother or bastard brother. Another reason why she's hard to stomach.

[Daughter of Dragons]

Yes all of the Stark children seem pretty close to me with the exception of Sansa/Jon as The Fallen mentioned above. It seems as though all of the others accepted Jon as a full brother(although, I know they knew different). Sansa seems to often view him as second class since he is a bastard brother. Other than those two I think the rest were fairly close.

[danm_999]

Daughter of Dragons, on 31 May 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

Yes all of the Stark children seem pretty close to me with the exception of Sansa/Jon as The Fallen mentioned above. It seems as though all of the others accepted Jon as a full brother(although, I know they knew different). Sansa seems to often view him as second class since he is a bastard brother. Other than those two I think the rest were fairly close.

I don't think this is true at all. Even Arya thinks of Jon Snow as a "half brother", for example in AFFC:

In there she was Arya of Winterfell, the daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn, who had once had brothers named Robb and Bran and Rickon, a sister named Sansa, a direwolf called Nymeria, a half brother named Jon Snow.

So when Sansa thinks:

She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still . . . with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again.

They're thinking of him pretty much the same way. In fact you could make the argument Sansa thinks of him more favourable because Arya thinks of Nymeria and her sister before Jon.

I think the real reason Sansa and Jon weren't as close as Jon was with the rest of the Stark children is because they had less in common. Jon obviously got on really well with his half brothers, and Arya was such a tomboy that she was almost like another half brother to him. Sansa, ever the lady, just had less in common with him.

Edited by danm_999, 31 May 2012 - 12:27 AM.

[ARYa_Nym]

I think Arya and Sansa love each other obviously but they have certain problems.

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"Sansa had once dreamt of having a sister like Margaery; beautiful and gentle, with all the world's graces at her command. Arya had been entirely unsatisfactory as sisters went..."

Quote

"Don't you ever have a brother you wanted to kill?" He laughed again. "Or maybe a sister?" He must have seen something in her face then, for he leaned closer. "Sansa. That's it, isn't it? The wolf bitch wants to kill the pretty bird." "No," Arya spat back at him. "I'd like to kill you." "

I think they can get over the Lady/Mycah incident though. Sansa I think has stopped blaming Arya and Arya is starting to forget Mycah.

There was a movie called Martha Marcy May Marlene where this sister went through a traumatic experience and instead of making them closer it made the relationship worse. The sister couldn't/wouldn't communicate and was emotionally cut off.

I think their experiences will lead them to appreciate each other just like Sansa and Jon will but I see both pairings as not being close but that doesn't mean that they don't love and care for each other.

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"Run and ride, make yourself strong. And whatever you do..." Arya knew what was coming next. They said it together. "...don't...tell...Sansa!"

Quote

"...he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart."

I think Arya will be emotionally cut off in the end and will maybe be only tell Jon the things close to her heart. Bran will be physically cut off I think.

[ARYa_Nym]

danm_999, on 31 May 2012 - 12:25 AM, said:

I don't think this is true at all. Even Arya thinks of Jon Snow as a "half brother", for example in AFFC:

In there she was Arya of Winterfell, the daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn, who had once had brothers named Robb and Bran and Rickon, a sister named Sansa, a direwolf called Nymeria, a half brother named Jon Snow.

So when Sansa thinks:

She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still . . . with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again.

They're thinking of him pretty much the same way. In fact you could make the argument Sansa thinks of him more favourable because Arya thinks of Nymeria and her sister before Jon.

I think the real reason Sansa and Jon weren't as close as Jon was with the rest of the Stark children is because they had less in common. Jon obviously got on really well with his half brothers, and Arya was such a tomboy that she was almost like another half brother to him. Sansa, ever the lady, just had less in common with him.

I think Arya appealed to Jon because she's like his mother. He just doesn't realize it. Jon has a lot of his mother in him so he and Arya are able to get along. They even finish each others' sentences. Jon also has love interests who are like Arya so indirectly they're like his mother.

Edited by ARYa_Nym, 31 May 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[The Lion of Valyria]

I feel like they were as close as siblings could be expected to be.  It's why I find Sansa's snow castle scene so sad.  Despite the differences between them, they all loved each other.  

Not to mention, it contrasts sharply with a lot of the other sibling relationships in the series.  The Lannister and Baratheon siblings especially.

[Errant Bard]

Daughter of Dragons, on 31 May 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

It seems as though all of the others accepted Jon as a full brother(although, I know they knew different). Sansa seems to often view him as second class since he is a bastard brother.

I beg to differ:

If Sansa was gone too, there were no more Starks but her. Jon was on the Wall a thousand leagues away, but he was a Snow, and these different aunts and uncles the Hound wanted to sell her to, they weren't Starks either. They weren't wolves.

Even Arya considers him her half-brother. Not a Stark, not a wolf, less than a full Stark, less than Sansa.

Bran notoriously refers to him as his half-brother in his own mind, in the first chapter. Robb and Jon part ways by calling each others not Jon and Robb but "Stark" and "Snow". So yeah, the divide is there for everyone.

[ManyFacedOne]

danm_999, on 31 May 2012 - 12:25 AM, said:

They're thinking of him pretty much the same way. In fact you could make the argument Sansa thinks of him more favourable because Arya thinks of Nymeria and her sister before Jon.

That's a stretch. Those aren't even her direct thoughts, just a list of those in her former life. In fact, Arya puts Jon above all her other siblings, even her parents, when she's thinking about who she misses most.

Edited by ManyFacedOne, 31 May 2012 - 01:40 AM.

[Hear Us Roar]

Sansa was the most distant.

Robb spent much of his time with Theon or Jon

Jon ran with Arya and Rob

Bran. i got the sense just did his own thing most of the time. Climbing and adventuring on his own.