Game of Thrones (TV Series)

Winter Is Coming (2011)

Sean Bean: Eddard 'Ned' Stark

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Quotes 

• Eddard Stark : Winter is coming.

• Eddard Stark : [to Jaime Lannister]  I don't fight in tournaments because when I fight a man for real, I don't want him to know what I can do.

• Will : [to Ned, just before his execution]  I know I broke my oath. I know I'm a deserter. I should've gone back to the Wall and warned them, but... I saw what I saw. I saw the White Walkers. People need to know. If you can get word to my family... tell 'em I'm no coward. Tell 'em I'm sorry.

  [Ned pauses, then nods. The guards force Will onto the chopping block and Ned draws his sword] 

  Will : Forgive me, lord.

  Eddard Stark : In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of His Name...

  Jon Snow : [aside, to Bran]  Don't look away. Father will know if you do.

  Eddard Stark : ...Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, I, Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, sentence you to die.

  [Ned decaptitates Will] 

  Jon Snow : [to Bran]  You did well.

• [after Will's execution] 

  Eddard Stark : You understand why I did it?

  Bran Stark : Jon said he was a deserter.

  Eddard Stark : But do you understand why I had to kill him?

  Bran Stark : Our way is the old way?

  Eddard Stark : The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

  Bran Stark : Is it true he saw the White Walkers?

  Eddard Stark : The White Walkers have been gone for thousands of years.

  Bran Stark : So he was lying.

  Eddard Stark : A madman sees what he sees.

• [Ned is cleaning his sword in Winterfell's godswood after Will's execution] 

  Catelyn Stark : All these years, and I still feel like an outsider when I come here.

  Eddard Stark : You have five northern children. You're not an outsider.

  Catelyn Stark : I wonder if the old gods agree.

  Eddard Stark : It's your gods, by all the rules.

  [pause. Then Catelyn produces a parchment from her sleeve] 

  Catelyn Stark : I am so sorry, my love.

  Eddard Stark : Tell me.

  Catelyn Stark : There was a raven from King's Landing. Jon Arryn is dead. A fever took him.

  [Ned slowly looks away in shock] 

  Catelyn Stark : I know he was like a father to you.

  Eddard Stark : Your sister, the boy...

  Catelyn Stark : They both have their health, gods be good.

  [Catelyn sits down next to Ned] 

  Catelyn Stark : The raven brought more news. The king rides for Winterfell... with the queen, and all the rest of them.

  Eddard Stark : If he's coming this far north... there's only one thing he's after.

  Catelyn Stark : You can always say no, Ned.

• [Ned and Catelyn are watching the boys at archery practice when Ser Rodrik walks up] 

  Ser Rodrik Cassel : Lord Stark... milady. The guardsmen just rode in from the hills. They've captured a deserter from the Night's Watch.

  [pause] 

  Eddard Stark : Get the lads to saddle their horses.

  Catelyn Stark : Do you have to?

  Eddard Stark : He swore an oath, Cat.

  Ser Rodrik Cassel : Law is law, milady.

  Eddard Stark : Tell Bran he's coming, too.

  [Ser Rodrik nods and walks away] 

  Catelyn Stark : Ned... ten is too young to see such things.

  Eddard Stark : He won't be a boy forever... and winter is coming.

• Jon Snow : There are five pups. The direwolf is the sigil of your house. They were meant to have them.

  Eddard Stark : You will train them yourselves. You will feed them yourselves. And if they die, you will bury them yourselves.

• Robert Baratheon : [about Lyanna]  She should be on a hill somewhere with the sun and the clouds above her.

  Eddard Stark : She was my sister. This is where she belongs.

  Robert Baratheon : She belonged with me.

• Robert Baratheon : I need you, Ned, down at King's Landing, not up here where you're no damn use to anybody. Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King.

  Eddard Stark : [kneeling]  I'm not worthy of the honor.

  Robert Baratheon : I'm not trying to honor you. I'm trying to get you to run my kingdom while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave. Damn it, Ned, stand up.

  [he does] 

  Robert Baratheon : You helped me win the Iron Throne, now help me keep the damn thing. We were meant to rule together. If your sister had lived, we'd have been bound by blood. Well, it's not too late. I have a son, you have a daughter. We'll join our houses.

• Eddard Stark : It's done, Your Grace. The Targaryens are gone.

  Robert Baratheon : Not all of them.

• Eddard Stark : Tell me about Jon Arryn.

  Robert Baratheon : One minute he was fine and then... burned right through him, whatever it was. I loved that man.

  Eddard Stark : We both did.

  Robert Baratheon : He never had to teach you much, but me? You remember me at 16? All I wanted to do was crack skulls and fuck girls. He showed me what was what.

  Eddard Stark : Aye.

  Robert Baratheon : Don't look at me like that. It's not his fault I didn't listen.

• Robert Baratheon : Are you as good with a spear as you used to be?

  Eddard Stark : No, but I'm still better than you.

  Robert Baratheon : [laughing]  I know what I'm putting you through. Thank you for saying yes. I only ask you because I need you. You're a loyal friend. You hear me? A loyal friend. The last one I've got.

  Eddard Stark : I hope I'll serve you well.

  Robert Baratheon : You will. And I'll make sure you don't look so fucking grim all the time.

• Eddard Stark : I'm a Northman. I belong here with you, not down south in that rat's nest they call a capital.

  Catelyn Stark : I won't let him take you.

  Eddard Stark : The king takes what he wants. That's why he's king.

  Catelyn Stark : I'll say, "Listen, fat man. You are not taking my husband anywhere. He belongs to me now."

  Eddard Stark : How did he get so fat?

  Catelyn Stark : He only stops eating when it's time for a drink.

• Eddard Stark : [Catelyn receives a letter from her sister]  What news?

  Catelyn Stark : She's fled the capital. She says Jon Arryn was murdered. By the Lannisters. She says the king is in danger.

  Eddard Stark : She's fresh widowed, Cat. She doesn't know what she's saying.

  Catelyn Stark : Lysa's head would be on a spike right now if the wrong people had found that letter. Do you think she would risk her life, her son's life, if she wasn't certain her husband was murdered?

  Maester Luwin : If this news is true and the Lannisters conspire against the throne, who but you can protect the king?

  Catelyn Stark : They murdered the last Hand. Now you want Ned to take the job?

  Maester Luwin : The king rode for a month to ask for Lord Stark's help. He's the only one he trusts. You swore the king an oath, my lord.

  Catelyn Stark : He's spent half his life fighting Robert's wars. He owes him nothing. Your father and brother rode south once on a king's demand.

  Maester Luwin : A different time. A different king.

• Eddard Stark : The man I beheaded, did you know him?

  Benjen Stark : Of course I did. Just a lad. And he was tough, Ned, a true ranger.

  Eddard Stark : He was talking madness. Said the Walkers slaughtered his friends.

  Benjen Stark : Well, the two he was with are still missing.

  Eddard Stark : Hmph. A Wildling ambush.

  Benjen Stark : Maybe. Direwolves south of the wall, talk of the Walkers, and my brother might be the next Hand of the King. Winter is coming.