AGoT Chapter 1 - Bran I

Those three paragraphs offer such a simple and succinct distinction between the three brothers:

- Bran, always smaller, always needing to ride something bigger to keep up with his brothers. (Horses are also a neccessity for knighthood, something Bran never had, and something he would never achieve).
- Robb seemed always destined to be the personification of the union of The North and the Riverlands: perfect for the Riverlands, doesn't seem to understand the North at all.
- Jon and Robb are supposed to share a father, but they appear differentiated rather by their mother's genes. So, this points strongly of Jon having a Northern mother.

Jon is described graceful, quick, and slender - like a great swordsman.

Had previously shared this on SH, but going to do it again: Chapter 1 of AGOT occurs a year after the prologue

Something about this quote reminds me of the prologue right after the Others have arrived. Is it meant to bring to mind the arrival of the Others? Are we supposed to be drawing a parallel between the Others and the Starks?

I also really like the point that voice makes as well. Is Bran already sensing Summer?

Gared's death as the blood sacrifice to seal the warg-bond?

I agree that Gared's being there seems like too much of a coincidence. Like a sacrifice or a marker.

Problem I have with it's being a sacrifice for the bond is that the only parallel I can think of in the books is Dany's sacrifice to get her dragons. Obviously there are differences between hatching dragons and bonding with wolves. But Dany paid. Is Ned paying by executing Gared? Are the kids paying? But still, they have their bond. And it's instantly strong.

Am thus wondering if Gared is less sacrifice and more marker. Am reminded again of the Sentinels with his being tied to the wall of the holdfast. Gared ran from his post. Now has to watch on the holdfast. Reminder of the oath.

But if he is a marker for the old gods, should Ned have executed him? Is there a clash between the execution for desertion of the Watch and a member of the Watch "performing" a duty for the old gods (whether he knows it or not)?

There are a few sideways sacrifices re: Ned and the Starks. (Again reminding me of the Sentinels--really, what was the point of that?)

Ned's "sacrificing" Lady to appease Robert's need to quiet Cersei. Reminds me of the words Ned says before he executes Gared--in the name of Robert Baratheon, etc. This should be a rite for the old gods. Or be done under the authority of the King in the North or King of Winter. Ned's lost that knowledge. And helped put Robert in power to boot. (Robb sort of gets it back--sacrificing Karstark in front of the Riverrun heart tree in his own name). So, killing Lady is a sacrifice to the wrong king. A violation of family (Sansa is a child of Winterfell and the King of Winter). And a perversion of justice (Lady did nothing wrong). 

Arya's "sacrifices" to the Red God, without knowing "why"--these are sacrifices without "justice." Blind devotion. Like Ned follows the rote order of execution even though Gared is incomprehensible. Arya's kills for "justice"--scares me for her psyche. But her actions go back to being not just blind sacrifices but kills based on a code of ethics and justice she's been taught. Can she manage better than Ned? 

Sansa, like Arya, is involved in killing people for purposes NOT aligned with the gods. And she doesn't know she's part of killing Joffrey or Dontos until too late. Even though she meets Dontos in the godswood. Traces of sacrifice and justice, but without the substance needed. Same with the killing of Lyssa. Pushed through a weirwood door--but assuming the body falls onto rocks NOT intertwined with weirwood roots to drink blood (like Bran's cave or Dany's House of the Undying). And the sacrifice is not done from a sense of justice. Like Bran, Sansa is a just a witness.

Am now babbling. So, the point: this scene isn't just Ned having forgotten things. And setting Ned up to have forgotten even more. It ties in with at least some of his children trying to figure out their connections to justice and death and sacrifice. Robb and Jon do better than Sansa and Arya. And Sansa hasn't killed anyone directly--though her giving Robin Sweetsleep is like a slow-motion version of Arya giving drinks from the poison pool. And she's living in the place where Ned got distanced from his Winterfell ways.

The Starks SHOULD understand all of this. Ned IS following the basics. What's behind it all--he's lost sight of that. If he even actually knew.

At one time, maybe on heresy, there was a discussion about death paying to open the third eye (in a did Bran die and come back kinda way). Anyway, to continue on that route, the direwolf mama pays for the pups' eyes, Gared pays for the Stark kids. The blood goes into the roots, sacrificed by the correct person( the S in W). I don't know that the words make much of a difference; magic is usually about intent, and Ned's intentions are good.
I do think that sacrificing the magical Lady is Ned's mistake. He had no right: she is an innocent belonging to the old gods and his death avenges hers.