why you think starks are brown. No hate, I just want to know reason đ
No hate taken!!! I'm more than happy to give a little context.
I also talked a little and at length and then some about why I think the Starks are ndn or indigenous coded, therefore anecdotally "brown" if you want some more!
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The Starks Are Indigenous and You Canât Change My Mind
Look, Iâm just gonna say it: the Starks are giving "weâve been here for 10,000 years and you just got off the Mayflower.â Fandom loves to frame them as cold (literally), brooding white dudes who talk to trees and wolvves and die tragicallyâbut if you zoom out just a bit, what youâll see is a whole culture thatâs basically been staring the apocalyptic Chekovâs gun in the face while mumbling âthis is fineâ for millennia.
Letâs start at the beginning: the First Men walked to Westeros on foot twelve thousand years ago (according to legend. it's giving oral storytelling), chopped some trees, made some mistakes, and then struck a sacred pact with the Children of the Forest. Instead of wiping the Children out like the colonizers down south (cough Andals cough), they basically said, âYeah u right letâs chill,â and started building their whole culture around respecting nature, living weirwoods, and the gods that inhabit them. Now fast forward six thousand years and the Andals show up like, âHey, weâve got gods who look like us and wear robes, and also weâre here to murder your trees bc they're just trees they mean nothing.â (SOUND FAMILIAR?) And the North said: âuhhhhh doubt but alright try me bitch.â The Andals conquered everywhere else in Westeros, but the North? Untouched. Still praying to SpOokY tReEs, burying people under roots, giving a fuck about their ancestors, still naming their kids things like Brandon and Benjen and not, like, Luthor Tyrell III.
So when I say the Starks are Indigenous-coded, I mean it. They are the last major ruling house descended purely from the First Men, with customs, spirituality, and governance structures that date back over ten millennia. They didnât import Andal feudalism or Southern chivalryâthey rule by duty, community ties, and vibes. Thereâs no divine right here, just âI said Iâd guard the North, so Iâm gonna guard the North, even if I die horribly doing it.â Which... they usually do.
Physically, too, the Northerners are not your typical pale-and-pink Southron types. Descriptions from the books associate the First Menâand thus the Northmenâwith brown hair, darker complexions, and gray eyes. Theyâre closer to earth tones than the golden-and-ivory palettes of the Reach and Crownlands.
Now, itâs all fun and games until Robb Stark starts stacking Lannister corpses like firewood and suddenlyâboomââsavage skinchangerâ propaganda. The second the North stops being cold and quiet and starts sending wolves downriver, the Southern rumor mill goes feral. The same lords who wear wolf pelts to look edgy start whispering, âIs he... using magic? Unnatural beasts? Isnât that his direwolf out there eating menâs faces?â
Weâre not even being subtle anymore. This is textbook colonizer panic: âOh no, the brown people with strong spiritual ties to nature and weird customs have found a way to beat our superior steel and horses! They must be cheating!â And this is coming from a place where Melisandre literally births a shadow demon out of her woman's place and half the people involved just shrug and go, âWell, kings do be kinging and doin whatever it takes to be kinged.â But Robb winning battles with tactics and a big-ass dog? Witchcraft.
And letâs talk tone. The way Northerners are described when they show up in Kingâs Landing is... gross. Dirty. Sullen. Uncouth. They bring the smell of snow and smoke and old gods into the nice, civilized complacency of the South, and the court acts like they're watching a pack of feral dogs crash a garden party. Even the Dornish, who are also not white-coded in many ways and face plenty of racism, are still seen as exoticâdangerous, sure, but sexy-dangerous. The Northmen? Theyâre not fetishized. They're feared. Loathed. Dismissed as brutes and barbarians with ways that are so different that they should be feared.
And this is a classic move in imperialist narratives: you marginalize a people, rob them of power and culture, and the second they resist? You demonize them. Turn them into monsters. Say they commune with beasts and demons. (Sound familiar? Because it should.) Whether itâs North American Indigenous peoples being accused of âsavageryâ the moment they defend their land, or these colonized peoples being portrayed as superstitious and irrational for refusing assimilation and persisting with their cultureâWesteros is playing that greatest hit on repeat.
So yes, when I say the Starks are Indigenous-coded, I also mean that the way Westeros treats the North is textbook colonial anxiety. Theyâre tolerated when they stay quiet and frozen. But when they rise? When they win? Suddenly, theyâre not just a threatâtheyâre unnatural. Inhuman. Monstrous.
And if that ainât some real-world racial politics wrapped in an easy to swallow fictional narrative, idk what is.
Now letâs talk Boltons vs. Manderlys, the perfect case study in Indigenous vs. Settler-coded houses when it comes to the cultural conversation. The Boltons? Chaotic evil First Men energy. They used to flay people alive, possibly made cloaks out of skin (ok im sorry thatâs so baller), and ruled from the Dreadfort for thousands of years as a rival to House Stark. Theyâre the North turned inward and twistedâa cautionary tale about what happens when colonization doesnât get you, but intergenerational trauma does. Still, theyâre part of the land, part of the same heritage. The Manderlys, on the other hand? Total transplants. They got kicked out of the Reach, showed up in the North all teary-eyed and humble, and the Starks were like, âFine, you can live in this swamp by the sea.â And they did! Respectfully! But they never converted to the Old Gods. They still pray to the Seven, build stone cities, and have the audacity to name their castle White Harbor. That's like moving into someoneâs house and renaming it âGood Christian Suburb.â (like. Like americ--*gets dragged off stage*) But they're chill. Because they never pretended to be something they're not. And they never tried to change the ways of the lands and the peoples who welcomed them when no one else would.
Even within the North, there's a whole spectrum of resistance vs. assimilation. Youâve got the Free Folk beyond the Wallâwho are basically the âburn it all down, no kings, no lordsâ crowdâthen the Starks, who are like, âFine, Iâll wear a crown if it helps keep the peace,â and then the Manderlys, who are âwe love it here please donât send us back south.â Itâs not unlike real-world Indigenous communities: some stayed in the woods, some ran into the mountains, some took settler names and built schoolsâbut the throughline is survival. Resistance is survival.
And that, my fellow losers, is what the Starks are all about. They are the final boss of stubborn cultural preservation. Theyâre the people who would rather freeze than bend the knee to "gods" they donât believe in. When Ned Stark says âWinter is Coming,â heâs not just talking about weatherâheâs quoting a generational mantra. This, too, shall pass. And we will still be here. He's got seasonal depression and ancestral memory and PTSD, and he's still out here doing what is best for his people (well. not anymore, i guess.)
The North Remembersâand So Should You
When we say the Starks and the North are Indigenous-coded, weâre not just slapping a label on because it sounds cool and weâre desperate for representation. Weâre talking about a culture that predates colonizers, resists assimilation, honors its dead, and survives against impossible violence. Whether itâs through sacred trees, communal leadership, or refusing to compromise on your ancestral values, the Starks represent the heartbeat of a people who never left their landâbecause the land never left them.
So yes. The Starks are âbrown,â in the way that means something. Not necessarily in skin tone (though thereâs canon support for that too), but in soul. In story. In surviving. And if you disagree, Iâll meet you in the godswood under the bleeding tree, and we can discuss it like Northernersâwith our fuckin fists.
(this is a joke ur allowed other opinions)












