After Ned’s (played by Sean Bean) demise on Game of Thrones, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) went on the run and became a master of combat.
However, her father did support his daughter’s desires to learn how to fight shortly before his death.
In the first season of the HBO fantasy, Ned hired swordsman Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou) to teach his daughter how to use the weapon.
In one of her lessons in the third episode as Syrio taught the young girl how to defend herself, whenever Arya left herself unguarded he declared she was “dead”.
Ned watched from the sidelines, chuckling as the pair sparred although a grave look soon spread across his face.
One viewer has theorised that Ned might’ve known the fate that was set to befall his family and the role Arya would play.
Reddit user lethalrxses wrote: “Then it’s almost like he has a flashback (or possible foreshadowing) to the sounds of a roaring battle and swords clashing and his face drops and it almost looks like he grows pale.
“Now on a side note, what father in this world and time period would let his young highborn daughter keep a secret swords and then go as far as to higher(sic) a skilled teacher to let her learn swordplay. But Ned does, despite what he knows about fighting and battles and wars.
“It’s almost like he… can see her potential and what she’s destined to do. It’s almost like he can see and sense the war coming and the white walkers eventually marching down on his family.
“He can see it and he’s terrified. That’s what I get from rewatching this scene after finishing the last season.”
READ MORE: Game of Thrones: Theon Greyjoy’s death sealed in season 1 with Bran Stark clue?
At the time, Ned knew there could be disturbances in court after he began to look into Jon Arryn’s (John Standing) investigations in Robert Baratheon’s (Mark Addy) bastard children before his death.
As viewers know, Ned’s probing was ultimately a contributing factor to his death as he was beheaded on the orders of the then-king Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson).
Arya later played a crucial part in the Battle of Winterfell as it was she who brought down the Night King once and for all.
She put a Valyrian dagger into the leader of the undead and destroyed the Night King and his army.
Arya appeared out of nowhere to pounce upon the villain using all the skills she gained over her years of training.
Throughout the final few series, there had been a great deal of speculation about who would be the one to kill him.
One strong contender was Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and actor Kit has revealed that he was disappointed when he found out he wouldn’t be the one to do it.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I was a bit p****d off, only because I wanted to kill the Night King!
“I think I felt like everyone else did, in that it had been set up for a long time, and then I didn’t get to do it. But I was so happy for Maisie and Arya.”
The actor added: “It was a really great twist, and it tied up Maisie’s journey in a really beautiful way. Over the seasons, we’ve seen her build up these skills to become this hardened assassin, and she uses it all to kill our main antagonist.”