Game Of Thrones: 14 Crazy Bits Of Foreshadowing Hidden Throughout The Series

14. Ned’s Death Is Foreshadowed In The Pilot

In the very first episode of the series, Ned, Jon, Theon, Robb and Bran come upon a dead direwolf. We find out that this direwolf was killed by a stag, and it actually has a pair of antlers in its neck. This is kind of symbolism and foreshadowing wrapped up into one.

How? Well, the sigil of House Stark is a direwolf. The sigil of House Baratheon is a stag. At the end of this season, Ned Stark (the wolf) is killed by Joffrey Baratheon (the stag). 

We can also interpret this as representing Robert Baratheon getting Ned killed by inviting him to King’s Landing, which might make more sense considering technically Joffrey isn't a Baratheon. But regardless, Ned’s death was one of the absolute most shocking moments of the entire series, and it was laid out for us within the first 20 minutes.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that we also see a dead stag moments before, so if we're taking this as representing later events between the two families, both the wolf and the stag end up dead, just like both Joffrey/Robert and Ned end up dead.