[SolidSnake84]

I had to bump this thread because I was just talking to a good friend of mine who just received his copy of "A Dance with Dragons", and i want you all to know that

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Eddard Stark is indeed Alive. Ned does certainly come back, but only in the memory of the weirwood, and Bran can never talk to him. I wouldn't call that "reviving" him or coming back as a ghost, but the weirwood can provide some useful information from him that before now we didn't now, like that mention to the two boys growing up like brothers. So Ned is sort of like a spirit, except he is more alive than a ghost would be....