Also - sorry about multiple posts... But I was just thinking of something regarding the direwolves and how they mirror or even predict the Stark children's fates. I assume this is no groundbreaking theory but anyway
The first of the Stark children to lose her wolf is Sansa... And from that moment on, Sansa almost seems to have no Stark left in her. She is basically only a victim. I think it is very significant that her father kills the wolf himself. Ned does not realize it, but I think his killing Sansa's wolf prefigures the fact that he's leading her into a trap: marrying her off to the monster that is Joffrey, and leaving her completely helpless in the middle of the Lannisters.
Arya also loses her wolf very early, and yet she remains a Stark (maybe because the wolf lives on)... But like her wolf, she is a little lost and a little too wild. She may still be a Stark, but she seems to be a lost Stark.
Robb's wolf is very closely associated to him, and, especially in the book, you feel that he's doomed when he begins to stop trusting Grey Wind's instincts. I thought it was a shame that they did not show this in the series... Maybe they were afraid of spoiling the surprise. But in the book, I think his wife is afraid of Grey Wind. From the moment he marries this girl, he is doomed, and that is shown partly in the way she leads him away from trusting his direwolf. Grey Wind feels the danger as they arrive at the Frey's, but Robb does not listen to him and accepts to be parted from him. This leads them both to their deaths and the gruesome "reuniting" of their bodies by their enemies...
Bran is very different: he is pretty much always in tune with his wolf. He develops his "warg" abilities before the others, and he never ceases to be one with Summer. And I also have the feeling that Bran never ceases to be a Stark. He may be searching for his path, but he's not lost. He knows he has to go and look for an answer, and he follows his instincts.
I don't really know about Jon and Ghost... Certainly there is a long while when Ghost is away, and that coincides with Jon being a bit lost, too, as he has to deal with conflicted feelings while pretending to be a wildling but falling in love with Ygritte for real. But I did not pay enough attention to Jon's case.
As for Rickon, we hardly see him and his wolf... Maybe later.