5. When Ned Stark Was Executed
Yep, this is the first very, very big one, the first significant loss of the series that firmly ingrained in the minds of all viewers that no one is safe from George R.R. Martin’s pen, not even the main friggin’ protagonist of the series.
Ned Stark had more screen and talking time than anyone else in the show’s first season, but by the end of that season his head fell cleanly off his shoulders. In conventional fiction, you keep your main character alive at least until the final act. Even the death of a protagonist at the very end of a series is a tough thing to take. But not here, here we chop off his head at the very beginning to set up for the nightmares that follow.
So because of the lunacy of his creator, honourable Ned Stark is no more. It still messes with our heads to this day, though certainly not as much as George R.R. and Joffrey messed with his.
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