If you haven’t read the novel or seen last night’s Game Of Thrones, you’ll want to do so before reading this post. To say the episode had a shocking (and risky) twist is an understatement. If gold was the feature a couple of episodes back, ice held the defining moment in “Baelor”
Below the jump executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss talk to Entertainment Weekly about the ending to last night’s installment and what it means going forward. [MAJOR SPOILER ALERT if you're yet to see Sunday's episode or haven't read the novel - you've been alerted!].
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When reading Game of Thrones, what was your reaction to George killing off Ned?
DAVID BENIOFF: I was in shock. From your training in seeing so many movies and reading books, you know your hero is going to be saved. Is Arya going to pull this off? Does the queen have some trick up her sleeve? Someone has something planned, because they’re not reallygoing to chop off his head — right up until the moment when they chopped off his head. I was shocked, and then admiring of George’s ruthlessness. It’s a tough thing to build up a character and make somebody as memorable and impressive as Ned and then get rid of him. But at the same time it leads to a story that is so much more suspenseful because you truly have no idea what is going to happen and who is going to survive. In stories, you usually have an idea who’s going to make it out. Watching The Town, which was a really excellent movie from last year, you knew who was going to survive and who will die within the first 10 minutes. This was something completely different. And I said, “Wow George, there’s a reason you have such devoted followers because it makes such great reading and panicked reading because you turn the page not knowing who’s going to get what next.”When pitching the project, what was HBO’s reaction when you told them the main character dies?
D.B. WEISS: It was a selling point for them. They’ve [killed off characters] in some of their most successful series. In The Sopranos, even Tony I wasn’t completely sure was safe, it wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility [he would be killed off]. It completely ups the ante for any moment when a character is in a dire situation if you know another character didn’t make survive a similar situation.The scenes with Ned and Arya have been great, and with all that Maisie Williams is bringing to that part, I have a feeling this scene is going to upset viewers far more than it did readers of the book, in which the chapter was surprisingly casual and underwritten.
DB: It was a good choice by George to kind of underwrite it. Not to throw too many pretentious references around, but there’s a short story by Anton Chekhov where the lead character dies in the middle of a sentence — he didn’t even get his own sentence. That always left a real impression on me because it was so offhand that it made you think that this is a brutal life for these Russian sailors on these ships in the 19th century. It was very effective. Here you’re kind of watching from afar and the bluntness of George’s prose made it even more brutal, there was nothing sentimental and saccharin about it. It was just, there he is up there, and [the sword] Ice is coming down on his neck and that’s it. It’s faithful in the way it’s translated to the screen, but it’s still a very different thing because you have real live actors and little Maisie Williams watching and Ramin Djawadi’s beautiful score. There were lots of things that made us nervous this season, but we knew with episodes nine and ten we were ending on a strong note.Since he is the best-known actor and such a central figure, does losing Sean bring about any concern whether viewers will stick around for season two?
DBW: In addition to his character, you’re setting up other characters that goes forward. The idea is this show gets its hooks into people enough so you’re going to want to know what happens to Tyrion and Arya. So even though we lose key characters, we’re still invested in a lot of characters so you’ll want to know what happens next.Does Sean leaving the show open up the possibility of hiring another star for characters who are introduced in season two?
DB: There are a bunch of names up for discussion, so it’s quite possible. Certainly there hasn’t been any kind of mandate that we need to cast big names, but there are some well known actors who would be great for certain roles.
You can read the entire piece at EW.
That’s one of the great things about following multiple serialized shows in one place; you get to really contrast and compare storytelling. It was just the other day here on Seriable that I mentioned the merits (or otherwise) of a show unexpectedly killing off its main character in the early knockings.
I referenced LOST‘s Jack Shephard as an example of a central protagonist that the show’s creators intended to kill in the pilot, until ABC convinced them to play it safer.
While that may or may not have been a successful move, I have to admire George R.R. Martin’s ruthlessness (and the show’s creators) for braving that particular path in Game Of Thrones; it continues to make the story anything but predictable. And is it really ‘ruthlessness’, or are they staying true to the world of the story in order to best tell that story? There’s more than one ‘game’ being played here, for sure.
What did you think of Ned being killed off?
PERSON OF INTEREST Renewed For Season 2
TERRA NOVA: Season 2 Decision Delayed Until 2012
ONCE UPON A TIME: The Comprehensive Character Guide
BREAKING BAD: Bryan Cranston Confirms Season 5 Will Premiere In July
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.22 Brave New World: Part 2
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ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.22 A Land Without Magic
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.21 An Apple Red As Blood
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.21 Brave New World: Part 1
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.20 The Stranger
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Knowing what was going to happen, didn’t make it easier. T_T
Sean Bean’s performance was outstanding, as always.
Great chemistry with Maisie Williams.
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I love it! the ruthlessness/lack of sentimental-ness/no mercy/staying true to the world created really turbocharges my faith in George’s writing/the series. the genuine unpredictability makes for a sort of wincing every time you turn the page but you still turn through it so fast because it’s so addictive-ly written. I can’t wait for the finale! and then on to the books (july 12th) for me (and i’m sure many others)!
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I too delight in George’s overturning fantasy cliches to produce something truly great and unpredictable and interesting!
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I thought it was ridiculous, here is a character that has been central to the story, that you become invested in. A man that embraces honor over brains as his legacy,… and then he does a 180 degree turn, dishonors himself in front of his children and dies. What exactly was the point, other than being artificially shocking? Stupid. The show goes too far any way with all the pornographic sex scenes and the brutal killing of animals. It could have been an interesting, epic, character driven show and it has just degenerated into trash. Won’t watch another minute of it or buy the books. Don’t appreciate the mysogynistic undertones. I think “George” has some real issues with women. Just GROSS!
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If I didn’t know it was going to happen before hand I would have been pretty pissed and I do agree with the fact that it is rather sad what happened to Ned especially the fact that he dishonours himself right before death, very unbecoming of the character, BUT (and there is a but), Danaerys and Arya are essentially the main characters as the story fills out, so, I think the misogyny comment is a bit unfounded…
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I think the misogyny might have been referring to the pornographic sex scenes, in which case I agree. I like shocking, but there’s been way too much objectification of women. I’d like to see a version where scenes had with a prostitute are focused less on objectifying the prostitute. The dialogue rarely has anything to do with the sex or nudity, so we can do without it (in most cases). But the only way we’d ever see any shot alternative scenes (which I kind of doubt exist) is if they’re broadcast censored in another country or in syndication which may cut out too much of it.
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fair enough
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Don’t worry, Terry, we won’t miss you! In case you missed the plot there, Ned confessed in order to be sentenced to the Wall with his brother and his son, Jon. Joffrey instead “flipped the script” and sentenced him to die.
Maybe you missed the queen protesting ineffectively?
Anyway, the series was one of the most popular and well-written epic fantasy series LONG before this HBO product was even contemplated. The book series will keep on going regardless [inappropriate, removed - ed].
If you want to complain about the violence and nudity, then maybe you should cancel your HBO subscription. Apparently you have never watched one of their series before? Sex and violence is pretty much par for the course.
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Terry mate I think you missed an important point here: He actually does ”dishonor himself” in front of his children because OF them. Because he really understands that this is the only thing to do in order to give them a good life from that point on. As he says back in his cellar, his life is not important to him but his children’s life IS. Also, he is probably the most honorable character in the movie but also the most naive and idealist of all. Such a character couldn’t resist in a world full of treachery, full of lies, a world where political affairs put honor in shade. I don’t think anyone could resist. To be honest, after the king died, I wasn’t surprised what happened at the court. I was 90 % sure that he will die. And I really don’t think that’s what the author really wanted to show in this movie. The movie has some interesting characters and the plot will evolve around his children. Even from the beginning of the series (actually from the first episode) you see that children do actually play a big and important role in this fantastic world.
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The reason why he lied and confessed was to save his daughters, he didn’t care about dying. These were the same people who tried to kill Bran and ended up crippling him, they could have easily killed Sansa if he didn’t agree to their demands as Viserys was trying to hint at. So disagree that the point of that scene was just to shock, I would say it was very realistic of what anyone in that situation would have done.
Of course the irony is that the two dishonourable things that he did (changing the words of Robert’s will instead of telling Robert the truth about Joffrey and confessing to crimes he didn’t commit) was what did him in.
p.s. I am enjoying the nudity, no complaints there.
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haha all very true words
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Will not be watching the second season. Quite disappointed to see Ned killed off. Especially when a great actor such as Sean was playing the role superbly. Instead now we get to see more of a brother and sister fornicate. Wtf, I am all for plot twists and the element of suspense, but this is a tad too far. It seems George was writing this scene in the trailer park he resides in while fornicating with his siblings (vomit), and shouldn’t the children of the queen and her brother have some sort of mental or physical disability seeing as the were formed from inbreeding? Idiots
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History notes incest among royal families as a not-exactly common nor rare thing. It happened. George Martin has chosen to incorporate that. I actually applaud him for breaking from the ‘fantasy’ norm. Ned’s death was the perfect chaos moment. It shows that no character is safe. What fun is a dramatic show like this if you know every character will live to the end? The thing to truly note going into season two is the duplicitous nature of Grand Maester Pycelle. In the series he is protrayed as a doddering old man who finds movement to be difficult. Then we see him in a ‘private moment’ and we learn that he is far more capable of action than previously thought. Of course, he puts on his ‘public’ face before leaving the room.
I also thought the interaction with Littlefinger and Varys was quite well played. Excellent tension there.
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I’m seeing Game of Thrones just in time for season 2.
I hated seeing Ned die and it made me want to watch all the more. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate the Lanniser’s any more, this happens. It really makes you think that no character is safe.
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