Anyone who has ever watched Game of Thrones or read the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books will know that as soon as you become remotely emotionally attached to a character, they will die a painful and nightmare-inducing death.
I'll never forget the unjust beheading of Eddard Stark. I'll never forget The Red Wedding. I'll never forget Khal Drogo being dragged through the pits of hell by some witch. I'll never forget the moment Prince Oberyn had his head crushed like a pea by The Mountain. I'll never forget Ser Barristan Selmy bravely fighting the Sons of the Harpy to his own demise. And Maester Aemon (Targaryen) realising his time was up in the company of Samwell Tarly. I'm sure you have your own damaging Game of Thrones death memories to add to this list.
What I think I am successfully illustrating is that everyone dies in Game of Thrones. It doesn't matter whether you're the hero or the villain, death is something George R.R. Martin doesn't discriminate with just to fit the fans' preferred narrative.
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Just check out this video of all the major character deaths in Game of Thrones (TV) up to the end of season five...
So the big question has got to be, why oh fucking why does George R.R. Martin insist on killing off all our favourite characters?
Thankfully, that question has been answered in an extremely interesting interview he took part in with Galaxy's Edge writer and novelist Joy Ward. Seriously, if you read this answer and think, damn I want to know more, follow this link, it's a really insightful interview.
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Anyway, back to the answer Martin gave to the question, "How do you use death in your writing?". He said:
"I don't think of it in those terms, that I'm using death for any purpose. I think a writer, even a fantasy writer, has an obligation to tell the truth and the truth is, as we say in Game of Thrones, all men must die. Particularly if you're writing about war, which is certainly a central subject in Game of Thrones. It has been in a lot of my fiction, not all of it by any means but certainly a lot of it, going all the way back to "The Hero," which was a story about a warrior. You can't write about war and violence without having death. If you want to be honest it should affect your main characters. We've all read this story a million times when a bunch of heroes set out on adventure and it's the hero and his best friend and his girlfriend and they go through amazing hair-raising adventures and none of them die. The only ones who die are extras.
"That's such a cheat. It doesn't happen that way. They go into battle and their best friend dies or they get horribly wounded. They lose their leg or death comes at them unexpectedly.
"Death is so arbitrary. It's always there. It's coming for all of us. We're all going to die. I'm going to die. You're going to die. Mortality is at the soul of all this stuff. You have to write about it if you're going to be honest, especially if you're writing a story high in conflict. Once you've accepted that you have to include death then you should be honest about death and indicate it can strike down anybody at any time. You don't get to live forever just because you are a cute kid or the hero's best friend or the hero. Sometimes the hero dies, at least in my books.
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"I love all my characters so it's always hard to kill them but I know it has to be done. I tend to think I don't kill them. The other characters kill 'em. I shift off all blame from myself."
It's as simple as that - "All men must die." It's a real sad truth that George RR Martin abides by even in fantasy literature. I guess you have to applaud him for that.
Even if that does mean the pain of seeing all our favourite characters dying is going to be real and everlasting. At least we got Jon Snow back, huh?
Words by George Pavlou
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Death, Game of Thrones