Can you remember where you were when poor Ned Stark parted company with his head? Of course you can: you were on the edge of your couch, scraping your jaw off the floor. You’ll have similar recollections, no doubt, of sitting through the Red Wedding, at which the surprise main course was a knife in the back for Robb and Catelyn, and of Ygritte’s sticky run-in with evil urchin Olly (boo Olly).
But when last did Game of Thrones chill anyone's giblets in such a manner? The question has become pertinent following the screening – at 2am Irish time – of episode four of the latest season The Spoils of War (which is repeated at 9pm on Sky Atlantic tonight). Without wishing to spoil what was one of the show's most epic ever instalments, suffice to say a major character looked certain to come to a toasty end only for fate to literally swoop in and save the day.
This was both exciting and a bit disconcerting. There was a time Game of Thrones would have merrily sent any of its main protagonists to the charnel pit. However, as the saga pivots towards the end game it's increasingly obvious that the Gods of Plot Advancement have cast a protective shield around the Seven Kingdoms' most significant players. If you've squeaked through thus far with your head attached to your neck, you're probably going to make it all the way to next year's final shake-down.
So is Game of Thrones still really Game of Thrones with the novelty of the shock demise removed? In this era of endless Reddit threads about Jon Snow's manbun and Cersei Lannister's pixie cut, it is easily forgotten that HBO's dip into swords and sorcery only truly captured the public imagination when season one concluded with Joffrey ordering Ned's noggin be lopped off (the boy-king would himself be the victim of a sneaky assassination courtesy of Olenna Tyrell in series four).
While Ned’s demise was no surprise to readers of the George RR Martin novels, among the wider public the televisual impact was enormous.
Game of Thrones had been set up as a relatively conventional romp, with noble Lord Stark the hero of the piece. To violently dispatch him – in full view of his weeping daughters – was a stunning departure from storytelling convention. On Game of Thrones, the execution scene bloodily announced, the usual rules did not apply. Ever since, viewers have been tuning in hoping for further helpings of the raw jolt they experienced as Ned was sent to the chopping block.
But is there anyone left that GoT dare kill off? Granted we've only just bid adieu to Lady Olenna, arch schemer and one of the few in Westeros to discern the twinkle of madness in Cersei's gaze before it metastasised into her defining quality. But the Queen of Thorns was an occasional delight, not a key strand in the narrative like Ned or Robb and Catelyn Stark.
This week the show had the perfect opportunity to prove it hasn’t dispensed with its old ruthlessness (mild spoilers to follow). In an action-packed sequence it seemed that one of Westeros’s most contradictory big names was set for the perfect exit: one equally brave and foolhardy, glorious and pointless.
Yet at the last, showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss – the real power behind the throne now that GoT has moved beyond Martin's books – blanched. Another participant in the battle, acting somewhat out of character, intervened literally at the death and – lo! – our anti-hero was saved.
Your immediate reaction was possibly relief, as it's always fun to root for a character whose black-heartedness conceals a streak of nobility. The difficulty is that this epic case of punch-pulling also amounts to a betrayal of the show's founding principle. If Daenerys and Jon Snow, Jaime and Cersei, Tyrion and the Stark siblings have been deemed untouchable a great deal of the thrill will have been sucked out of the HBO blockbuster to rule them all.
So come on Game of Thrones. Get the knives out. Rediscover that murderous glint and go back to what you do best: showering us in fountains of blood when we least expect it.
