You might have noticed that Sean Bean, as Ned Stark, was murmuring something right before his head was taken from his shoulders in the first season of Game of Thrones. There have been a lot of theories on what was being said by the suddenly very mortal Ned Stark, though none of them have held out to this point. In fact, Ned Stark was muttering a prayer when he was sentenced to death. That’s it, that’s the big secret. In all the churning of the rumor mills and all the excitement that was generated about this one simple thing it comes down to a simple prayer being muttered as Ned waited for the blade to fall.
Of course now theories are still abounding that Ned might make one final cameo in the final season since perhaps it wasn’t him on the executioner’s block but someone else, a Faceless Man perhaps. So far that rumor can be put to bed even if it doesn’t want to be. Sean Bean has even stated that it would be folly to develop such a story line at this point since Ned Stark, despite being short-lived, was a character with enough depth that bringing him back would only confuse the story even further. As of now Ned Stark died in season one, and that’s how it has to stay. Game of Thrones set the bar for disbelief quite high in the opening season since Sean Bean was by far and large the most known name on the roster at the time, and yet it still didn’t save his character. Ned Stark’s death was evidence that in this show no one would be safe.
We’ve seen that time and again throughout the seasons that anyone you think is above the chopping block is still well within the reaches of death since some of the more prominent characters have been killed without mercy or a second thought. Of course now that we look back on it some of those we should be glad for because there were among those ranks some rather vile people that didn’t deserve the chance to keep going. Some that appeared to have died have somehow survived, while those that are still alive should already be counted among the dead in the estimation of some. But the art of death-dealing in a story such as GoT is not as easy as people would have it. Eliminating people like Cersei Lannister or Euron Greyjoy is not all that simple. The story depends on them you see. If there’s not a villain, then there’s no reason for the heroes to ever exist.
If Ned Stark, who as we’ve seen is noble and straightforward but was also quite the liar in his youth, had not been beheaded then the war between the houses might have looked very different, and Winterfell might have been a major player than it was during the last several seasons. Ned Star had to die in order for the Game of Thrones to truly kick off. Perhaps he was saying a prayer for those that were left behind.
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