You nailed it. That’s why this one was so shocking. All those reasons.I really think people were shocked by that for a few reasons, the first obviously being that most people had not read the books so didn't know it was going to happen. But aside from that:
- we had been conditioned to watch shows that had serious plot armor for the main characters. That did not exist much in the early GoT seasons.
- Ned was the good guy, and we had been conditioned to expect the good guy to somehow prevail
- Sean Bean was the only famous actor in the first season, so people expected him to be the main protagonist. Who kills off the most known brand and main protagonist in season 1?? Well, GoT does.
Made it shocking and mind blowing to a lot of first time viewers.
I had EXACTLY that mentality….”he’s not dying. He’s the biggest star and the good guy….he’s not…..holy shit!”
And to turn so many people back on their head after that experience with the red wedding was also amazing.
But, these things, they desensitize.
And that’s what we are with HotD…desensitized to what we were before GoT.
It’s why I try to be super cautious comparing the two. Many things that made early GoT so great can only be done twice.
That doesn’t make for a fair comparison for early HotD