(Spoilers for books and TV show.)
It's something I often hear in regards to the series. Sometimes as praise, "Oh it's so unpredictable and surprising, nobody has plot armour, anyone can die just like real life". Sometimes as criticism, "I can't be bothered reading/watching any more, everyone just keeps dying anyway."
And it's bullshit.
There are 14 main POV characters [http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/POV_character]. The total body count among them amounts to... two, maybe three.
- Ned Stark died (incidentally, if his and King Robert's deaths were a surprise then you really weren't paying attention).
- Catelyn Stark died but was brought back to life (in the books). Let's be generous and count her as a death since she might not have come back quite right.
- Jon Snow died but is probably coming back too (and is just peachy in the show but who gives a shit).
- Brienne was last seen in a cliffhanger, but isn't dead yet (and is also just fine in the show).
Honourable mention to Theon/Reek being fucked up to a tranformative degree (in the books, much less so in the show).
Then there are 10 POV characters of lesser importance. Among them the body count is... also two.
- The Kingsguard Knight in Dorne.
- Martell chap sent to woo Dany who got himself roasted.
- One death the show, Barristan Selmy, but a different one because they cut stuff out and... oh, fuck it, who cares.
Technically there's a bunch of very minor POV characters who only appear once in prologues and immediately die. Not counting them for obvious reasons.
So where the hell does the Anyone Can Die thing come from? Because I'm just seeing an ordinary story where the main characters mostly survive and a whole bunch of secondary characters get killed off whenever things need to get dramatic. It's totally conventional in any story involving violence and death.
That's not a criticism by the way. Those conventions exist for a reason and it's not GRRM's duty to overturn them or anything. Just utterly puzzled by the series' reputation.
It's something I often hear in regards to the series. Sometimes as praise, "Oh it's so unpredictable and surprising, nobody has plot armour, anyone can die just like real life". Sometimes as criticism, "I can't be bothered reading/watching any more, everyone just keeps dying anyway."
And it's bullshit.
There are 14 main POV characters [http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/POV_character]. The total body count among them amounts to... two, maybe three.
- Ned Stark died (incidentally, if his and King Robert's deaths were a surprise then you really weren't paying attention).
- Catelyn Stark died but was brought back to life (in the books). Let's be generous and count her as a death since she might not have come back quite right.
- Jon Snow died but is probably coming back too (and is just peachy in the show but who gives a shit).
- Brienne was last seen in a cliffhanger, but isn't dead yet (and is also just fine in the show).
Honourable mention to Theon/Reek being fucked up to a tranformative degree (in the books, much less so in the show).
Then there are 10 POV characters of lesser importance. Among them the body count is... also two.
- The Kingsguard Knight in Dorne.
- Martell chap sent to woo Dany who got himself roasted.
- One death the show, Barristan Selmy, but a different one because they cut stuff out and... oh, fuck it, who cares.
Technically there's a bunch of very minor POV characters who only appear once in prologues and immediately die. Not counting them for obvious reasons.
So where the hell does the Anyone Can Die thing come from? Because I'm just seeing an ordinary story where the main characters mostly survive and a whole bunch of secondary characters get killed off whenever things need to get dramatic. It's totally conventional in any story involving violence and death.
That's not a criticism by the way. Those conventions exist for a reason and it's not GRRM's duty to overturn them or anything. Just utterly puzzled by the series' reputation.