Game(s) of Thrones: Medieval Literature and Popular Culture

Welcome to the last forum of the semester! For this week, I've put together prompts below, but, especially here, I encourage you to make note of any final comments, questions, or thoughts you have about the series, so feel free to go off script!

So...Ned. Why did things go so wrong for him, and when did they start to go wrong? When this series first came out, Ned's death was a major shock; he was supposed to be the ultimate chivalric hero--the ethical knight who completes the quest and makes it to the end. Why do you think he does die here (i.e., why did Martin choose to kill him off this early in the series) and what's the effect of his demise on the rest of the series? If you haven't watched it recently, I highly encourage you to rewatch his death scene and think about how it's staged.

Why does the season end, not with Ned's death, but with Daenerys' emergence from the fire? What's the effect of this change?

And finally--as experts in High Fantasy and medievalism now--how does Game of Thrones as a whole fit into some of our larger thematic classroom conversations? In what ways is the show thinking about chivalry? honor? crusade? How does it compare to some of the other texts, medieval and more contemporary that we've read?