10 Mistakes Game Of Thrones Can’t Afford To Repeat In Season 6
8. Ambiguous Deaths
What do we say to the god of death? Maybe. Who knows! Tune in next time to find out!
Off screen deaths can contain a lot of power, but were not talking about one character enquiring and another character doing the slow headshake, were talking about cutaways and deliberate ambiguity.
Syrio Forel for example was an excellent ambiguous death. It follows very much along the lines of my favourite movie trope of all time next to weve got company; the classic You go, Ill hold them off.
If we look at the execution of Stannis as a comparison point, we have a jump cut reprieve for the most miserable man in Westeros. If he survived, that wouldnt be a good thing and if he died it makes even less sense. Without that one or two seconds more for a reaction shot from Brienne, it goes from powerful moment of cathartic justice to false peril akin to a pre-commercial break hes done for fake out.
Season 6 is the season for payoffs and tragedies. There are already so many things to tune in for and so many variables to ponder without having to worry about characters we lost hope for popping back up again. except Benjen. We love Benjen.