Sean Bean was the face of Game of Thrones during the first season, but what viewers may not have realised at the time was that George R.R. Martin wrote the book series in a way which attempted to avoid (and in some cases stamp on) the stereotypes of fantasy storytelling. So if you had an underdog hero who proves his nobility but is sold out by an ally, hes not going to survive long enough to make readers/viewers think for a second that he might be able to claim the throne. This was exactly the story with Eddard Stark everyone was set up to believe that his life would be spared and he would be sent to the wall to join the Nights Watch for the rest of his life. Instead, Joffrey (more on him later) changed his mind and had him beheaded (with Eddards own sword, no less). This was particularly shocking given that the King was betrothed to marry Starks eldest daughter at the time too effectively having his future father-in-law killed. This wasnt the first major death we saw on the series but it was the execution of the most prominent character of them all. To put it into the context of the fourth season what would it be like if both Tyrion and Daenerys were executed at the same time now? That was the feeling that went around when Ned Stark was killed and its a hard one to forget.
