The Scene That Made and Eventually Helped Ruin Game of Thrones | George RR Martin's ASOIAF

There is one scene that was most responsible for helping make Game of Thrones such a popular series. In it though were the seeds that would lead to Benioff and Weiss ruining the show.
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[@VirtualSatyr]

Ned losing his head was the spark. The Red Wedding was the fuel.
More importantly, reaction videos to the Red Wedding.
I think D&D strived to create moments that would make for good reaction videos. And it became a detriment to the show. These moments were no longer cohesive results of a properly flowing story, but moments manufactured to elicit a certain response.

[@TurquoiseStar17]

Yeah. People often say the show ran out of material, but outside of a few scenes (Bran meeting the 3-Eyed Raven, Jon's death by the Night's Watch, etc.) they pretty much ignored books 4 and 5 because those aren't as fast-paced and exciting. It's like all the hype and popularity went to their heads after the Red Wedding, so much that they believed they could do better than George.

[@kjellduteweert9262]

They also got lazy and wanted the credit of finishing the show themselves. They didn't want anyone else to have a piece of the cake, even if they were done with it. It also showed a pattern of big stuff happening before the final of a season.

[@reelworld1]

What's funny too is they could've stepped back, let others have a larger role in the final seasons and they still would've gotten all the acclaim because of how good the early seasons were. They were even writing most of the scripts in the final two seasons. They just couldn't give any control away.

[@gslinger]

The final seasons were a combo of their egos and laziness. After success they thought they could do anything, and when then they became less interested and lazy they thought that it would still be enough to finish it in a way that people would accept.

[@madisenb2097]

I didn't read the books before the first season so when this was all happening I was thinking that Ned would next go to the wall with Jon.

[@visenyasghost]

I thought some people might stop watching after Ned's execution. They were smart putting it in episode 9 to give people a chance to recover in the finale. The Red Wedding hit harder, and people would've quit I think if something like that was in Season 1 but fans were too invested in the show by then.

[@reelworld1]

True, whereas most series save their big moments for the finale, I think they were smart to do that in 9 most seasons and then have a reset in the finale.

[@BrendaC-i9wv6ud6g]

That scene impacted much of what came after and other character development - I remember being shocked that they killed him off like that. It changed the lives of so many characters.

[@KeystoneKenny]

great video! im still salty about how D&D rushed through the last few seasons, GRRM wanted at least 10 seasons, i wonder how beloved the show would be if it kept the quality from the first 4 seasons all the way through!