User blog comment:Bchwood/Thoughts on Baelor Episode/@comment-4037187-20110614222327

I agree. Killing Ned was a shock - even though we saw it coming, it happened so suddenly - but most of all, it shows that the series is courageous. Killing one of the main characters, moreover: the one most generally liked and the one most intricately connected to all others, is not something many series would dare to do.

So in the end I applauded Ned's death: his blood proves the fealty of the tv series to the books :)