User blog comment:Veldorn01772/Ned's death/@comment-5670832-20121121162908

I read the book first, and Eddard was my favorite character. I was miserable when he was killed, but in the TV series there was no way they could continue to pay Sean Bean's salary. I'm sure HBO was happy he dies in the first season. Still I would have liked to see him get mercy and be sent to the Wall. He would have been with Jon and would likely have ended up Lord Commander. Maybe someone will write a fanfiction story about this someday. The scene with the Direwolves was the first George R.R. Martin wrote and it foretold Eddard's death. The stag (Robert Baratheon) gets in a fight with the Direwolf (Eddard) who came too far south. The stag gets disemboweled, the Direwolf gets stabbed in the neck with an antler and leaves the pups to make their own way in the world. The book set up Eddard to die from the first scene. So it really had to happen that way. Still wish it didn't.