On April 17, 2011, a new HBO drama about warring families, icy zombies, and CGI dragons premiered, and whether you loved it or hated it, there's simply no denying the kind of impact Game of Thrones had not just on television, not just on pop culture, but on the world in general. Its epic journey was a wild, weird, and fascinating adventure, and to mark the occasion Collider presents "What Is Ten May Never Die," a ten-week retrospective on the show's legacy — what we remember fondly, what we wish we could forget, and everything in between.

Ned: “Can you free me from this pit?” Varys: “I could. But will I? No. As I said, I’m no hero.”

The opening scene of “Baelor," Game of Thrones’ penultimate episode of the first season, finds a recently imprisoned Eddard “Ned” Stark (Sean Bean) alone in the dungeons beneath King’s Landing, and Varys (Conleth Hill), the Master of Whispers, visiting him before his fate is decided. It’s Varys’ goal to get Stark to bend the knee to King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), abandon his accusations that he is not the heir to the throne, and live to serve the realm another day — even if it means living at The Wall with his brooding son Jon. Varys begs Stark to heed his warnings or risk death, but Stark won’t hear it. He won’t abandon his honor for a few more measly years of life. “I learned to die a long time ago,” he says. With Stark seemingly accepting his fate, the stage is all but set for the episode’s gripping finale which a decade later remains highly effective, in part because of how shockingly, tragically it puts to the sword a character we’ve been conditioned to root for throughout a whole season, solidifying one of Game of Thrones’ most ardent themes: The politics of Westeros is no place for honor and heroes, especially the ones you like.

Sean Bean as Ned Stark holding a sword in Game of Thrones
Image via HBO

To understand why the death of Ned Stark hit so hard after the episode aired 10 years ago, you need to go back to before the first episode ever aired. The promotional material pushed Bean hard as the star of the show, with Stark sitting atop the Iron Throne, a characteristically grim look on his face. Not only was he the most recognizable “name” among the cast but, rightly, he was promoted as the character audiences could latch onto as the main character, despite this being a world-trotting ensemble show. Once the show began the series lived up to that angle, with Stark’s storyline doing much of the heavy lifting — pitting his honorable self against the scheming souls of King’s Landing — while other characters like Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Jon (Kit Harington) were off learning the lessons and facing the hardships that would form the backbones of their arcs across the series

As the season progressed, Ned quickly proved he was a man of action and family. He did everything he could to find out what happened to the former Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, and, eventually, to see the rightful line of progression fulfilled with King Robert’s (Mark Addy) brother, Stannis (Stephen Dillane), being made king after the former’s death. In a world of back-stabbing characters, suspicious characters, and characters who just weren’t well developed yet, Ned was the one you could read like a book. With a strict moral compass and a loving heart for his family, he fits the bill as a hero worth rooting for. The season’s writers — David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman, Jane Espenson, and book author George R.R. Martin — did excellent jobs fleshing out Ned as a character, making him sympathetic, a strong fatherly figure, courageous, and even giving him the proper Northern attitude towards the crown, which is that a lot of it was sort of bullshit.

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Bean himself turns in some of his best work, living up to all of Ned’s best qualities, making you love him as the season goes on despite his stubbornness, showing cracks in his demeanor when he’s around his children and standing up for what he believes is right like a chivalrous knight of ole. His fate was so well built up during the season that even as the walls began to close in you get that classic sense of peril normally associated with seeing the hero in trouble. For example, when Jamie’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) men leaving Ned wounded outside Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish’s (Aidan Gillen) brothel there’s that tension of “What will happen to him?!”, ultimately to be given some hope he’ll be okay the next episode. But that classic structure begins crumbling when Littlefinger betrays Ned in episode seven (“You Win or You Die”), leading to Episode 9, and Ned stuck in a cell with only Varys’ warning as his sign of the outside world.

How well Ned was written and placed within the show forms the foundation of “Baelor’s" effectiveness, but how director Alan Taylor staged the character's final moments is the whole damn castle. I also have to go back to something Varys left Ned to ponder in the dungeon: He may not care about his own life, but what about the lives of his daughters? When Ned is finally brought out to his hearing, his first sight is that of Arya (Maisie Williams) clinging to the statue of Baelor, and instantly, a look of fear unlike we’ve seen from him washes over his face. Just the thought of her seeing this terrifies him, soon hinting to Yoren (Francis Magee) to find and take her away. He also must look a scared but hopeful Sansa (Sophie Turner) in the eye when he makes it to the stage, only to then stand next to the pomposity of Joffrey and Cersei (Lena Headey). In a short amount of time, Taylor puts several pieces in place that all combine for a nail-biting several minutes — in the middle of which, we get a moment of reprieve. In confessing to his “crimes," Ned’s surprising move put the audience gets a small hope that everything will be fine and that he will live to see another season. But that moment is fleeting, and we’re shown just what kind of series this is.

game-of-thrones-sean-bean-baelor
Image via HBO

We’ve seen Joffrey as the spoiled brat and bully in the previous episodes — but here we see the true brutality he’ll wreak as king. Ramin Djawadi’s music creeps up just as his thoughts begin to turn away from mercy, crescendoing with the vicious command, “Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!," followed by an evil, joyful expression. He’s loving this power trip, and every convention of the hero living to see another day is tossed into the garbage, leaving nothing but doom in the stomach. Ned’s final moments are centered on his glances at his daughters; terrified by Sansa’s pleading and screaming, but ultimately accepting of his fate as soon as he sees Arya has been taken from the statue. On a sensory level, the work from Gleeson, Heady, Turner, and Williams adds a level of chaos and terror that’s impossible to shake. Bean, with little-to-no dialogue, conveys multitudes. The emphasis on his breath moves from panicked to calm as the camera centers on his lowering neck. Using Stark’s own sword, Ice, for added poetic brutality, Ilyn Payne (Wilko Johnson) swings down, but instead of leaning into violence, Taylor shifts to Arya’s perspective as she watches the birds fly away. She may not have seen it happen, but she knows her father is gone, and like her, the viewer in complete disarray as the credits roll.

At the end of Season 7, we learn Ned had brought Jon home as a baby and made him live as a bastard all in the name of keeping his real identity a secret, honoring the last dying wish of his sister, Jon’s true mother. Even in death, we get another reason to admire Ned as a man. With that added knowledge, going back in for a rewatch makes reconnecting with him even more painful as the season builds to “Baelor," and the craftsmanship behind and in front of the camera making for such masterfully constructed panic ensures the episode’s iconic finale is eternally terrifying and heartbreaking – even ten years later. The impact lingers even as the credits roll, for not only is the tragedy of Ned Stark a reminder getting close to anyone on Game of Thrones can be painful but how a core theme of Westeros is that aiming to do the right thing is often the quickest way to get yourself killed.

Game of Thrones is streaming now on HBO Max.

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