<P> David Benioff, executive producer and writer of the HBO adaptation, told Entertainment Weekly that when he read the novel: </P> <P> I was in shock . From your training in seeing so many movies and reading books, you know your hero is going to be saved...Someone has something planned, because they're not really going to chop off his head--right up until the moment when they chopped off his head . I was shocked, and then admiring of George's ruthlessness . It's a tough thing to build up a character and make somebody as memorable and impressive as Ned and then get rid of him . But at the same time it leads to a story that is so much more suspenseful because you truly have no idea what is going to happen and who is going to survive . </P> <P> In a review of the Game of Thrones TV episode "Baelor", James Poniewozik wrote in Time that "the execution of Eddard Stark is crucial to the story and its themes and everything that follows, but it's also a meta - message to the reader: don't take anything for granted here ." James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly stated that tricking the audience into thinking Ned is the hero and then killing him makes the series' story better . Writing that "the big twist here isn't that Ned Stark dies, but who the true protagonists of Game of Thrones are," Hibberd pointed out that the series' focus proves to be the "new generation" of leaders, in particular the Stark children but also Daenerys and even Tyrion . He noted: </P> <P> Ned Stark doesn't die in vain...It takes the Stark kids--who are all too young to face these responsibilities--and thrusts them into a struggle where they're forced to quickly grow as characters . Martin busts many cliches in his writing, but this move is traditional Heroes Journey stuff if you consider the kids to be the true protagonists of this story--only by sacrificing the fatherly mentor figure can our heroes come into their own . </P>

When does ned stark die in the show