There is one big takeaway from George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" series: no one is safe.
Viewers of the HBO show were overcome with joy over the death of the most hated character in the series, King Joffrey Baratheon. However, Martin explained to Entertainment Weekly the death of the King goes deeper than fulfilling the wishes of his fans. Martin knew how Joffrey was going to die and was building up to it throughout the first books.
"Part of it was that there's a lot of darkness in the books," Martin told EW. "I've been pretty outspoken in my desire to write a story where decisions have consequences and no one is safe. But I didn't want it to be unrelentingly bleak-I don't think everyone would read the books if everything was just darkness and despair and people being horribly tortured and mutilated and dying. Every once in a while you have to give the good guys a victory - where the guys who are perhaps a lighter shade of grey have a victory over the guys who are a darker shade of grey."
Fans who read the books didn't have to wait too long for the "Purple Wedding" as it occurred chapters after the death of Robb and Catelyn Stark at the "Red Wedding." Though Joffrey was the most hated character in the series, he wanted his death to be a little more complicated than just killing off a monster.
"Joffrey in the books is still a 13-year-old kid," Martin told EW. "And there's kind of a moment there where he knows that he's dying and he can't get a breath and he's kind of looking at Tyrion and at his mother and at the other people in the hall with just terror and appeal in his eyes-you know, 'Help me mommy, I'm dying.'"
"And in that moment, I think even Tyrion sees a 13-year-old boy dying before him," he added. "So I didn't want it to be entirely, 'Hey-ho, the witch is dead.' I wanted the impact of the death to still strike home on to perhaps more complex feelings on the part of the audience, not necessarily just cheering."
And with the end of Joffrey comes the end of actor Jack Gleeson's acting career. The 21-year-old actor explained to EW he had been acting since he was 8-years-old and doesn't see the appeal in the career path anymore.
"...I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to," Gleeson said. "And now there's the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun. I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It's not like I hate it, it's just not what I want to do."
