I feel like this ended up not being the case. I feel like you could almost look at the show having five stages in this regard
1: primary characters introduced
2: a few primary characters killed off to create shock
3: many secondary characters introduced
4: many of the secondary characters killed, providing buffer for the primaries
5: primary characters can die again toward the end
I feel like shows like LOST did this too, and The Walking Dead
But if you kill off too many primary characters you may lose some viewers investment in the story. I think they have to be careful with this.
LOST handled it pretty well but I think TWD has killed off too many primary characters and used it more as a crutch to stimulate shock then to actually move the plot along. Now they have few characters left to care about and the bad writing is only more obvious.
"but if you kill off too many primary characters you may lose some viewers investment in the story."
That is pretty much what happened after season 4. It was perhaps the best season of the series, but Joffrey, The Hound, and Tywin, some of the most enigmatic characters in the series, all "died", and is part of the reason season 5 sucked so hard. Also might explain why they brought the Hound back. I am not so sure he was always pegged to return to the series, but after season 5, they needed some characters the fans wanted to watch.
Yeah, but keep in mind that, unlike Tywin and Joffrey, the Hound is still alive in the books. Season 6 moved beyond the books, but the writers may have felt they needed to re-connect with his character because they believed George was going to re-introduce him at some point.
(Also, Season 5 sucked for other reasons too. The Dorne episodes were just weird. And the ones about the Sons of the Harpy just went on and on ad nauseum.)
They need The Hound for the story. There is almost certainly gonna be another fight with The Mountain and to beat him, he probably needs to do the flaming sword thing. It would really bring his character full circle, because he would have conquered his fear of fire.
shareI think we're going to lose a TON of primary characters in the last season.
For instance, I think that both Bran and Arya are likely to bite the dust, leaving Sansa as the last of the Stark family. Would that be shocking enough for you?
It would depend on the manner, really, but would still fit what I'm saying about waiting until the end to circle back and kill main characters again.
shareYeah, GOT is likely to kill off many of the primary characters the last season...and probably more intensely the last few episodes. But they have also helped managed to keep us watching and caring up until the end. People might scream for more deaths along the way and the shock appeal of it all but they can't destroy story arcs and viewer investment for cheap thrills. It can be like self sabotage.
TWD has killed too many without real purpose and I'm not sure how many viewers still care or will still be around at the end.
I'm okay with that as long as they don't kill off Ned Stark!
share"1: primary characters introduced
2: a few primary characters killed off to create shock"
That's because you assumed the characters introduced and killed were primary.