Apparently author George R.R. Martin received some feedback from viewers of HBO's Game of Thrones over a scene in which one of the Stark children's direwolves (Lady, shown above) is killed by Ned Stark as punishment:
I don't know if any of those people are reading my Not A Blog. But in case they are, perhaps it will make you feel a little better to know that Zunni, the Northern Inuit who played Lady, is alive and well, and has been adopted by Sophie Turner, the lovely young actress who plays Sansa in the show. We didn't really kill her.
(Rhodri Hosking, the young actor who played the butcher's boy Mycah, was not actually killed either, though oddly, no one seems quite so upset about him).
I'm guessing he's getting another round of feedback over the horse beheading shown on the show last week. Although maybe not, Americans really love their dogs.
Incidentally one of my favorite scenes not in the book this week was the discussion between Cersei and Robert over whether or not their marriage ever had a chance. While I interpreted Cersei's first mention of her dead child to Catelyn as implying that she herself killed the child for reasons longtime readers of the books will understand, the scene was really consistent with the themes of medieval custom destroying personal happiness that permeate the books. Sure, Robert and Cersei hate each other, but they're also the only two people who really understand how miserable it is to be married to one another.
