'Game of Thrones' deals in sadistic audience manipulation. Why we keep watching
Ned was beheaded. Theon's manhood was lopped off. The dashing man from Dorn had his regal skull crushed like a rotting melon under the wheel of a peasant cart.
Others whose names are long forgotten - or whose screen life was so brief they were never given a title - were skinned alive, charbroiled or witnessed their own innards being devoured by rats. Popcorn anyone?
The miracle of "Game of Thrones" isn't that a nerdy collection of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired novels was turned into peak television's most celebrated drama since "The Wire," or that the gorgeously crafted production made resurrection by black magic, birthing dragons in a funeral pyre and the art of wearing a dead man's face seem utterly
