[Cerlin]

I think Martin just likes killing of lots of characters. But I think like real life, heroes and people die. Many other series people go through amazingly dangerous events and dont die. Which is contrary to real life. Hell Europe during the similar period (medieval, w/o magic even )and there was widespread death, mortality rate, and you had a great chance to never survive your first battle, and this of course affected kings too.
So even though his books annoy me I still like him, actually saw his book signing too. He is a smart man, even if i think he just makes up some of his choices just to shock people.