I have never seen Game of Thrones, and I don't have any plans to watch it, but I have played Final Fantasy! I would first like to say that I appreciate you making this article in a way that someone who hasn't seen the show can still follow. I was a bit concerned about that.

Comments:
I'm writing a book now and I've toyed with the idea of killing off one of my main characters. In the end, I decided that killing someone for the sake of having a death is the same as not killing someone for the sake of not having someone die. In the end, it needs to fit. It needs to make sense. Not saying you didn't say that, just making a personal comment on it.

Some game examples: Xenosaga III killed off some characters at the end. Sadly, the fact that they wanted until the third game seemed much more about "this is ending, let's kill some people" more than it had relevance to the story. Some of it did, don't get me wrong, some of it didn't. I did appreciate that there was some of this in the first game, not dragging stories on until the third game just because.

Suikoden has also killed off some characters, which most of the time actually makes sense. They do cheap out a lot and allow the character to be revived or to have their death prevented though, which can be a bit frustrating. But they've also had some very touching and epic death scenes. One of my favorite character, a series regular, was killed in the 3rd game, and even though the 2 games that came out after were prequels, the character still didn't make an appearance. It really made the impact of "he's gone" if that makes sense.

As far as the characters showing dirt and wounds, that would be a neat effect. I worry about it not reflecting properly on the actual fights. Since each player will experience the fight in a different way, how can we accurately portray the wounds? Not saying it isn't possible, that's an actual question.

I also agree with something you pointed out about having a gay couple. I feel like sometimes stories will shove in a gay couple and the characters center entirely around this, and it becomes much more about "LOOK WE HAVE A GAY COUPLE" than it does about story. Make it where a gay couple is just as common as a straight couple, unless you can integrate a conflict with their story that relates to the game in a believable manner. Don't make the characters only about their sexuality.

Anyways, those are some of my thoughts on it. Very good video!