[BOOK SPOILERS]Tower of Joy - Deleted Scene - Why ?

[No One Truly]

Because overloading the emo who-is-my-mother arc would make for really melodramatic television. The clues about Jon's parentage are pretty subtle in the book, and it's only because ASOIAF has so many avid fans who care to speculate that it has become a big deal. He can pull it off in the books because it's subtle, but overplaying that on TV would look like a gimmicky overused fantasy shtick.

[Padraig]

Right. The Hairy Bear's response covers most everything. You can't rely on throwaway lines to avoid confusion. You can't make people realise who is who if they only appear in 1 scene.

If done right, ToJ would be memorable but i'm very unconvinced that it can be done right. And given we have seen so many other memorable scenes, i'm not really worried about its lack.

To what?

As in, there is no subtle way to show the ToJ scene. :)

Also the episode beginning with the atmospheric tragic death of Lyanna, and ending with the atmospheric tragic death of Ned, would be a great bookend and quality storytelling.

But you aren't even saying they should show Lyanna. :)

I'm not saying that book readers wouldn't enjoy the scene but for non book readers, I can't see how it can work. At least for other characters, viewers just have to realise how they fit in with current events. Not events 17 years ago.