Top 10 Game of Thrones Deaths: C.C.C Issue #78

Top 10 Game of Thrones Deaths

Alright, it’s time for me to talk about Game of Thrones. 

Game of Thrones was my favourite TV show of all-time…for a while. Had I made a Top 10 list of favourite TV shows a few years back, Thrones would have been the undisputed king. I had never seen anything like it before, and doubt there will be anything quite like it in the years to come. But, like all great things, it had to come to an end, and as the series neared its finale, the writing quality plummeted, while everything else (visual effects, acting, cinematography, set design) only seemed to soar ever higher. 

There won’t be any spoilers for the series finale of Game of Thrones here. The final episode was a disappointment for me, as it was for many viewers, but I wasn’t particularly surprised, as I saw the hints that an unsatisfactory conclusion was looming way back in season six, when the writers had run out of source material to adapt and had to forge their own wrap-up of the story. I don’t put all the blame on the showrunners/writers/directors/series creators D.B Weiss and David Benioff, though. With each season, the show became higher in budget, grander in scale, more widely watched, and more closely analyzed. 

I experienced a myriad of emotional reactions to this show from the beginning. Shock, awe, dread, glee, joy, anger. During the series finale, I felt frustrated, bored, and disappointed. What was interesting, though, was my indifference to it in the end. I thought back to how the show had left me gobsmacked time after time, kept me on the edge of my seat, and craving more and more episodes. But one of the key factors that always made Game of Thrones so compelling, to me and so many others, were the unexpected deaths. At one point, it seemed any character could die at any moment, and when they did, those deaths often left serious impacts on the direction of the show. 

What better way to celebrate the end of what I would still consider among my favourite TV shows of all-time (if maybe not a from-beginning-to-end favourite like Breaking Bad) than to look back on the top ten deaths throughout the series. Oh yeah, and, obviously, spoilers for all episodes of Game of Thrones (other than the final season) from here on out. 

Honourable mentions: 

With literally over a hundred options to choose from, it was inevitable that some important deaths be left out of the top ten, but these four are still worth a brief mention.

Viserys Targaryen - Season One, Episode Six: “A Golden Crown”

One of the earliest deaths in the series, but a very cool and satisfying one. “Here is your crown,” Khal Drogo says, and pours molten gold on the head of Daenerys’ brother, who has been an annoying character since episode one, so seeing him get this deserving demise is pretty satisfying, but the character didn’t leave as significant of an impact as others.

Maester Luwin – Season Two, Episode Ten: “Valar Morghulis”

Maester Luwin was one of the purest good guys in the earlier part of the show, and while his death was terribly said, the actual death scene wasn’t extremely creative or memorable. 

Ygritte – Season Four, Episode Nine: “The Watchers on the Wall”

By this point in the show, it wasn’t that unexpected that Jon Snow’s girlfriend from the wrong side of the wall would die, but it still hit hard, as she was one of the best characters up to that point and her interactions with Jon always made for great scenes. 

Mance Rayder – Season Five, Episode One: “The Wars to Come”

This death gets a mention for being pretty memorable, if not that unexpected. Wildling leader Mance Rayder declines to bend the knee to Stannis Baratheon, and is subsequently tied to a pyre and burned alive, only to be shot with a merciful arrow by Jon Snow, who doesn’t want to see him die a slow, painful death. 

10. Khal Drogo – Season One, Episode Ten: “Fire and Blood” 

No one was physically more imposing in the first season than Jason Momoa’s Dothraki leader Khal Drogo, so when he bit the dust before the season’s conclusion, it came as quite a disappointment, and I think Drogo’s death remains one of the earliest disappointments in the show for me. Not only would I have liked to have seen more of Drogo’s intense fighting abilities and further development of his relationship with Dany, the way his death was initiated by a mere cut sustained in a brief skirmish was a bit lame. In the end, though, his death still made an impact, being at the merciful hands of his woman with a pillow.

9. Shireen Baratheon – Season Five, Episode Nine: “The Dance of Dragons” 

Stannis Baratheon’s daughter burning alive at the stake has to be one of the most-brutal deaths in the entire series. This young, innocent girl is sacrificed to the Lord of Light in the hopes that it will help Stannis become the one true king (which, of course, didn’t help after all), and building up to this moment, there’s obvious doubt about even going through with it, but this isn’t (or, at least, used to not be) a show that pulls any punches. No one was immune to death at that point, not even helpless young girls. 

8. Joffrey Baratheon - Season Four, Episode Two: “The Lion and the Rose” 

Oh, Joffrey: the little bitch king who, during the course of his relatively short reign, became one of the greatest villains in TV history. As the show progressed and Joffrey became more and more detestable, constantly surpassing how much more evil and horrible I thought he could get, I came to realize that I wouldn’t be completely satisfied unless he met an over-the-top brutal death. Sure enough, his murder came swiftly out of nowhere, and while it wasn’t the bloodiest demise in the series, it was a pretty brutal one, especially how he died in his mother’s arms: the one person who truly loved him. It wasn’t quite the death I had in mind, but still morbidly satisfying nonetheless.

7. Tywin Lannister – Season Four, Episode Ten: “The Children” 

The story behind the death of the Lannister patriarch is such a fun one to recount. He was killed on the throne—not the iron throne, the porcelain one—by his least-favourite child, Tyrion, with a crossbow. Tywin’s end was a long time coming, and the whole culmination of events during the season leading up to his final moments made it a riveting scene. Charles Dance did such a great job in the role, and this last interaction between the also great Peter Dinklage as Tyrion was one of the best parts of the fourth season: my personal favourite season of the whole show.

6. Hodor – Season Six, Episode Five: “The Door” 

A lot of people die on Game of Thrones, sure, but Hodor’s death turned out to be a complex time travel paradox fuelled with emotion and horror. The simpleton behemoth Hodor, a fan-favourite, is told to “Hold the door” by Meera who helps Bran escape the vicious zombies, but Bran is both using his warg ability to control Hodor at the door and his three-eyed raven ability to see a vision of the past. He accidently enters the mind of young Hodor in his vision, which merges the past and present versions of him, essentially frying young Hodor’s brain and turning him into the one-word-speaking simpleton that he becomes known as (he had the ability to speak before this moment), with the words “hold the door” slurring into his name, “Hodor.” It’s an original and heartbreaking way of showing the character’s origin and conclusion simultaneously.

5. Ramsay Bolton – Season Six, Episode Nine: “Battle of the Bastards”

“Battle of the Bastards” is, for me, the last truly great episode, and features the last great death in the series. Ramsay became the new Joffrey, committing even more atrocious acts than the little bitch king, but unlike Joffrey, he met a grisly demise that was very much deserved, especially after his actions earlier in the episode, before the eponymous battle. Sansa, a victim of Ramsay’s for far too long, exacts her revenge by locking him in the kennel with his dogs, who haven’t been fed in a week. Most of the devouring is kept off-screen, but we still get to see one dog chomp his face, and knowing what happened to him is enough to feel some sick satisfaction.  

4. Ser Alliser Thorne – Season Six, Episode Three: “Oathbreaker” 

This one is pretty personal. I absolutely hate the character Alliser Thorne. He’s just such an asshole, always putting down Jon Snow, talking shit, and being way too loyal to the night’s watch. I wanted to see him die ever since he said Jon Snow would “always be a bastard” but season after season I had to watch him keep on getting more despicable with every line he uttered. Then, finally, after Jon Snow returned from the dead, some justice. Alliser, along with the others who killed Jon, are hanged, but even up to his final moment, he’s a dick.  He says what he did he did for the Night’s Watch, and while he rests in death, Jon will have to fight the wildling’s battles forever. Alliser’s will may have been strong, but his neck sure wasn’t when that noose went taut. 

3. Oberyn Martell – Season Four, Episode Eight: “The Mountain and the Viper”

The vengeful Oberyn is on a revenge mission when he arrives at the beginning of season four, and quickly becomes a new favourite character. But how could he defeat the comparably massive Gregor Clegane A.K.A The Mountain? With Joffrey’s death a few episodes earlier, it seems like maybe, just maybe, evil won’t prevail this season. In their battle to the death (a trial by combat, adding even more tension, for if Oberyn loses, Tyrion will be in trouble), it seems like either the mountain or viper could win. Then, it seems like Oberyn has definitely won. But this is Game of Thrones. Nothing goes the way it’s expected to. The Mountain gouges out Oberyn’s eyes, then in a spectacularly gory finishing move, crushes his head like a watermelon. It’s shocking, upsetting, and, like the best deaths of the series, radically shifts the path of the story. 

2. Ned Stark – Season One, Episode Nine: “Baelor”

Going into Game of Thrones, book readers already knew what to expect. When I started watching, I was completely naïve, I just didn’t realize it at the time, because I thought Game of Thrones would follow a typical TV show structure, by establishing the main characters in the first season and progressing accordingly. Sean Bean, easily the most-recognizable name in the cast, was a great lead…until Joffrey asked for Ned Stark’s head. With the quick swing of a sword, his time as the “lead” came to an abrupt end. This happened in front of his two daughters, don’t forget, who were forever changed by this event. In episode one, we see Ned carry out the same kind of execution, but who would have thought he’d meet the same fate a mere eight episodes later? It set a precedent for the series, one I never thought it could top in terms of shock value, but I was wrong. 

1. The Red Wedding – Season Three, Episode Nine: “The Rains of Castamere” 

Robb Stark. His wife. Their unborn child. All those Stark allies. Robb’s direwolf. Catelyn Stark. All dead. There’s kind of this sense that something is going to happen before it does, but it takes such a wild turn so fast, that like all other viewers, I was left staring at the silent end-credits the first time I saw it with my jaw hanging open and a cold pit in my stomach. First off, it’s an unwritten rule that you don’t kill dogs in horror movies, or really any kind of movie, or TV show. We’ve already had to endure the pain of witnessing Ned Stark put down Sansa’s direwolf in season one, but then they kill another one, along with two of the main characters we’ve been with since the show began, Robb and Catelyn. “The Lannisters send their regards.” 

It officially normalized the ninth episodes as being the most significant of each season (for half the show’s run, anyway). It’s the most unbelievably brutal episode of a television show I have ever seen. In terms of character deaths, this massacre may not have contained the all-time saddest deaths, or even the most-impactful deaths, but the whole event all certainly came as the biggest surprise the show had to offer, and was a horrifically well-executed (no pun intended) sequence that cemented Game of Thrones as a TV show everyone had to see to believe.