The fifth season of Game of Thrones has just finished, and it was another shocking finale – that’s not giving anything away, the show’s finales always contain something to trouble the viewer. There’s now almost a year until anyone can get their fix of tales from Westeros again. So in order to keep you all going until season six arrives in 2016, we’ve taken a look at some of the most heartbreaking and shocking deaths the show’s given us over the years as the various Lords have battled it out for the Iron Throne.
1. Robert Baratheon
Robert Baratheon’s death in a ‘hunting accident’ was the one which really sent the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros into a downward spiral. Before then the tensions between major houses were just about kept in check by Robert’s status as king and general mateyness. His death was heartbreaking because it broke up his double act with Ned Stark and put Ned in a position from which he’d never recover having lost his biggest ally – especially because he knew Robert’s death was no accident.
Image source: Fanpop.com
2. Syrio Forel
Arya’s ‘dancing master’ was a likeable character who helped inspire Arya Stark to follow her tomboy instincts and fight back when her family was under attack. He was also a character who had a touch of the Robert Downey Jr about him and so it was a real shame when he was cornered protecting Arya from the Kingsguard. That’s what made his death particularly heartbreaking – that he laid down his life so a young girl could live. Unless of course he miraculously got away…
Image source: IBTimes.com
3. Ned Stark
Ned Stark’s death is still perhaps Game of Thrones’ most iconic moment, as the likeable honest hero who’d appeared on all the show’s marketing material was unceremoniously bumped off with a beheading right in front of his two daughters. Ned’s death was utterly heartbreaking for fans of the show, but it still maybe the best thing to have happened. Once Ned’s head was on the floor, viewers knew that no character was safe in Westeros. Most heartbreaking however was seeing the effect his death had on his daughters, Arya and Sansa.
Image source: Nerdist.com
4. Khal Drogo
Khal Drogo started out as a stereotypical grunting savage of a character, a warlord who led his people in terrorising the planes. However the tenderness of his relationship with Daenerys Targaryen gave viewers of the show hope that good things could happen as they went from strangers to a happy couple in charge of an entire Dothraki horde of horsemen. However a poisoned wound and witchcraft left him in a vegetative state and it was left to his wife to put him out of his misery. Tragically, the couple’s child was also stillborn due to the witchcraft placed on Drogo.
Image source: fanpop.com
5. Lord Commander Mormont
Nicknamed ‘The Old Bear’ Lord Commander Mormont was everything you expect the head of the night’s watch to be, brave, a great fighter and wise. However his bravery got the better of him when after leading an expedition north of the wall he and his recruits were trapped as house guests of the vile Craster, with their humiliation causing them to kill their host, and then due to his belief in honour and the gods, Mormont too.
Image source: HBO.com
6. Maester Luwin
Maester Luwin was the kindly old advisor to Ned Stark who helped look after his children when their father was killed. As probably one of the few characters in Game of Thrones with no edge to him, it was probably inevitable that he would die. It didn’t however stop it being heartbreaking when Dagmer, one of the men who Theon Greyjoy brought with him when coming to sack Winterfell, killed him with a spear as Ramsay Snow and his forces approached the great castle.
Image source: winteriscoming.net
7. Catelyn Stark
Catelyn’s death was incredibly heartbreaking for a number of reasons – firstly she was desperate for revenge against the people who’d killed her beloved husband Ned. Secondly there was the shock of it – a betrayal at the ‘Red Wedding’, in which her and son Robb were thought to be forming an alliance with the Freys which would ultimately bring them victory. Lastly there was the fact that just before her own death she had to watch her eldest son and many of her family die. Catelyn’s death was a truly heartbreaking moment of the type only Game of Thrones can manage.
Image source: Fanpop.com
8. Robb Stark
After the death of Ned, Robb Stark was probably the show’s most popular character as he sought revenge against the show’s primary villains, the Lannister family. However viewers of Game of Thrones should’ve known that if a character is likeable then one shouldn’t expect a happy ending. Robb’s end came just before his mother at the infamous ‘Red Wedding’, where he and his kinsmen attended a wedding feast only to be brutally murdered by their hosts.
Image source: Flickeringmyth.com
9. Mance Rayder
For some of the show’s episodes Mance Rayder was something of a mythological figure – the king beyond The Wall who’d united the tribes against The Night’s Watch, the nominally heroic men left to guard it against all comers. However after we got to meet Mance, it became clear that he was actually rather a decent chap. After his army is defeated though, he refuses to bend the knee to Stannis Baratheon as king, and is burnt at the stake. Jon Snow did show him some compassion though – killing him with an arrow before the flames caused him too much pain.
Image source: winteriscoming.net
10. Shireen Baratheon
No such luck for Shireen Baratheon, the show’s most recent and shocking death to date. Stannis’ little girl was a good natured child who helped Ser Davos Seaworth, her father’s old friend learn to read and bore the misfortune of a debilitating disease, Greyscale with good humour. Therefore it was utterly shocking and heartbreaking to viewers when her father decided to sacrifice her in order to bring his army good fortune win their siege of Winterfell. Viewers were predictably outraged when Shireen died.
Image source: Stannis-is-the-villain.com
