Top 10 Game of Thrones Character Deaths

He may not have lasted an entire season, but the appalling way he was utterly annihilated earned him the runner up position on this list. A renowned and feared warrior, Prince Oberyn spends his final days in search of vengeance for his dead sister and her children. Given the opportunity to battle The Mountain, the man who actually wielded the sword, Oberyn’s grandstanding resulted in his wounding Gregor Clegane, but his foe ultimately got the upper hand, resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths in the series.

The love story of Jaime and Cersei Lannister is not exactly your typical tv romance. With Jaime rushing to return to Cersei as King’s Landing is burned to the ground by dragon fire, killing Euron Greyjoy along the way, Cersei watches as Daenerys and Dragon eliminated her forces and her subjects. The two ultimately reunite, but their escape plan is ruined when rubble blocks their path. Together, they accept their fates and die in each other's arms as the roof above them collapses.

#8: The Night King

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The embodiment of death himself, the Night King has been the series most mysterious villain. Just as the leader of the White Walkers was about to complete his mission of erasing the world’s memories by killing the Three-Eyed Raven, none other than Arya Stark arrived in the nick of time to erase him and his army of the dead from the world instead. There is so much poetry and symbolism in this moment: the fact that Arya used the Catspaw dagger, the weapon that was once meant to kill Bran, to save him; the fact that the Night King died the same way he was created: stabbed in the chest in front of a Weirwood tree; even the fact that Bran gave Arya the dagger in the very same spot she would use it to kill the Night King - the Night King’s death pays off years of foreshadowing.

They say every man from Bear Island fights with the strength of 10 mainlanders. Well, Lyanna Mormont proves that the same is true for the women of Bear Island as well. Sure, Jorah, Theon, Ed, and Melisandre, and many more fell during the Battle of Winterfell, but it was the Lady of Bear Island’s death that really floored us. A fan favorite since the moment she was introduced, Lyanna Mormont was as brave in death as she was in life, as she used her dying breath to stab a Wight Giant in the eye with a piece of dragon glass. It’s one of the most epic deaths in the entire series for one of the most endearing and brave characters on television.

For years, Ramsey Bolton tormented the people around him, including Sansa and Theon, purely for his own sick amusement. So when the Battle of the Bastards finally happened, we all patiently waited for him to get what was coming to him. Many believed it would be Jon who would deliver the killing blow, and while he certainly got shots in, the honor of killing Ramsey went to someone even more deserving. In a moment of pure poetic justice, Sansa, who’d been the victim of Ramsey’s brutality, unleashed his own starving hounds on him. The hounds devour their master as Sansa watches, marking a fitting end for one of the show’s most vile and sadistic villains.

#5: Joffrey Baratheon

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Arguably one of the most hated teens in all of television, Joffrey was a horrible brat whose every whim was granted due to the seemingly royal blood in his veins. Taking great delight in the pain and suffering of his subjects, Joffrey’s greatest skills were in torture and death. That is why audiences everywhere cheered in delight as this sniveling little jerk began to cough and then writhe in horrible pain, finally succumbing to poison in his mother’s arms.

It takes a man of incredible authority to send a king to his room - and the only man in Westeros who could pull off such a feat is the one-time Hand of the King and the insanely rich Tywin Lannister. Concerned first and foremost with the legacy of his family’s name, we can only assume that he spent his dying moments reflecting on the fact that it was his own son, Tyrion who killed him. Maybe he should have been a little less concerned with perception and actually cared for his kin more if he wanted to live longer than he did.

Hodor may be a man of few words, but he was one of the most innocent and loveable characters in the series. His tragic demise at the hands of the army of the dead was hard to watch, but it also came with a one-two punch of learning his tragic backstory at the same time. In the eyes of the audience, Hodor went from lovable oaf to tragic hero in a single scene, as he fulfilled his destiny by holding the door for Bran and Meera to escape. Hodor’s bravery cannot be overstated, and the sadness we all felt watching this scene will never be forgotten.

Perhaps the most honorable man in the entirety of the series, Ned’s turn as the Hand of the King should have had a stabilizing effect on the Seven Kingdoms – that is, if Joffrey hadn’t taken the throne. Instead, Eddard finds himself arrested in thrown in a dungeon where he is forced to confess to crimes he did not commit. Despite giving in, he is beheaded in front of his two daughters anyway – and from then on, every viewer instantly knew that no character on the show was safe from death. Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Ygritte Jeor Mormont Viserys Targaryen Sandor & Gregor Clegane

Okay, so this isn’t just one character, but we can’t even imagine any argument that would make sense for another death to top this list. The unexpected killing of Robb Stark, his wife Talisa and his mother Catelyn took nearly everyone who had not read the books by such surprise that it created more reaction online videos than we thought possible. This wasn’t the first time the show had killed off major characters, and it wouldn’t be the last, but it was certainly the most shocking.