Based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books, Game of Thrones became one of the pillars of popular culture in the 2010s. Set primarily on the continent of Westeros, audiences became wrapped up in the complex web of political backstabbing between the ruling families while threats from the north and east were brewing. Sadly, the show saw a massive dip in quality in its last few seasons, culminating in one of the most infamous television finales.
One reason for the show’s success was how it repeatedly blindsided the audience with shocking twists. During the early seasons, these twists kept audiences glued to the television as they speculated what would happen next. In later seasons, the twists tended to elicit anger and frustration, usually due to how poorly executed they were.
10
Daenerys Hatches Dragons
“Fire and Blood” (Season 1, Episode 10)
The world of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) comes crumbling down when she asks the witch Mirri Maz Duur (Mia Soteriou) to save the life of her husband, Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), only for Maz Duur to use the opportunity to kill their unborn child to avert a prophecy. After Daenerys mercy kills her husband, she burns Maz Duur on his funeral pyre before stepping in herself. The next day, not only is Daenerys alive, but her three petrified dragon eggs have hatched.
Until this point, the show hammered in that dragons were long dead, and that their death symbolized the decline in magic and the imminent extinction of House Targaryen. Thus, the image of Daenerys rising from the ashes with three of them signifies new beginnings. It’s little wonder why it’s one of the best final shots in Game of Thrones: it leaves you hyped to see what comes next, both in Daenerys’ journey and the world at large.
9
The Death of Oberyn Martell
“The Mountain and the Viper” (Season 4, Episode 8)
Prince Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) became one of the show’s breakout characters thanks to his fiery passion and confidence to take what he wanted from life, regardless of what others think. He arrives in King’s Landing to seek justice against Ser Gregor Clegane (Conan Stevens, Ian Whyte, and Hafþór JúlÃus Björnsson), who killed his sister, Elia Martell, and her children during the Sack of King’s Landing. Opportunity presents itself when Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) demands Trial by Combat to prove his innocence in the murder of King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), giving Oberyn the chance to duel Gregor and get him to confess.
The death of beloved characters was not new to Game of Thrones, but this one stood out thanks to its swift and brutal nature. Oberyn’s arrogance led to him demanding Gregor confess before he died, which allowed the Mountain That Rides to pull him to the ground and crush his head like a grape. Audiences shared Tyrion’s shock and dread, both because of how things would get worse for Tyrion even if he escaped his execution, and because it reminds us how quickly fortune can turn into ruin when we let our guards down.
8
Lysa Arryn Murdered Her Husband
“First of His Name” (Season 4, Episode 5)
The event that kicks off the show’s plot is the death of John Arryn (John Standing), foster father to Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) and King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), and Hand of the King. A letter from his wife, Lysa (Kate Dickie), claims that the Lannisters were tied to his death, prompting Eddard to become the new Hand of the King to keep his friend safe. However, Jon’s murderer was later revealed to be Lysa, acting on the orders of her love, the master schemer Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen).
Most fans assumed that Jon was killed on the orders of Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) because he discovered that her children were born of incest with her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Lysa’s confession changed everything because it revealed that Petyr had been manipulating events literally from the beginning to use the future political crisis to accumulate more power. It showed audiences just how cunning and forward-thinking Littlefinger was, and how Lysa had completely abandoned House Tully’s mantra of “Family, Duty, Honor,” when she knowingly aided in the eventual tragedy that would befall her older sister’s family.
7
Jaime Pushing Bran
“Winter is Coming” (Season 1, Episode 1)
The first episode of Game of Thrones was brilliant thanks to how it gripped the audience with its mysteries and character drama. If conspiracies regarding Jon Arryn’s death weren’t enough, the show began with an attack by the enigmatic White Walkers, and threats from across the sea in the surviving members of House Targaryen. Then the episode ends with Brandon Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) stumbling upon the Lannister twins’ forbidden relationship, leading to Jaime pushing him out of a tower window.
This ending was the perfect introduction to just what kind of show Game of Thrones was. Few shows are bold enough to have the near death of a child as their closing image, to say nothing of covering up an incestuous affair, or Waldau’s chilling delivery of the line, “The things I do for love,” while pushing Bran. It established that nobody, not even the child of a main character, was safe from harm, and that characters could be harboring shocking secrets.
6
Jaime’s Confession
“Kissed by Fire” (Season 3, Episode 5)
Between throwing a kid out a window, sleeping with his sister, and his narcissistic attitude, it was pretty easy to dislike Jaime in the beginning. However, a more noble side begins to emerge while traveling with Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and after losing his right hand to Locke (Noah Taylor). After painful surgery, a delirious Jaime sits with Brienne in a bath, where he reveals the truth about how he earned the title Kingslayer.
The narrative so far was that Jaime betrayed King Aerys II Targaryen (David Rintoul) to be on the winning side, but this masterful scene tosses all those preconceptions out the window. Suddenly, Jaime’s motivation goes from self-serving to selfless, as he killed the Mad King to save King’s Landing from a fiery inferno. By the time Jaime collapses from exhaustion, he’s transformed from one of the most despicable characters into one of the most noble.
5
Hold the Door
“The Door” (Season 6, Episode 5)
By Season 6, Game of Thrones had surpassed A Song of Ice and Fire due to Martin’s inability to release The Winds of Winter. While many events were fabricated for the show, some were confirmed by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to be based on Martin’s notes. One of the most tragic was the revelation that Bran was responsible for scrambling Hodor’s (Kristian Nairn) mind through time travel.
Hodor goes from being a lovable gentle giant to a tragic victim of circumstances outside his control as his younger self, Wylis (Sam Coleman), witnesses his death as he holds back a swarm of undead wights. This causes Wylis to collapse and repeat the phrase “hold the door,” shouted by Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick), until it condenses into “hodor.” Watching Hodor be ripped apart was already tragic, but knowing that he died saving the same person who shattered his mind is heartbreaking.
4
Arya Killing the Night King
“The Long Night” (Season 8, Episode 3)
From the very beginning, the White Walkers were built up as the show’s primary antagonists as they gathered an army of the dead to wipe out the living south of the Wall. Their primary obstacle was Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who formed alliances between the Night’s Watch, the Wildlings, and Daenerys, to stand against them and save the world. Yet in the end, their leader, the Night King (Richard Brake and Vladimir Furdik), was randomly killed by Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) before he and the White Walkers were swiftly forgotten about.
This moment came as a shock to everyone because it made no sense. Jon had spent years rallying the living to defeat the Night King, and the two had locked eyes several times over the years, hinting towards a final showdown where Jon would have some part in his downfall. Instead, Jon is sidelined to yell at a dragon while Arya kills the Night King with one stab, all because it’s a subversion of expectations.
3
Daenyris Burns King’s Landing
“The Bells” (Season 8, Episode 5)
The only thing worse than a show tossing away its primary antagonists in the mother of all anticlimaxes is when it performs character assassination on one of its most beloved protagonists. Audiences spent years watching Daenerys grow from a scared girl into a liberator queen, yet her time in Westeros was full of tactical blunders that saw her lose two of her dragons. Then, when her army took King’s Landing without breaking a sweat, she decided to systematically burn down the city and kill thousands of civilians.
The show tries to explain this through the numerous personal losses Daenerys has suffered since arriving in Westeros, and the fact that Jon refused to sleep with her upon learning that she is his aunt. Unfortunately for the writers, nobody was buying that the woman who fought tirelessly to liberate the innocent from tyrants would suddenly kill innocent people rather than the person most responsible for her pain: Cersei. Daenerys barely focuses on the Red Keep or burning Lannister soldiers, so the end result is a hollow attempt at turning Daenerys into a tyrant so she can die in Jon’s arms in the next episode.
2
The Death of Eddard “Ned” Stark
“Baelor” (Season 1, Episode 9)
While Game of Thrones followed multiple storylines per episode, Eddard “Ned” Stark was the closest thing the show had to a main character in Season 1. He had a direct or tangential influence on all the other storylines, and he was a bastion of honor and dignity compared to the various power-hungry schemers around him. Thus, nobody was prepared when Joffrey Baratheon had him publicly executed for no other reason than he could.
Killing off the main character is always tricky, but to do so in the first season was virtually unheard of. Then there’s how sudden and realistic it’s handled: nobody swoops in to save Ned or attack Joffrey, and he calmly accepts his fate as Ser Ilyn Payne (Wilko Johnson) swings Ice, Ned’s own Valyrian Steel sword. Ned Stark’s death sent shockwaves through popular culture and was the show’s seminal moment that guaranteed its success.
1
The Red Wedding
“The Rains of Castamere” (Season 3, Episode 9)
Ned might be dead, but his eldest son, Robb Stark (Richard Madden), rallied the armies of the North and the Riverlands and was crowned King in the North. He proved himself well-versed in strategy and scored several victories over the Lannisters, so it was looking like Robb would avenge his father and come into his leadership role. Except no, Robb made political blunders that angered folks like Walder Frey (David Bradley) and Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton), resulting in his death and the massacring of his army in The Red Wedding.
The Red Wedding is like watching a car crash: one moment everything is normal, then in an instant the calm is broken by screams, blood, and mayhem, while you can do nothing but watch. Then, when you analyze the situation, you see the chain of events that led to this moment and can do nothing but wish things had gone differently. Other memories might come and go, but you’ll always remember where you were and what you were doing when “The Rains of Castamere” started playing and a knife was plunged into Queen Talisa Stark’s (Oona Chaplin) pregnant belly.
