It didn't used to be that TV shows would kill off characters, and when they did, there would
be so much uproar from disappointed fans that the writers would somehow find a way to bring
them back.
But not in the golden age of television!
So here are 15 TV characters that were killed off who we wish were still alive.
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Sasha Williams
Poor Sasha she went through the ringer over the course of her stint on The Walking Dead.
She saw her brother Tyreese killed by walkers and the love of her life Abraham killed by
the sadistic Negan.
And then Negan kidnapped her and kept her in a dark room with a zombie for so long that
she decided take her own life.
Sasha's actress, Sonequa Martin-Green, took on the lead role in Star Trek: Discovery,
so her death was pretty much earmarked.
But Sasha was still a strong character beloved by fans, and it was still shocking and sad
to see her come back as a zombie in the season 7 finale.
At least she bought Rick and the others a bit of time to get away!
Robb Stark
Robb Stark isn’t that important of a character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but
he became a central part of the HBO adaptation Game of Thrones.
On the show, Robb rose to take his father's place as lord of Winterfell and a hero fans
could cheer for.
So it came as a shock to everyone when he was struck down, along with his wife and unborn
child, in the ghastly "Red Wedding” episode.
The show has moved on since then, but Robb’s death was so brutal and surprising that “Red
Wedding” lives on in infamy.
Rayna Jaymes
Fans figured there could be no Nashville without Connie Britton's memorable portrayal of Rayna
Jaymes, but apparently the show’s writers disagreed.
When the series began its fifth season with a new home on CMT, Rayna was killed off.
She’d managed to survive an attack from her stalker, but she couldn't survive the
car crash that took place just moments later.
So that was a tough day I guess.
They took her into hospital for treatment after the accident and it seemed like she
was going to pull through and we could all calm down, but then things took a sudden turn
for the worse and, shockingly, she died, devastating everyone.
Britton herself said that the death was "incredibly emotional" and "very difficult" to deal with
- but it was her decision.
Stick
Stick was the awesome ninja master played by the great Scott Glenn across the Marvel/Netflix
series, where he trained both Daredevil and Elektra to be as skilled as they are today,
only to be brought down by Elektra herself in this year's The Defenders.
As Glenn explained, he suggested his character’s demise because throughout season 2 of Daredevil,
he kept saying ‘Elektra has to die!
Elektra has to die!’ but all he kept doing was saving her life.
So he figured that in order to be consistent with the character, he had to die.
Shireen Baratheon
Shireen Baratheon never hurt anyone.
She was a smart and well-read young girl with a kind heart.
And she used her intelligence for good, teaching Davos Seaworth to read.
But goodness won’t save you when your father is the power-hungry cultist Stannis Baratheon.
Her own dad decided to have her burned at the stake by Melissandre as a sacrifice to
the Lord of Light in order to get his army to victory over that of Ramsay Bolton.
Karma’s a bitch though, since Stannis' army didn't even defeat Ramsay's.
Shireen's death was one of the most difficult to watch scenes in all of television, and
one of the great injustices in the history of Game of Thrones.
Chuck McGill
Sure, Chuck McGill was an antagonistic character in Better Call Saul, but those traits were
just symptoms of his mental health problems.
He probably wasn't allergic to electricity, but he was certainly a troubled individual.
His brother Jimmy never gave up on him, even when he set him up and then took him to court.
Chuck clearly had a lot of issues, since he ended up taking his own life by burning down
his house with him inside it.
There was some speculation about whether or not Chuck actually died, but the death was
confirmed by actor Michael McKean, who said, "It seemed like this was kind of the end of
Chuck's chapter in the life of Jimmy McGill slash Saul Goodman.
If Chuck is the person that Jimmy cared for and took care of, and who transformed into
his antagonist, and then transformed into this wreck - this person who has no choice
but to try and fix himself and has no tools for himself - it seemed like a logical step."
Whether you liked him or not, he was a strong character and his death was heartbreaking.
Hodor
"Hold the door!”
There was a lovable sweetness to the big, dopey character of Hodor in Game of Thrones,
and the episode that featured his death brought us all to tears.
His real name was Wylis, a simple fool used for his strength and his kind heart.
He never hurt anyone (well, unless it was to protect others) and he didn't deserve to
die.
At least there's some justice in knowing that there wasn't a dry eye in the world when HBO
aired the GoT episode "The Door."
Despite not appearing to be fully with it and only say one word (which we found out
to be more tragic than we thought), Hodor was always an essential asset to Winterfell
and a beloved part of the Stark family.
It was really sad to see him go.
Sarah Lynn
On Netflix's brilliant and underrated BoJack Horseman, Sarah Lynn is the human actress
that played one of the Horse's children on Horsin' Around, but when she grew up and became
an adult in Miley Cyrus sexualized pop star fashion, the pair of them became each other's
enablers in terms of drugs and drinking and depravity, which would ultimately become her
downfall.
While it may not look it, BoJack Horseman has always been a sad show, but there’s
perhaps no sadder moment in the program that when Sarah admits to BoJack that she doesn't
like anything about herself and then dies of a drug overdose while lying on his shoulder.
She's been missed dearly ever since.
Theresa Cullen
In the Westworld episode "Trompe L'Oeil," we saw the true extent of the horrors promised
by its rich premise.
Anthony Hopkins' evil overlord Ford deals us the revelation that was long held as a
fan theory - that Jeffrey Wright's character Bernard, the guy in charge of relations between
humans and cyborgs, is actually a robot himself.
Bernard and Theresa were lovers, but once Ford overrides the protocols of Bernard's
programming (or however that works), he instructs Bernard to kill her, and Bernard complies,
callously and emotionlessly smashing her head against the wall.
It was tragic - once, they were lovers.
She was a smart lady with a strong will and a good heart.
Michael Cordero, Jr.
Jane the Virgin has always been a critically acclaimed show.
It's won a Peabody Award and been named the TV Program of the Year by the American Film
Institute.
It's also been popular with audiences, warranting four seasons and counting, and the show satirizes
and parodies various elements of the telenovela genre.
Michael began the show as Jane's fiancee and they had all kinds of problems, breaking up
and getting back together repeatedly until finally they got married.
You know what that means: he had to die.
So sadly, he was killed in the show's third season by a shot through the heart.
We wish he was still with us, because he was one of the good guys, which it seems there’s
quite a dearth of in Jane the Virgin.
Hershel Greene
When Hershel Greene first appeared in the second season of The Walking Dead, he was
a bit of a jerk.
He was just the owner of the farm where Rick and the gang had taken refuge on their way
back from Atlanta when Carl got shot and screwed everything up for everyone.
But Hershel quickly grew over the course of the next couple of seasons to become a sweet
old man, a diplomatic negotiator with a level head, and one of the fans' favorite characters.
Sadly, he died in the fourth season - and he couldn't have been killed more brutally
or horrifically, beheaded by the Governor.
Cut down in the prime of his popularity, Hershel had already survived losing a leg - but he
couldn't survive losing a head.
Nicholas Brody
The moment that Nicholas Brody died in the third season of Homeland was not only gutting,
but a major letdown too.
The show hasn’t been the same since, as Brody’s character carried the central mystery
of the plot and the performance of Damian Lewis in the role was always one of the most
enthralling elements of the series.
He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal
of Brody in the series premiere, and received further nominations down the line.
The only silver lining is that it opened up Lewis to star in another Showtime drama series,
Billions.
We’ll see how long Bobby Axelrod lasts on that one.
Barbara Holland
Barb in Stranger Things had only a minor role in the first season, and she disappeared from
a pool party and got sucked into the Upside Down.
But then that was the last we ever heard from her.
But her death was regarded by fans as such an injustice that it led to the trending hashtags
#JusticeForBarb and #WeAreAllBarb.
The writers listened, and an investigation into Barb's death formed a large part of season
2, with Nancy - like the fans - being irritated that no one seems to care about her.
Ned Stark
This is Game of Thrones’ fourth character on this list, showing that killing folks off
is kind of a gimmick for the show.
It’s almost easy to forget that there was ever a character called Ned Stark, because
he died so early on and so, so, so much has happened since then.
Over the course of just a few episodes, he became a fan favorite, only to be struck down
by an executioner before the first season was over.
Ned was a Sean Bean character, though, so his days were pretty much numbered from the
start.
Still, his death was sad and a tragic waste of such great potential - as well as a startling
reminder that on this show, no one is safe.
Glenn Rhee
There were a ton of fan theories formulated between the season 6 finale of The Walking
Dead and the season 7 premiere, about who it was that Negan killed.
See, at the end of the season 6 finale, Negan made his long awaited first appearance and
beat one of Rick's group to death with his baseball bat, Lucille, just like he does in
the comics.
Problem was, they shot it from the point of view of the character and slyly made the audience
wait another year to find out who died.
But that meant that fans had a year to speculate about who it could be.
In the comics, it’s Glenn, but no one thought it would be Glenn after that gimmicky, controversial
story arc where he died but then it turned out he didn't die and he was lying under a
dumpster the whole time.
So predictions abounded.
When the season 7 premiere finally rolled around, the audience might’ve been surprised
that two characters were in fact killed by Negan, if they weren't too busy squirming
at the horrific violence and swearing off the show forever.
After all those theories it was Abraham and Glenn, and the moment that Glenn's eyeball
popped out was the moment that TWD lost a huge chunk of its viewers.
Who else in TV Land went to the grave before their time?
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