We all know that "When you play the game of
thrones, you win or you die.” So, I’m going to run through my top 10 deaths
from season 4. I’m only including deaths which we actually
saw on screen – so no Rast dying by direwolf and no death by giant for Grenn.
Also, I’m only covering the deaths of named characters – so, for example, while the
episode 9 death of random wild-lings by scythe… or big-ass anchor, as I like to call it…
was undeniably very cool, it hasn’t made it to my list.
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with the Game of Thrones cast, weekly reviews of the latest episodes, and more top GoT lists.
So, if you haven’t already, do subscribe! Ok, let’s countdown the top 10 deaths in
Season 4!
It was always going to be a bittersweet moment when red-headed Wild-ling Ygritte saw her
former lover Jon Snow again. And so it was when the pair locked eyes as
the battle of Castle Black raged around them. Last time they saw each other was when Ygritte
shot Jon in the back. And this time, she had her arrow trained on
him again as he looked at her fondly and she struggled to reconcile her love for him with
her allegiance to the Wild-lings. But, the decision was taken out of her hands
when orphaned potato boy, Olly, raised his own arrow and shot Ygritte from behind right
through her heart. Just as our favourite Wild-ling had shot Olly’s
dad in the back of the head when the Wildlings raided their village in episode 3.
As she died in Jon’s arms, she wished they’d stayed in the cave, and said, one last time,
“You know nothing, Jon Snow”. If you still miss Ygritte, check out this
video to see the Game of Thrones cast and fans do their best impressions of her classic
line.
Jon Snow was really up against it in the Battle of Castle Black when he came face-to-face
with the insanely strong tower of a man, Styr, the Magnar of Thenn.
Styr used his huge battleaxe to knock Jon’s sword out of his hands before Jon got his
hands on a chain and used it to wrangle Styr’s battleaxe off him.
Then the pair went mano-a-mano, with Jon getting SMASHED against an anvil.
But as Styr looked set to go in for the kill, Jon proved he’d learned a thing or two from
Karl Tanner about not always fighting honourably. Yes, just as Karl did to him at Craster’s
Keep, Jon spat in Styr’s face and used the distraction to grab a hefty hammer which he
smashed into Styr’s bald head. No more roast crow for you, Mr Thenn!
Episode 5 saw Locke – the man who lopped off Jaime Lannister’s hand – rock up at
Craster’s Keep with Jon Snow and a bunch of Night’s Watch men to take down Karl Tanner
and the other rebellious former rangers holed up there.
But unbeknown to our Men in Black, Locke was actually only there to accomplish his mission
of hunting down Bran and Rickon Stark for Roose Bolton!
And when he found Bran and his friends in a hut outside Craster’s Keep, Locke showed
he’s still got a bit of a thing about limbs as he cut Bran’s leg to check he really
was the paralysed Stark boy! But as Locke carted the young Stark off, Bran
warged into Hodor and turned him into Warg-dor, or should that be Bran-dor, anyway, he was
basically a not-so-gentle giant who went all Incredible Hulk on Locke’s ass, snapping
the House Bolton man’s neck! Let that be a lesson to anyone who calls Hodor
an idiot! But did you see that look on poor Hodor’s
You can watch my interviews with actor Noah Taylor, who played Locke, and Kristian Nairn,
who plays Hodor, here.
He may have killed creepy Craster, but rebellious ranger Karl Tanner certainly kept the “eep”
in Craster’s Keep, violating the dead wild-ling’s daughter-wives and sending what he thought
was his last son to the White Walkers. So, despite being a “fooking legend” in
his own mind, it was always quite clear that Karl was not long for this Game of Thrones
world. Still, he went out fighting – even if he
did use some dirty tactics – and almost proved Oberyn Martell’s wise words that
“long swords are a bad option in close quarters” during his face-off with Jon Snow inside Craster’s
Keep. In fact, it was only thanks to one of Craster’s
women stabbing Karl in the back that Jon was able to get back on
his feet, after being tripped up by Karl, and run his sword through the back of Karl’s
head and right out of his mouth!
A fitting end for the man who drank wine from the skull of Lord Commander Mormont, and,
an end, which also, mirrored the way Podrick saved Tyrion at Blackwater.
Remember Polliver? Yeah, that’s right, the Lannister man who stole Arya’s sword Needle
and used it to murder Lommy Greenhands, the young kid travelling north on the Kingsroad
with Arya, Gendry, Hot Pie and Yoren. Well, they say that revenge is a dish best
served cold and Arya finally got hers when she came across Polliver at the Inn at the
Crossroads, took back Needle and stuck him with the pointy end, polishing him off by
running the sword right through his throat. This death scene proved a satisfying payback
for Polliver’s actions in season 2, and a strong end to the opening episode of season
4. Melisandre was certainly right when she foresaw
darkness in Arya towards the end of season 2.
By the way, you can check out my latest interview with Maisie Williams, who plays Arya, here!
If anyone had actually dared to ask Tywin Lannister how he’d like to exit the world
of Westeros, you can be pretty sure he would not have said: “sitting on the toilet in
a brief break from sex with a prostitute”. But, ultimately, even the all-powerful papa
Lannister didn’t always get what he wanted. So, Tywin’s letter-writing days were brought
to an end by a crossbow on the crapper. And, as if that wasn’t enough insult added
to injury, the King’s Hand died at the hands of his own son, Tyrion.
Still, it was quite something seeing Tywin do his very best to maintain the upper hand
in his conversation with Tyrion, in spite of his, erm, somewhat delicate position.
And, contrary to popular belief about the Lannisters’ incredible wealth, Tywin did
not, in the end, shit gold. Still, now the Lannister legacy can boast
both a king-slayer and a kin-slayer! Go lions! To see where daddy Lannister’s death ranks
in Tywin’s TOP 10 on-screen moments, check out my countdown here!
Season 4 of Game of Thrones reminded us that, if you fancy living a long life, it’s probably
best NOT to RSVP to any weddings invitations, especially if you’re the one due to get
hitched! Yes, the Lannisters’ moto may be ‘Hear
Me roar’, but it was more a case of ‘Hear Me croak’ in episode 2 as young King Joffrey
drew his last breath after scoffing some particularly dry pigeon pie and washing that down with
some poisoned wine. Thanks to Cersei, all eyes in King’s Landing
were on Tyrion as the culprit; but in reality it was Littlefinger and Olenna Tyrell, helped
by Dontos and an unwitting Sansa. There’s no doubt that Joffrey was the thorn
in everyone’s side – except his adoring mother’s – since the start of the show,
and he was malicious to the very last, with jibes at everyone in his firing line including
Sansa and Tyrion. Yet he was such a fantastic character played
so brilliantly by Jack Gleeson, and we did love to hate Joffrey so much, that it was
almost a shame to see him finally felled. By the way, you can check out what the Game
of Thrones cast had to say about Joffrey and actor Jack Gleeson in this video.
No matter how crazy you think your relatives are, they’ve probably got nothing on Lysa
Arryn. Why? Because this is the woman best known
for threatening to throw Tyrion out of the moon door for murdering her husband Jon Arryn
despite having poisoned him herself, almost breaking her niece Sansa’s fingers as she
interrogated her about sleeping with Littlefinger, ear-piercingly noisy sex with her new husband
Petyr Baelish, and, oh yeah, breast-feeding her fully-grown son, Robin.
Anyway, Mrs Littlefinger was very obviously cruising for a bruising as we know only too
well that Littlefinger does not like leaving people alive who can reveal his secrets, as
Ros and Dontos discovered the hard way. So, when Lysa threatened to toss Sansa out
of the moon door after catching her kissing Littlefinger, it gave him the perfect opportunity
to create some more chaos by giving his new wife a push!
But Baelish isn’t the sort of man who’d just casually chuck you out the moon door
without a wily word or two on the matter. No, he’s the kind of guy who likes to give
you something to think about as you’re hurtling through the air to certain death.
And so it was with Lysa, whose face was an absolute picture of love as Littlefinger told
her he’d only ever loved one woman, but that look on Lysa’s face soon changed to
one of horror as he revealed he actually meant her sister, Catelyn!
It was a surprise for book-readers and non-book-readers when Jojen met his grabby, stabby, icy, firey
end in the season 4 finale. The Bran clan were on their way to meet the
3-Eyed Raven when they were attacked by an army of skeleton wights who emerged mysteriously
from beneath the snow! Jojen’s sister Meera tried to fight off
the gruesome creatures as did Hodor, who Bran warged into.
But as a sickly Jojen lay on the ground, a headless wight stabbed him repeatedly in the
stomach. Meera lopped its arm off, but the damage was
already done, and there was nothing to do but put her brother out of his misery with
a quick cut to the throat. And, as you can never be dead enough in the
GOT world, the female Child of the Forest firebombed Jojen to smithereens, ensuring
he couldn’t be reanimated. I loved the drama of this scene, including
the wights’ hands suddenly reaching out of the snow.
It was a bit like Ray Harryhausen meets Michael Jackson’s Thriller video!
When Bronn decided not to champion Tyrion in his trial by combat, and instead chose
social climbing over what was basically a suicide mission, Dornish man of the moment
Oberyn Martell stood up and volunteered his services.
Of course, there was a little more to it than that as Oberyn was desperate for the chance
to kill his sister Elia’s murderer, Gregor Clegane, and drag a confession out of him
before he died. Err, well, that didn’t all exactly go to
plan: he did get the confession, but only as he was being given a mind-blowing headache
and having his eyes gouged out by the Mountain. Nice!
I don’t think there’s any question that this was the most horrifying death of season
4 – in terms of the way it was executed and how we felt about Oberyn and Gregor.
So, what do you think were the best deaths in season 4 of Game of Thrones?
Let me know in the comments below! Honourable mentions go to Shae, Pyp, Dontos
Hollard, and the Meereenese champion dispatched by Daario Naharis.
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