Game Of Thrones: The 10 best and most gruesome villain deaths we loved to watch

GAME of Thrones is famous for angering fans by killing off beloved characters without warning. But the show has knocked off a few universally loathed ones too — and that’s made up for all those Starks.

GAME of Thrones is famous for angering fans by killing off beloved characters without warning. But the show has knocked off a few universally loathed ones too. And watching them die has almost made up for the loss of all those Starks.

While Season Six saw the end of a number of nasties, we can look forward to some more villains biting the dust in Season Seven.

Until then, here are 10 of the best villain deaths so far.

Viserys Targaryen

Viserys Targaryen died in a shower of molten gold.

Anyone who has an older brother knows they can make life pretty challenging at times.

But Viserys takes sibling cruelty to a whole new level when he marries off his little sister Daenerys, against her will, to Dothraki war lord Khal Drogo, in exchange for an army to help him regain the iron throne his father “The Mad King” Aerys once held.

He shows next to no regard for his sister and looks down on everyone including the Dothraki.

But his impatience and arrogance proves his undoing when in one of those drunken moments you immediately regret, he threatens to kill the rather large Kahl’s unborn child if he does not give him his army.

The Kahl, who has quite rightly not too impressed with Viserys’ threat, decides to give him his “golden crown” early by pouring a pot of the white-hot, molten metal over his head.

A pretty gruesome way to go and not how most of us would have handled that situation, but very few of us shed a tear at his passing — least of all his long-suffering sister.

Joffrey Baratheon

Arguably the most loathed character on GOT (at least before we meet Ramsay Bolton). Officially, Joffrey is the son of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister, but of course we all know he’s the bastard son of the very creepy incestuous relationship between Cersei and her brother Jaime. He’s not only a spoiled brat, he’s cruel and sadistic to boot.

And let’s just say his rapid ascent to the throne after the death of his father the King in a hunting “accident” does nothing to help rein in his obvious personality flaws.

But it isn’t until Joffrey beheads Ned Stark at the end of season 1 that his name is immediately scrawled on every GOT viewer’s personal Arya Stark-style kill list.

After Robert’s death, Ned, who suspects Joffrey’s true parentage, refuses to recognise his claim to the throne.

The nasty Joffrey Baratheon died in agony.

For this Ned is taken into custody for treason. Sansa pleads for mercy for her father to which Joffrey agrees as long as he confesses to treason and recants publicly. Ned does so at his trial, but Joffrey being Joffrey, of course breaks his word and has Ned executed on the spot anyway. Viewers are forced to endure three more seasons of this cruel little twerp until he is poisoned at his own wedding to Margery Tyrell. As he gurgles in bug-eyed agony in the arms of his mother with blood dripping from his eyes and nose, a collective cheer can be heard from every lounge room across the globe.

Tywin Lannister

For the most part the Lannister patriarch wasn’t such a bad guy, more a pragmatist and a politician than a Joffrey-style sadist. His main aim in life was always to protect the power and legacy of the Lannister name and he was very successful at it.

Sure he organised the worst wedding reception in history where Rob and Catelyn Stark and about 50 other honoured guests were brutally murdered but even that was done, at least in his mind, for a practical reason.

In Season three, when Tywin senses his son Tyrion thinks the Red Wedding massacre was dishonourable, he tells him it was necessary to protect the family and end the war. And that’s just what it achieved. But he could have at least let them cut the cake first. He even tells him he engineered it so the Freys will get all the credit but also all the blame as the Northerners will never forgive such a crime. Smart move.

Tywin Lannister died on the dunny.

No, where Tywin failed miserably, is as a father. He had long looked on his dwarf son Tyrion as an abomination and blamed him for the death of his wife who had died giving birth to him. He also refused to give him Casterly Rock, despite Tyrion being the rightful heir since his brother Jaime had renounced his own claim when he joined the King’s guard.

He even has Tyrion put on trial for the murder of Joffrey and gets his girlfriend Shae to testify against him. Pretty cold stuff but the worst was still to come. On the eve of his execution Jaime secretly releases his brother from his cell.

Tyrion is understandably shocked to find Shae in his father’s bed. After strangling her to death Tyrion seeks out his dear old dad and finds him in a very vulnerable position sitting half naked on his privy. For a man obsessed with honour and protecting his family name, being crossbowed to death by your dwarf son, while sitting on the dunny is probably not the glorious death he’d hoped for. But it made compelling viewing for the rest of us.

Stannis Baratheon

It’s fair to say Stannis was the victim of some pretty poor advice during his failed quest to sit on the Iron Throne following the death of his brother King Robert. But relying on the flame-filled visions of a sexy red priestess who bears an uncanny resemblance to 1980s songstress Kate Bush is no excuse for all the really bad stuff he did.

He had his younger brother Renly murdered by Melisandre’s shadowy creature, he kidnapped one of his brother Robert’s bastards, he allows countless men to die in any number of poorly strategised battles and he even imprisons the one guy trying desperately to save him from himself and Melisandre — Ser Davos Seaworth.

Stannis Baratheon deservedly died after burning his own daughter.

But by far his most shocking crime, and the moment you realise Stannis no longer has both oars in the water, is when he, again on the less-than-reliable advice of Melisandre, has his only daughter Shireen burned alive. After this, for most viewers Stannis’s death couldn’t come soon enough and it was especially fitting it came at the hands of Lady Brienne Of Tarth, who had failed to save Renly — the king she had vowed to protect — from Melisandre’s evil magic.

Ser Meryn Trant

Arya Stark crosses another name off her kill list in Season Five when she brutally murders Knight of the Kings guard Ser Meryn Trant. She and most of the show’s fans, have been baying for his blood since Season One when Ser Meryn killed the man hired by her father to train her to wield a sword — the delightfully flamboyant Sirio Fidel.

Ser Meryn Trant died nastily at the hands of Arya Stark.

We all know Ser Meryn is a bad guy but perhaps not yet bad enough to warrant such a brutal death. But, while Arya is training with the Faceless Men, Ser Meryn conveniently turns up in Braavos. Sensing her opportunity to strike another name off the old death ledger, Arya goes against the rules of the Many Faced God to take him out.

And that’s where the show gives Ser Meryn’s character that extra loathsome nudge it needs. We find out in his down time he is also a sadistic paedophile who enjoys beating underage girls. Arya sees her chance and poses as an underage prostitute in the brothel he is visiting. She first brutally blinds Ser Meryn before slitting his throat. Cue the spitting blood, bug eyes and lots of gurgling.

The Waif

For her transgression in killing Ser Meryn Trant, Arya is punished by Jaqen H’ghar and the Many Faced God and blinded. The Waif, H’ghar’s sidekick in the House of Black and White and a brilliant exponent of resting bitch face, has never had a particularly high opinion of Arya or her highborn status. I think there’s a bit of a medieval mean girls thing going on there.

She takes great pleasure in tormenting and beating the young blinded Stark in the street in a bizarre mix of abuse and combat training. Even when Arya has her sight returned and is back in the Faceless Men fold The Waif still doesn’t trust her.

The Waif was another villain who was killed by Arya Stark.

And probably rightly so. Arya lets her next target, a kindly actor, live against the express wishes of H’ghar. It is the final straw and he orders The Waif to kill Arya. In what turns out to be a pretty epic street battle, The Waif, who during the pursuit does her best impression of that molten metal killer cop guy in Terminator 2, thinks she finally has Arya cornered in a darkened room. But it turns out it was all part of the young Stark’s plan.

Arya uses her period of blindness to her advantage by slicing the one candle illuminating the room with her trusty needle sword, plunging it into total darkness. The action then cuts to the rather serial killer-like hall of faces where The Waif’s suddenly appears.

Ramsay Bolton

Ramsay really was a complete bastard — by birth and by deed. He was so evil he almost became a caricature. He killed, tortured and mutilated men, raped, tortured and killed countless women. He even murdered his father and fed his stepmother and her baby son to his hungry hounds.

If ever there was kid that would have benefited from some early intervention programs, he’s it. Everybody hated him and everybody wanted him dead. And, just when you thought you couldn’t hate him anymore, he cruelly kills young Rickon Stark before the epic Battle of the Bastards.

He tells Rickon to run across the battle field to his brother, Jon, leading the young Stark to believe he had a fighting chance of survival. But of course, everyone watching knew he never did. Predictably just before reaching safety, Rickon is fatally wounded by a Ramsay Bolton arrow.

Ramsay Bolton was the villain all GoT fans wanted dead.

And so the set up for one of the most brutal and yet satisfying deaths on the show was complete. On the verge of victory Ramsay’s forces are defeated when Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale ride to the rescue. After having his face turned into a Jackson Pollock painting by a rather upset Jon, Sansa has Ramsay tied up in the Winterfell kennels where he keeps his hounds, who rather conveniently haven’t been fed for seven days.

We all know what’s coming and yet, like watching a car accident or someone with bad Botox, we cannot turn away. After a few choice words from Sansa, where she tells Ramsay he will be all but forgotten after his death, the hungry dogs do their brutal work.

In a nice touch we see Sansa start to turn away from the horror, before she forces herself to watch Ramsay get torn apart. When she’s seen enough, she walks away with a little wry smile on her face.

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Walder Frey

Walder Frey had to die.

Ever since he played host to the massacre of the Starks at the Red Wedding, Walder Frey was living on borrowed time. It was just a matter of who killed him and when.

No one particularly liked or respected him or his House, least of all his supposed allies the Lannisters. Nevertheless, when House Frey loses Riverrun to the legendary Blackfish, Jaime Lannister and his army reluctantly ride north to help retake it.

When the castle is retaken and the Blackfish killed, Walder Frey holds a great feast and gives a celebratory speech to rival one your creepy uncle might give at your 21st.

Jaime is less than enthused, mocking Walder’s ineptitude in losing Riverrun in the first place. And then comes one of the more psychologically creepy killings in the series to date. After the Lannister forces have departed Walder gets his dinner served to him by a young servant girl he has not seen before.

He even comments that she can’t be one of his because she is “too pretty”, while also complaining about the absence of his two sons at dinner. The servant girl then tells Walder his sons are “already here, my lord”.

The girl then directs a puzzled Walder to the pie he has been eating, lifting up the pastry to reveal a telltale finger of one of his sons.

Like the conclusion to countless Scooby Doo cartoons, the servant girl then peels off her face to reveal her true identity as Arya Stark.

Arya then tells Walder the last thing he will see is a Stark smiling down on him, before slitting his throat. Cue more bug eyes, blood and gurgling.

By the end of Season Six Arya certainly gets her mojo working when it comes to striking names off her kill list and Walder was one of her best. And he would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for those pesky Stark kids.

The High Sparrow

High Sparrow Game Of Thrones. Picture: HBO via Foxtel

The High Sparrow is like one of those guys you really hope you don’t get stuck talking to at a party or hope doesn’t come knocking on your door on a Sunday morning holding poorly printed pamphlets. In fact he’s worse.

Instead of having one imaginary friend, the High Sparrow has seven. You would never win an argument with this guy. But no matter how pious the High Sparrow tried to paint himself, he was just as sadistic and eager for power in Westeros as everyone else.

But he was incredibly naive to think he had gotten the better of master manipulator Cersei Lannister. He put up a good fight though. Cersei quite literally had to go the GoT version of the nuclear option to beat him, booby trapping the Citadel with wildfire before her doomed trial killing hundreds of innocent people.

Even as Queen Margaery tried to warn him, not one of the High Sparrow’s seven gods gave him the heads up that all might not be well. The puzzled look on his face as the green inferno engulfed him was priceless.

Septa Unella

Septa Unella died at Cersei’s hands.

As sure as we knew winter was coming, we also knew things were going to end badly for Septa Unella. You weren’t sure exactly when but you just knew it was inevitable and it was going to be bad.

It’s like someone forgot to give her the full personal file on who she was actually dealing with when she gleefully began her religiously sanctioned torture of Cersei Lannister.

But it was Unella’s part in Cersei’s humiliating naked walk of atonement through the city, where she followed close behind her calling out “shame”, that really signed her death warrant. At least Cersei allowed the High Sparrow and his followers a quick death.

But for Unella, she reserved a special punishment — a long tortuous death at the hands of the new and improved zombie apocalypse version of Gregor Glegane.

We are left to make up our own mind as to what terrible things Glegane is doing to Unella, but from the sounds of her screams, it isn’t good.

In a nice touch, and to rub further salt into whatever wounds Glegane is inflicting upon her, Cersei repeats the word “Shame” as she closes the cell door.