Highlights
- Game of Thrones featured numerous off-screen deaths, showcasing the brutal and unforgiving nature of the show’s universe.
- Characters like Ellaria & Tyene Sand met gruesome fates off-screen, leaving viewers to imagine their harrowing ends.
- From heroes like Stannis Baratheon to direwolves like Shaggydog, many key characters met their demise in ways too horrific to show.
Considering the amount of blood-soaked carnage HBO managed to cram into eight seasons of Game of Thrones, it’s not surprising that the show features a considerable number of off-screen character deaths. From supporting faces to prominent fan favorites, it quickly became apparent that no one was safe from this state of affairs.
In many cases, this was a mercy. These off-camera fatalities featured a few heroic last stands peppered in among the death and destruction. However, the ruthless nature of Benioff and Weiss’ universe lent to an array of ends that were often too horrendous to show on camera.
10 Ellaria & Tyene Sand
The Longest Of Farewells
- Last seen in: The Queen’s Justice, Season 7, Episode 3
A leading candidate for Game of Thrones’ most harrowing off-screen death, Ellaria and Tyene Sand’s fate is enough to make the most hardened viewers wince. After Euron Greyjoy decimates the Ironborn fleet, the duo are brought before Cersei to answer for Myrcella Lannister’s murder.
Cersei poisons Tyene using the same concoction used to kill Myrcella, taunting Ellaria that she will live out her days watching her child decompose. She leaves the pair gagged and chained in a dark dungeon, just out of reach of each other’s comforting arms. This scene marks their final appearance. Ellaria likely followed her daughter into death due to starvation, or during Daenerys’ obliteration of the Red Keep off-camera.
9 Stannis Baratheon
Hard Truths (And Vengeful Swords) Cut Both Ways
- Last seen in: Mother’s Mercy, Season 5, Episode 10
Stannis Baratheon was relentless in his pursuit of the Iron Throne, a status quo that extended to murdering his brother with black magic and burning his daughter alive. Unfortunately, both events come back to haunt him. Deserted by the majority of his army after Shireen’s death, Stannis’ remaining forces are obliterated by Ramsay Bolton’s army.
Brienne of Tarth discovers a wounded Stannis shortly after. The former Kingsguard to Stannis’ late brother Renly sentences and executes Stephen Dillane’s gruff charge. Stannis goes out in surprisingly ambiguous fashion for such a major character, with the camera cutting away just as Brienne swings her sword. While any rumors of his survival were duly put to bed, he’s a front-runner for the show’s highest profile off-screen death.
8 Grenn
The Giant-Killer Who Came From A Farm
- Last seen in: The Watchers on the Wall, Season 4, Episode 9
It’s hard to top a courageous last stand facing down a charging giant. As the wildlings lay siege to Castle Black in Season 4’s penultimate episode, Jon Snow’s trusted ally Grenn finds himself in this exact situation as Mag the Mighty attempts to breach the inner gate.
Roaring the Night’s Watch oath as their foe barrels towards them, Grenn and his comrades’ heroics are sadly left to the imagination. The camera cuts away just before the giant reaches the gate. Jon later discovers his friend’s body beside Mag’s corpse when he leaves to treaty with Mance Rayder after the battle.
7 Mycah
The Butcher’s Boy Who Couldn’t Outrun A Hound
- Last seen in: The Kingsroad, Season 1, Episode 2
The fate of an unfortunate butcher’s boy set the tone for the Lannisters’ capacity for cruelty early in Game of Thrones’ first season. A friend of Arya Stark, Mycah is bullied by Joffrey after the Prince comes across the pair pretending to sword-fight with sticks. Joffrey slices the boy’s face with his sword, prompting Arya to attack him and hurl his weapon into a nearby river.
Mycah seems to get away in the commotion, but his fate is revealed when Sandor Clegane rides back into camp. The butcher’s boy’s bloodied corpse is slung across his horse, struck down by the Hound at Joffrey’s behest off-screen.
6 Septa Unella
Shame Has Nothing On Ser Gregor
- Last seen in: The Winds of Winter, Season 6, Episode 10
Regrettably for Hannah Waddingham’s Septa Unella, Cersei Lannister does not forget a slight. Unella torments Cersei during her imprisonment by the High Sparrow’s acolytes, playing a prominent role in the Queen Mother’s walk of atonement.
Unsurprisingly, the Septa finds herself in the Red Keep’s dungeons after Cersei seizes the throne. As the new Queen informs her that she plans to torment her as long as possible, viewers last see Unella howling in despair after being introduced to Gregor Clegane. While her death is never confirmed, it’s unlikely that she survived the Red Keep’s destruction in the final season — or Ser Gregor, for that matter.
5 Syrio Forel
Saying “Today” To The God Of Death
- Last seen in: The Pointy End, Season 1, Episode 8
The former First Sword of Braavos, Syrio Forel, was engaged by Eddard Stark to teach Arya how to fight with a sword under the guise of “dancing lessons.” Forel forms a bond with his young student as he instructs her in the art of the “water dance”.
Forel perishes after Eddard is imprisoned for high treason. Led by Ser Meryn Trant, Lannister soldiers arrive at the Stark residence to take Arya into custody. Holding his pupil’s pursuers at bay with a wooden training sword, Syrio remains behind to allow her escape before Trant kills him off-screen.
4 Brynden Tully
Landing A Blackfish
- Last seen in: No One, Season 6, Episode 8
A survivor of the Red Wedding, Ser Brynden Tully — better known as the Blackfish — returned to the fold in Season 6 after rallying the remaining Tully forces to retake Riverrun. Unfortunately for Brynden, that’s where his story ends.
The Lannister army’s siege of Riverrun breaks when Jaime Lannister strong-arms Edmure Tully into ordering his uncle’s forces to stand down. The Blackfish leads Brienne and Podrick to safety before staying behind to fight to the death off-screen. Jaime later learns that Brynden was killed after refusing to surrender to the Lannister soldiers.
3 Ros
Chaos Is A Ladder (Or A Crossbow Bolt)
- Last seen in: The Climb, Season 3, Episode 6
A courtesan who left the North for King’s Landing, Ros became acquainted with the backstabbing nature of the Red Keep the hard way. Initially used as a pawn in master schemer Petyr Baelish’s plotting, Ros begins spying on her new master for Lord Varys. This decision costs her her life.
After Littlefinger discovers Ros’ treachery, he offers her up as Joffrey’s latest sadistic plaything. While the horrific end she endured thankfully takes place off-screen, Ros’ bolt-riddled corpse appears against the backdrop of a Machiavellian speech by Baelish. Viewers see her tied to Joffrey’s bedpost as a makeshift crossbow target.
2 The Waif
Becoming One Of The Faceless Men — Literally
- Last seen in: No One, Season 6, Episode 8
A ruthless disciple of the Faceless Men, the Waif is tasked with dispatching Arya Stark after she fails to carry out an assassination. Cornering her prey in a dimly lit room, it appears that all is lost until Arya draws Needle from under a mattress. Slicing the only candle in half, Arya submerges the room in pitch black.
Following the ambiguous ending to the pair’s duel, viewers learn the Waif’s fate when Jaqen H’Ghar walks through the House of Black and White. Drawing on her sightless combat training from her time as a blind street urchin, Arya dispatched her tormentor in the darkness. Now, Waif’s bloody countenance is the latest addition to the Hall of Faces.
1 Shaggydog
The Lone Wolf Dies
- Last seen in: Oathbreaker, Season 6, Episode 3
The direwolves discovered in Game of Thrones’ first episode play an integral role throughout the show. Sadly, it’s well established that they tend to die horrific deaths. Rickon Stark’s wolf, Shaggydog, is no exception. Brandon Stark arguably bears the blame for this one, making a disastrous judgment call to send his younger brother to seek refuge with House Umber in Season 3.
Rickon isn’t seen again until Season 6, when the audience discovers that the treacherous Umbers have taken him captive. The bad news doesn’t end there. It’s revealed that Shaggydog was brutally killed off-screen, as Smalljon Umber presents the wolf’s severed head as proof of Rickon’s identity to Ramsay Bolton.
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