Game of Thrones never shied away from violence and psychological torture, earning it praise from some critics and fans while turning others off from it entirely. The HBO series may not be quite as brutal as the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, but there are some haunting moments that will stick with viewers forever. Read on for the full list but fair warning: there are spoilers ahead.
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Before diving into the list, a disclaimer: these episodes were chosen and ranked based on a genuine emotional response to their content, not to any meta interpretation of how they were made of the potential they wasted. At first, I included a few entries that were “traumatizing” in the sense that, they were so bad, they threatened to ruin my favorite show for me. However, that approach got away from me pretty fast, and I found it better to look at episodes in their own context.
That doesn’t necessarily make it easier to assemble this list. There are plenty of gut-wrenching moments in the series that didn’t quite make the cut, though for another viewer, they might stick out more. Read on for the most traumatizing episodes in HBO’s Game of Thrones.
“The Kingsroad”
Game of Thrones starts out with the gruesome violence of the White Walkers, then immediately shows our main character beheading the only survivor of their attack. You’d think that would set the bar high for violence and gore in this series, yet it doesn’t hit quite as hard as the animal violence in the very next episode. Season 1, Episode 2, “The Kingsroad” introduces us to the injustice and sociopathy of the Iron Throne.
The trauma comes at the Inn at the Crossroads, where the childish feud between Arya and Prince Joffrey reaches a boiling point. Arya’s wolf Nymeria bites Joffrey, enraging him and his mother, Queen Cersei. She demands that the animal be killed to avoid further incidents. Ned Stark reluctantly agrees to placate her, but by then, Arya has driven Nymeria away for her own safety. Unsatisfied, the queen orders that Sansa’s wolf, Lady, be killed instead. Surprisingly, Ned complies with this as well, choosing to carry out the execution himself.
It’s a horrifying hint of what’s to come for Arya and Sansa in King’s Landing, and how Ned will handle the pressure and responsibility of being Hand of the King. On a more personal level, it opens a rift between the Starks that you can tell won’t heal easily. Viewers sensing the mystical bond between Starks and their wolves may also feel the terror in these two girls being deprived of their natural protectors as they head into the lion’s den.
“Baelor”
Skipping ahead to the end of Season 1, “Baelor” is the episode where Ned Stark is beheaded, simultaneously shocking viewers while drawing them into the story for the long haul. The bait-and-switch of building up Ned as the apparent main character of the show only to kill him off so unceremoniously was as powerful on TV as it was in the books. In fact, this may be one of the cases where the show was more impactful as we saw Ned’s death from the perspective of his daughters, rather than his own point of view. For many fans, it’s like we were traumatized along with Arya and Sansa.
“The Rains of Castamere”
For many fans, “The Red Wedding” is synonymous with Game of Thrones. Season 3, Episode 9 is named after a song about House Lannister’s brutal treatment of its enemies, and its apt for the betrayal of Robb Stark, the King in the North. The scene is horrifyingly drawn out, focusing on the deaths of Robb, his pregnant wife, and his mother Catelyn. If that weren’t enough, we also get a taste of Arya’s perspective from outside the castle, arriving just a little too late to save her family.
“The Dance of the Dragons”
Jumping ahead a bit, even the most calloused viewers were left speechless after Season 5, Episode 9 when King Stannis Baratheon agreed to let Melisandre sacrifice his own daughter, Princess Shireen, in a ritual meant to draw strength from her fiery god, R’hllor. The heartbreaking performance by Kerry Ingram doesn’t make it any easier, nor does the fact that Stannis’ forces still lose their next battle, and the rightful king is killed.
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This scene was especially hard to watch for book fans, as it was the first big step in Stannis’ story to go beyond the books that have been published so far. To this day, many fans predict that this will play out differently in the books and that Stannis’ entire arc may go on for longer. It’s worth noting that in the books, Melisandre and Shireen did not accompany Stannis on his campaign to take Winterfell, which means they won’t be there for any ritual sacrifice anytime soon.
“Home”
Season 6, Episode 2 is here to represent several other traumas inflicted on the fandom by Ramsay Snow — a.k.a. Ramsay Bolton. It’s this episode where Ramsay murders his father, but even more horrifyingly, he kills his father’s wife Walda and her newborn son. He does so by luring them out to the kennels and allowing them to be eaten by his trained hunting dogs.
This is definitely up there among the most abhorrent things we see Ramsay do in this show, but I’ll explain why I gave it this spot over any of his other crimes. Ramsay’s graphic torture of Theon is definitely horrifying, but when it begins, the audience is so furious at Theon that the impact is blunted. The real competition is Ramsay’s sexual assault against Sansa in Season 5, Episode 6. This is legitimately hard to watch, and it caused a lot of controversy when it first aired, as critics called it excessive. In the spirit of sticking to book canon and pretending this incident never happened, I opted to list Ramsay’s infanticide instead.
“The Door”
Just a couple of episodes later, fans were shocked when the mystery of Hodor’s linguistic quirk was unexpectedly solved in “The Door.” The gentle giant has been mind-controlled by Bran many times throughout the series, and just when we may have begun to assume there would be no consequences, we learn his history. He has never been the same since Bran accidentally cast his mind backward in time, shocking a younger Hodor’s system.
This episode is extra traumatic for including the death of Bran’s wolf, Summer, at the hands of the White Walkers, and the destruction of their Wierwood stronghold north of The Wall. However, keep in mind that the TV show opted out of depicting some of the most gruesome parts of Bran’s story, including the theorized reason for Jojen Reed’s death. Fans expect the books to flesh out Bran’s story a lot more before they’re over.
“The Iron Throne”
Finally, no matter how abbreviated the ending of Game of Thrones was, the surprise betrayal in the final episode was traumatic for everyone involved. After a short and successful battle against the White Walkers followed by a decisive siege of King’s Landing, Daenerys’ most trusted advisors suddenly decided she was mad with power, and had become the greatest threat to the world herself. Inexplicably, her lover and nephew Jon Snow agreed and carried out her execution himself.
Perhaps the worst part of this is the way it’s done — honor-obsessed Jon pretends to understand Dany’s choices and embraces her, only to stab her in the back with his dagger. This is infuriating after all the Starks’ musings on executions, with Ned Stark explaining to his children, “If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.” If Jon had faced Dany and killed her with his Valyrian steel sword, it would have been an echo of the in-world myth of Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa, for whatever that’s worth.
Game of Thrones remains a cultural touchstone in part by standing out in viewers’ minds through moments like these — and many others. As the franchise continues to expand in multiple mediums, it will need to find new ways to match the impact of things like The Red Wedding, without retreading familiar territory. Thankfully, this year’s upcoming spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight stands a good chance at that. In the meantime, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are streaming now on Max. George R.R. Martin’s books are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
