The series was adapted from the famous novel The Song of Ice and Fire written by George R.R. Martin. All in all, Game of Thrones was a huge success due to its intricate, dark storytelling and high-quality production. But, as the show became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, there remain some grotesque and baffling moments that made no sense at all. Let’s look back and relive the moments that should have been left on the pages.
10. Daenerys Sold Like Property by Her Own Brother
Season 1, Episode 1
From the get-go, Game of Thrones made it clear how ruthless Westeros could be, and nothing captured it more than Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) selling his 16-year-old sister, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), for power. Daenerys was meant to be a force of nature who would fight for her right to the Iron Throne. Instead, she was shown (at first) as a naive child who followed her brother’s absurd demands — even while marrying into a kingdom she despised initially.
9. The Mountain’s Gruesome Killing of Oberyn Martell
Season 4, Episode 8
Even for a show known for brutal deaths, Oberyn Martell’s (Pedro Pascal) end was the most graphic, tragic, and unforgettable. In Season 4’s “The Mountain and the Viper,” Oberyn volunteers to fight as Tyrion Lannister’s (Peter Dinklage) champion against Ser Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), aka The Mountain.
Oberyn wanted to save Tyrion and take revenge on The Mountain for the rape and murder of her sister, Ella Martell, and her children. From the fight, it was clear that he was more skilled and quicker than the Mountain — even managed to bring the beast to the ground — but things changed in a millisecond. He wanted a confession, and while he was yelling for the truth, the Mountain grabbed him and crushed his skull with his own bare hands. This scene remains the worst for killing off a character who had just started to grow into an interesting major role. Fans wanted to see more of him, but his unjustified death felt less about the story and more about gaining clout.
8. Lysa Arryn Nursing Her Grown Son
Season 1, Episode 5
Robert was shown as an overly coddled child, completely dependent on his mother. Still, this scene was weirdly gratuitous, and no matter what meaning could be extracted from it, it came off as awkward and borderline absurd. In George R.R. Martin’s books, Lysa’s unhealthy devotion to his son is hinted at, but the show made it explicit (unnecessarily). This scene is still talked about, years later, as something fans would love to unsee.
7. Theon’s Sister Making a Pass at Him For Fun
Season 2, Episode 6
Later on, Yara revealed her identity to Theon, and he was appropriately mortified, just like the audience. Supposedly, it was her way of testing what her brother was like — this being the most inappropriate way to do that. Well, the scene added no value to the storyline and could have been avoided.
6. Ed Sheeran’s Unnecessary Cameo
Season 7, Episode 1
The beloved singer Ed Sheeran made a special cameo in the gritty, war-torn world of Westeros, in one of the most unconvincing moments of the show. Had it been a fantasy comedy, sitcom, or a lighthearted drama, a cameo wouldn’t have hurt anyone. But to show off an A-list celebrity in a show like Game of Thrones was extremely distracting and felt out of place.
Sheeran had only two lines, and even those were ruined by his awkward delivery. He was singing a song, sitting on a log in the forest, as one of Lannister’s soldiers, when Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) arrived on horseback to praise his song. In an otherwise dark and intense drama, this whole scene was so pointless that it immediately cut the audience’s attention from the show. A background Ed Sheeran track would have made more sense than having him in the episode.
5. Jaime Lannister Assaulting Cersei Beside Their Son’s Body
Season 4, Episode 3
In the shocking turn of events, Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), an otherwise likable character, just broke his redemption arc by forcing himself on his sister, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), right beside their son, Joffrey’s (Jack Gleeson) corpse. This scene was absolutely out of character since fans were not expecting to see this side of Jamie after he lost his hand, became kinder, gentler, and completely opposite of the remorseless human he was in Season 1.
When Jamie comes back to King’s Landing, he denounces his position as a member of the Kingsguard and becomes a new person. That’s why this act of raping Cersei was so unmistakably hideous that it undid all the work that made him complex and bizarrely liked in the fans’ eyes. Joffrey’s death should have shaken Jamie and Cersei both as parents for a while, but it looked as if they were expecting it all along.
4. Stannis Baratheon Burns His Daughter Alive for Power
Season 5, Episode 9
Shireen Baratheon’s (Kerry Ingram) death was one of the most horrific death sequences in the show, not to mention unnecessary. Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), blinded by desperation for the Iron Throne, brutally sacrificed his daughter by tying her to a pole in front of his army.
3. Daenerys Eats a Raw Horse Heart
Season 1, Episode 6
This scene was hard to stomach, even by Game of Thrones standards. In Season 1, Daenerys is made to eat an entire raw horse heart as part of a Dothraki pregnancy ritual. The heart is bloody, tough to chew, and Daenerys struggles not to gag while Drogo and the Dothraki watch her closely. It was unrealistic how Danaerys ate the whole thing without throwing up.
2. Bran Stark Ends Up King — and Nobody Asked For It
Season 8, Episode 6
After eight seasons of prophecies, battles, and political maneuvering, Game of Thrones crowned Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright). In the series finale, Tyrion proposes Bran, a character who spent most of the show sitting out the main conflict, as the best choice to rule Westeros. Fans felt cheated out of a proper ending because there were so many strong candidates who could have taken the Iron Throne. One was Daenerys Targaryen herself, had her character arc not been ruined. Jon Snow (Kit Harington) or Arya Stark could have been sturdier choices, but for some reason, Bran the Broken became king.
The ending felt deeply unsatisfying for fans who had stayed invested for eight years. Bran’s arc as the Three-Eyed Raven was clear, and everyone was eager to see where it led, but that doesn’t automatically deem him worthy of the Iron Throne. He seemed destined for something else entirely. In the end, most fans were left disappointed, though a few were content with how it wrapped up. In hindsight, however, if you watch the show again, it does make sense that the writers were selling him as the king along the way, and the viewers just didn’t know it.
1. Daenerys Burns King’s Landing to the Ground
Season 8, Episode 5
For seven seasons, Daenerys Targaryen freed slaves and swore she wouldn’t be like her father, only to become what she feared the most in the end. In the season finale, writers just flipped her character from the most empathetic leader into the “Mad Queen.”
As understandable as Danaerys’s revenge and anger were towards Cersei, for killing her dragon and best friend Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), her brutal genocide made no sense. Tyrion begged her to stop the attack if the bells rang (a sign of surrender). But the Mad Queen was driven by rage, and instead of stopping, she burned thousands of civilians alive in a battle that was already won. After everything she endured to get to this point, she threw it all away in the blink of an eye. This was the worst moment of the show that completely ruined years’ worth of Danaerys’ character development.
