The latest episode of Game of Thrones gave us one of the most traumatic creature deaths. Now let’s remember all of the other creatures who have died throughout the show.
First, let’s talk about season 7, episode 6, “Beyond the Wall.” WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
Jon Snow and company find themselves trapped beyond the Wall by White Walkers, but he manages to get a message to Daenerys. She swoops in with her dragons and burns most of the White Walkers to a crisp. Just as they’re about to take off, the Night King launches an ice spear towards one of the dragons, piercing Viserion through the heart, and killing him instantly.
To top it all off, the Night King brings Viserion back to join the undead army. The last thing we see is Viserion opening an icy blue eye. Now the Night King has his very own ice dragon, and Westeros is screwed.
Viserion’s death is a huge blow, and it made me think of all the other creatures that have sadly perished in the wars for the Seven Kingdoms.
So here’s my list of traumatic creature deaths. I’m not including anthropomorphic ones (so sorry Leaf and friends).
1. Gregor Clegane’s horse
I know, I know. What horse? I’m talking about the one The Mountain kills in season 1. After failing to beat Loras Tyrell in a joust, The Mountain takes his sword and freakin’ slices his horse’s head straight off. That has stuck with me since the first season because of its sheer brutality. It showed us just how little mercy Sir Gregor has for living things.
2. Shaggydog
Shaggydog is the direwolf that couldn’t be tamed, but he was faithful to little Rickon until the end. I’m more disappointed than sad about Shaggydog’s death. We got to see Rickon alive for a little bit in season 6 after a long absence. We don’t even get to see Shaggydog alive. We just get Shaggydog’s head. He deserved more.
3. Summer
Summer’s actual death was so fast we didn’t even have time to react. It gets kind of overshadowed by Bran’s time-jumping discovery and Hodor’s tragic demise. (H.O.D.O.R. That’s R.I.P. HODOR in Hodor.) But the fact that Summer gets ripped apart by White Walkers in season 6, episode 5, “The Door,” is pretty cruel.
Summer was one of my favorite direwolves because she survived a lot of tricky situations and saved Bran on multiple occasions. Bran lost his identity when he lost Summer. I know he’s the three-eyed raven now, but I think he felt more comfortable as a wolf.
4. Lady
A lot of the Stark direwolves have died on this show, but the first was Sansa’s sweet wolf Lady. Her death sucked because Ned Stark had to do it. It sucked even more because she had to die for no reason other than Joffrey commanded it. I consider Lady the first of Joffrey’s victims, and I will never forgive him for it.
I really hope Ghost and Nymeria survive until the end. My money’s on Nymeria.
5. Grey Wind
Along with Catelyn and Robb Stark, we also lost Grey Wind in the Red Wedding. Grey Wind battled alongside Robb Stark, striking fear in the hearts of all his opponents. In the end, he couldn’t save anyone because they locked him in a kennel for the wedding feast.
Grey Wind knew something was up, though. He tried clawing his way out, and the only reason why I think he couldn’t is because he wasn’t a full-grown direwolf, yet. They shot him full of arrows, chopped off his head, stuck it on Robb’s body, and paraded it around. The act desecrated both Robb’s and Grey Wind’s bodies.
All hail the King in the North.
6. Viserion
Viserion’s death is aggravating because we know the Night King will use it for evil. But it’s also annoying because we never really got to see how cool Viserion could be.
Daenerys says her dragons are her children. If that’s true, she clearly favors Drogon over the others. Drogon got to fly all over the world. Viserion and brother Rhaegal got locked up in the basement. That’s unfair.
Now Viserion will be part of the dead army just to taunt the dragon queen. I guess it makes sense, based on his namesake. Viserion is named after Dany’s brother Viserys, who was no peach. If any dragon would turn to the dark side, it’d be Viserion.
I really worry about Rhaegal. The fate of the Seven Kingdoms depends on him.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.