"IF YOU THINK THIS HAS A HAPPY ENDING, YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION..."

'The Boy' (Game Of Thrones, season 3)

"We're here for the party- let's get slaughtered."

So, the Red Wedding, huh? What did you make of that?

Rather than drum on about how miserable an experience Game Of Thrones is, I've decided to simply list the dead (from the TV show, not the books). I've divided these into two camps; dead sympathetic characters, dead villainous characters.

Obviously, SPOILERS.

The sympathetic;

1. Robb Stark - great hope of the North and 'avenging son'.
2. Talisa Stark - Robb's pregnant wife.
3. Catelyn Stark - Stark matriarch, died thinking wrongly that all her children were dead.
4. Eddard Stark - Stark patriarch, stripped of his honor and then beheaded.
5. Ros - Small time hooker, tortured to death after being dragged into politics.
6. Rodrick Cassel - Winterfell's master-of-arms, executed by Theron Greyjoy. 
7. Yoren - Dies smuggling Aryn out of King's Landing. 
8. Old Nan - Bran's nurse.
9. Luwin - Wise man and advisory at Winterfell.
10. Rakharo - Loyal brother-in-law of the Khaeesi, decapitated off-screen.
11. Mordane - Sansa's tutor, killed on Eddard's arrest.
12. Robert Baratheon - OK, so a bit dickish, but not evil. Poisoned by his wife.
13. Renly Baratheon - Again, a prat but not evil.
14. Drogo - Not technically good, but made more wholesome by his wife's influence.

The villainous;

1. Vaserys Targaryen - Foppish and arrogant prick, killed after attacking his sister.
2. Orell - small-time villain, a Wildling shaman who takes a dislike to Jon Stark.
3. Craster - Sacrifices his newborn sons to the Walkers in return for survival. Nice.
4. Pyat Pree - Nosferatu-looking sorcerer, set alight by dragons (what did he really expect?)
5. Xaro - double crosser left to die in his own vault.

Notice the list is perhaps a little one sided? About 3:1.

Like I've said before, Game Of Thrones is a show about villains, not heroes.It's almost as if decent characters are only introduced to meet grisly endings to set up the stories bad-guys. RR Martin's reasoning is he likes to surprise his readers, but sadly this isn't shocking anymore- it's entirely predictable. This trick has been overused now. Yes, it's morbid and brutal, but hardly surprising:

The Starks are on the brink of winning the war against the Lannisters (only half way through the books, so that's obviously not happening), Robb's married and his wife's pregnant, and he's put his issues with his mum behind him. It's all a bit too happy and neat to last... So, what do they do? They attend a wedding hosted by the creepy, bitter and cowardly old guy who they recently screwed over. That's a brilliant idea Robb, good for you!

"Babe... Honey... Are you OK?"