Game Of Thrones: 15 Moments That Pissed Off The Fans

15. Ned Loses His Head

Nowadays fans wouldn’t so much as bat an eyelid at the beheading of such a key and well-liked character, but back in Season 1 it was a pretty big deal. In fact, this was the moment that really established one of the central rules of Game of Thrones: no-one is safe.

The season had slowly built up to the moment, but even as the episode arrived, viewers were convinced that Lord Stark would somehow escape. Someone would intervene. After all, Ned had been the closest thing to a main character on the show, and he was played by Sean Bean, perhaps the biggest name in the cast (although that should have been a clue).

When Eddard did actually lose his head it was a truly shocking moment, one that left a lot of people feeling aggrieved at the death of a central character, and it didn’t even arrive in the season finale. This established the precedent and paved the way for the show’s rise since then.