10 Grimmest TV Storylines Ever
6. The Burning Of Shireen Baratheon - Game Of Thrones
You know it’s bad when the broadcaster tells you in advance to be ready for distressing scenes in a show already known for all manner of brutality.
Stannis the Mannis is having a hard go of things in the harsh winters of the north, so his advisor Melisandre suggests using his daughter for firewood will warm the place right up.
Hellbent on kingship no matter the cost, Stannis agrees to sacrifice his young daughter to the Lord of Light and stands idly by as his only child burns to death.
A disgustingly cruel act of desperation, Stannis’ kinslaying gamble does not pay off whatsoever. Quite the opposite in fact as by the morning he has lost his sellswords, his horses and his wife. Shortly thereafter he and what’s left of his army are handily crushed by the Boltons and Stannis dies by Brienne’s hand over the death of his brother Renly years earlier.
No one is more cursed than the kinslayer.
A particularly harsh ending in a show full to the brim with them, the destruction of House Baratheon here was a harrowing thing to watch. Any sympathy Stannis once had from audiences had safely gone up in smoke by the time his head left his shoulders.