10 TV Characters Who Went Through Hell To Win (And Died Anyway)

Ah, Rickon. Everyone’s least favourite Stark may be the best example in the entire Game of Thrones universe of a truly pointless death, and for a show as long running and unforgiving as the HBO megahit, that’s quite an achievement.

At various points in the show’s first six seasons, Rickon graduated from oblivious kid to inept but caring protector of his older brother Bran, to travelling companion and charge of Osha with whom he spends an entire two seasons attempting to reach the Umbers, a house who are (theoretically) loyal to his late father.

He lays low a while, remaining unseen for quite some time—before reappearing in the penultimate episode of season six. It appears the long journey to the Umbers was all for nought, as it merely drove Rickon into the hands of Ramsay Bolton, the show’s worst psycho.

Ramsay drags the youngest Stark out onto the battlefield for an explosive start to the long-awaited Battle of the Bastards—and sends an arrow straight through the poor blighter a few seconds before he would have reached his older half-brother Jon Snow and safety.

Unlike Jon, his kid brother doesn’t warrant a resurrection, and so his long journey ends with a PSA teaching all of us the importance of zig zagging when avoiding projectiles.