10 TV Shows Where The Villain Kills The Hero
2. Game Of Thrones
If you hadn't read George R.R. Martin's books before watching Game of Thrones, Ned Stark's (Sean Bean) demise in the first season's penultimate episode came as a colossal shock - not even the casting of Sean Bean in the role tipped people off.
The first season very clearly positioned Bean as the show's patriarchal protagonist, the steely hero who would guide viewers through this world.
But in the ninth episode "Baelor," Ned ends up falsely confessing to treason and swearing fealty to Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) in order to save his daughters' lives.
Yet even when Joffrey goes back on his word by ordering Ned's execution, audiences still presumably figured he'd somehow be saved at the last moment.
Director Alan Taylor clearly knew it too, milking the scene for every drop of suspense possible until, indeed, Ned is decapitated with his own sword at the end.
Ned's death had a defining impact on the show's primary characters for the seven seasons that followed, while also instantly elevating Joffrey into the annals of all-time most loathsome TV villains, such that his own gnarly demise in season four proved oh-so-satisfying.
For our #1 entry, note that MAJOR SPOILERS will follow for Netflix's Midnight Mass if you haven't seen it yet...