15 Dead Game Of Thrones Characters (That Are Still Alive In The Books)

The Kingsguard, seven knights tasked with the protection of the King of the Seven Kingdoms, have been ever-present since day one in both the literary and television series. In the former, each member of the group, which frequently changes as a result of death and politics, is featured on an equal basis. 

In the latter, only the malevolent Ser Meryn Trant has been developed as a character, functioning as a composite of his sworn brothers, who otherwise exist almost solely under helmets in the background. This has led to the questionable omission of characters such as Arys Oakheart and Osmund Kettleblack, but has been largely effective in that audiences have had to remember just one regal bodyguard in a cast of hundreds.

Trant has never been one to hide his cruel nature throughout the show's five seasons, engaging in regular beatings of Sansa Stark at Joffrey Baratheon's command and the presumed murder of Syrio Forel. This earns him a spot on the 'hit list' of names that Arya utters aloud each night following her flight from King's Landing.

Ultimately, one presumes that everybody on said list is going to met a grisly end. This is the fate of Ser Meryn in season five, where he is brutally slain by Arya following a chance encounter in a Braavos brothel, where his evil was emphasised further through his depiction as a paedophile.

Ser Meryn was in Braavos to accompany Mace Tyrell on a trip to treat with the city's infamous Iron Bank, but in the books, he does not make this journey, remaining alive and well in King's Landing. Another member of Arya's 'hit list', a character named Raff The Sweetling who failed to make the cut for television, does find himself in Mace's entourage, and a similar encounter occurs in one of the preview chapters of The Winds of Winter.

It remains to be seen whether Trant will be replaced on screen as the general 'Kingsguard member', or if Kingsguard duties will be depicted solely as the responsibility of Jaime Lannister or Gregor Clegane, who was outed as the man in the armour of 'Ser Robert Strong' during the season five finale.