1. The Death of Ned Stark
Baelor | Season 1 | Episode 9 This is where Game of Thrones' ability to shock and make us completely rethink how TV told stories began. Sean Bean was the focus of press interviews and the show's marketing campaign in preparation for its release, and was the central focus of nearly all of the episodes until this point. Of course, readers of the books knew what was coming, but most viewers did not. After being named Hand of the King, Ned finds himself following a trail of clues which lead him to a revelation he could have done without: that Cersei's children are not the King's after all, but her brother's instead. Rather than shrewdly keeping this quiet, he confronts Cersei and says the throne will be given to Stannis Baratheon, now the the King is dead. Naturally Cersei disagrees, seizes him and sentences him to death. On the scaffold, Ned is convinced to make a false plea to save his life, but to no avail, he is executed anyway, and chaos ensues. Never before had television created a main character and made the actor a central feature of press and advertising, only to kill him off before the end of the first season. Audiences didn't know what to think or view because this had never happened to them before. Right before the sword comes down, an army is supposed to appear which frees the captive. Unbelievably to those who were unfamiliar with the books, this didn't happen. It is arguable that the Red Wedding carries greater shock value, but this was the first example on the show, and possibly of television in general, of audience expectations being horribly subverted. The main contribution Game of Thrones has made to television has been in the storytelling - that all characters are expendable in order to further the plot; that there are no real 'central' characters any more; and that good guys really do finish last. This scene encapsulates all those things perfectly.