Game Of Thrones: 10 Greatest Deaths (So Far)

Episode - 1x06, A Golden Crown

The baddies suffer an early blow, but as fans would later come to learn, such occurrences would be few and far between. Still, we’ll take what we can get, and savour the joy! It didn’t take long for Viserys Targaryen to establish himself as one of the nastiest villains on the show, and if not for a certain other royal blonde product of incest, he might have been the most detestable character of the first season.

Fortunately, his quick death spared us the probability of him developing into something even worse. Threatening to cut his sister’s unborn baby from her belly right in front of Khal Drogo cemented Viserys as the type of fool there’s just no room for in the titular game, and he’s swiftly taken out in a devilish scene as horrifying to watch as it is immensely satisfying.

With Viserys receiving a golden crown in the most macabre of ways, the narrative took a surprising turn with an antagonist that was seemingly set up for the long game being removed from the board in the opening round. The audible clink of the Beggar King’s freshly gilded skull hitting the dirt is still burned in the memories of fans, remaining among the most creative deaths of the series.

The moment served as one of the first signals that things had truly just got real in the gruesome game of thrones.