6. Talisa Maegyr
Talisas death offered us a rare moment of absolute shock in Game of Thrones. For all the non-book readers out there, they had been dogged by weeks of cryptic just-you-wait warnings from those who knew about upcoming Red Wedding. I kept quiet on the matter although I really wanted to act smug so others I watched it with could be shocked, but I know there were plenty of people out there smiling omniscient smiles before The Rains of Castamere episode. They knew exactly what was going to happen, but they still got gazumped when Black Walder ran his knife through Talisas womb a half-dozen time. This was a masterstroke in how to pull off shock the show writers knew a lot of people watching knew what was about to happen, so no matter how they dressed it up, it still couldnt carry that shock factor that writers aim for. Yet by deciding to preface the whole massacre by brutally killing off someone who survived in the book albeit under a different name was a great decision. While a lot of book-readers were sceptical to Jeyne Westerlings transformation, the gambit eventually pulled off by the existence of Talisa was extremely effective, wrong-footing even the most hardened fan at a stroke. Of course, its made all the worse by Talisa and Robbs discussion beforehand about their future with the child growing in her belly, lending the upcoming proceedings a tragic dimension which really augments just how brutal the whole affair really was.