Game Of Thrones: 11 Most Unforgivable Cuts From The Books

4. Bran's And Rickon's 'Deaths'

For the first book and a half of the series, Winterfell felt like one of the safest places in Westeros. The North was too vast and wild for any Southern armies to do any conquering. Then, Theon Greyjoy messed everything up as he led a band of Ironborn from the shores rather than the South to assault his former home. His grasp on Winterfell is tenuous at best, and one final power play causes him to murder young Bran and Rickon Stark, burning their bodies and hanging them from the walls of the stronghold. Okay, maybe they weren't actually the Stark boys, but what truly matters with regard to Theon's crime is that everybody else believed the two dead and acted accordingly. False as they may have been, Bran's and Rickon's "deaths" devastated those who cared about them and presented unique opportunities who did not. Enemies of the Starks suddenly knew that Robb was the only remaining male heir to Winterfell, leading Sansa to suddenly become a very enticing marriage prospect. Ramsay Snow was sent to avenge them. Heartsick Catelyn Stark freed Jaime Lannister from Riverrun in the hopes of a reunion with two of her three remaining children. With the loss of Robb's heir and spare in his brothers, he writes a will legitimising Jon Snow to grant him rule of the North in the event of Robb's death prior to the birth of a son. Oh, and then there's that other thing that Robb did, which brings us to...