18. Throwing Bran From The Tower
If there is any one event that precipitated the War of the Five Kings, this was it. The tensions between the noble houses of Westeros lingered from the previous war against the Targaryens, and the political scheming enjoyed by pretty much every family except for the Starks would have almost certainly boiled into conflict eventually, but the ultimate catalyst was what happened to Bran Stark during King Robert's royal visit to the North. Bran, as would any 10-year old with access to a giant stone castle and lacking any fear of gravity, had a hobby of climbing the walls of Winterfell. Ser Jaime Lannister, on the other hand, had a hobby of nailing his twin sister whenever they get the chance to be alone. As his twin sister also happened to be the queen and mother of three children who looked suspiciously unlike the king, Jaime was understandably uneager for word of the brother/sister affair to spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms. So, when Bran climbs up the wall of an abandoned tower and spies Jaime and Cersei working on their fourth illegitimate child, Jaime chooses the quick and easy approach to keeping their secret: flinging Bran from the tower and letting the secret die with him. Unfortunately for Jaime (and for pretty much all of Westeros, as it would turn out), the fall wouldn't kill Bran. Instead, it initiated a chain reaction of events that would ultimately result in the deaths of thousands of men, women, and children. All in all, it was not Jaime's brightest move. Still, this moment at the very end of the first episode of Game of Thrones introduced a depth beyond ice zombies and (admittedly adorable) direwolf puppies that had otherwise received the most focus. "The things I do for love," said Jaime Lannister, and the war began.