Game Of Thrones: Ranking EVERY Major Death Worst To Best
4. Ned Stark
Death: Beheaded on Joffrey Baratheon's orders.
When Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was released in 1960, it shocked the world by killing off the apparent main character halfway through. Game of Thrones delivered what is probably TV's equivalent of that.
To see Ned Stark, the clear main character, beheaded after only nine episodes was so shocking that those who hadn't read the books probably assumed it was a fake-out, but no. This was for real.
Still, it's actually a great piece of storytelling. It sets up the War of the Five Kings and, by dispatching one of the show's nicest and most decent characters in such a brutal manner, made it clear that no-one was safe and that there would never be a happy ending to this story.
This scene was also enhanced by the terrific acting and directing; the cut-away from Ned's beheading to Arya watching a flock of birds fly away in the sky was maybe the best edit in the show's history.
All things considered, this was the greatest moment of season one, even if it came from one of its less memorable episodes.