Amusement

Analysis

Analysis Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, also equally anticipating how events might unfold based on past events.

An illustrated guide
to all half-dozen,887 deaths in
'Game of Thrones'

Deaths by season

After years of frame-by-frame analysis, here it is: a complete database to every on-screen death from "Game of Thrones," including who, how, why and where. And afterwards viii seasons of continually rising body counts, nosotros can definitively confirm — "Valar Morghulis" — all men must indeed die.

Jump to Season:

i — 2 — 3 — iv — 5 — half dozen — 7 — 8

Season 1

59

deaths

The season that started information technology all. When Ned Stark, the main hero and character supposedly least at risk, was beheaded, viewers everywhere realized that no one was safe.

Characters are organized according to level of importance: Major, secondary major, minor and background extra. Higher levels of importance become larger illustrations.

 = Method of Death. Hover over each icon for details.

To see more information on how a character was killed, click on the analogy or the "more info" button to the bottom

Click on the illustration for more info

The deadliest locations

Male monarch's Landing

1,357

deaths

Beyond the Wall

1,092

deaths

Season 2

130

deaths

Season ii may have the fewest major characters killed, merely it too gave viewers the show'due south first large battle scene: the Boxing of the Blackwater.

Here'southward a fun fact: Next time yous sentinel a battle scene, pay close attending to the battle sounds vs. the actual activeness. You'll notice that death noises are ofttimes inserted into scenes in which no ane is actually dying. The illusion of a higher body count, perhaps?

Click on the analogy for more than info

Season 3

87

deaths

The infamous Red Wedding ceremony claimed the lives of four major characters in one fell dive. The fallout as well led to Arya Stark'due south vicious killing of a Frey soldier who bragged nigh sewing Gray Current of air'due south caput to Robb Stark'southward trunk. Lesson learned: Don't become on that girl's bad side.

Click on the illustration for more than info

Flavor 4

181

deaths

Whether it was Joffrey's poisoning, Oberyn'due south "mind-bravado" end, or Tywin's unglamorous death in the bathroom, "Game of Thrones" proved information technology could still shock viewers four seasons in.

Prior to Season v, season 4 had boasted the highest trunk count: a whopping 181 deaths. The Boxing of Castle Black was responsible for 86. (Despite its proper name, the boxing in fact spanned beyond Castle Blackness, The Wall and Beyond the Wall.) In comparing, 58 characters died in Season 1.

Click on the illustration for more than info

Season v

246

deaths

Though Season 5 had fewer deaths in between major battles, the Massacre at Hardhome and the two revolts by the Sons of the Harpy were enough to catapult Flavor 5 to a torso count of 246. The Massacre at Hardhome alone had 98, surpassing even the Battle of Castle Blackness'southward 86 deaths.

Here's a question though: If everyone who died at the Massacre at Hardhome is revived as a wight, has anyone truly died? And if Jon Snowfall is revived in Season vi (which is looking likely), has he technically died? Is he on his 2d life? Who knew this prove could crusade such existential malaise?

Click on the illustration for more info

The deadliest weapon categories

Season six

540

deaths

Flavour 6'south massive body count comes every bit no surprise thanks to the mortiferous Battle of the Bastards and its whopping 168 on-screen deaths. With 540 deaths, Season half dozen has a higher body count than Seasons 1-4 combined. Three major houses besides got wiped out nearly completely: Houses Baratheon, Bolton and Tyrell no longer have any heirs.

Withal, yous might be surprised to learn that Cersei's use of wildfire at the Cracking Sept of Baelor easily surpassed the Battle of the Bastards. The explosion killed 198 people in i fell swoop. The killer movement put Cersei on top of not simply the Iron Throne just also, at the time, our list of deadliest killers.

Click on the analogy for more info

Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully

Season 7

1,096

deaths

With but a handful of the original main characters left, Season 7 actually has the lowest total count of deaths for named characters. (Afterwards all, yous can whittle simply so far.) But 13 out of 1,096 deaths weren't background extras or nameless i-and-dones.

Viserion's death, however, was a game changer. His untimely end and subsequent resurrection every bit a wight single-handedly gave the army of the dead a fashion past The Wall, setting upward the epic human-vs.-wight war the show has been foreshadowing for years.

Click on the illustration for more info

The deadliest battles

Battle of Winterfell

3,512

deaths

Burning of Rex'due south Landing

1,020

deaths

The Wight Chase

849

deaths

Battle of the Bastards

168

deaths

Destruction of the
Keen Sept of Baelor

198

deaths

Flavor 8

iv,548

deaths

Winter is finally here, and the Night King came with information technology. Halfway through the season, the living met the dead in the climactic Battle of Winterfell. Thousands died (including this reporter's sanity), just Arya Stark came in as the MVP at the last minute and slew the Night King. Later on all, what practise we say to the God of Death? Not today.

But the state of war didn't end there. Things took a dark (and heavily criticized) turn when Daenerys Targaryen "went mad" and burned King's Landing to ashes, killing Lannisters and civilians akin. Her expiry at the hands of Jon Snow was, fittingly, the terminal one of the unabridged series. The show that one time concluded its start flavor with the hopeful birth of a dragon has now concluded its final season with the mournful departure of 1.

Melisandre "the Cerise Adult female" of Asshai

Sandor "the Hound" Clegane

Click on the illustration for more info

Gregor "the Mountain" Clegane

The deadliest killers

Drogon

1,426

kills

Deadliest weapon: Dragonfire

Most on-screen kills:
Burning of King's LandingS8, E5 (918 kills)

Notable kill:
Destroying Rex's Landing and everyone within, Lannisters and soldiers alikeS8, E5

Arya Stark

1,278

kills

Deadliest weapon: Valyrian steel dagger

Most on-screen kills:
Battle of WinterfellS8, E3 (1,214 kills)

Notable impale:
Killing the Night King and defeating the entire army of the deadS8, E3

Rhaegal

273

kills

Deadliest weapon: Dragonfire

Most on-screen kills:
Boxing on the frozen lake during the "Wight Chase"S7, E6 (170 kills)

Notable impale:
Called-for massive hordes of wights to aid Jon Snow and his "wight hunting" partyS7, E6

Cersei Lannister

199

kills

Deadliest weapon: Wildfire

Most on-screen kills:
Explosion at the Corking Sept of BaelorS6, E10 (198 kills)

Notable kill:
I hateful, killing everybody at the Dandy Sept of Baelor is pretty notableS6, E10

Jon Snowfall

112

kills

Deadliest weapon: Sword (Longclaw)

Virtually on-screen kills:
Battle on the frozen lake during the "Wight Hunt"S7, E6 (42 kills)

Notable kill:
Stabbing Daenerys Targaryen afterwards a last kiss byeS8, E6

To download the information for this project, click here.

Methodology

A death is counted only if:

  1. The character is killed on-screen.

  2. The character dies off-screen, but the expiry is confirmed or causeless due to imminent death while on screen.

  3. But prominent off-screen deaths are listed. (Prominence is determined mainly by importance to the plot.)

Other notes:

  • The importance level of a grapheme is determined by his/her/its significance to the plot. This is why Lady has a less of import rank than Grayness Wind, even though they are both Stark direwolves.

  • For cases in which the character's appearance isn't known before his/her death (e.g. if disfigured upon expiry or unborn), the analogy takes artistic liberties with his/her depiction.

  • If a grapheme orders the death of another, the character who does the direct killing receives credit, not the one who orders the kill. Merely for cases in which where the straight killer is unidentifiable, as when Cersei Lannister uses the caches of wildfire to blow up the Neat Sept of Baelor, the order-giver receives credit.

  • In cases of overlapping weapon types (e.g. magic fireball vs. fire vs. magic), the weapon category is assigned based on the origin. For instance, dragonfire is considered an "beast" death and magic fireball is considered a "magic" expiry.

  • If a graphic symbol is mercy-killed, the mercy kill is used to categorize the decease, not the injuries leading up to the moment.

  • Season 5 update:

    • In cases like the Massacre at Hardhome, normal human standards are applied to wights to simplify the process. In other words, an arrow through the skull or a sword through the spine counts as a death, even though officially speaking, a wight is never killed unless burned or stabbed with dragonglass.

  • Flavor half dozen updates:

    • If a graphic symbol dies simply is brought dorsum to life (e.g. Jon Snow), the death count stands and the revival is counted as a "second life." Temporary deaths like Euron Greyjoy's drowning ceremony are not counted. Beric Dondarrion has been added to the decease count as a result of this rule. Gregor Clegane has non been added considering it is unclear whether he died off-screen and was and then reanimated, or was "altered" while still alive.

    • For the Battle of the Bastards, it is oft unclear which side a dying soldier belongs to. Educated guesses are made based on the shape of the helmets (Bolton soldiers had pointier helmets) and sigils that can exist seen on armor.

  • Season 8 updates:

    • Because dragonfire covers up the things it burns, educated guesses are made based on approximately the size of the dragonfire's area of attack. For example, if the burn down is near 11 people wide and two people deep, nosotros would multiply 11 by 2 to get 22 people. We also assume that the fire simply kills enemies and not allies past accident, though we tin't be certain.

    • For the Battle of Winterfell, both Ironborn and Karstark soldiers help protect Bran in the Godswood. But because we don't know who is who, we've simplified it and labeled them all as Ironborn because Theon was the leader. Similarly, we've labeled all unknown soldiers during the chief battle as "Stark soldiers" because we have no style of knowing who they actually are. (The soldiers who surrounded Lyanna Mormont, however, were assumed to be Mormont soldiers and labeled as such.)

    • Similarly to above, all foot soldiers in the assail on King's Landing are labeled as either Stark or Lannister soldiers, unless obviously otherwise. (E.yard. Unsullied accept obvious uniforms and are therefore labeled every bit such.)

    • Though nosotros exercise count the death of a wight-version of a character as a second death, the deaths of characters like "Wight Eddison Tollett" are non included because we technically didn't see them die on-screen during the Battle of Winterfell.

    • When Euron Greyjoy's fleet attacks Daenerys Targaryen'south fleet in episode 4, we technically don't encounter any Unsullied die on camera. Some soldiers were flung into the air and out of the boat because of the bolts' force, just we can't assume they all immediately died. Therefore, no Unsullied deaths were counted from that attack because we saw no on-screen deaths.

    • When Daenerys Targaryen burns Euron Greyjoy'south fleet, information technology is difficult to see how many soldiers are on each gunkhole though we see movement that indicates they are there and therefore died "on-screen." Educated guesses are made based on previous scenes showing that approximately seven people are needed to operate each scorpion. There may exist more killed, simply they could not be visibly seen.

    • Deaths past rubble/wildfire acquired past Drogon's dragonfire are attributed to Drogon, though they may be inadvertant. This is because Daenerys's intent was to kill as many as possible; these aren't just accidental deaths that wouldn't accept happened otherwise.

Shelly Tan

Shelly Tan is a graphics reporter and illustrator specializing in pop culture. She designs and develops interactive graphics.

About this story

"Deadliest locations" illustrations and map by Alberto Cuadra. Episode information from "Game of Thrones" HBO television evidence.

Information compiled by Shelly Tan/The Washington Post and bachelor through GitHub.

Originally published Apr 6, 2015.