Game of Thrones' most shocking moments, ranked (spoilers)

Season one, episode one: A curious little boy climbs up the walls of the castle he’s grown up in, and hears noises coming from one of its chambers. He makes his way to the window, looks in and sees Jaime Lannister having sex with his twin sister, Cersei. Unfortunately for Bran, the siblings see him, too. Jaime strolls to the window, makes some lighthearted small talk, and then—casual as anything, as if he’s doing the dusting—shoves Bran out, without even looking, as he does it. Whoa.

We had waited sooo long for wicked King Joffrey to get his due: He had committed an astonishing amount of sadistic, terrible deeds in his relatively short lifetime (torture, murder, more torture, more murder, etc.). He survived show after show, even as the great and the good around him perished. He had to die! But how would he die? No one—but no one—could’ve imagined he’d choke on a piece of poisoned pigeon pie at his own wedding.

Poor, mad old aunt Lysa: devotedly in love with the slime-some Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) and driven beyond even her usual craziness by jealousy. She accuses her new husband of loving her niece Sansa Stark. “Oh my sweet wife,” soothes Littlefinger. "I have only loved one woman, only one, my entire life…" Lysa starts to smile, then Baelish whispers, “Your sister!” And shoves her through the moon door, thousands of pazillions of feet to her death. Wow. An evil version of the Carly Simon song “Nobody Does It Better” could and should have been written for Littlefinger.

There are few things more satisfying in any great story than a villain—or in this case, really annoying, obnoxious person—getting their comeuppance, and the fate of Daenerys Targaryen’s horrible brother Viserys in episode six of Game of Thrones’ first season was pretty spectacular. Foolish Viserys goads his sibling at a Dothraki feast in the presence of her husband, Khal Drogo. “I want the crown he promised me,” he whines, threatening Daenerys’s unborn child. “He says yes,” she says coldly, “You shall have a golden crown that men will tremble to behold.” Viserys looks delighted. Khal Drogo melts down the golden crown, and pours it on Viserys’s head. Viserys falls over with a loud clunk.

Up until this point, Jaime seemed untouchable: handsome, suave and blessed with a Houdini-like ability to get out of any sticky (or literally shitty) situation. He was fun! A winner! A bit of light relief from the grim goings-on everywhere else in Westeros. Then he got too cocky around his captor, Locke, and WHOMP! Down came the cleaver. With almost comic timing, the credits ran to the sound of an Irish punk song. Collective jaws dropped.

Fairly self-explanatory in terms of content, but oh, the buildup! Charismatic, morally decent upholder of values Oberyn Martell is in the battle ring for a fight that will decide the fate of Tyrion Lannister (falsely accused of murdering King Joffrey), pitted against the gigantic Sir Gregor—who had raped and murdered Oberyn’s sister, along with her children. Against the odds, he appears to win the fight. Sir Gregor lies defeated on the ground, but Oberyn can’t resist asking Sir Gregor to confess. In a horrendous GoT take on the Basic Instinct bathtub resurrection scene, Sir Gregor comes back from the brink, and makes his confession while crushing the Dornishman’s skull. Utterly diabolical and completely shocking.

We never thought it would happen. Okay, we knew it might—we saw Stannis thrown into turmoil when red witch Melisandre told the would-be king that the Lord of Light would only be satisfied with the sacrifice of his royal daughter. But Stannis dismissed her, there and then, and he’s become progressively more human and personable throughout this most recent season. Also, dude—who burns their own daughter at a stake? Shireen’s desperate screams made this scene pretty much unwatchable unless viewed through fingers over the eyes, and it’s been Game of Thrones' most chilling moment.

As grim as Game of Thrones has gotten, there are very few moments that a committed viewer wishes they could un-see. This is one of them. If you haven’t yet watched "Red Wedding," consider this spoiler your chance to opt out. The Starks are gathered at the Twins, Walder Frey's castle, for the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey, but Lord Frey carries a grudge that Robb, the King of the North, married someone he actually loves, Talisa Stark, who is now pregnant. Robb’s mother, Catelyn, senses something is amiss, and sees that Roose Bolton is wearing chain mail under his clothes, a chilling moment in and of itself. She raises the alarm too late.  Talisa is stabbed in the stomach repeatedly, Robb is shot with a crossbow, and Catelyn’s throat is cut. It is Shakespearean in its blood-letting, utterly horrendous, and based on true events from the medieval era.

In comparison to some of the graphic horrors that have occurred in Game of Thrones, Ned Stark’s public beheading in the show’s very first season seems almost plain. But it was the first time that viewers became aware that really bad, amoral things were going to happen on the show: The good guys aren’t always going to win, your favorite characters will get killed off by the villains, someone isn’t going to turn up on a white stallion and make everything better. This was the moment that changed everything on Game of Thrones, and no true fan will forget it.

Ugh. Game of Thrones fans were left speechless—or stuttering expletives—at this horrible, horrible turn of events. Who could've seen it coming? We know that no character is truly "safe" in GoT: not the good guys like Robb Stark, nor such despicable (but resiliant) villains like Joffrey Baratheon. But most of us have been so sure that Jon was the true hero of GoT, the one to save the day, that it didn't even cross our minds he might be bumped off. And what a grim way to go: Snow is lured outside by his squire, Olly, where he's brutally stabbed by mutineering Night's Watch men and left to die in the snow. But can he really have been killed? Showrunner Dan Weiss has commented, bluntly, that "Dead is dead," but writer George R.R. Martin has said, “If there’s one thing we know in A Song of Ice and Fire is that death is not necessarily permanent." All we'll say is: Melisandre. It's not for nothing that she's back at Castle Black, and remember, Thoros resurrected Beric Dondarrion via the powers of the Lord of Light, way back. But given the show's horrifying history, we'll admit it's a slim hope indeed. Game of Thrones, we knew you were shocking, but this scene is something else.