Ranking The 20 Deaths of Game of Thrones Season 5

6. Mance Rayder

To be fair, Selmy wasn’t the *first* death to depart from the books, but the death of Mance, though a departure, actually made enough sense that book readers didn’t get nearly as upset about it. After all, in the books, Mance is burned at the stake. It’s just that it’s not Mance. There’s a body switcheroo, and then some baby swapping and disguises and all sorts of convoluted nonsense.

No thanks. That’s all kinds of not necessary—let’s just burn him the first time. Besides, the choice to simplify things gave Mance’s death scene in “The Wars to Come” a lot more power, especially because the official cause of death wasn’t the fire. Instead, Mance dies by a merciful arrow from Jon Snow. It was a very strong moment for both characters.